The House narrowly
approved a rules package last ni
amid concerns about the concessi
that Kevin McCarthy made in his
to get the speaker's gavel.
One Republican voted
no as a GOP ultimately
united to pass the rules changes
which make it easier
to remove the House speaker
in order to raise taxes.
It also helps them
establish new investigatory comm
and could potentially slow
ethics investigations.
Also, in its first piece of legi
as the new majority,
House
Republicans voted for a bill
that will roll back funding for
That was part of that
big social spending bill
passed by Democrats last year.
It's a messaging bill, though,
we should note it's
not going to be taken up by the
Obviously would not get Presiden
Biden's approval.
Joining us now to talk about thi
majority is Republican
Congressman Dustin Johnson,
who is from South Dakota and cha
the centrist leaning mainstream
caucus
and is
out on the agricultural Transpor
and Infrastructure Committees.
Good morning, Congressman,
and thank you for joining us.
One big question
coming out of this week
has been whether or not
you and your fellow Republicans
have an understanding
of the full scope
of what was actually agreed
to by Kevin McCarthy.
Do you feel like you have an
understanding of that?
I do.
I think the
contours of this thing
have been very well-reported.
And I get it. This is human natu
If there's a piece of paper
you can't see, oh, my gosh,
I want to see it. I just got to
This is nothing new.
Nancy Pelosi two years ago
had a very narrow majority,
obviously, to get the votes she
She was willing to have conversa
with her members.
OC, hey,
you really care about the enviro
I'll do what I can
to get this bill on the floor.
That's what Kevin McCarthy has d
But remember,
nothing outside of the rules
package binds anybody.
Kevin McCarthy doesn't have my v
He doesn't have anybody else vot
This addendum is just really him
trying to tell
members that he'll
he'll try to do
what he can to build unity.
But why not release as a piece o
as you suggested,
on exactly what he did,
promise people when it comes to
really critical spots
on certain committees
or certain promises that he made
to these members?
Well, let's be clear.
Kevin McCarthy has not promised
any specific person,
any specific spot on any committ
And I get it.
I mean, it had in hindsight, of
had they released this thing las
it would have been old news by n
But at some point,
this is just Kevin McCarthy
being honest with individual mem
he's talking to
about he's
going to do what he can
to bring their term
limits, Bill, to the floor
or he's going to do
what he can
to bring their balanced budget
amendment to the floor.
And I know everybody wants to se
because they can't see it,
but it's really not any differen
than what other speakers have do
I mean,
we see a list of what
Nancy Pelosi, every conversation
she had with members
as she was getting her votes. We
Yeah, of course.
But just because of
how remarkable this was
and how much
it was about the concessions
that he made in order to get tha
But I want to follow up
on what you just said.
Kevin McCarthy,
you said he has not promised
a committee seat to any Republic
No, that's right.
I mean, ultimately,
the steering committee,
which is not Kevin McCarthy,
he gets four votes
out of 30 on the steering commit
They decide who gets these slots
Now, there are a few speaker
appointed positions.
And it's possible in those conve
somebody said, hey,
you know,
I'd really like to be on intelli
And maybe Kevin McCarthy said
you'd be a good fit for intellig
But overwhelmingly,
the kind of committee slots
people are interested
in, those decisions are made by
and not by the speaker alone.
You say that you liked the rules
that were passed yesterday.
I wonder if you have a concern
about the US being at a higher r
of defaulting on its debt,
given what we've seen play out
so far within your conference
We are $33 trillion in debt
and I know people want to draw t
massive distinction
between the spending bills
and the debt ceiling.
I get it.
There different mechanisms,
but clearly the debt ceiling
is tied to the national debt,
which is, by the way, a clear
and present threat
to the future of this country.
We need to have these conversati
and the idea that,
oh gosh darn
it, Republicans won't budge,
so we're just going to
go off the fiscal cliff.
I think that's a little dramatic
I think it's a little extreme
but I think what we should do
instead is shift the conversatio
so that it's a bicameral,
bipartisan conversation, which i
what are we going to do
to try to bend these spending cu
back in the direction of sanity?
I guess you.
So you don't have concerns
that the United States is at a h
risk of defaulting on its debt,
is that right?
We there's nothing in the rules
package that puts us in a higher
the likelihood of defaulting.
Now, clearly,
having Republicans
in control of the House
is going to mean
that we're going to drive a hard
when it comes to spending
and when it comes
to driving the debt ceiling.
But there isn't anything
in that rules package
that makes that a foregone concl
or even more likely.
Do you agree that
Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell, Ilha
those Democrats
should not be on committees
and should lose their seats?
I said when Nancy Pelosi did thi
last Congress,
when she started kicking
Republicans off
committees, that
this was going to go to a bad sp
Listen, I don't think that the s
should just be kicking the oppos
party off of committees willy ni
But this is the new normal.
This is what Nancy Pelosi has cr
I think it is very difficult
in this environment
now where this is
the new normal for Republicans
to unilaterally disarm.
This is going to have to be a to
Kevin McCarthy uses in a very ta
and sparing way
or else
we're just going to continue
the escalation
of weaponizing everything in thi
So you're saying he shouldn't ab
He absolutely should not abuse t
What about your new colleague,
George Santos?
Does he deserve a seat on any co
Listen, if I was the speaker,
I wouldn't
put George Santos on committees
until we had a deeper and more f
understanding of exactly
what went on during his campaign
He should be
referred to the Ethics Committee
There should be a full
and complete investigation.
And and he should be held accoun
for what he's done.
The fact
that he's
a Republican doesn't
keep me from saying
he needs to be held accountable
for whatever he's done wrong.
Thank you for that.
And do you believe that
the new Republican
majority is going to look into P
Biden's retention
of classified documents,
this revelation
that we found out overnight?
Yeah, that was incredibly unfort
The fact that we have had
now at least
a couple of administrations
in a row
not handle classified documents
well is a problem.
And it is the kind of thing
I think you're going to see
the Republican House
ask a lot of questions about
maybe we need new procedures in
The idea that somebody could jus
take a folder with classified in
and walk out the door with that.
That is really problematic.
James Comer,
who is chairing the House
Oversight Committee, raises ques
yesterday saying,
does this mean that the White Ho
should be raided obviously
referencing what we saw
happen at Mar a Lago.
But can you acknowledge
that based on what we know now,
there is obviously a difference
when it comes to the volume
of classified material
that was taken to Mar-A-Lago
and what President Biden
had as vice president
and also how it was handled in t
of actually cooperating
to return those documents
to the federal government
Well, first off, I would tell
you clearly, anybody
taking classified documents
out of a secure setting is a pro
And so, yes, I mean,
you know what,
the previous administration did
Not right.
And I think that's worth calling
I don't know enough about
the difference in the volume
and the difference in cooperatio
I think those are questions
that we've got to have a committ
I guess at this point,
I'm not willing to take
the Biden administration's word
Let's ask a few follow up questi
we will be asking follow up ques
Congressman Dustin Johnson Johns
thanks for sharing your time wit
this morning and weighing
in on all of these very importan
Absolutely. Thank you.
That was really interesting.
I feel like you made a lot of ne
there, especially on,
you know, McCarthy in those comm
Yeah, well, it's a big question
of what they look like.
Obviously, this is something
that Republicans should
they said
there will be retaliation for me
being kicked off.
And now we are seeing that.
We'll see.
It was interesting.
He said Kevin
McCarthy should not abuse that,
That's right.
It's also interesting
that they're not saying, well, y
the people voted for George Sand
He's saying
he needs to be held accountable.
Yeah.
He said he should not be on a co
until they find out more informa
If he was House
speaker, of course, he's not up
Kevin McCarthy.