House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is in a bind of his own making. Five weeks before Election Day, he’s crisscrossing the country attempting to shore up the dwindling odds that the GOP keeps its House majority. Johnson took a break from that sprint Tuesday morning to chat with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” and share what amounts to a closing message for House Republicans.
Asked just what Americans should expect if they were to vote to keep the GOP (or, as Johnson put it, “the grownups”) in charge, he said, “What we would do in the next two years is exactly what we have been doing already, and that has been putting the conditions in place for a strong America again.”
Johnson filled his nearly 15-minute “Squawk Box” appearance with less than credible assertions, but his vow that House Republicans will keep doing what they’ve been doing was most honest. Two more years of Republicans controlling the House would bring more of the same chaos, and neither the party nor President Donald Trump would be expected to focus on the needs of average Americans. That means Johnson’s answer was the last thing most voters clamoring for change want to hear.
Johnson filled his nearly 15-minute “Squawk Box” appearance with less than credible assertions, but his vow that House Republicans will keep doing what they’ve been doing was most honest.
Johnson spent much of the rest of the interview praising Trump or refusing to confront the difficult position the president’s policies have put the GOP. Johnson insisted that thanks to Trump and the Congress he leads, “all of the economic conditions are in place” for the U.S. economy to “take off.” He showed no understanding of why a recent CNN poll found that 73% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy.
Johnson also refused to connect the dots between that statistic and the war against Iran that Trump launched. Any promising conditions that economists were forecasting at the beginning of the year were upended because of the war, which has caused a renewed spike in inflation alongside rising diesel and gasoline prices. The war was necessary, Johnson said, and called the early stages “an epic success” that need to be concluded. (He also said that Democrats agreed with him behind closed doors on that point, which sounds … questionable.)
“You have to keep the team in charge that is putting the conditions in place for the economy to do better for everybody,” Johnson said, adding that if voters care “about your pocketbook, your family’s stability, the stability of the markets, you have to keep the Republicans in charge.”
Such an argument would be weak even in good times but comes across as particularly weak given the headwinds the GOP is facing. In his defense, though, it’s not like anyone else in the party has come up with anything better to say that would be palatable to Trump. Vice President JD Vance said this month that Americans should “give us another chance” when asked a similar question this month about what the GOP will do.
Likewise, when confronted with evidence countering Trump’s claims that he’s ushered in a new “golden age” in America, Republican National Committee Chair Joe Gruters said that Trump will “get things back on track. We just gotta give him more time.” Gruters told NewsNation last week, “We gotta have Republicans in both the House and the Senate.”
“Is that really the pitch heading into November?” host Blake Burman asked, “Give us more time?”
Gruters responded with more fearmongering about Democrats and communism. Johnson flipped through similar talking points Tuesday, such as leaning into his party’s “common sense versus crazy” argument that doesn’t seem to have done much to win over voters.
As bad as things look for his party, “I’m convinced my team, the Republicans are gonna keep the majority in the House and the Senate,” the speaker said unconvincingly. Polling shows Democrats up double digits in a generic ballot against the GOP. Even less convincing was Johnson saying, “I think we’re gonna grow” that majority.
As bad as things look for his party, ‘I’m convinced my team, the Republicans are gonna keep the majority in the House and the Senate,’ the speaker said unconvincingly.
One could argue that the speaker is required to be bullish about the GOP’s odds to not depress turnout among an already despondent base. Acknowledging any predictions of a major loss, with Democrats winning a more sizable majority than the one he oversees, could help speak it into reality.
What’s mind-boggling, though, is Johnson’s suggestion that the GOP could expand its majority. In part because Trump’s popularity is in free fall, at this point it seems like it would take a political miracle for the GOP to keep its losses minimal and maintain control of all of Congress. The idea of Johnson presiding over a larger majority feels especially unrealistic.
But if Johson is being less than honest when he predicts big wins for his party, his assertion that congressional Republicans will do exactly the same if they do win feels like a breath of fresh air. As ill-advised as it may have been for Johson to say it, he gave voice to a truth that on-the-fence voters need to hear.
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