I Am Not Voting for Mike Johnson. You Can Take That to the Bank.
Massie explains exactly why he will not vote for Mike Johnson for Speaker — the spending fights, the deal-cutting, and what he plans to do instead.
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- [Music] welcome back opposition to the Mike Johnson speakership continues to persist as some reports indicate now that there are up to five no votes on Mike
- Johnson's election as house Speaker tomorrow a lot of the resistance arises from concerns over Congressional spending particularly as we see billions
- of us tax dollars being sent to Ukraine to protect their borders as our own border continues to leak like a Civ former Speaker of the House n gingr
- states that those against Johnson's speakership are contrarian accusing the opposition of throwing temper tantrums and being unprepared for the hard work of governing and forcing
- change speaker Gingrich seems to think that forcing a change in spending patterns is like rocket science so I thought it would be appropriate to bring
- an MIT level scientist on the program one of the key no votes against Mike Johnson's battle for the gavl please welcome to the show my good friend a
- great conservative Thomas Massie of Kentucky Thomas thanks for coming on tell us what's going on in the speak race as uh as as you join me
- now well first of all I take that term contrarian as a term of endearment here in the swamp who wants to be going along with what's going along here um Matt I
- don't know I don't know if Mike Johnson makes it tomorrow I am the one hell no you know they say there's up to five or six who may be voting no you can count
- on me to be a no and that I feel very justified in this Mike Johnson sold us out over the last year you know you
- served with him like I did on the Judiciary Committee where he was once for stopping the unconstitutional spying on Americans by the FBI and other
- agencies but when he became speaker he decided to be the deciding vote to reauthorize that spy program without requiring a warrant he architected the
- spending bill so that there was basically no way to pass a spending bill without sending at least $60 billion to Ukraine and then he stopped work on the
- individual bills and did a giant Omnibus when margorie and I called the question on him he worked with Democrats to remain speaker and so um that and
- finally let's add the debacle that happened here right before Christmas where Mike went off and and wrote a 1500 page bill with the Democrats I don't
- even know if he consulted Donald Trump on this because all of us were surprised even the leadership here was surprised when Mike rolled that stinker out he
- lacks the situational awareness to know what can pass in the house and what can't and he promised us we wouldn't get a Christmas Omnibus Bill but there he
- wrote one and thought we would just you know eat it up when he put it there on the platter for us at Christmas of course it failed miserably and then Trump wanted a debt limit increase but
- Mike instead of telling Trump listen I don't think I can get that done he put that stinker on the floor without doing the hard work of saying here's what
- we're going to do to cut spinning if in exchange for that debt limit increase um he didn't do that but but that's because he couldn't tell Trump listen I can't
- get this done so even if Mike Johnson's goal is to carry all the water for Donald Trump his bucket leaks and he's going to trip and spill it Thomas uh
- that is a lot of the bad we see in Congress Let's test our own situational awareness here with the majorities we have in the House and Senate what do you
- think is possible what is the important work would like to see Congress do during this two-year term given the giv
- that we all face yeah well I mean I'd like to see the Mandate that Trump you know won in this election pass his agenda let's
- secure the Border let's end the endless Wars by the way that was on his list the first time but we had Paul Ryan who wouldn't help him with those things um
- you and I had a bill here in the house and I'm going to reintroduce it Trump is in favor of it let's end the department of education we don't need a national
- school board we've got 50 school boards in 50 states and then we you know and every county has one so get rid of the Department of Education that's something
- that Jimmy Carter created not his best Legacy frankly um that could go on you served with me on Judiciary and also on
- the weaponization committee look we uncovered so many things and guess what we're still funding them of course the FBI and those guys are going to do this
- we're sending grants out to universities and NOS so that they can Perfect The Art of spying on Americans we're we funded all that in a CR just recently but
- Thomas th hold on let's be honest with the viewers here because we funded those things because there are Republican champions for those programs like Dave Joyce is your Republican lead writing
- the homeland security budget and he is in favor of sisa which Advanced a lot of the censorship so you know in a world where if you lose one or two or three
- Republicans passing a bills in jeopardy how do you get backbone regardless of who the speaker is for the Republican conference to go down this very wise
- path you've laid out well when it comes to funding I think a lot of this stuff is going to be in one bill called reconciliation and um I I just don't
- think those people are going to get in front of that train maybe they will maybe they won't let me throw this out there too let's get rid of the time change twice a year I think president
- Trump's been out for that that costs nothing right um I don't know there's probably some Rhino here in Congress is is taking money from the time change Lobby I don't know if it's Seiko or timx
- or who that funds that yeah big clock is very difficult to beat if you go up against that uh we just had Lauren bobbert on the program she made some
- news and said that she believed making chip Roy of Texas a fellow fiscal Hawk a fellow border Hawk the chairman of the rules committee that that would seal the
- deal that's the one big ask for a lot of these house conservatives to vote for Mike Johnson you serve on the rules committee you have with chip Roy would he make a good chairman of the rules
- committee yeah he'd be a great chairman but here's the problem I'm afraid Mike Johnson is going to do what he loved to do for the last year and that is suspend
- the rules bypass the rules committee and pass bills with Democrats on the floor with a majority of Democrats we saw him do that time and time again so I would
- like to see some assurance that the rules that we make in the rules committee are actually going to be followed and if chips on that you know chairman of that committee that would be
- great I've served on there with him and Ralph Norman you know those are part of the concessions that you got um when Kevin McCarthy came became speaker is we
- got three people on the rules committee and an ability to sort of get amendments in there Force votes that people didn't want to have to vote on CH would be
- great I think that's what really confuses a lot of Americans about the machinations of Congress they assume that ideas are presented and then voted on but there is this super powerful
- policy committee that gets to vet what is even put up for a vote or considered and you're right under Kevin McCarthy's time as Speaker we fought hard to get
- you and Chip Roy Ralph Norman good conservatives there but we were often disappointed that those rules we fought for were waved whenever people wanted to
- partner up with Democrats is there any back stop so that you don't have Democrats running the House of Representatives elected where where
- Republicans were elected to run the place I'm worried Mike Johnson is going to follow the beaten path that he has
- over there to hem Jeff Hakeem bailed him out right before Christmas every Democrat voted for that deal that that Johnson put on the floor I'm afraid
- that's going to be hard to stop and that is why I'm not for Mike Johnson here's here's something I've heard too Matt people have said oh just elect him now
- and and let's certify the election let's do the inauguration and then you can just Chuck him overboard my concern is at that point he goes to Hakeem Jeff or
- just a few Democrats and says hey I need your help and he survives that and then we're stuck with him forever this was yeah this was an argument made to me and
- so I'll I'll make it to you in arguendo as they say but are you worried about the converse happening if you got a small group of Republicans to stand against Johnson are you worried that
- maybe the pro-impeachment Republicans like Brian Fitzpatrick and David valade might join with Democrats to elect a Democrat
- speaker that's I mean there's always a risk at that but at that point they might as well become Democrats if they're going to do something like that you know there are a few of our
- colleagues that probably should do that uh we don't want to do that now we got a slim majority Thomas we we got to keep them we got to keep them in the boat if
- Chip Roy were asked to serve as chairman of the rules committee would that be enough to get your vote for Mike Johnson oh no you can pull all my
- fingernails out you can shove bamboo up in them you can start cutting off my fingers I am not voting for Mike Johnson tomorrow and you can take that to the
- bank you know who are you voting for Thomas who are you voting for I will vote for a member an a sitting member of Congress who could do
- the job and that's all I'm going to say do you have that person in your mind already I do H well folks will have to
- wait for tomorrow to see the moves of the great Thomas Massie Thomas how ever it goes tomorrow I appreciate that you actually keep the focus on the Constitution and on the risks to this
- country that could bring her down and that indeed is the way we spend money I hope you're able to get uh get them in a better posture thanks so much for being on the
- program thanks Matt