To many, Rep. Mike Johnson came out of nowhere to become House Speaker. But back in 2018, the Daily Beast published an article titled "Meet the Double Agent Who Now Controls House Conservatives," which alleges that Johnson was a "mole" for the House Freedom Caucus to infiltrate the larger Republican congressional groups. Well, things look a little different now that Johnson is in power — he has seemingly abandoned his more conservative leanings to toe the line of the Republican leadership on things like the budget and Ukraine aid. So, is there any truth to the rumors that Johnson is a master of infiltration? Why has he seemed to cave under pressure? Blaze Media Senior Politics Editor Christopher Bedford joins Glenn to weigh in.
TranscriptBelow is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: So two years ago, I had this guy on. Christopher Bedford. And he was -- he was writing for the Federalist at the time.
And he said he had written a piece, I think it was two years after the lockdowns. The West troubles aren't ending. They're just beginning.
And I thought, he had some real foresight. And, boy, was he right about that. Christopher Bedford now is a senior editor for politics. Washington correspondent for the Blaze media. He has written for the American mind, the Washington Examiner, National Review. The New York Post.
He was the editor-of-chief for the Daily Caller News Foundation. And we're thrilled to have him at TheBlaze.com.
So -- so help me out on this, Chris.
Because I -- for the life of me, I cannot get my head around speaker Johnson being a secret spy. Do you buy this?
CHRISTOPHER: Not completely. No. First of all, it's great to be on the pirate ship, especially stormy waters. I think it's a great crew to be sailing with.
GLENN: Thank you.
CHRISTOPHER: Here in DC. An article that caught my eye was the 2018 Daily Beast piece, after -- after Johnson became the head of the Republican study committee. Which was founded as a conservative committee that was taken over by Republican leadership under Boehner, and kind of became a hangout spot for Republicans. That's what kind of started the Freedom Caucus.
Now, you saw Johnson had been hanging out with the Freedom Caucus. He's been going to their meetings. He's not been paying dues, which is a big faux pas. It's hard to collect those dues. But they go to pay the few shared staff that the Freedom Caucus has. He's not been -- he's been going to those meetings. So when he became the new chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a lot of his colleagues, Republican, more liberal colleagues said, well, this guy is a double agent. He just sneaked on here. He's pretending not to be part of the Freedom Caucus, the conservative group. But really it's a conservative takeover. And I look at that, and I looked at how since he's become speaker. Someone I had a lot of hope for.
You had a lot of hope for.
I was excited. Wow, this is the first social conservative and Republican leadership in decades. Right?
That cares about this stuff. We might have a fighting chance here, and it's been very disappointing.
GLENN: That might be an understatement.
CHRISTOPHER: You know, the way he seems to negotiate. Whether it's government funding, impeachment, FISA, now Ukraine. Step one is a major decision comes along his way, and he goes back and forth. Step two, he's not sure what to do. He delays it as long as he possibly can. Then he kind of -- tweaks what was originally offered. He pretends it was a win. And he asks Democrats to bail him out.
That seems to be what's going on here. So when you look back at this Daily Beast piece.
When you look at the people who have known him, have known him to be a good man. Which, by all accounts, he is. In his personal life.
You have to what -- what could be driving him?
And it seems to be a classic case of Washington, DC. Extreme ambition.
And an ability to deceive himself, which is not too uncommon. You think a lot of the folks here in Washington are real hypocrites.
Or real bad men. Who claim to be the Lord's work. When, in fact, they're doing their own.
But a surprising amount of them have really convinced themselves, that they are on the good side.
They are on the really creepy quote, the right side of history.
That they are -- they are the good guys, who will come and save the day. And this is why the Lord put them there.
And it really feeds into an incredible ego. An incredible amount of ambition.
And also, just the sad reality. That a lot of these folks are pretty weak. As leaders and people. They are capable, like many of us are, of standing at the back of the crowd. And saying, I agree. This is bad.
Or being a backbencher who said, I am not sending any more money to that bloodbath. I'm going to -- I don't care what the defense industry puts on me.
But I will not let women be drafted. It's easy to say that, when you're not the leader.
But when you're in the center and you take all those arrows and all those meetings from the Intel community, and it's all on you. You have to answer to that.
Well, that's when you find out, who is really a leader, and who is just ambitious.
GLENN: You know, there is -- in your article for Blaze, you've talked to a lot of his colleagues.
And one of his senior staffers that worked with him in 2018 said, the speaker is someone who can forgive himself for lying, because he thinks it's for a higher purpose.
He has an exceptional capacity for self-justification.
That's not good.
CHRISTOPHER: No, it's not good. And it's something I found repeated over and over again, about Johnson. You know, when he ran for Speaker, it's kind of a dark horse, surprise candidate. A lot of his colleagues, Republican colleagues, and even ones who were more conservative were willing to say, you know, I know him personally. He's a man of God.
And, therefore, I trust him. But they didn't want to look at the records.
They didn't want to look at, well, what happens, if leadership puts a little bit of pressure on him. How does his vote change?
Will he actually -- his personal or religious beliefs. His commitments. How do those actually shine, as a statesman. Someone willing to take the arrows. And they don't. The votes don't back him up.
He looked at this, as what I've been told by his colleagues. He's been put in this position.
He's been chosen for this.
And if he needs to lie. If he needs to deceive. And he needs to twist arms to further it.
Then he's on the right side.
Again, I've heard him saying, since the right side of history. The other people are on the wrong side of history.
Ask that his actions can therefore be justified.
We see this all the time.
You see it in levels like this. With politics.
You see it, of course, a lot in 2016.
With a lot of the left saying, people support Donald Trump, are basically the Nazis.
Well, once you say that, you're on the side of God. And they're on the side of Hitler.
Then you can justify a lot of actions, that I think a moral person cannot otherwise justify.
GLENN: So what do you think is coming for him?
For the rest of us?
Are we just -- are we just stuck with a guy who is pathetic and weak now?
Because the Democrats would absolutely vote to keep him in.
CHRISTOPHER: You know, I'm curious about that. Everyone is on recess right now, and things have quieted down. But the question is: With everything that is coming down next, how will he be able to continue to govern here? Right now, he's essentially, even though he's a Speaker of the House, and supposedly the head of the Republican coalition, he's really governing, as a kind of Prime Minister. A center of left coalition. The union party. Which has already kind of governed DC. Now it's really being open about it.
Where he has half of Republicans on his side. And about two-thirds of Democrats on his side.
So how is he actually going to be able to pass anything with that coalition?
The Democrats will protect him. The Republicans, a lot of them will never come back to him. What's he actually going to be able to do in the next couple of weeks?
I kind of wonder if he's a lame duck speaker. Because he has these folks. But they accomplished their 95 billion. Then, again, there's also already -- there's already leaked rumors, that they're planning the next big handout to the Ukraine War.
That they're planning to come in September. And I suspect, that he'll still be Speaker through September.
But what will happen in November, is either Republicans will lose their slim majority, in which case he won't be Speaker, or they'll win it.
And then he will have to look around. And find out, amongst those liberal Republicans, who are his allies? Who is actually going to put him up for speaker?
And what are the alternatives?
Right now, he's kind of running against Noah.
He could be saying that, but it will be difficult.
GLENN: You being in Washington. Hanging out or around these people all the time. Watching them. Listening to them.
What do you think they think is coming, in November?
CHRISTOPHER: I think people are -- Republicans are cautiously optimistic, for a Donald Trump victory.
But, of course, there are huge amounts of shenanigans, that are already unfolding. There's worries about what will be the new COVID. What will be the new moral panic, that causes the voting can't be done squarely.
And in full view of the public. The Republican national committee, has been trying to mix up its plan for how to -- whether it will be early voting. Or where its lawyers are going to be.
We know it's going to be, I think chaos. Either Donald Trump actually wins and left-wing takes to the streets, like they did in 2016.
Burning cars. Or attacking people. Or Donald Trump loses. And either way, large parts of this country will not be satisfied with the election results. The attention that has existed in 2016 has not gotten any less.
GLENN: How do the Democrats feel? Confident? Worried?
CHRISTOPHER: No. No.
They were significantly more worried before Joe Biden's State of the Union. You saw that in the New York Times, Washington Post, MSNBC, people openly wishing that they had a different candidate. Just like you saw in 2020, people wishing it was Cuomo instead of Joe Biden. And we'll see a lot actually this weekend with the White House Correspondents' Dinner, where everyone will be paying attention to Joe Biden's remarks. Are they clear? Are they concise? Is he funny, like he can be, when he's on? Like he was at some points in the State of the Union? But there is a real fear amongst Democrats, that Donald Trump is coming back. That the constant cycle of drama that they surrounded his entire four years with, hasn't stuck with the American people because so much of it was fake.
So much of it was impossible to remember, because they were fake scandals. Democrats in town are not confident, that they will get the White House. But they are feeling fairly confident about Congress.
GLENN: We're talking to Christopher Bedford. He's TheBlaze senior media political editor. And the Blaze media Washington correspondent.
When do they come back into session?
CHRISTOPHER: This week. Short vacation. And the Senate was even cut down a little shorter.
Because they had to stick around for the American people. Being sarcastic on that.
(laughter)
GLENN: Real quick. Any just on the Trump trial this week.
Biden said -- DOJ said actually, that Trump is the first president to face criminal prosecution, because predecessors, other presidents just didn't commit any crimes.
CHRISTOPHER: Yeah. I remember when Barack Obama left office. Washington Post said, it was a scandal-free administration. So I think there were some voter agents who could disagree with that. The Trump trial is going to be interesting.
It's New York. It's tough. The judge is obviously against them.
But the prosecution has embarrassed themselves so far. The case is so weak. And you kind of forget that, in the hubbub of the news.
That it's reliant on a bunch of liars. The term of misdemeanor, that is outside the statute of limitations, into a felony. Because of another misdemeanor, that can barely be cited. And it took the prosecution two days to come up with that argument.
And at the same time, the Supreme Court seemed like it's going to crack down. And at least limit, what the president is able to do, with his authority.
Because that will help push some of the other trials back, until after the election if that happens.
But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter because he's not out campaigning. He is not able to leave New York. He's kind of stuck. He wasn't able to weigh in the last of the hill fights. They haven't put him in a prison cell. They have somewhat put him in a room. That's something you will see. And you will probably see some jokes about it. That this big fancy dinner they're having this weekend. They will be laughing at us, about how they still managed to stop, probably the greatest campaigner in modern history, from being able to campaign.
GLENN: So do you think that hurts him? Because the people who will vote for him, will vote for him, anyway.
And the ones who are -- the ones who really, they vote for him. But they really don't like his tweets. And his personality, and everything else.
By keeping him off the road. And yet, still, in the public eye, you keep the folks on Joe Biden. And is there any case to be made, that's good? For Donald Trump.
CHRISTOPHER: So far, it actually hasn't hurt him. To your point. And the folks in the suburbs, who maybe voted for Trump in 2016, and voted for Biden in 2020. To your point, they will not be swayed by a rally. They will not be swayed by the kind of puff corn and rah-rah that goes on at those fun events. And -- but they are being swayed a little bit by the incredible unfairness.
The question is whether or not they will actually be able to get felony charges on him. Because that's the kind of thing that does spook those easily frightened voters.
GLENN: Yeah. All right. Thank you so much. Really, really appreciate it, Chris. Thank you.
CHRISTOPHER: It's great to be back.
GLENN: You bet.