"It's Just in Jest" House Speaker Mike Johnson Downplays Trump's Cocaine Remarks About Biden

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00:00night. The Trump campaign telling CNN that Biden will be quote ready to go

00:04they believe. Of course a big question how ready is their candidate? I want to

00:08bring in one of Trump's top allies in Washington the House Speaker Mike

00:11Johnson joining us live. Speaker Johnson great to have you here. Have you given

00:14former President Trump any advice about what you think he should do on stage

00:18Thursday night? Well I spent some time with him over the last week and I can

00:24tell you he's in a great mood in a great place and I'm looking forward to the

00:28vision that he's going to cast for the country on Thursday night. I think it'll

00:31be a big night for him and I think there'll be a stark contrast between his

00:34vision for America this very positive vision that he wants to cast and with

00:39really I think the terribly weak record of President Biden it's hard to hide

00:42from. I think that contrast will be a stark one. Yeah you've previously said

00:45that you have seen a cognitive decline in President Biden but don't you worry

00:49that you and fellow Republicans have set the bar pretty low for him? Look I

00:56just tell the truth Caitlin I mean I don't I have no personal animus against

00:59Joe Biden of course I respect the office and but you know I've just acknowledged

01:03what everyone sees. We can't help how we age everybody ages differently at a

01:08different pace. My father-in-law is the same exact age as President Biden but

01:12he's on his a-game he works 12 hours a day runs a small business that he's

01:16been running for years and he's vibrant and he's just he can he can do almost

01:20anything seemingly and President Biden cannot I mean that's what people see and

01:24so it's a dangerous thing I take no pleasure in saying it because our

01:27adversaries see that as well and you know I think it's going to be a very

01:31interesting contrast between these two men and the interesting thing about this

01:33race Caitlin is that both of these men have been president so you can ignore

01:38the rhetoric you can ignore the talking points you can look at the at the record

01:42of these two men and I think that's a really important one as well. Do you

01:45think some of the rhetoric Speaker Johnson I mean just knowing you and how

01:49you conduct yourself do you think some of the rhetoric is out of line when when

01:52people from Trump's team are suggesting that Trump himself that Biden is going

01:56to be on cocaine when he's on that debate stage Thursday night? Look there's

02:02a lot of things that are said in jest of course no one expects that Joe Biden

02:06would be on cocaine but they they do ask questions and I think they're they're

02:10objectively I mean I think it makes sense why people are asking will he be

02:14on some sort of energy drinks or something okay look his energy levels

02:18you can see vary depending on what format he's in and what forum and you

02:23know we expect that he'll do what he did at the State of the Union he had a lot

02:26of energy that night so that's the Joe Biden I expect to see but the question

02:30is can he stay for 90 minutes on that stage and go toe-to-toe with with

02:34President Trump who as you know goes to rallies and talks for two hours on end

02:37without any break and any notes so it'll be a very interesting thing to see. Yeah

02:41I mean the allegations just about drugs have just been frankly ridiculous and

02:46obviously are baseless as well but let me ask you about something that's

02:49happening on Capitol Hill because you've vowed previously to push back on Donald

02:53Trump's prosecutions you suggested that the funding of the special counsel's

02:57office could be an opportunity for that but Republican appropriators are not

03:00attempting to defund Jack Smith in their latest proposal today how come? Well

03:07there's a lot of talk about how we get control of the out-of-control special

03:11counsels and and I think many of the abuses that we've seen in the system

03:15there's a lot of frustration about that and it's not just House Republicans it's

03:18all the American people I'm traveling around the country I've been done

03:21campaign events in over 130 cities now in 30 states in the last six months and

03:26there's real frustration about that people see a two-tiered system of

03:29justice that's how they describe it themselves it's not a Republican talking

03:32point so we've got to bring accountability because that's the role

03:36of Congress under the Constitution the question is what's the best and most

03:39effective way to do that so there's a lot of thoughtful discussion and debate

03:42the underlying bill doesn't have their provision in but there may be amendments

03:46but we have to look at what is actually a lawmaking exercise and not just a

03:50messaging exercise because the times are too important so a lot of ideas on how

03:54to do it the jury's still out we'll see it's not in the underlying bill I mean

03:58an amendment could be added but if you really wanted it you would just put it

04:01in the underlying bill but but if it is ultimately in there is that just a

04:05messaging tactic because it's not actually going to go anywhere and defund

04:08the special counsel's office no look it's not a question about what we want

04:13we definitely want to bring the special counsel under control but there's

04:17differences of opinion even among House Republicans on the best way to do that

04:21do you believe that you can do that that you have the ability to do that no look

04:27I think there is a role for a special counsel function and the purpose of it

04:32is because you know it's the Department of Justice is an executive agency branch

04:37obviously an executive agency in the executive branch and sometimes there's a

04:41conflict of interest let's say for example Republicans may want to

04:44investigate something that Joe Biden did you know after he's in office like

04:48they've done with President Trump we have a special counsel right now that's

04:51working on the Hunter Biden matters the reason you have special counsels is

04:54because sometimes there's a conflict of interest within DOJ and the White House

04:58so it has an important function but it has been abused I mean I think Jack

05:01Smith has abused his position and what he's done and I think that bears

05:06investigation I think the funding streams is an important part of that and

05:09that's what Congress is very carefully and deliberately debating how do you

05:12solve the problem without creating a bigger one and that's what we're going

05:16through right now but are you still debating it if it's not going to be in

05:19that underlying proposal that came out from the House Appropriations Committee

05:23tonight I mean you previously suggested that would be a way to go after Jack

05:26Smith so do you not believe any longer that that is a way to go after the

05:31special counsel's office here no but it's not about what my personal belief

05:36is it's about what we can actually get enacted into law and obviously Chuck

05:40Schumer in the Senate would probably not take that up we could you know I can

05:44guess that and I'm sure President Biden would not sign it into law right so we

05:49have to look at what's reality I have the smallest margin in US history for

05:52about four and a half months here I had a one vote margin we are now at three

05:56because we had a new member take an oath of office tonight a new Republican so

05:59yeah I'm excited about that but look it's a it's the reality of the math

06:03that I've got to deal with every day and what can we actually get enacted we're

06:06trying to get appropriations bills done that reflect our priorities and if we

06:11have things in there that make that tougher we've got to carefully debate

06:14and well that's what's happening right now that's part of the process I mean

06:17we've seen that playing out Marjorie Taylor Greene tonight was saying it was

06:20a complete and utter failure of the Republican controlled house by not doing

06:24that she said she let you know that but let me ask you about something else

06:26bigger Johnson because we understand this evening that the House of

06:28Representatives is weighing in and actually taking an official position on

06:33what we're on the verge of seeing happening on Monday Steve Bannon

06:36reporting to prison for defying a congressional subpoena and failing to

06:42respond to that can you confirm that the house is expected to take an official

06:46position on that and if so what is it yeah I can confirm that we'll be filing

06:52a brief in that legal proceeding we think that's really important to do we

06:57think the previous statement of the house under speaker Pelosi was

07:01incorrect we do not believe the January 6th special committee was properly

07:06constituted we don't think it followed the house rules and now we're finding

07:10under our own investigation that they may have in fact covered up some

07:13evidence that's a great concern to a lot of people you'll see a lengthy report

07:16come out on that but in the meantime when they're using that to prosecute

07:21people we think it's important for the house's position to be known the current

07:25house and that is that we don't believe that that was a proper committee

07:28properly constituted that did appropriate work the court should take

07:32that into consideration and I think we have an obligation to make that position

07:35no do you worry that that will undercut your ability to enforce congressional

07:39subpoenas in the future though no not at all you got two totally different

07:45matters I mean we're going to court by the way to enforce the subpoena against

07:50Merrick Garland the Judiciary Committee is is going to proceed in the court to

07:54make sure that the audio tape of the lengthy interview with the special

07:58counsel and President Biden is turned over to Congress we have a right to see

08:02it in fact we have an obligation a necessity to hear that audio to make

08:06sure that it matches with the written transcript that Merrick Garland the

08:10Attorney General turned over to the house okay you know you got it you've

08:13got a conflict between the two branches we're using article one of the

08:16Constitution as we're supposed to do and of course Steve Bannon was no longer

08:19working in the executive branch went when he had his subpoena for the time

08:23period that it was relevant to we'll see how this pans out how the Supreme

08:26Court takes it House Speaker Mike Johnson thank you for your time tonight

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