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
Transcript
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.