On Sunday, Speaker Johnson spoke to CNN's Jake Tapper about President Trump hosting a private dinner for top investors in his cryptocurrency.
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00:00I want to ask you about something else. President Trump held a closed-door event Thursday night for top investors in his private cryptocurrency.
00:08We do not know who was there. The list has not been released. We do not know how much of the money came from outside the country.
00:15The president has, of course, a huge role to play when it comes to regulating crypto.
00:21I really have a difficult time imagining that if this was a Democratic president doing the exact same thing, you wouldn't be outraged.
00:30Well, look, I don't know anything about the dinner. I was a little busy this past week, as you know, getting the reconciliation package over the line.
00:36And so I'm not going to comment on something I haven't even heard about. I'm not sure who was there or what the purpose was.
00:41But I'll say this. President Trump is very active. He's very engaged. He's the greatest dealmaker, one of the greatest dealmakers of all time.
00:49He is working on these trade imbalances that we've had and having tremendous success.
00:54We've got over 75 countries now renegotiating their trade agreements with America.
00:58It's going to make it better for all of us, everybody in the country.
01:01And he is encouraging new technologies, crypto and the advancement of AI.
01:07He's appointed a czar for the first time. We have an AI czar in David Sachs, who's an expert in the industry from Silicon Valley.
01:13There's a lot of exciting things happening.
01:15The president is trying to encourage that along as much as he can.
01:19And I think the vast majority of the country is applauding those efforts.
01:23So I'm one of them. I think the result of all this is going to be extraordinary for everybody in the country.
01:28You oversaw, as Speaker, a congressional investigation into President Biden's ties to his son Hunter's questionable business dealings to enrich him.
01:38You seem to think it was your responsibility to look into this sort of thing then.
01:42Yeah, Jake, the big important distinction, the Biden crime family, as they were named, earned that title.
01:53Why?
01:53Because they used shell companies, fake LLCs, series of what appeared to be money laundering operations.
01:59And Hunter Biden, of course, with his difficult past and the corruption in his past, the family on the public dole or on the president's dole.
02:10You know, the president lied about his involvement in the business dealings, all of that.
02:14The evidence just piled up.
02:15And by the way, at the same time, the evidence of his diminished mental capacity, subject of your book, of course,
02:21I wish it had been published a year earlier, because everybody saw it.
02:24Everybody saw what was happening.
02:26He used the auto pen.
02:27And by the way, there's investigations right now going on in the House.
02:31Jamie Comer and the Oversight Committee will be investigating the use of the auto pen
02:35when the president's mental capacity declined and whether all those things are even legally valid now,
02:41given the obvious fact that he was not the one making the decisions.
02:45It's huge implications from all this.
02:47And so I think the American people had a reason to doubt.
02:51And we had great reason and, I think, a responsibility to investigate those things.
02:55The difference, of course, is that President Trump does everything out in the open.
02:58He's not trying to hide anything.
02:59There's no shell companies or fake LLCs or fake family businesses.
03:03He's putting it out there so everybody can evaluate for themselves.
03:07On the book, I wish the more than 200 people that talked to me and Alex Thompson, my co-author, after Election Day,
03:14I sure wish that they had talked to us a year ago.
03:16I agree with you on that.
03:17But on this matter with the crypto, shouldn't we at least just know who was at the dinner?
03:21Wouldn't you want to know that list of people?
03:26I guess.
03:26I mean, again, I don't know anything about that dinner.
03:29I do know that President Trump is the most transparent president
03:32and the most transparent administration probably in history.
03:35He has nothing to hide.
03:37And he's out there trying to advance America's interests.
03:39That's what America First policies are all about.
03:41And that's what our big reconciliation bill will deliver for the people.
03:44We're really proud of the product.
03:45Mr. Speaker, I know you have a lot of military veterans and Gold Star families in your congressional district.
03:52I know your son is at Annapolis.
03:53I wish you a meaningful and peaceful Memorial Day weekend.
03:58Thank you so much for being with us today.
04:02Same to you, my friend.
04:03God bless.