The Struggles Of Having a House Speaker

The script is a podcast-style conversation about the political issues in the United States, focusing primarily on the dynamics and complexities of the House of Representatives. The discussion centers more specifically on the struggles and controversies associated with choosing a House Speaker, with mentions of discrete figures like Kevin McCarthy, Matt Gates, Jim Jordan, and Mike Johnson, as well as some details about the user's personal background and platform under 'Being Human'.

To all my Melanated People (Black & Brown), it's never a sign of weakness to ask for help when you really need it. Life is not cupcakes and rainbows—struggles are what make us stronger!

Transcript

Microphone (Realtek(R) Audio) & Camo-4: 0:00

What's going on. Hello, everyone. Today we are going to be talking about our new speaker of the house. I believe it's Mike Johnson. Michael Johnson. Mike was asking. I don't really know. Either way we want to talk about. How we got here, the house has been shut down. For three weeks now. Three weeks. We finally have a house, which means we can finally. Do business. Right? So that means. We can finally pass bills as you saw the present. Did his speech from the oval office requesting that there be more aid for Ukraine and Israel, and we have a border crisis. So we're not on the focus on the whole that. We want to focus on the speakership. We're gonna talk about how we even got to this point. So as most of you know, Former speaker Kevin McCarthy. Was elected after 15. Wow. Just because there was about six players that were like, eh, they weren't really filling it. We're going to go into that. And how we got to our new speaker right here. On the last conversation.

Microphone (Realtek(R) Audio) & Camo-5: 1:18

All right. So. Now let's talk about. Kevin McCarthy. We did a whole episode on this. Our last podcast, but now we're not talking about. And just briefly here, Kevin McCarthy has, you know, he's from California. One. Is speakership after 15. So there was about six members who held out the longest, right. They were the far right Trump or group that wanted certain concessions, they wanted certain privileges. They. And want it certain committees. I actually have. What are the. Concessions. That he had to give up. So it says. The concessions that he agreed to for him to be. To get the power of speakership. Would hold considerably less power than his predecessor Democrat. Nancy Polski that will make it hard for him to agree to deals with Democrats in invited Washington. Allowing a single member to call for a vote to remove the speaker. We'll given headliners at shore leverage. The agreement with cap spending for next fiscal year. At last year's level. Amounting to a significant part when inflation and population growth are taken into account. That could meet resistance from more centers, Republicans, or those who've pushed for greater military funding. Particular as the United States is spending billions of dollars to help Ukraine. Send off a Russian assault. Moderate Republicans, like then Fritz Patrick said that he was not worried that the house with. Effectively. Be run by heart liners. He told reporters it's aspirational. We still have our voting cards. But. Those aren't just the concessions that you gave. Right. He also gave them as the vacate, the power. That was probably one of the biggest. Issues with his speakership. Is that Nancy Polsky. She took that off the table. She was like, that's not, that's not how this is working. Right.'cause they Katy in the chair, literally. Literally means that one person more about the given to this. In a few minutes, one person. In your party could be like, You know, you're not doing the job correctly. And that's what Matt gates who's from Florida did. The other. Reason. That McCarthy's not also speaker is because he went on stage to union, which is a televised TV show. And we were in a looming government shutdown. Like the government was about the shutdown. Within like nine to 10 hours. And went on the state of union and he pretty much blamed Democrats for why we couldn't fund the government. If I can find that clip. I will. Probably edit and put into our podcasts. Listen to it. But essentially that's what he did. And you were like, Why would he do that? And essentially. When they on the government, Pasch Z. He made concessions with Democrats to make sure the government was funded. That's when his own party decided to turn against him. But as I said, he was already going into a speakership on a very thin ice, like they wanted inquiries to impeach buy in, which is still going on, which actually aren't going on. Right. Well, They're going on now, because now we have how speaker. Before about three weeks late. Like nothing was being done. So he opened one, even though he said on public television. He didn't believe that there was enough, but he had to do it. Like I said, there was about six people. Who they really control the house. Kevin just was in the chair. So. We're going to move on. Two. How he lost the speakership. Now we learn how he got it. Now we're going to focus on how he. Lost it. You can thank Matt gates. As I said, he's a Republican. Congressman from Florida. And let me adjust. Put this out there just a little bit. Shutting down the government means that if you're a federal employee, you're not getting paid. Our grandparents who are on social security means at that chat that they need the probably paid rent. Isn't coming. It's going to be late. All of our service members and women. Who are out there actively serving, they wouldn't get paid. And yet. Matt gates wanted a shut down. Like, how could you agree to all these people not getting their paychecks, living? You know, They might not be able to pay rent. They might get kicked out who knows. So. Let's talk about that. Next.

Microphone (Realtek(R) Audio) & Camo-6: 6:16

So if I ever post this video on YouTube, You will see that. I have. Taken off my headphones. I've. Putting them on. And I'll take them off again. Because how I'm recording. I can't hear myself in my headphones which is kind of weird. So, but anyways, that's a. A little OCD moment. So now let's talk about. Kevin McCarthy been. Alstead as I told you, Matt gates led the charge. Now. McCarthy said he wasn't scared. Like he told them to bring it on, which was the worst thing to do when you are. And that type of possession, right? Because I think that Kevin probably thought it was just going to be one person. And wind the beads six now to get the speakership because Republicans have such. A narrow majority. He could only lose four people. Right. So all he truly needed was to lose four people or. In this case, he lost six people. But Matt gates. Gives his reason of why. He believes or why he did what he did. He said, speaker McCarthy main agreement with house conservatives in January. And since then, Has been in brazen, repeatedly material beaches of. Of that agreement. Kate said. This agreement that made with Democrats is really a blow past a lot of the spending guard rails. We set up is a last straw. He added, I do intend to file a motion to vacate against Spiegel McCarthy this week. This was passed. Obviously. I think we need to rip off the band-aid. I think we need to move on with new leadership. That's going to be trustworthy. That promise from gates is an escalation in the month. And the months long standoff between McCarthy and the right flank of this conference. Which forced him to go through 15 rounds of volts in January. The finally, when the speaker's gavel. Gavel. As part of the winning the top job in house McCarthy made the deal that he would allow one member to advance the motion to vacate. And now. It's come. To pass. Some McCarthy's response to gates later that Sunday was straightforward telling a Republican. To bring it on. You don't say that to someone. Potentially has the power to oust you. But he goes on, he says, that's not the new. He said on face nation. Yes, I'll survive. You know, this is a personal with Matt. Matt voted against the most conservative ability. To protect our borders secure our borders is more than just stayed in securing TV interviews than doing something. He had it. So be it, bring it on. Let's get over with it. Let's start governing. Let's start governing and then he was ousted. And then for three weeks we didn't cover it. So McCarthy you're probably kicking yourself in the ass. At this point. Some are hard things. Moment of reckoning may have finally come after president Joe Biden on Saturday, signed the bill to keep the government open mid November, just minutes before funding was set to expire at midnight. Are they made a sharp. About facing earlier. In the day and worked with Democrats to overwhelmingly pass a continuing resolution that would avoid a shutdown. The Senate passed the bill on a bi-partisan basis. Later Saturday. If you're watching the news. On face the nation. McCarthy went on and blamed Democrats of why the government was Emma stated was he's like, oh, well, You know, We had a bill that was really good, but. Those damn Democrats, they just didn't want to sign it. And once the Democrats saw that they were. Wait, what thought. What it's not us. It's you. He kind of sealed his own fate, especially when they were talking about how Steve. The move by McCarthy could cost him his job as gates has been promising about daily. GOP represent Eli claim. Arizona, another Republican hardliner who's been critical of McCarthy's signal support for his Alstott. On that Saturday, crane. Let's roll. CNN reported on that Friday, that gates has been approaching Democrats about potential successors party. If he would have filed a motion to vacate, which would force the house to vote on whether to Alyce the speaker. Hardy has been defiant and on Saturday challenges, the factors to try and push them on a job.

Microphone (Realtek(R) Audio): 11:06

McCarthy had said that if somebody wants to make them. Emotion against them to bring it on. There has to be an adult improvement. I'm going to Dublin. With what's best in the country. The Republican Florida Republican accused of lying in negotiations over the continuing revolution. But the one thing that has everybody in common is that nobody trusts Kevin Berbee. He lied, the Biden, the UI, the house conservatives. Yeah, appropriators marketing to a different number altogether. And the reason we're back. Against the shutdown politics. Is not a bug of the system. It's a future. The senior democratic source told CNN that most members of the caucus are. That are spectacle about saving McCarthy, given that he has shown little interest in working with Democrats. And that he's launched an impeachment inquiry into Biden. One thing I want to say. Is that. During a lot of these CNN interviews. They were asking different congressmen. And women of Democrats. And most of them were like, We don't know about saving them because. They didn't know if there was a deal to be made. Like, is it worth saving him? Because then if they save them, they're going to want some type of concessions. They're gonna want something in return. And if he's not making the promises on his own party, why do you necessarily think he's one of eight? Concessions on the Democrats and actually hold them up. And most of his Republican colleagues would not want. To share power of the house. With Democrats. McCarthy's sources has reach out to democratic leaders and serious negotiation on that issue, but there could be some rank and file them. Brett moderate to try and find a way to help McCarthy stain power. But as I said, most of them are kind of like, well, Be a kind of just blame the government shutdown on us on face the nation. Why are we going to help you? Then our credit Republican Alexander Acosta said on Sunday in a separate interview. Onstage the union said absolutely. She would vote to house. Kevin McCarthy. She goes on to say, I think Kevin McCarthy is very weak speaker. He clearly has lost control of his caucus. He's brought the United States and millions of Americans to the brink. Wait until the final hour to keep the government open. And even then only issuing a 45 days extension. It's clear that gates has been working for days. It's not, if not longer to take the temperature of house Democrats and their desire to force McCarthy out. The only way for Kevin McCarthy is speaker of a house at the end of this coming week. Is if Democrats bail them out now. Probably will. I actually think when you believe and nothing is Kevin Harvey does everything's negotiable. I think he'll get a deal. What Democrats. When asked if he would have. Help Alison Parthi gate set. I think Democrats should vote against them for free. So that's how we got to our outing, Kevin McCarthy. So let's review it more like bullet points. Cause I was probably a lot that I said. Matt gates. Congressman of Florida and I want it to outs, because as he said, he lied to not only Biden. He lied to the caucus as well. He put people in special places where they shouldn't have been, whether that's committees he also wasn't supposed to make all these concessions about the government. Shut down. Right. But he made all these concessions with Democrats to get it passed. And that's something that Matt gates just didn't like to begin with. So with all that. Kevin was finally voted out. And then. The war for trying to find a new speaker. So for three weeks, we went through Steve We went through Jim Jordan. And now we have this Mike Johnson. So Steve Kelly's was a. Vital option. In the backdoor voting, he was actually voted. Then, for like a house vote. No one was going to support. Jim Jordan. Ran three times, all three times got rejected. After the third time his caucus was like, please shut up, sit down. And stop trying to run for house speaker. Mike Johnson. Was endorsed by president Trump, which is why. His entire party voted. For him. Without a doubt. So. We don't really know, or I don't truly know about this. Mike Johnson. In our next episode, we'll actually talk about him.

Microphone (Realtek(R) Audio) & Camo-7: 15:56

Okay. So now that Kevin McKenzie is you're probably like, well, Stefan. What happens next? Now we ensure a three week battle of who's going to be house speaker, and that's now Steve. Police is majority leader of the Republicans. For the house. So obviously you would think that he would be next up. Now he, he, he wasn't. So it becomes scalies versus Jordan. And the battle of becoming out speaker. So the battle of the women, the house speakership could hinge on the contingent, a more moderate Republicans, uneasy about the conservative politics of their two leading candidates and angry. At their heart line for faction for ousting, Kevin McCarthy. And this week's unpredicted on president. Four vote. Now, remember at this point, They're still about 45 days. From another government shutdown. So it's like, time is taking. And within that 45, we lost three weeks. So behind the scenes house, majority leader, Steve. Louisiana and house judiciary chairman Jim Jordan. I have been making a direct pitch for more Centrus members, both insisting. They will make their reelection battles a priority and ensure more stability. A top from a badly divided conference, according to sources. So Jordan and Scully's have made overtures to a block of New York Republicans who are among the most viable. In the house and will be considered a key prize. For whichever. Wins them over squeeze plans. Meet. Well, he met with virtually on Friday with freshmen, GLP lawmakers, and a separate group of more mainstream Republicans after Jordan made his case. To the latter group. During a call on Thursday. He goes on to say that they have to lay out for us a real understanding that numbers like me, not only deserve a seat at the table. But our voices have represented. And hurt New York GLP mark. Mannarino maybe I'm saying that wrong. Who has not endorsed the candidate, but said that squeeze in Jordan. And so they can raise that challenge side note. Our best friend. I don't know. Nevermind. It'll come to me. What is. I'm representing Carlos, the Florida. Part of the ally considered. Himself central. Right. Said Jordan certainly can one Neil. He was wanting Kevin McCarthy's. Most vocal supporter. Jordan gained a key endorsement Friday from SEMO. No present. Trump. Jordan is also a Congressman who denies that January six even happened. He believes that Trump's still won. Presidency. So he's one of those. But as I said, you have a shutdown. And the motion to vacate is still an issue. At this time. So the Senator of demands for many of more moderate Republicans winning. Assertions that the government doesn't shut down in mid November. Changing the rules. So no one member can do that too. To do what Matt gates did successfully. I call them the vote. Watching all this unfold on CNN, a lot of the members said that they. Still want it, that rule for whoever became speaker. That rule must still stand. Next. Week, when we talk about Mike Johnson. And I started doing my research. I'll see if he took the same. Deal because. Some of them were like, no, I'm not taking that. But a lot of the members were like, Hey. You want to be speaker? That rule has to be on the. Books. One of the freshmen. Said, I want to see conference rules, change max Miller. Freshmen for Ohio. I want to see the motion to vacate. Go back to a majority of the. Majority at 112. Asked if he could comment or commit to back in the candidate who doesn't connect to change in the powerful rule. Miller said, it's going to be very tough. Another represent from Louisiana told CNN that he wants to discuss the role changes before holding speaker elections, telling reporters on Wednesday. I think before we have a single discussion about the speaker, we got to discuss the function. Of the position. During this call with the business-minded main street caucus on Thursday, Jordan said, also said any changes to the motion to vacate with. Be needed. To be a conference decision. The main street cautious caucus is pushing to make that a mechanism harder to use. On their current rules, which you, part of the agreed to when he was trying to win the job in January. Any one member. I can use it to AUSA speaker. Some our liners are insisting the rules, state, and place. The moderates did weigh their opinion because they're pretty much important to this too. Several Republicans believe that it would be hard for either Kennedy to get the needed votes, which we've seen it. Steve Cleese. I was voted. Behind the doors, the pen out in public. Literally demolished. Particularly in such a short timeframe. The hard liners are skeptical about scalies while some moderates, especially in Biden, one districts are worried about Jordan's. Flame throwing brand of politics. Jordan is one of the, is one of the faces of Biden's impeachment inquiry, which some of the moderates have been openly skeptical about. One moderate Republican said that they are not anxious to support Jordan Jordan's challenges is is that he built. The monster that's part of the problem. One Republican from a swing district, raise concerns about Jordan's opposition and more funding for Ukraine and his vote against stop gap. Funding bill to keep the government open, which means he wanted a shutdown. I'm concerned that his stance on Ukraine, Republicans can't pull the rug out from. Which is defunding itself. Defending itself. From a Russian. Patient. Something that Jordan has said openly and publicly is that he, if he was speaker, he would not. Give his blessing. For Ukraine, like he would essentially pull the funding away. Like whenever the funding. And the Pentagon had what we already agree to. It would run out. He wouldn't be the one that you should look for. To get more funding. Another swing district Republican, however said they're on the fence. They agreed. Squeeze has been very good in the swing district Republicans and has a strong sensitivity for what. Majority makers need politically. But the member also said they want to get. Too. Yes. On Jordan though. They would say he would be a riskier choice. Lawmakers have said that they would actually want to keep the motion to vacate in place so they could have a tool to keep potential speaker Jordan and check, which. I mean. Isn't a bad idea at all. If Jordan what she's not. And I don't think he'll run for speaker again. But if he did. That would actually be a very powerful tool. To keep in place, at least for him, because he's. We already know what side he's on. Like who's really calling the shots. Is he calling the shots or is Trump calling the shots? Right? They go on to save that I may want that. Low threshold on emotional vacated. The speaker doesn't bring good governance. There's also a discussion around some of the swing district Republicans about voting together and making demands as. Mimicking the playbook of the hardliners. Who else? Didn't Parthi. We know that if we stick together and assert our priorities, we're likely to get accommodated. So. Now you're like. Well, where does this go? Let's talk about fundraising. The six people who Alstead Kevin McCarthy. A lot of the other Republicans have said that they would not get fundraising. They wouldn't get help on reelection. And that money would be a huge issue. It apparently it takes out a lot of money to be in Congress. Let's go into it. So during the main street, This meeting on Thursday, Jordan promise that. Promised to protect moderates and bout. Not to put them in tough positions, according to the call. Represent Nick. One of the value New York Republicans spoke up on the call and know that that the freedom caucus tends to listen to Jordan who helped. I found the group. The Toya. Has not endorsed any candidate yet in the private conversation with some New York publicans sources say. During the has empathize that he cares about the issues that matter to them. And he's held in his field. Learning. I feel sorry. His field hearing on crime in New York and also a fierce advocate for border security. Jordan has also pitched his conservative background as an advantage to moderates argument. His ties to the GLP hardliners, and you can the best position to bring the divided conference. Together. And the Lay's election cycle. Scully's who has the advantage of having been in the upper ranks of leadership for years has raised 53 million while Jordan who recently became judiciary chair has raised more than 14 million. And his pitch. Jordan's pitch to members. Sources say, squeeze has R L sorry. Scully's has argued that he has the experience, staff populations, institutional knowledge to govern the GOP conference. And as a former head of the Republican study committee, the largest conservative group in Congress, squeeze could. Have more credibility with. Right. Carthy did it. However, becoming the speaker also needed to address the looming government. Funding deadline in November to avert a shut now. On a stop gap spending bill. Jordan said he would not work with Democrats, but thought. It could do a better job on messaging. McCarthy is a Pullins have cited the California Republican. Resilience on Democrats voted to avoid a shutdown last weekend. It was a reason why for our steam. To win the speakership. They can't and first needs to win a majority of the 221 members of house GOP conference in a secret ballot election. Followed by a majority of the full house, which currently stands at 433 members. With the two vacancies, the winning candidate needs to secure 217 volts. If all are present and voting, meaning Republicans can only afford to lose four votes. Getting the two 17 is a very steep climb. And it us to be. So we still have a government check. Fortunately, you don't have to worry about scalies and you don't have to worry about Jim Jordan becoming speaker. Now we have Mike Johnson who was voted. And. The house. So when I was going to go into Mike Johnson in this episode, our next episode, we'll go into it. I just don't want this episode to be too long. And our final. Little. 10 minute piece. We're going to talk about. Me. Yay. Like because some of you, you don't know who I am. And i want you to know who i am so you know where i stand And what type of content i'll be bringing to you

Microphone (Realtek(R) Audio) & Camo-9: 28:16

Okay. So now here's the fun part where I get to talk about myself. So first off, my name is Stefan. Garrison I live here in this beautiful state of. Florida. And I am a political science major at Arizona state university. I started podcasts and about three years ago with my first podcast called. Building a better community. We did that for about a year, and then we got invited to come on this amazing platform called fireside chat. We changed the name of the podcast to the conversation. And I. I mean, we had some amazing conversations. We had over 22,000 followers. And it was amazing. Some of those episodes, I will be posting here in the last conversation just to give you. Pretty much a taste of what we were doing before. Yes, I am. African-American descent. I have worked in law enforcement as well. So I have. Quite a bit of knowledge to the table when it comes to this. I. Call myself a Jack of all trades or at least that's what I'm trying to be. Right. But when it comes to podcasting, I learn something new every day. Getting those powers for me just doing this. That's all I did, you know, and I tried to improve every single, every single show up. Do. But honestly, With you guys. I just want to be able to give you a different point of view. For you to be able to understand. Who's behind the camera. This is a one person shell. Literally a one person show. So I record, I edit, I publish all by myself. There's no. Fancy team behind me. There's no, I don't send it out and have some amazing publisher do it. All of this is done. And house. I also have a job where I travel. A lot. Every day. I'm traveling somewhere. Which means. I have been buying. Equipment. I've been trying to do everything I can to try. I would have done this episode a lot sooner, but like I said, it's trying to find the right equipment, trying to find the right Knology to bring you the best content. But I possibly can. So you love the show. You're always more welcome to follow us on our social media platforms. You can find us at the last underscore conversation. You can find us that on Tik TOK. As I said, I travel a lot. And I'll be doing more short videos about what's going on in the news. And I'll be posting those on. It's from an Arctic talk as well. So you're more than welcome to always go into the comments and be like, Hey. Nice getting to know you, or maybe you didn't know something about me, whatever the case may be. I. Represent a lot. You know, I have. Doing political science as my major, I've been building up my platform, which is called being human and the being human. Platform honestly means what it means means just treating everyone like a decent human being. We're always persecuting people for color of their skin. Your sexuality. Who they lay with what their religion is, what their political affiliation is or whatever. And. Some of those people in those groups are being persecuted just for doing that. And so with our platform called being human, it means support and all that. It means supporting women, right. I mean supporting small black businesses. It means supporting the boys and girls club, or it means supporting the Trevor project, which helps young LGBTQ. Kids not want to commit suicide. Even suicidal words this month. We talk about that. And we talk about even. We go a little step further and we talk about law enforcement suicide rate, which a lot of people don't know. So we talk about a lot of these issues and that's what being human the platform is about. It's about building that and just treating people. The way that we all want to be treated. We say that and we're like, oh, well, yeah, we want it. But then no one does it. Or only, or only a select few actually do it. And then the rest of the world you look at and you're like, Why, why are you doing this? Why are you doing that? But that's pretty much me in a nutshell. Over the course of our next episode, you'll learn. More little pieces about me. Thank you for joining you for this second episode. As we talked about Kevin Parthi, we talked about Steve. Cooley's the next episode that I air we'll talk about Mike Johnson because there's a lot of stuff about That's currently now put out. That I'm not a huge fan of, plus we have still a looming government shutdown. That's about to happen and less than. 30 days. Actually less than 20 at this point. So we'll find out if we have another government shutdown. That's it. It's a chaos. I can, I can already see itself. Be kind, be safe. He different. Sure everyone, the way that you want to be treated. And I will see you guys or hear you guys, or listen to you guys or some way we'll be in communication. Thank you for coming to the second episode. Even say coming, thank you for listening. So the second episode. The last conversation. Be blessed.

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Thanks for watching!