i served as chair of the conference for three years under speaker john boehner and then for three years with speaker paul ryan. as chair of the conference, consider the number four position in leadership, so it is daily meetings with the speaker, the majority leader, the whip, touching gloves and discussing what our priorities are, what bills are going to be on the floor and how we are working to advance our priorities. specifically the conference does a lot to support the members. so it is really the arm of leadership that does a lot of -- well, we focus a lot on the messaging and making sure that the communications, what leadership is promoting about various bills is circulated around the members. we provided a lot of support to the members as well as the staff so they could do their jobs well. >> what would you point to as your successes during those times as conference chair? rep. mcmorris rodgers: well, we really took an innovative approach where we had a lot -- well, we had a lot of people that came in and met with us. we did this series where we would host leading people in busin

and just a few weeks after that i got a call from speaker john boehner, and he said, mitch mcconnell and i have been talking, and we'd like you to give the response to the president's state of the union. i was completely caught off guard. but it was quite an honor to do so. and i remember him saying, he said cathy, just be yourself. which, anyone who has been in office or been in a position where there is a lot of critiques, on social media go to my facebook account, there are a lot of critiques. to hear the speaker say just be yourself when you are forever just i need to look and talk different, that was a defining moment for me and obviously that was quite an honor to be able to represent the republicans on that national stage, to be able to give the response to president obama's state of the union. it was a year after marco rubio had given the response, and he had taken a drink of water from the bottle, and that is what people remembered about his speech. so, everywhere i went for weeks people were like, cathy, are you hydrating, are you drinking water? the day of the state of the

i have to wonder if we for john boehner, if he had an elon musk type that was firing off messages on on x and, and kind of dive bombing into these negotiations, what does that do to your leadership, to your power, to how effective you can be i don't know that john boehner would have been tolerating that kind of nonsense. >> he has a you know, a lot of times he would say, this doesn't pass the smell test. and so somebody who doesn't really understand how congress works, then getting to dictate how congress works would not really be something that the former speaker would have not only not appreciated, but would have really tolerated again, his. he always would say that his job was to be speaker of the whole house. um, and, you know, in his situation, you know, he when president obama wanted to increase the debt ceiling, uh, more or less in a blank check manner, you know, boehner made it very clear that for every dollar spent, there had to be a dollar of cut. and that became the boehner rule. so it's very interesting that people are going against speaker johnson saying, how dare he wor

it has happened with john boehner, it has gone through paul ryan, gone through kevin mccarthy. it was inevitable. i mean, even given the break, that mike johnson was heading in that direction. take that as the premise. who is going to replace him? comically and farcical that the direction of this republican party would obviously suggest that elon musk who doesn't know much about governing but is a billionaire and has bought the last election cycle, spent $250 million plus to get donald trump in can throw dollars into republican race that is they would just say you take it over. the way in which the republican philosophy is governed, there aren't substantive issue at play, it is governed by money and the direction of wealth. to me it was the natural fruition, they're going to land with the billionaire who is going to call their shots and they are all comfortable with it. i kind of made a joke about it last night and here it's coming to fruition where mike lee and all of these senators are now talking about it. >> to be done within a month and a half of the republicans winning th

can you imagine john boehner or paul ryan going to a ufc fight with donald trump? there's no way that would happen. we've already had the nominations process within our republican conference, cheryl. and mike was selected and elected, if you will, unanimously. there was no other candidate. and i believe the republican conference, we're people of our word. so we should all -- we've all already pledged to go and vote for mike on the house floor, and i think we should do that was if we don't, we can't get sworn in, and if we're not sworn in, we cannot certify the presidential election on january 6th. i don't want joe biden to be in office one second longer than constitutionally necessary. so i want to get this done. mike's the person. he's the right man, right place, right job at the right time, quite frankly. and let's move forward and, you know what? fulfill the promises that we've made to the american people on the campaign trail this past november. cheryl: and start the 100 days, the beginning of the presidency, day one in particular. so many issues are at stake f

and that was minority leader john boehner and then majoty leaderte hoyer, both of whom i count as mentor and friends. now, but at the time and trying to in seeking to do good, i didn't know the effect i was having. and so that's come a long way. what advice did those two men give you over the years that you recall that that sticks with you both in the nature, the of leadership, of how to lead the institution, how to lead people in an institution. speaker boehner was a truly adept leader of the house. and what he would say is one of his key jobs is speaker is to manage disappointment. people in this institution and you have to come to terms with the fact you're not going to get everything they want. and how you handle that is really important because it's meaningful to them. it's meaningful to them, it's meaningful to their careers and what they're trying to trying to do. steny hoyer showed me that you can have good friends on both sides of the aisle, even if you disagree, even if you have vigorous debates where maybe your motions get the best or you can still have a relationship, that pe

brendan buck, senior adviser to john boehner and amy carter -- kearney is a correspondent for the "newtimes" who five known a long time. they both join me now. i want to get into the house speaker race because i'm interested in it and it is soon. matt gaetz floated the idea of running for marco rubio's seat. could this happen? you are not the spokesperson for the republican party. >> i don't know that you can rule out that he won't be reelected. it's been hanging out there for a long time and he got reelected in his district and it was not even close. republicans in this era have embraced this idea that you're always the victim and there's always someone out to get you and it's easy to point the finger at somebody is. give him a couple of years and it would be shortsighted to assume his career is over with. it is insane to say. >> it is crazy to say. >> could it be as soon as marco rubio's seat if he gets consumed to secretary of state? >> i doubt he will be named the replacement. >> he could run. >> he would have to challenge the sitting person but i don't put it past him trying. >> h

lauren write, from princeton university and a former advisor to john boehner and founder of blues trackhank you very much for joining us, both of you. i will start with you here. the headline from "politico." newsom team. part of that saying a draft of the plan obtained by "politico" proposes the creation of an immigrant support network comprised of regional hubs to connect at risk individuals and families with community systems such as legal services, schools, labor unions, local governments, as democratic leaders struggle to find their footing on the pivotal election issue. laura, this seems like it could be a winning strategy for california politically. what about nationally? >> well, in california it is becoming more purple. i think the democrats, they're still struggling on how to handle this very important issue that we saw on election day. americans largely don't want to have criminals here that came in illegally and we just all -- an illegal immigrant who snuck back into the country, set a woman on fire in the subways of new york city. these things are rightfully concerning. dep

certainly i think john boehner believed that. then there is nothing he can do.l not change. it will not stop if it is elon musk, even $350 billion. not going to change mike johnson or tom -- i know we talked for the longest time people talking about donald trump being the speaker as well. i just, you know, heard chip roy. you played the clip. he is out there calling the republicans asinine for trying to raise the debt ceiling. these people, a lot of them, want to vote no. there are few people who will find a way to oppose something. yes, you can, no you can't, yes, i can, that is the dynamic on capitol hill. not going to change with whomever the speaker is. >> roy is interesting. part of what is the issue here is that there is genuine -- this is why this is happening. and the policy in the republican party. there is one thing they are all into and maybe a huge consent on is big tax cuts. corporate tax cuts. it is simple. racking up more debt and spending cuts attached to it. i have been negotiating it. we have three dozen house members that believe in this. they

brendan buck served as press secretary to john boehner and chief speaker adviser to paul ryan. i was thinking of you but the not even being trump of this is so strikes to me. like the idea that you've now created two people that can just walk in and blow it up is wild. >> absolutely. as you're whipping bills in the first trump era, you were always on pins and needles. what's he going to do? at least donald trump had a staff around him to keep him on the straight and narrow. something melanie was getting to. elon musk doesn't know how any of this works. half of the tweets that he was putting out today were misinformation about what was in the bill. he said everybody should read it but he clearly didn't or doesn't understand how some of this stuff works talking about no bills should pass until january 20th. what does that even mean? so i imagine sitting there, any member of congress's office, they're all used to the people. you get your constituents who only understand what's happening. instead of your random misinformed guy in your district, you have perhaps the person with the

it happened with john boehner, paul ryan, kevin mccarthy.was inevitable that mike johnson was headed in this direction. who will replace him? it is comical that the direction of this republican party would obviously suggest that elon musk who doesn't know much about governing but is a billionaire and bought the last election cycle. could throw a billion dollars into republican races. they would say hey, you take it over. there are not substantiative issues at play. it is governed by money in the direction of wealth. so to me it was just the natural fruition. they are going to land with the billionaire calling all the shots and they are comfortable. i made a joke about it but now they are talking about it. >> and, to be done within a month-and-a-half of the republicans winning the presidency on a wave of quote unquote populism. to have the world's richest man say he doesn't like the funding because it includes pediatric cancer research. lowering the cost of drugs by reforming the pharmacy benefit managers. it is really important and raises fo

and the republican speaker, we've seen john boehner do it, where they just go okay, we're just going to have a vote on what the crazy people want just to show them how impossible it is. >> yeah. i think there's a lot of truth in that. that perhaps tomorrow or in the following days it might make it easier now infor mike johnson t get more owpeople on his side t swallow a bipartisan agreement. but look, in the end of the day we know how this movie is going to end. the only way we will be able to keep wthe government running o perhaps reopen it in the days ahead will be a negotiated, bipartisan agreement with a democratic senate, a narrowly republican house with bad internal divisions, and of course a democratic president. >> what are the elements that you could foresee in such a deal? >> i have to say the elements that i see in a deal that would win support from all sides were announced a few days ago. i don't think the final agreement is going to be much different than that, lawrence. and it reminds me, if you remember that government shutdown, the longest in american history, the fir

good public servants but come from an era where it's like the republicans on the other side where john boehnerublicans. and you deal with them in a different way. >> bush republicans. >> bush republicans, speaking closer to home. you can make deals with these guys. you know? you can negotiate with them in good faith. that's not this current republican party. i think that the democrats on the hill could use some more hard knuckle tactics in dealing with this republican party rather than kind of the more, i think, old school behind the scenes kind of whatever elbow rubbing tactics that some of the old guard leadership was more used to. >> i'm curious, eugene, to what extent you're hearing that. not just about getting young people who know where to go, but also who are willing to be more aggressive, who are going to look at what's coming at them and answer in kind, essentially. >> yeah, one of the things i heard all the time from democrats across the country, especially younger operatives were that when joe biden was at the top of the ticket, when he was seen as the leader of the party, he and hi

to the obama campaign amee sha cross and brendan buck, former press secretary to house speaker john boehnerg the groundwork there for voters to not hold him accountable when prices don't go down or even go up? and are you surprised by his walk back? >> no. i think that he's trying to level set expectations. donald trump never had a plan of action in terms of reducing prices of anything. no one unfortunately, the media asked for policies and plans for kamala harris 5,000 times other, but very few cared act it when it came to donald trump and the statements he made. there was never a plan of action for cost reduction and quite frankly his tariff plans would create more course burden for his everyday consumer. this is a guy who doesn't want to be held accountable for his campaign promises. now that he's there, it's stubborn. things aren't going to change. it's up and it's stuck in the words of card by i . the man has moved on. >> rural america, which strongly supports trump, could be hurt the most by his tariffs, his immigration policy, slashes to medicare and medicaid. it goes on the effects

me now, nbc political analysis brendan buck, a former press secretary to former house speaker john boehnerthat clip from donald trump, your respective reactions. brendan, you go first. >> he didn't even articulate what crime they committed. anybody who holds a hearing committee, hasn't committed a crime. i will say, if the president wants to derail his presidency really fast, try to prosecute liz cheney and bring back up what happened on january 6th. it's a very quick way to do that. it's one of the least popular things of his entire presidency, obviously, and the thing that most people have the lowest regard for, one of the most shameful days in american history, if he wants to remind people what he did on january 6th, i guess i invite him to do that. it's probably not going to turn out well for him. >> do you agree with that? >> brendan is right. if you like what we heard from president trump, he's not given up on anything from the past election. he's still holding on to believing that he won in 2020 and he wants to pursue individuals that went against him for trying to steal that electi

brendan buck, aide to paul ryan and john boehner and msnbc political analyst.se of how musk is viewed on the hill. is he seen as the voice of trump, someone to be feared? someone viewed with contempt? help us understand? all of the above? >> he's a de facto speaker right now. yesterday when he was tweeting about this initial spending bill package and how terrible it was, he was tweeting all day, members were watching that. i had one member who was walking up to the votes and whipped out his phone to show me, hey, did you see this? it's going around right now. all the members are watching it. i was told he was working behind the scenes, calling members, speaking to them directly and personally. and mike johnson said he's in a group chat with elon musk, vivek ramaswamy, they are listening to what he has to say and a huge part of it is they believe he speaks for trump. he is viewed as a proxy to trump. he's a very powerful voice in republican politics right now. he spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the last election. when he says something like members dese

former aide to then speakers john boehner and paul ryan and msnbc political analyst, brandan buck andow is donald trump taking advantage of his second chance here with his picks? >> well, trump has long understood that personnel was a problem for him in the first administration, which was essentially a shotgun marriage between his maga movement and the republican party. now four years after he left office the first time, the maga movement is the republican party. so i think he's having a much easier time selecting people who both meet his resume requirements and pass his loyalty test. either from people he's known since 2015, 2016, to people who have joined him along the way like tulsi gabbard and robert f. kennedy jr. who have passed those internal tests in trump world. that's how he's filled out his cabinet selections in record time and that's sort of the team he will be riding with between now and january or so when their confirmation hearings start. which is really the challenge for him now, these folks who are largely unvetted nationally before trump picked them are getting the f

i will say i've worked on capitol hill, when john boehner was there also with paul ryan there's grievances kevin mccarthy fought for his life with 15 rounds before getting the gavel in 2015 there were policy demands capping discretionary spending motion to vacate easier to remove the speaker. i've not heard those specific demands with speaker johnson here -- i think there are legitimate concerns with him particularly the way that he handled the cr, and that being forth coming with his fellow republicans. you know, i had congressman some congressman joked that i didn't know i was getting a raise over -- that's not good you want open communication and transparency but we're about to find out. sara: if you were a betting person what do you think guy? guy: there's no alternative that makes really any sense i think a big difference between that drawn out mess that we saw with kevin mccarthy this time that was during the biden administration right so we have divided government a democratic president this time around the president will be incoming president will be donald trump. and he will not b

the meeting started with john boehner reading the serenity prayer.that you are not in a good situation. clearly this is where house republicans are right now because they are in charge of the how house. ultimately not about elon musk or donald trump or house republicans or senate democrats. this is about congress and the failure that congress has had this year and in past congresses as well to have it's not very sexy. but a working appropriations process. when we're not passing our appropriations bills, congress is not doing what it needs to do to avoid these situations. and it means the good things in this bill don't get passed into law as well. what was in the initial cr was about $190 million for pediatric cancer research. the gabriella miller 2.0 act. congressman gowdy voted for that bill in 2014. that's been removed. these are the kinds of things that are noncontroversial that congress should do. but they should do it because they are doing their job. and that's the failure here. >> bret: yeah, trey, it is doctoring. you know, we have been -- th

brendan buck is former aide to how speakers paul ryan and john boehner and in msnbc political analyst has trump changed or is it people, whether they are fearful of retribution or wanting something from him who have? has his worldview remained largely transactional? what say you? >> right. for folks not paying attention to donald trump and his interactions with his nos partners, for example, before he stepped into politics in 2015, they now have a nearly 10 year body of evidence that the way to donald trump's heart and potential cooperation partnership is by effectively defending. not just to make trips to meet with him but you have seen a history of republicans. nancy mays, a perfect example. someone who in 2022, donald trump tried to primary out of the republican party. after she nearly won the primary, she came racing back to donald trump and was a loyalist to him in the intermediate two years. nigra looking at business leaders, corporate leaders and ceos. there were several folks in 2017 within months of donald trump's first term that resigned from his multiple economic advisory b

communications adviser to former house speaker paul ryan and former press secretary to former house speaker john boehnerr with political magazine. brendan, please explain how a house ethics committee report that a few weeks ago they said oh, we're not going to release it is now going to be releases. >> yeah. a lot of people are wondering what changed. i think they said maybe it wasn't finalized. there's a few things that may have happened of one, matt gaetz resigned from the house, but he's still eligible to take his seat next congress. you can never tell with matt gaetz. when the house speaker said i don't think they should release that report, i wondered if that was a mistake. the house ethics committee is one of the few sort of independent bipartisan panels evenly divided. i imagine there are some members of that committee who said we can't look like we're being told what to do. we don't serve the speaker. if the speaker was trying to push them around, it was very unusual for the speaker to tell the ethics committee publicly what he thinks they could do, that may have backfired. we'll figure out what

john boehner was a reasonable human being compared to what we have today. the fact remains, when boehner was the speaker, senate republicans, you'll recall, voted in a bipartisan fashion to pass a good immigration bill, and the house held it up. pay boehner refused to bring it to the floor because he knew it'd pass and he'd, therefore, lose his speakership. fast forward to paul ryan's tenure. they passed a tax cut. that's about all they passed when they had the reins. they couldn't repeal obamacare. fast forward to kevin mccarney's short tenure, the third shortest, i believe, in the history of the house of representatives, and essentially did nothing. now, in mike johnson's tenure, they have another mess. now, when trump is sworn in and trump presents his legislate you have agenda, such as it will be, and i can't really think of much that he has in the way of a legislative agenda, except another massive tax cut and some tariffs, although he may not even need legislation on those tariffs, what are the republicans going to do? it's interesting that we see thes

. >> i think the last republican we saw do that in washington was john boehner. and, you know, since then we have now or maybe, maybe excuse me paul ryan, forgive me for that but what we've seen now is that we're no longer talking about the republican party. we're talking about the make america great again party. and i know a lot of people think that the republican party is going to come back. the good old days of the reagan years in the 80s. and in all of that legacy, well, it's not so yes. you know, the speaker has very little margin in the house right now to get anything done and more importantly, donald trump just has to say, i don't want him to be speaker. and he's gone. >> and let's go to rene marsh on capitol hill, who is the one who asked that all important question of speaker johnson at the beginning how do you approach this problem without touching these entitlement programs that when lawmakers touch them? renee, it's almost like political suicide we've seen that before. they even talk about touching them. tell us about this. and also, we didn't get to

and meanwhile, as we're talking about donald trump, i remember what john boehner would say so often in013 when we had a shutdown. republicans have one half of one third of government. and you know who we're not talking about the guy who is president right now, we haven't seen or heard of joe biden. the only pictures you see of joe biden are at christmas parties. >> but, doug, you've been around washington a long time. and maria, you can weigh in on this too. i mean, we have never had a situation where you have the richest man in the world controlling something like x, a pretty powerful social media platform, saying, shut the government down. and if you don't, if you don't, don't do it. we're going to primary you in two years. i mean, he is wielding tremendous influence, and he's doing it while peddling fake news. he is peddling disinformation on this website. >> yes, but what's interesting that makes it tough for anybody to get anything done. >> absolutely. >> but what we also saw last night in that vote that failed is 38 republicans vote against musk, vote against donald trump. and, y

and when that vote goes on, the first thing we looked at in john boehner's reelection campaign for speaker in 2013 were who were the no shows. and we got to bachmann, no bachmann, we got to blackburn, no blackburn. so you're going to have members who are going to be back in their offices watching and waiting to see, and then they'll very courageously make their decision. >> so here are the words of congressman jason crow, a democrat. we're not going to take an all or nothing mentality, because we know that when people take an all or nothing mentality, americans end up with nothing. that's just not acceptable to us. um, i'll tell you, he's probably right about that. >> right? and it will not be acceptable to republicans broadly if the republican party that they sent to washington spends all of its time fighting with each other and not worrying about how to enact the trump agenda, i think a lot of these members sort of get it in their mind that their voters are looking for them to put their interests, meaning the members interests above trump. they voted for trump. they want what trump is se

and yet when it came to the house, speaker john boehner on the republican side refused to bring it to the floor for a vote. why? because republicans newspaper that it would pass, and they didn't want to reform the immigration system. it is quite convenient to have immigrants to scapegoat and blame at every turn. america desperately needs congress to pass a modernization of our 30-year-old immigration laws, update visa numbers so that they meet the needs of today's economy and families and legalize the millions of undocumented immigrants who have carried out the daily labor of our country in the shadows for decades now. and we need to fund the agency, your agency, that makes the legal system work. making the immigration system work will not only decrease pressure on the border, but it'll help america to meet its labor needs, unite families and keep critical tax revenue flowing to boost our economy as well as programs like social security and medicare. just think, undocumented immigrants paid $26 billion into social security in 2022, a program that they are not even eligible to to recei

joining me now is maura gillespie, former adviser to house speaker john boehner and julie roginski andu. some of the democratic leaders have opted want to run for dnc share and sherrod brown are all out and how difficult is to find the next standard bearer and people people are saying it doesn't mean anything? well, it does mean something, and i hope people take a look at what it mean asks to me it means building it from the grassroots up and certainly invest in judicial races all across the country and not just in the federal level which are appointed, but also at the say the level, and we need to invest in messaging mechanism that transcends what wooe been doing because what we have been doing has not worked and for people to think that the dnc chair doesn't mean anything because if there's something that comes up short and not to focus on 2028 and not just focus on 2026, but focus on the state legislative races and state judicial races and build this party back up we will be at the mercy of whatever the republicans do for the next generation and i, for one, am kind of sick of it. >>

i come from the john boehner, paul ryan era where we were putting out her agendas and outlined beforethe agenda. they have not done that. there is a vague, we are going to do a big package on energy and immigration but i don't know what that means. >> i think they have concepts. >> concepts of a plan. >> you said they are going to get something done on immigration. what? >> funding. funding on immigration. the enforcement measures that donald trump has in mind, you cannot do without resources. >> so you are not talking about overall reform. >> no. there is no chance. i don't mean to get to in the weeds on this but the tool they are going to use, reconciliation that allows you to get out of the senate filibuster, can only be used on fiscal measures. you cannot do policy changes. so they will find some way to make funding for immigration enforcement, whether that is more money for judges or money for detention centers for more money for border agents. they will find some way to make that fit within reconciliation where they can do the enforcement piece. he cannot do remain in mexico or

i believe that was the seat john boehner was elected to shortly after.e pages. and there have been other issues. i'm not surprised they released this report and particularly because he was being considered to become the top law enforcement official of the united states. as i read this report, it seemed that -- i haven't read the report yet, but i read an analysis by one news outlet that seemed to have had the report prior to its release. this was really damning. i want to know was the committee recommending an expulsion, because there was sex, drugs, money. the committee saying that supposedly gaetz may have violated florida state law. so i'm wondering if the committee actually referred this matter to the florida attorney general for further review, which they can do. matt gaetz has suggested or implied that he might be sworn in in january. i don't think that's going to happen now, because should he get sworn in, i suspect there would be an immediate motion to expel him. >> in addition to some of those top-line allegations we've been discussing, i'm look

ryan nobles who is live on capitol hill and brendan buck, former press secretary to house speaker john boehner and paul ryan and an msnbc political analyst. and you're there where this is taking place. what are the new details in this report. >> well we've known for some sometime broadly the allegations against matt gaetz. but what this house ethic committee report does more than any other report that we've had into gaetz's conduct, is put direct testimony connected to the accusations to paint a full picture of what is the house ethics committee believes was an abate ant abuse of house ethical and criminal conduct at the state and federal level. and just the kindch behavior that they would argue is not something that is becoming of a member of congress. and they specific accuse gaetz of statutory rape. saying that a witness who is the victim of this particular incident testified to their committee that at a party, in 2017, that she and gaetz did engage in sexual activity. she had just finished her junior year of high school at time. and it was at a party that was filled with drugs and other li

will never negotiate with democrats yet they are the ones who cause many speakers going back to john boehnerthy and mike johnson to negotiate with democrats because they constantly deny republican speakers, republican votes, in order to get things done like funding the government or just passing other kinds of legislation. so what might lawler said in that clip is absolutely right. however, this caucus, some call it the chaos caucus, a lot of these are members of the freedom caucus, they really don't care and they obviously don't mind taking things to the brink and really pushing republicans speakers off the brink. i think what stef said is right this is mike johnson's race to lose, but it could be a messy process. i think what he has going for him there isn't an alternative leader out there. the people who could be alternatives to mike johnson have tried to become speaker and failed during the current congress. >> okay, but given this razor thin majority, what moves does johnson have to try to convince people of that logic? what do you think he's trying to do behind the scenes now before th

the speaker's debate, from the original speaker election that happened in this congress, back to john boehner, speaker boehner calling me a hard-head on the floor. something i wore as a badge of currently because i was representing my constituents. in the third district of south carolina. who sent me to washington to be that hard head. because they were tired of seeing runaway government. they were tired of seeing government spending that has created a balance of about $35 trillion in debt that our nation faces today. that's a number that is unfathomable. to work on energy policy has been something i came to washington to work on. and i was blessed with the opportunity to become the chair of the energy subcommittee and we dealt with energy, grid security and climate change in this congress. retitled that committee. but we focus a lot on american energy and american energy independence. there's four words i talked about often. that is produce, deliver, utilize and export. we are blessed in this nation with abundant resources that we need to produce more of. because using natural gas as an exam

you are not talking about john boehner, you are not talking about even newt gingrich here, you are talkingction as one of the architects of that effort in 2021, and since then, just aligning the house with whatever donald trump once. what this whole thing tells me is a secret ballot matters in washington. if there had been a secret ballot in impeachment one or impeachment two, donald trump would have been gone, his ass would have been gone a long time ago. we would not be here with us but because of the way the rules are set up and because those members who know what the result of a secret ballot would be, they fought against those efforts to in impeachment. they could have very easily have the impeachment vote as a secret ballot. and this community, this was the space they could all retreat to and no one would know how the members voted and guess what, the report is being released, despite the fact that the speaker tried everything in his power to prevent it from being released which by the way, is a violation of their roles because he's not supposed to do that. >> tell us if any of our a

so john boehner has a private meeting yesterday with pope francis and all the reports are that somehowes he's quitting. here's what occurs to me. i wonder if we could get scheduled a meeting with pope francis and the president t just the two of them for a little while. some of the news this day. one of the little magazines reports that the absolute hideous unacceptable and untenable deal with iran that should've been a treaty should never have been an executive agreement but this horrible agreement crafted by john terreri, energy secretary monies, and the special envoy wendy sherman were so excited about what they were doing that they sat around in vienna talked about if a hollywood movie was made about this process who would play each of them? and it was decided, and i'm not making this up. this is not a joke. ted danson is going to play john terreri. harvey erbakan was going to play secretary moniz and meryl streep would be playing the part of wendy sherman. i thought that a terrible miscast. given the agreement they should have larry curly and mo. one of the things that's happened t

i will say i've worked on capitol hill when john boehner was there, and also for a little bit when paul ryan, there's always going to be grievances against the speaker. but what we saw when kevin mccarthy fought for his life with those 15 rounds before getting the speaker's gavel in 2023, they're very specific policy demands that were taking place, capping discretionary spending and a motion to vacate, making it easier to remove the speaker. i've not heard those specific demands with speaker johnson here. i think there are legitimate concerns with him, particularly the way that he handled the cr and sort of not being forthcoming with his fellow republicans. you know, i had congressman, some congressman joked that i didn't even know i was getting a raise originally. right. so that's not good. you want to have open communication and transparency, but, you know, we're about to find out. >> so if you're a betting person guy what do you think you have to or out? >> i think you bet on johnson because there is no alternative that really makes any sense. and i think a big difference between sor

about the republican majority elected in 2010 and sort of the leadership difficulties, speaker john boehnerajority leader eric cantor and their team had in corralling this what was then a new tea party majority. in telling the story sometimes i think it's informative for people when you're looking for republicans in congress now to had in unifying what surprised me to some degree although it makes sense that you would not want an agricultural bill messed with, given how important this is to south dakota, was that you had a colleague and you talk rodeo" that wanted to put work requirements for food stamps into the agricultural bill and this is where these things are dealt with. while you felt that may have been worthy, you refer to it as a poison pill and you really worked over leadership hard not to bend on this and to get the agricultural bill through. and that struck me as, as conservative as you are on policy, there's this pragmatic side to how you govern. i think sometimes you've been criticized for that from the right. talk about what that experience was like and how it has sort of inf

after just two weeks of being on the committee, then-speaker john boehner, who had called me earlier and told me, i don't really know mike very well, came back and said, he is a real asset to our conference and to the rules committee and i really congratulated mike well behind his back only to find out later that john did approach mike and say, we're very proud of the job that you're doing. mike, tonight we stand in awe of you. i often spoke about you being one of the most distinguished members of congress. not only in your presentation but also in your hard work back home. tonight we say thank you. tonight we say job well done and perhaps more than that, service to a grateful nation that not only listened to your words but listened to your advice about making life better for people. because in fact i think you, like virginia foxx and other members of the committee at the time, we believed there was no problem in america that we could not tackle, help resolve and make better for the american people. and every bit of that you did through your devotion, dedication to the american peopl