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Hoyer Discusses New Speaker of the House and House Republicans' Deep Divisions on Bloomberg's Balance of Power

October 25, 2023

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) joined Bloomberg TV to discuss the new Speaker of the House and House Republicans’ deep divisions that left the House paralyzed for the last three weeks. Below is a transcript of his interview and a link to the video: 

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Bloomberg

Click here to watch full interview.

On Democrats Working with Speaker Johnson
“I don't know Mike Johnson very well. He has been elected Speaker. He is relatively new, hasn't been in the Leadership before, so frankly, I don't know the answer to that. But I think his speech today was a speech that talked about working together to reach common ground.

“Yes, we have differences, and I thought that was good. But as I told him, that is easy to say, it's hard to do. And very frankly, his record over his time in the Congress of the United States has been a very hard-edged message that will not create bipartisanship. But we’ll see.

“He said good things, and I hope that he follows through on those. And if he does, as Leader Jeffries indicated, he will get a positive response from Democrats.

“We want to work together. Frankly, we did work together and we saw that we didn't allow America to default on its debts. We made an agreement on what funding levels would be for the coming year, and we did not shut down the government. Now all of those were over 300 votes, on those, and on Ukraine, we had seven votes that had over 300 votes.

“So, we’ve had a bipartisan, constructive coalition working together. And I hope the new Speaker follows that trajectory and doesn't serve simply the hard right on his party, as his record would reflect.

“But I want to give him the benefit of the doubt. I had a conversation with him, it was very brief, but it was very positive. We’ll see.”

On Speaker Johnson’s Experience
“I don't think I Googled him, but my staff gave me a memo, honestly. But the fact of the matter is, yes, he’s new, and I think your point is absolutely correct. He hadn’t made enough enemies, as obviously others had. After all, the Republicans went through their Speaker, their Majority Leader, and their Whip - their three highest officers - and rejected all of them. And that gives you somewhat of a sense of the challenge that he faces on his side of the aisle.

“And it took four different people to win the Speakership. The first one and the second one were hard right, and the third one was more towards the center, and he lasted for four hours before Donald Trump told his followers reject him, and he dropped out. And then we came to Mike Johnson, who, as you point out, no one has a lot of record on him.

“But the record that we do have is he is very conservative, and therefore I think, was obviously from the Republican standpoint, acceptable to the Freedom Caucus. Obviously, they all voted for him. But that gives some pause for concern, because they do not represent the American people and do not represent the overwhelming majority of Americans who want to see the Congress work together.

“So many of their candidates said, ‘I don't want to work with Democrats.’ I hope this new Speaker, Speaker Johnson does want to work with people who will work with him to achieve positive objectives for the American people.”

On a Potential Republican Government Shutdown 
“What you just said, he sent out a letter. He indicated that we would probably have to have, or that he would probably support a continuing resolution to keep the government open. That’s a positive step. Now, whether he can deliver on that, we’ll see.

“Unfortunately, he has voted against most of the C.R.’s that have been on the Floor, Continuing Resolutions, keeping government funded in the past. So it’s not a very hopeful sign that he has voted against those in the past. Hopefully, he will understand shutting down the government is a stupid thing to do.

“We avoided it under Speaker McCarthy, but only with the votes of a majority of Democrats and about 20 less Republicans, but we did avoid it. And hopefully Speaker Johnson will lead us to that same end.”

On Speaker Johnson’s Record
“It's sad. It’s sad that an election denier, it’s sad that Donald Trump, charged with numerous crimes, and now his Chief of Staff apparently saying that they informed him that what he was saying was wrong, and his pursuit of that effort has led a lot of people into legal trouble, including himself.

“The new Speaker was an election denier, as you say, wrote an opinion that Chip Roy, a Member of the Freedom Caucus, former Deputy, or Assistant Attorney General in the state of Texas, said was constitutionally wrong.

“So that is an area of concern. But as I say, he’s new, he hasn't been in leadership. We will have to see what he does. We know what he’s said in the past, we know what he’s done in the past. If he goes down that route, that hard right route, then I think he’s in for a rough time. And we’re not going to get to the bipartisanship that he talked about and that Leader Jeffries talked about.

“So hopefully, he now sees with the responsibility of running the entire House, not just a faction of the House, seeks out to come together and have agreements that can have a positive result on our legislative record, a positive result in helping people and a positive result in keeping the government open and operating.

“I might add, and supporting Ukraine, as well as supporting Israel.”

On Democratic Support for Israel
“Well, let me say, we only had I think 10 votes opposed to the bill, 400+ Members of the House of Representatives voted for that, so the overwhelming number of Democrats and Republicans voted for the resolution. And I was smiling because he says that was going to be the first bill that he would bring to the Floor. Frankly, that bill would have come to the Floor three weeks ago, had it not been for the internal division and divisiveness and dysfunction of the Republican Party who couldn’t select a leader.

“So that it’s ironic that he claims credit for that being the first. Of course, it was the first, because it was so important that we pass it three weeks ago in support of our very strong ally, Israel, who was invaded and carnage was committed in an act of war by Hamas, that is a terrorist organization.

“So yes, he brought it to the Floor, because over 400 Members were for it and had cosponsored it. So I'm glad he brought it to the Floor, it was the right thing to do. As I say, it’s never too late to do the right thing, and he did the right thing. I was just going to add, the overwhelming number of Democrats voted for this piece of legislation.”