12 days ago, Speaker
McCarthy told Breitbart,
If we move forward
with impeachment inquiry,
it would occur through a vote
on the floor of the people's House
and not through a declaration
by one person.
Why do you think he flip-flopped?
Because probably
he didn't have the votes.
That's one reason
you don't bring a bill to the floor.
When we had the impeachment
of President Trump,
we followed the phone call
and all the rest of that.
That whistleblower revealed
and then I had a conversation with him.
And so we move forward,
collecting information
to be prepared
to bring a bill to the floor.
He's saying, well, nancy
didn't bring a bill to vote. No.
We did what you did.
Five weeks later, you
you brought the bill up for a vote.
He's actually he does. He cites you.
He's doing what
he once criticized you for doing.
He criticized
you for not initially having a vote.
Now, he says Nancy Pelosi has changed
the rules of the House.
We're just following through.
No, it was completely not true.
We had a few weeks
where we had to make our case.
And I assigned six committee chairs
to get the information and the rest.
And that
then prepared us
to bring the bill to the floor.
They've had, what,
nine months of collecting information.
They have nothing.
And and because the the Trump
Department of Justice
ruling that because you
hadn't brought it to a vote,
that the White House
didn't need to cooperate
or the White House said
that they didn't need to cooperate.
That's now
something that this White House
could choose to do. That's right.
And would you recommend this White House
not cooperate?
Well, it's not a question not cooperate.
It's a question of a foul of the law.
We had
we were planning
to bring it to the floor,
but we wanted to be ready.
And we and the an impact.
No impact.
That said, my heartbeats never made them.
And and so we were ready.
The in the meantime,
the Trump administration
and the Justice Department said,
unless there is a bill on the floor,
the administration
does not have to answer to subpoenas.
And that is the law that became the law.
And it is the law now.
So the administration
can respond or not.
But they don't have to.
Do you see some irony in this?
The first impeachment of the former
president was because of that phone call
he had with President Zelensky
pressuring him to launch an investigation
into President Biden
in order to sue in order to smear him.
Zelensky resisted that
Kevin McCarthy is doing
what Zelensky refused to do.
He has given in and is pursuing
and in fact,
most unfortunate
because impeachment
is something that our founders
put in the Constitution.
They foresaw
that there could be a rogue
executive, a president
that is there for a reason
and you have to have your case.
Why are you doing this? And.
And is
does it qualify to meet the standards
for impeachment with President Trump?
It was very clear that he had engaged
in actions and activity
in that phone call that really were
despite months of investigation
that Republicans
have yet to find any evidence
that's implicating
then Vice President Biden in his
and his son's affairs.
Is I mean, McCarthy is saying this
just an inquiry.
Is it inevitable
that it will be an impeachment?
Well, I think that really is more of a
matter of the
politics of the Republican caucus,
that you have to impeach the president
or else we're going to
vacate the chair of speaker.
You can't
you have to shut down government
or else we're going to vacate the chair.
This is not responsible governance,
but it's the chaos
on the Republican side.
The the threats that
that Speaker McCarthy is
that you're just referencing
experiencing from his right
flank, is it
that what's driving him or is it
the former president?
I mean,
CNN has reported
he and Elise Stefanik
have spoken about impeachment.
Marjorie Taylor
Greene says that she had told
The New York Times
she had
dinner with him in Bedminster,
spoke about the impeachment with him.
Is he
the one sort
of pulling the strings on this?
Well, he is.
And he is shining a light on the strings,
as I'm fond of saying.
He should have a light on this.
Yes.
Thank you very much, Mr. President.
But they are connected.
Yes. A
former president
is exerting his influence
and the others are following up on.
So they're not two separate things.
Is it
the members of his committee
or is it the president?
Is the president
and the members of the Republican caucus?
Is it
an impossible situation
that Speaker McCarthy has put himself in
in order to get power I think if you ever
the incredibly shrinking speakership,
that's what it's become now.
I mean, it became that the first night
when he had to make all these pledges,
promises to become speaker.
Really,
it isn't worth it to be speaker
to abdicate that much
jurisdiction over the House.
Want to talk about your decision
to seek reelection.
What was the motivating factor?
What was the final decision?
Well, the motivating factor
and then there were some
other considerations.
But for for 20 years,
my district has given me the latitude
to be the speaker or the leader.
That means for 20 years
I had to be responsible
for everything on the floor of the House.
It was about being
raising money to win the elections.
It was I went to 87 countries.
I'm the first leader in the
I don't know how long that ever even
had a security credential.
Who rose to the heights of speaker
or leader in the Congress.
So I had
a global
and national set of responsibilities.
And of course, my domestic ones,
I say to the members, whatever honors
you may have given me to be speaker,
leader, whip, whatever,
there's no honor
greater to me than to walk on that floor
and think that I sent there
by the people of San Francisco
to speak for them.
So that was my central point.
In addition to that,
I have some political responsibilities.
I am determined
that we will win the House.
President Biden will win the White House,
and that we will increase our
no president wasn't seeking reelection.
Do you think you would have been
as determined to seek reelection?
Well, I don't even know who
they're going to nominate.
Do you think they'll nominate
a twice impeached, once
defeated and multi
indicted person
to be president of the United States?
Do you believe he will actually
any of these cases
will actually be adjudicated before?
I have no idea.
I know nothing.
I keep my distance from the courts
and what they're doing,
they're even asked the question.
There's obviously even among very loyal
Democrats, there's
a lot of concerns
about about the president.
Is he the best candidate
to defeat Donald Trump,
the best candidate to defeat any
the Republicans
who are running right now?
I think so, yes.
President President Biden has
his great experience and wisdom.
He's been at this for a long time,
as you know, as a senator, vice president
and now president.
He has a vision for a country
that's about fairness.
And justice
and addressing the kitchen table issues
of America's working families.
He has that vision.
He knows why he wants to be president
and his president
he has knowledge of the issues
and therefore
judgment to be respected in wisdom
that he brings to the table.
Why is there such concern
among among a lot of Democrats about him?
Well, I travel a bit in those circles
of Democrats nationally and politically.
And while there may be some concerns,
everybody's forum
that overwhelmingly everybody's for.
Do you think there's any chance
he does not
continue running I hope not.
I hope not.
I mean, this president,
David Ignatius, recently
came out
saying he
he thinks the former
president should not run.
Yeah.
So at that's one.
And he also said he shouldn't run
because he allowed me to go to Delaware.
Nobody allows me to do anything.
I was speaker of the House
and the invitation
came from the Taiwan government
for me to go there.
It wasn't up to David Ignatius
that has the best running mate
for this president.
He thinks so.
And that's what matters.
And by the way,
she's very politically astute.
I don't think people give her
enough credit.
She's, of course, values based
consistent with the president's
values in the rest.
And people don't understand
she's politically still
why would she be vice president
if she were not?
But when she was running for
attorney general in California,
she had 6% in the polls, 6% in the polls.
And she politically astutely
made her case about why she would be good
did her politics.
And became attorney general.
So don't people
shouldn't underestimate
what Kamala Harris brings to the table.
Do you think she is the best
running mate?
She's the vice president
of the United States.
People say to me, well,
why isn't she doing this or that?
Is it because she's the vice president?
That's the job description.
You don't do that much.
You know you you know you you're a source
of strength.
Inspiration, intellectual resource
and the rest.
And you and she
I think she's represented
our country very well at home and abroad.