House Speaker Mike Johnson Defends Trump's Attacks on Biden and Harris
"Has He Missed an Opportunity to Promote Unity?" House Speaker Mike Johnson Defends Trump's Attacks on Biden and Harris
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00:00House Speaker Mike Johnson at the Republican National Convention this week, and Speaker
00:05Johnson joins me now live.
00:07Welcome to this week, Mr. Speaker.
00:10Former President Trump said he was going to use his acceptance speech to come together,
00:16to promote unity, and you echoed that, saying, treat one another with dignity and respect
00:22and that the discourse should not be personal or targeting people.
00:26But after truly his emotional and very compelling first part of his speech, he turned to grievances,
00:33and I want you to take a listen to him last night at his rally.
00:38I call her laughing Kamala.
00:39You ever watch her laugh?
00:41She's crazy.
00:42She's nuts.
00:44She's not as crazy as Nancy Pelosi, crazy as Nancy.
00:48These are Biden indictments.
00:49These are a sick, weak, pathetic man who can't run an election.
00:55So he indicts his opponent thinking that's going to win this stupid president that we
01:00have.
01:01Stupid.
01:02He's a stupid person.
01:04Has he missed an opportunity to promote unity?
01:08No, he hasn't.
01:11Look, there's campaign rhetoric on both sides.
01:13There has been.
01:14Remember, it was less than a week and a half ago that President Biden said we had to we
01:18had to put Donald Trump in the crosshairs effectively and put him in the center of the
01:23bullseye, he said.
01:24Now, he retracted that statement.
01:26And President Trump has said some things about unity that President Biden has said.
01:31But we are in the midst of a heated campaign.
01:33And it's beyond dispute that President Trump has been the most attacked and maligned public
01:38figure in the history of the country.
01:40But you yourself said that the discourse should not be personal or targeting people.
01:45Have you just changed your mind?
01:47Is this now the campaign you want?
01:49No, look, I I articulate things in a certain way.
01:53And Donald Trump does as well.
01:55But but his grievances, as you said, are because he has been the subject of so many attacks.
02:01He was speaking there in that clip about the lawfare that he's had to endure.
02:04I mean, they have turned the justice system against him because he's a political opponent
02:09of the sitting president.
02:10I mean, these are objective facts.
02:11Some of these cases are being dismissed now.
02:13And they've drug he and his family through hell, literally for years now.
02:18They tried to impeach him.
02:19They've tried to attack him in every way.
02:20They now have turned the justice system against him.
02:23So, I mean, I think the American people understand his frustration.
02:27And I think I think he is echoing what many of them feel.
02:30Look at the size of the rallies.
02:32I mean, they have long waiting lines outside the perimeter of these events because people
02:36long to hear his message.
02:38They want change.
02:39Mr. Speaker, first of all, I will dispute.
02:42Those aren't necessarily objective facts that you are saying.
02:45But I want to turn to what is happening with President Biden.
02:49As of this morning, it does not look like he is going anywhere.
02:53But if he does step down, you said this week the Republicans are likely to bring legal
02:57challenges against any attempts to replace Biden on the Democratic ticket.
03:02How would that work?
03:04Well, these elections are handled at the state level.
03:07Every state has its own system.
03:09And some of these, it's it's not possible to simply just switch out a candidate who
03:14has been chosen through the Democratic small d democratic process over such a long period
03:19of time.
03:20Fourteen million Democrats voted to make Joe Biden the nominee.
03:24So it would be wrong and I think unlawful in accordance to some of these states rules
03:28for a handful of people to go in a back room and switch it out because they're they don't
03:33like the candidate any longer.
03:34That's not how this is supposed to work.
03:35So I think they would run into some legal impediments in at least a few of these jurisdictions.
03:40And I think there'll be a compelling case to be made that that shouldn't happen.
03:44And so I think they've got legal trouble if that's their you know, that's their intention
03:49and that's their plan.
03:50So we'll see how it plays out.
03:51We don't know.
03:52I know the Democrats are in total disarray and I know the Republican Party is united
03:55like never before.
03:57So we're looking forward to November and this election cycle.
03:59It's going to be an interesting time for the American people.
04:02Republican election law expert Rick Hasen said there's no credence to that notion that
04:06since Biden isn't the party nominee yet, but we'll see how that all plays out.
04:10Our most recent poll shows a huge majority, 61 percent, wanting Joe Biden to step down.
04:15But our polls have also shown that the race is still a dead heat nationally between registered
04:20voters, 46 percent to 46 percent.
04:23What do you make of that?
04:25Well, look, we can I can cite to you a number of polls who say the opposite, that it looks
04:30like it's you know, Donald Trump may be headed for a landslide.
04:33Now, don't take my word for it.
04:35Take the word of some of the top leading Democrats and elected Democrats around the country who
04:40are in panic mode.
04:41That's the headlines that we've been reading for weeks.
04:43And I think that's true.
04:44I can tell you many of my colleagues on Capitol Hill, Democrats who are friends and colleagues
04:48or have lots of of hand wringing over this right now, they don't know what to do and
04:54they don't have a viable plan B. Many of them don't believe that Kamala Harris is a viable
04:59candidate at the top either.
05:01And they're running out of time.
05:02So it'll be interesting to see what happens.
05:04From our perspective, Martha, it doesn't matter who they put at the top of the ticket.
05:08If Kamala is the nominee, so be it.
05:10She is the co-author and the co-owner of the policies of the Biden administration.
05:15And she owns all these policy failures herself.
05:17So we look forward to a vigorous debate about those policies and about the two competing
05:22visions for America.
05:23And I think the American people will side with the Republican Party.
05:27That's what the demographic moves are showing.
05:30There's a record number of Hispanic and Latino voters, a record number of black and African
05:34American voters coming into the Republican Party.
05:37The Jewish community is more energized than I've ever seen a segment of the population
05:41because they feel like Joe Biden and the Democrats have abandoned Israel and in so many ways
05:45they have.
05:46So you see all these factors playing out across the country.
05:49And I mean, I'm traveling nonstop around the nation.
05:51That's what we're seeing on the ground.
05:53So polls are polls.
05:54But I think everybody senses something's happening here.
05:57Mr. Speaker, I think you answered part of my next question already.
06:01But how would the GOP approach this race differently if the nominee does end up being Vice President
06:09Kamala Harris?
06:10Well, you know, the interesting thing about this dynamic, whether it's Biden or Harris,
06:15is that both of these persons have held office.
06:19We had a Trump administration.
06:20We had a Biden-Harris administration.
06:22And people can compare the two that put the campaign rhetoric aside.
06:27How are you and your family doing after the first two years of the Trump administration,
06:31for example, and the first few years of the Biden administration?
06:34I mean, it's it's no contest.
06:35And everybody knows that.
06:36And I think that's why we're in such good position.
06:39I think this election should not be about personalities, but about policies.
06:43People understand, as Obama said many years ago, elections really do have consequences.
06:49President Trump was attacking her personally, as you know, last night.
06:52He wasn't really talking about her policies.
06:54He was talking about her laugh.
06:56He was saying she was crazy.
07:00We could run the tape of the terrible things that Kamala Harris has said about Donald Trump,
07:04of course, and Biden as well, and everybody in the Democrat leadership.
07:08I mean, this is it's we're accustomed to it now.
07:10It's their standard practice.
07:12But what we're what President Trump is trying to do out on that campaign trail is prosecute
07:16the case to put forward his ideas and his vision, as he did in that lengthy speech at
07:21the RNC.
07:22He has a lot to say because he has a lot of ideas there.
07:25There's let me let me stop on one idea, sir.
07:28Mr. Speaker, Ukraine, he says he could end that war in one day.
07:32How could he do that?
07:34Well, look, I have a lot of confidence in President Trump being able to end that conflict
07:39because he will project strength.
07:41We maintain peace through strength.
07:43We have not had that in the three and a half years of the Biden administration.
07:46It's been exactly the opposite.
07:48And that is why our adversaries are acting so provocatively.
07:51OK, but peace through strength, that that that may be what you believe in.
07:54But how could he end that war in one day?
07:59President Trump has the ability to pick up the phone call and make threats and demands
08:04of of adversaries around the world that they pay attention to because they fear him in
08:09some ways.
08:10There's real value in that.
08:11I mean, think of it.
08:13He said it in his speech.
08:14Russia did not invade Ukraine during his administration.
08:17We did not have the conflict in Israel, the war in Israel, as we have because Iran has
08:21been empowered under Biden.
08:22We did not have China acting so provocatively as they are right now around the world.
08:27We've got hot wars around the globe.
08:29Our adversaries are nervous.
08:30We had the NATO summit, you know, two weeks ago in Washington.
08:33And I met with foreign leaders, heads of state from around the globe that are our adversaries,
08:38and they are deeply concerned about the instability that America is projecting on the world stage
08:44because of Joe Biden and his weak leadership.
08:47Mr. Speaker, I want to get quickly to this as a as a quick question.
08:52We're learning more about the details, really startling details about the assassination
08:56attempt.
08:58There were reports that that the Trump campaign asked for more protection, not at that particular
09:03rally perhaps, but over the last couple of years.
09:06And the Secret Service said basically they that was true.
09:11Do you think Kimberly Cheadle should resign immediately or that President Biden should
09:17fire her?
09:19Both, I called on her to resign over the weekend, and when it became apparent that she would,
09:25and I think on Friday, then I called for President Biden to fire her.
09:28The buck should stop at his desk.
09:29We absolutely must ensure accountability so the American people can trust that this job
09:34will be done, that we will protect our presidents and former presidents.
09:38It's the number one job of the Secret Service, not anything else.
09:41And I think Director Cheadle has shown the world and said that she has different priorities.
09:45She needs to go.
09:46OK, thank you so much for joining us this morning, Mr. Speaker.
09:48We appreciate it.