Features
How It Works
Pricing
Videos
>
Speaker Johnson Joins Squawk Box with Joe Kernen and Becky Quick
Speaker Johnson Joins Squawk Box with Joe Kernen and Becky Quick
Speaker Mike Johnson
13.7K views • 202 likes • 74 comments
3 weeks ago • 15:43 min
Like & Subscribe on YouTube
Transcript
[00:00]
Right. Joining us now, House Speaker
[00:01]
Mike Johnson, Republican from Louisiana.
[00:03]
You're also expected uh to attend this
[00:05]
meeting today. Uh we'll talk about this,
[00:08]
talk about AI. We can revisit what
[00:10]
Senator Warner was talking about. And uh
[00:13]
we got I mean we have an economy, we
[00:15]
have a midterm, we have the war going on
[00:18]
>> today. Today it's AI. Yes.
[00:20]
>> And you more lazy fair. You more with
[00:22]
the president uh on this or or more with
[00:25]
with what is populism on both sides seem
[00:28]
to be anti- AI? I'm for striking the
[00:30]
right balance. I've been urging this
[00:32]
meeting for quite some time. I I think
[00:33]
the leading minds need to get together
[00:35]
at the White House and have this
[00:36]
discussion. President Trump's the only
[00:38]
one with the gravitas to be able to pull
[00:39]
all these people together. Um what's
[00:41]
what's happened over the last many
[00:43]
months is that the the leaders of these
[00:46]
AI platforms come into the speaker's
[00:47]
office to for courtesy visits. Every
[00:49]
time they have a new model or a new
[00:50]
version coming out of their tech, they
[00:52]
come to tell me about it. And they've
[00:53]
all said, you know, there's also some
[00:55]
danger here. Well, each of them have a
[00:57]
different prescription on on what the
[00:58]
safeguards, the guardrails uh so to
[01:01]
speak should be. And uh I have resisted
[01:04]
the siren song to jump in and do these
[01:06]
blanket moratoriums and all of this, you
[01:08]
know, hyper regulation because we cannot
[01:10]
lose our edge to China. So this is about
[01:12]
striking the right balance. I think
[01:13]
we've got to make sure we do this well.
[01:15]
We need to keep America ahead in this,
[01:18]
you know, transformational technology,
[01:20]
but also do it in a safe way. There's
[01:22]
corporate responsibility here. Of
[01:24]
course, uh, these these folks had to
[01:25]
provide safe products, but I think a
[01:27]
little oversight, a little transparency,
[01:29]
a little external auditing of what's
[01:31]
going on would would calm the nerves of
[01:33]
a lot of people. And I think I think we
[01:34]
got to figure out what that exact
[01:36]
balance is. So when you hear Anthropic
[01:40]
or Open AI, they say one thing, then you
[01:42]
hear Jensen Wong at Nvidia, do you just
[01:45]
you just write it off to to talking
[01:48]
their own game, you know, a horse in the
[01:50]
race and and they're they're both saying
[01:52]
what what benefits their own individual
[01:54]
companies or
[01:55]
>> Well, that that's right. And I mean,
[01:56]
they have fiduciary obligations to their
[01:58]
own corporations, of course, but but we
[02:00]
have a broader obligation to the people
[02:02]
and to safety and to ensuring that this
[02:04]
is done right and well. Jensen said it
[02:07]
well, I think a couple days ago. He
[02:08]
said, um, security and innovation are
[02:10]
not mutually exclusive. You can do both.
[02:12]
And when you push innovation, you can
[02:14]
push innovation and and safety and
[02:16]
security as well. And that's what we
[02:17]
want to make sure is happening. There's
[02:18]
there's three tracks, as I understand
[02:20]
it, you know, to summarize this in
[02:21]
layman's terms of the tech. You got
[02:23]
you've got the labs that are pushing the
[02:25]
frontier on this. Then you have sort of
[02:27]
the uh the monitoring of all this, and
[02:29]
then you have the alignment with the
[02:31]
standards that are being put in place.
[02:33]
We have to make sure that all three of
[02:34]
those tracks are being pursued.
[02:35]
simultaneously and that they don't go
[02:37]
too far on the advancement and leave the
[02:39]
safety protocols behind.
[02:40]
>> When they come to you and talk to you
[02:41]
about what they'd like to see, what kind
[02:43]
of sandbox they'd like to play in, do
[02:44]
they also ask you for protection from
[02:47]
liability in current law?
[02:48]
>> You know, it doesn't come up u and there
[02:51]
is a lot of federal law. Of course,
[02:52]
products liability law applies here
[02:54]
directly and we we're going to make sure
[02:55]
that that uh that keeps everybody in
[02:57]
check. But I will say that each of them
[03:00]
have said in their own ways and their
[03:01]
own words that you know they they they
[03:03]
welcome oversight. And I think what's
[03:05]
going to come out of the meeting today I
[03:06]
hope is that we have an agreement of the
[03:08]
mind so to speak around the table.
[03:10]
Congress can't go in and just you know
[03:13]
take a knee-jerk reaction to
[03:14]
overregulate this because the frontier
[03:16]
labs are ahead of where members of
[03:18]
Congress are. I put together a task
[03:20]
force in February of 2024, bipartisan,
[03:22]
an equal number of Republicans and
[03:24]
Democrats to look at this issue and see
[03:26]
what we should do. And the the chair of
[03:29]
that, the leader was Jay Urbani of
[03:31]
California, a Republican. He has a
[03:32]
master's degree in AI.
[03:33]
>> Yes, he does.
[03:33]
>> They came up with a UCLA.
[03:35]
>> That's right. There you go. Um really
[03:37]
smart guy. He gets it. And they came up
[03:39]
with a, you know, 270 page report of of
[03:41]
various things we got to consider. But
[03:43]
finding consensus on that is is a
[03:45]
challenge. And when you get the the
[03:47]
leaders of the tech involved in that
[03:49]
discussion that they willingly come
[03:51]
forward and say yes, we'll agree to some
[03:53]
external audits and some oversight
[03:55]
transparency. I think that is the way to
[03:57]
strike the balance and not put us behind
[03:58]
China.
[03:59]
>> But none of that will be voluntary. It
[04:00]
will be
[04:01]
>> I hope it's voluntary. We we'll find out
[04:03]
what comes out of the meeting today. I
[04:04]
think that that's where they're headed.
[04:05]
I think they see the handwriting on the
[04:07]
wall and I think they want to ensure
[04:09]
investors, you know, consumers, the
[04:11]
American public that they're going to do
[04:13]
this in a very safe way and and that
[04:15]
will I think uh put us in the right
[04:17]
place.
[04:18]
It's funny because we're going to put an
[04:20]
IFB and and they say, "Can is there a
[04:23]
way that you're able to come up with a
[04:25]
really long question for the for the
[04:28]
speaker while we're putting in an I?" I
[04:30]
go, "You're asking me whether I'm able
[04:33]
to have a long
[04:34]
>> filibuster. Just filibuster. I got my
[04:37]
>> Of course. Yeah, I can do that." It's
[04:39]
easy. I'm not sure why. Uh but but we'll
[04:40]
do it anyway. But my question, let's get
[04:42]
off AI uh for a second. Talk about uh
[04:45]
the midterms. We just had Senator uh War
[04:47]
Warner on. He was just outraged that I
[04:50]
pointed out some positive things about
[04:52]
the the current economy and immediately
[04:55]
goes to the war that and and obviously
[04:58]
inflation was lower uh before the war
[05:01]
and and when Biden left office, it was
[05:03]
all the way down to lower than where it
[05:05]
is right now. But for the 4-year period,
[05:07]
it was at 5%. Gas prices were lower when
[05:11]
uh Biden left than they are now. Uh but
[05:13]
for the entire Biden administration,
[05:15]
they were 389. They've averaged 349 and
[05:17]
there's a war. But if you bring up the
[05:19]
war, which what Senator Warner did, you
[05:23]
need to have an argument about whether
[05:25]
that was a a good move. And I don't
[05:26]
think we won't know for I don't know how
[05:28]
long about whether that was going to
[05:31]
bear I mean it could bear immense
[05:34]
um positive things for the entire world
[05:36]
if the Middle East after all this works
[05:39]
its way out. If it's a different place,
[05:40]
I don't know whether we're going to get
[05:41]
there. I don't know how close they were
[05:43]
to a nuclear
[05:44]
>> count the counterfactual what would have
[05:45]
happened
[05:46]
>> the counterfactual but but a lot of the
[05:48]
inflation see this is how well see he
[05:51]
asked me if I could do a long question
[05:52]
the the inflation numbers the the
[05:55]
gasoline prices
[05:56]
>> and the speaker has to go now
[05:57]
>> yeah whatever you got some time but but
[05:59]
whatever you want to point to you you
[06:01]
need to be able to defend the war for
[06:02]
the midterms I think of course look a
[06:04]
lot of things going on here look the big
[06:06]
question is should Iran have a nuclear
[06:08]
weapon I think every American says they
[06:10]
should not that would be a danger to us
[06:11]
and everybody around the world. Every
[06:13]
administration for almost 50 years had
[06:14]
the same objective to ensure that didn't
[06:16]
happen. They got this close. I'm on the
[06:18]
gang of eight. I got the inside highest
[06:19]
level classified briefing. It was a
[06:21]
very, very dangerous and imminent
[06:23]
situation and we had to take care of it.
[06:25]
Operation Epic Fury was an epic success.
[06:27]
Now we got to resolve that. The
[06:28]
president's laser focused on it. You've
[06:30]
heard developments over the last 24 36
[06:32]
hours. I think we're getting very close
[06:34]
to that. I think Iran is running out of
[06:35]
resources to sell. They're down to 15
[06:37]
million barrels of oil to sell to China,
[06:39]
we think. Um and so we're entering a new
[06:42]
phase of this and I think we get it
[06:43]
resolved.
[06:43]
>> They would say the JCPOA or whatever
[06:46]
they would say that that was sufficient
[06:49]
to have stopped Iran from getting
[06:51]
nuclear during the Obama.
[06:53]
>> We can debate and would be open and they
[06:56]
still not have a I mean they're saying
[06:58]
it was a war of choice and that's they
[07:00]
have
[07:01]
>> if if it wasn't a war of choice then
[07:03]
you're take you're pulling the rug out
[07:04]
from under the entire argument. Well,
[07:06]
that's their phrase. That's what they've
[07:08]
come up with. But even the people who
[07:10]
were in the Gang of Eight briefing, the
[07:12]
Democrats understood the necessity of
[07:14]
doing this. Now, there is a political
[07:15]
argument they're making. But let's put
[07:17]
all that debate aside cuz they're never
[07:18]
going to agree with us. They can't at
[07:20]
least publicly. Okay? But here's the
[07:22]
thing. The the economy, all the economic
[07:24]
conditions are in place. As Scott
[07:25]
Bessett said at the end of last year,
[07:27]
2025 is like setting the table. The
[07:28]
feast and the banquetment will be in the
[07:30]
economy in 2026. And just as we
[07:32]
predicted, as we calibrated with the Big
[07:33]
Beautiful Bill in all of our policies,
[07:35]
the biggest tax cut in US history for
[07:37]
working families, uh the the biggest
[07:39]
spending cut in US history, 1.6 trillion
[07:41]
in the Big Beautiful Bill, we have uh
[07:43]
the lowest violent crime rate in 126
[07:45]
years, the biggest decline in
[07:47]
prescription drugs in 60 years. You've
[07:49]
got the most secure border in a half
[07:50]
century, not a single illegal alien
[07:52]
released into the country in 16 straight
[07:54]
months. and and the small business
[07:57]
incentives that we put in, the progrowth
[07:58]
policies you put into all the
[07:59]
legislation, all that was working just
[08:01]
as expected. First quarter, economy
[08:03]
begins to take off. Go roll the tape. We
[08:05]
were all talking about it and then the
[08:06]
Iran conflict uh began. Now, we had to
[08:09]
do it. The the president's convinced of
[08:11]
that. We are. The world is a safer place
[08:12]
because it was done. But let's put that
[08:14]
aside and talk about what's going
[08:16]
forward in this election cycle in 35
[08:18]
days. Do you want to put Democrats back
[08:20]
in charge who gave you $5 gasoline? Who
[08:23]
the Democrats said, Joe Biden himself
[08:25]
and all of them, they want to end fossil
[08:27]
fuels? Is that going to return those
[08:29]
policies? Is that going to bring gas
[08:30]
prices down? Of course not. Um, they
[08:32]
want to reopen the borders. We close the
[08:34]
borders. I mean, this is law and order.
[08:36]
This is common sense versus crazy.
[08:38]
That's what's on the ballot in 35 days.
[08:40]
You have to keep the the team in charge
[08:42]
that is putting the conditions in place
[08:44]
for the economy to do better for
[08:45]
everybody. 3 days cuz we we were trying
[08:48]
to figure is it 35 days?
[08:49]
>> 35 days a day, but who's counting?
[08:51]
>> 35 days, Andrew.
[08:53]
>> Right. U speaker, you know, on this
[08:56]
midterm question and and you alluded to
[08:58]
it already, but I'm curious if in fact
[09:00]
the House were to go blue, but the
[09:03]
Senate doesn't and obviously uh the
[09:06]
president is the president, what do you
[09:08]
think the the genuine ramifications of
[09:11]
that would be? because you really would
[09:13]
still have or not still have but you
[09:15]
would have in this case a genuinely
[09:17]
divided government. So how much u to the
[09:20]
extent that you're worried about uh
[09:22]
Democrats doing some of the things
[09:24]
you're talking about would they
[09:26]
ultimately be able to do beyond holding
[09:28]
hearing after hearing after hearing. I
[09:30]
imagine we would have a lot of that.
[09:32]
>> Well, let me tell you the nightmare
[09:33]
scenario. It's not going to happen
[09:35]
because I'm very bullish on the
[09:36]
midterms. I convince my team, the
[09:38]
Republicans, are going to keep the
[09:39]
majority in the House and the Senate. I
[09:41]
think we're going to grow it. I'm about
[09:43]
to go six straight weeks on the on the
[09:44]
road until that election day. We're
[09:46]
going to go to 40 districts across 22
[09:48]
states. This will come down to the
[09:49]
outcome of about 22 districts uh around
[09:52]
the country. And I believe we can win
[09:53]
those. But let's play it out. The
[09:55]
nightmare scenario, heaven forbid the
[09:57]
Democrats uh take control of the House.
[10:00]
They will turn every committee of
[10:01]
Congress into an investigative body.
[10:03]
They will do nothing all day, every day,
[10:05]
every hour of the day, but go after the
[10:06]
president, his family, his cabinet, you
[10:09]
know, donors in the party, the big
[10:10]
figures in in business and industry. If
[10:13]
you're carrying about your pocketbook,
[10:14]
your family stability, um, you know, the
[10:17]
the stability of the markets, you have
[10:18]
to keep Republicans in charge because if
[10:20]
the Democrats do that, they go to
[10:21]
lawfare on steroids. It will royal the
[10:24]
markets. It will empower our enemies
[10:26]
around the world at the worst possible
[10:27]
time. They will be playing dangerous
[10:29]
political games for their own benefit at
[10:31]
the expense of the American people. This
[10:33]
is common sense versus crazy. The DSA
[10:35]
has told us what they're all about. By
[10:36]
the way, the insurgent left is consuming
[10:38]
the Democrat party that there will be no
[10:41]
blue dog Democrats, no free market
[10:42]
Democrats left after this cycle. We will
[10:45]
not be having arguments and debates
[10:46]
about traditional issues, you know,
[10:48]
marginal tax rates and and inflation and
[10:50]
foreign policy. This will be a a battle
[10:52]
between whether or not we're going to
[10:53]
keep the republic or we're going to
[10:55]
break this thing down and go down this
[10:56]
dark dangerous road to Marxism. That is
[10:58]
the energy, the excitement, the
[11:00]
grassroots and the left is taking over
[11:02]
the party. So that's what's at stake.
[11:04]
Common sense versus crazy. The Democrat
[11:05]
socialist of America would drop.
[11:07]
>> But there's an interesting political
[11:08]
calculus. There's an interesting
[11:09]
political calculus I'm sure you've
[11:11]
you've spent some time thinking about
[11:12]
which is in fact and I know you don't
[11:14]
want to contemplate it but if in fact
[11:15]
the House uh were to go blue and uh
[11:18]
things were to play out the way you just
[11:20]
described that that might actually help
[11:22]
the Republicans in 2028.
[11:26]
>> I we care about the interest of the
[11:27]
American people. We're not looking at
[11:29]
2028. I'm looking for the next two years
[11:31]
to make sure we keep on pace to grow the
[11:34]
economy to provide more jobs. We had a
[11:36]
million private sector jobs created in
[11:38]
the economy. We passed landmark
[11:40]
legislation in this house against the
[11:42]
odds. Remember the the obstructionist
[11:44]
Democrats shut down the government, this
[11:46]
Congress, for 120 days, a record long,
[11:48]
the two longest shutdowns in US history.
[11:51]
They have no objective and no intention
[11:53]
of working for common sense bipartisan
[11:56]
solutions for the American people. They
[11:58]
just hate Donald Trump and they will
[11:59]
turn the entire mechanism of the
[12:01]
legislative branch of government into an
[12:03]
attack mode to go after him. It will not
[12:05]
benefit the economy, the American
[12:07]
people, business owners, job creators,
[12:09]
entrepreneurs, risktakers. You have to
[12:11]
keep the grown-ups in charge. You have
[12:12]
to keep common sense, steady hands at
[12:14]
the wheel in the House and Senate. And
[12:16]
that is what we are offering the
[12:17]
American people. So, I think if they
[12:18]
look at this objectively, it's an easy
[12:20]
contest for us. We're running against
[12:22]
people who have said in put in writing
[12:24]
as their platform, they want to abolish
[12:25]
uh the border. They want to abolish
[12:27]
prisons, defund the police, defund the
[12:28]
department of war, uh expand the Supreme
[12:31]
Court, abolish the US Senate, and remove
[12:34]
the president. They want one unicameal
[12:36]
body, the House to run everything. Why?
[12:37]
Because they've evaluated over two or
[12:38]
three cycles they elect enough Marxists
[12:40]
to be able to take over the means of
[12:42]
production. That's what Marxism leads
[12:44]
to. Human suffering, misery, famine, and
[12:46]
death. Communism has been the the reason
[12:48]
that tens of millions of innocent people
[12:49]
were killed in the 20. I'm not going to
[12:51]
defend I'm not going to defend some of
[12:53]
the people on on the far on on the far
[12:55]
left who have made some of those
[12:56]
comments. But
[12:59]
>> well, but but but to suggest that the
[13:00]
entire party uh wants that may may be
[13:03]
too much. You you agree with that? You
[13:05]
you have friends that are Democrats?
[13:06]
>> Yeah, I've had friends who are Democrats
[13:08]
and they're being run out of the party
[13:10]
because it's being taken over. Look, I'm
[13:12]
telling you, the most dangerous
[13:13]
candidate for Congress in the country
[13:15]
right now is not the one raving waving
[13:17]
the communist flag. Who the openly
[13:18]
avowed Marxists, the Alieds, and the,
[13:20]
you know, AOC's and the radical, they
[13:22]
got they got people who are terrorist
[13:23]
sympathizers who've won Democrat
[13:24]
primaries around the country. The most
[13:26]
dangerous candidate in America is the
[13:28]
Democrat running as a moderate. Okay?
[13:31]
They won't be able to do that. They will
[13:32]
have to get in line. They will have to
[13:34]
kiss the ring of the socialist, the
[13:36]
Marxist, because that's where the
[13:37]
energy, the excitement, the grassroots
[13:39]
of the party is headed. I'm telling you,
[13:41]
this is not a midterm like we've ever
[13:43]
faced before.
[13:44]
>> What if what if you keep the house and
[13:46]
and I don't know what the chances are.
[13:48]
What What would you do for for the final
[13:50]
two years of uh the we we had uh former
[13:53]
Treasury Secretary Minutuchin on said
[13:54]
that you know Trump did immigration,
[13:57]
he's done um you know trying with with
[13:59]
drug price. He's done he's done some
[14:01]
things, but if he could fix social
[14:02]
security and he's a fixer, you know,
[14:04]
with in in the private sector as well.
[14:06]
If he could do that, that would be a a
[14:09]
lasting legacy.
[14:10]
>> That would be a big legacy. I mean,
[14:12]
we're going to have to shore up the
[14:14]
programs and make sure that they're
[14:16]
sustainable because Medicaid, too. I
[14:18]
mean, this is why we're at 40 trillion.
[14:20]
Right.
[14:21]
>> Right. We've done program integrity work
[14:23]
already and the big beautiful bill. We
[14:24]
looked at Medicaid uh fraud, waste, and
[14:26]
abuse in in particular. You had young
[14:28]
able-bodied men on Medicaid. They were
[14:31]
not intended to be there. We had illegal
[14:33]
aliens, millions of illegal aliens
[14:35]
taking taxpayer funds. they were not
[14:36]
eligible to have them. So we did program
[14:38]
integrity measures, took those people
[14:40]
off the system, and you know what it
[14:41]
did? It strengthened Medicaid. It it
[14:43]
provided it for the people that
[14:45]
>> we we have to do more of that work
[14:46]
across the across the the labyrinth of
[14:48]
the federal government, but what we
[14:50]
would do in the next two years is
[14:51]
exactly what we have been doing already,
[14:53]
and that is putting the conditions in
[14:55]
place for a strong America. Again, we
[14:57]
restored not just American energy
[14:58]
dominance and peace through strength,
[15:00]
but a vibrant economy. the conditions
[15:02]
are there for this to take off. And
[15:04]
that's why the stock market indexes are
[15:05]
high. That's why job numbers exceed
[15:07]
expectations. The Atlantic uh Atlanta
[15:09]
Atlanta Fed says 5.1% economic growth
[15:12]
expected in the third quarter. That
[15:14]
doesn't happen by happen stance. It's
[15:16]
because we did what we said we're going
[15:18]
to do and put in progrowth free market
[15:20]
principles in legislation and in federal
[15:23]
policy. We have to continue that. We got
[15:24]
so much more to do and we can make
[15:26]
things so much better. We just got to
[15:27]
keep going.
[15:28]
>> Mr. Speaker, thanks. And we have after
[15:30]
all that and people at home are
[15:32]
listening to to speakers. Now we're
[15:33]
going to have Senator Elizabeth Warren
[15:35]
on. So that's
[15:36]
>> Oh, this will be fun.
[15:37]
>> Talk about a contract.
[15:38]
>> That that's what we do. Um anyway, good
[15:40]
to have you on.
[15:41]
>> Thanks a lot. Thanks for stopping by.
Show more
