On Friday’s Mark Levin Show, the battle for Speaker of the House was not a tidy fight over conservatism, but the chaos is soon ending well thanks to a few individuals like Rep Chip Roy for their role in negotiations. Sometimes battles are not as simple as good vs. evil, and we must be careful about who pretends to be a conservative. If certain members of the 20 holdouts won the day, this would have dragged on for months, and the conservative agenda would be left behind so they could settle political scores. Congressman Chip Roy talks with Mark about the deals being negotiated to resolve the fight for the Speaker of the House. Also, President Biden and the media have done everything they can to exploit January 6th and are aided by the FBI to push their fake narrative. It’s sick exploitation to make us believe that this is the greatest threat on our country since the Civil War – not Pearl Harbor or 9/11. Democrats have allowed violence and bombings of the Capitol for decades under three prior presidents, but now they want to throw the book at people who did absolutely nothing but attend a rally. Later, Kayleigh McEnany talks to Mark about the social security breach from the January 6th committee releasing documents from the investigation.
Fox News
Jan. 6 committee releases Social Security numbers of Trump officials and allies: report
American Spectator
Don’t Pardon Violent Capitol Attackers as Democrat Presidents Did
The Hill
Ashli Babbitt’s mother arrested outside Capitol on second anniversary of Jan. 6 riot
Photo by Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call
The podcast for this show can be streamed or downloaded from the Audio Rewind page.
Rough transcript of Hour 1
Hour 1 Segment 1
He waited all day to post something on my social sites and I want to relay it to those of you who don’t necessarily go on the Internet and therefore have a very healthy mind. Those of you who’ve listened carefully to my show the last several days. Loyal listeners. You’ve heard me. You’ve heard me say the speaker contest will soon be over. You’ve heard me say that some of those among the 22 have been principled in their positions. Some have been self-serving. Some have simply wanted to scuttle McCarthy and through attrition, find another candidate that they never had. Now, how do you think I knew all this? I made it up. I also said I was in contact with several of the individuals among the 20. Several of them are my close friends and we’ve endorsed several of them on this program as well as others, and that there were also outside individuals and groups inside the Beltway claiming to represent you, and they don’t represent you trying to exert influence on the selection process. One of the names I mentioned was Mark Meadows and CPI. But that’s a footnote really irrelevant to me. Now, some of these people contacted me. Some of these people asked for my help. Including people in the negotiations. This was not a tidy fight over philosophy. With conservatives versus establishment, even though there certainly was some of that. Even though there certainly was some of that. But it appears to be ending well. But that was not a given either. It took a few and I mean a few good individuals to bring some focus to what was chaos. I’ve also read on my Twitter site where I said, Chip Roy deserves a great deal of credit. For his outstanding leadership the last 36 to 48 hours in the negotiations, and he’ll be on this program in 20 minutes. Chip and I go back a ways. But there were still holdouts and there are still holdouts, although I don’t believe that will last very long. For reasons few have understood to this point. Because there’s no reason to be a hold out at this point. 15 of the 21. Are pleased with what’s taken place now. The majority of the Freedom Caucus had already opposed what’s taking place. So what’s left? But I want to surmise again. Actually more than surmise. But I’ll say surmise this will soon be over with McCarthy as speaker and a solid rules package. Three days ago, none of that was certain either the rules package or McCarthy. Now. After all these years, all these battles we’ve been in together. I want to thank those of you who. To understand who I am, what I stand for. And that unlike others in this business. I’m a long time activist. I am mission oriented for constitutional Republicanism. That’s my goal. That’s what I do. So I stopped reading comments on the Internet because a lot of these people are leftists or Democrats or just plain morons and aholes. Marks a sellout, marks a rhino. Mark will never sell you out. And he’ll never be a rhino. This was very messy. It wasn’t. Oh, there’s two groups. Group B, the Conservatives. Group B, the Liberals and the establishment. How is that even possible with Jim Jordan on the other side with a majority of the Freedom Caucus? On the other side, I go on and on because it never was. And some of the good works of those among the 20 was being undermined by some other motives and attitudes among some of the 20. I know that, as a matter of fact. And I know, as a matter of fact, that some of these groups that put out this letter did not have your best interests in mind. And they would be perfectly happy just to burn things down. That’s not who I am. That’s not what I do. I believe, Kevin McCarthy. In this next round of voting. We’ll get his number. And we will monitor that. That is we will monitor him as speaker. We will monitor all the members of the House of Representatives. We will monitor the Republican majority. We will make demands of our own outside the Beltway, outside the system. That’s what I do. That’s what we do. That’s why we’re living nights. That’s why we have live in surges. And none of that changes. But I must tell you, it’s thanks to you that I’m in this position. And in many respects, it’s thanks to you that this got done. Words about the ghetto. There are blowhards. I have one right here. I’m not going to lift this person up. He’s kind of a young punk. Writing another column that Mark Levin needs to look in the mirror. Look in the mirror of what? Because he backed the establishment. No, I didn’t. This guy has no idea what I was doing. If he listened carefully to this program, I was putting out little hints. Ladies and gentlemen, I have confidence as even to this moment, which I cannot I can’t bear. I’m telling you more than I probably should right now. But. I just want to thank those of you. Who are loyal, smart. Constitutional conservatives. And have faith. We have faith in each other. And God Almighty. It is unfortunate. That’s some of the voices out there, including young voices who want to be noticed, who want people to read what they write or hear, what they say, who want to draw attention to themselves. It’s very unfortunate that they don’t learn. From those of us who’ve been through nearly half a century of these battles. Half a century. Of these battles. So think about it now. Maybe just listen carefully. Have a little bit of faith and trust in somebody you’ve listened to all these years. I’ll never steer you wrong. Certainly not intentionally. I’ve said it so many times, Mr. Producer says, Why do I keep saying it? Because apparently I’m not being clear. I’m not a special pleader for Kevin McCarthy. I’m not a special pleader for Matt Gaetz either. I’m not a special pleader, period. They never had an alternative. They never were going to have an agenda. They couldn’t agree on an alternative. They couldn’t entice somebody to be an alternative. But they were following a plan that was given to them by an individual outside the House of Representatives in the Republican Party. But the plan didn’t work. The plan couldn’t work. Did you know that? Well, now you do. And when you hear some hosts. On radio and on TV, but especially radio. From what I understand, telling you, this battle was worth the fight. Ask yourself this. What exactly are they talking about? Which battle? If certain members of that 20 had won the day. This would be going on for months. And the conservative agenda would not have been advanced. This would have been going on for months and the conservative agenda wasn’t even their priority. They were trying to settle scores. Some still are. That’s their thing. That’s not my thing. And that’s not your thing. The enemy’s running away with the country. Right now. Every day they’re running away with the country. I’m not going to spend all day on this because I want to talk about January 6th. In which Joe Biden does everything he can. As a lowlife street hack politician to exploit everything that goes on in this country to his benefit. And he lies through his teeth. Lies through his teeth. I’ll be right back.
Hour 1 Segment 2
We have used this platform to endorse a number of candidates because we want to take on the establishment and change what’s taking place in Washington. We’re not just blowhards with columns or organizations or go to meetings. In fact, they don’t do any of that. Three of the six Klein Rosen down Boebert they were on this program or in other programs that we’ve endorsed. We’ve endorsed Briggs. I told you before I could never support him for dogcatcher. Given his role in the Arizona State Senate blocking convention of states. Gates, to me, is not a conservative. He’s a he’s a fly by night. And good to me is a massive hypocrite. He took more money from the McCarthy PAC, I think, than anybody. $2 million won by the skin of his teeth. Why did he take it and why doesn’t he return it? Then I would see some consensus, consistent principles in the guy. I mean, I don’t understand it, quite frankly. So that to me is a character issue. That’s a character issue. So those are the remaining six. As best as I can see. I’ve also been troubled by the brutal attacks on Newt Gingrich. Newt Gingrich is an iconic figure. Route. Gingrich succeeded in taking back the House of Representatives during Bill Clinton’s presidency. For the first time in almost half a century. He is a brilliant, brilliant man. He’s a great patriot. He’s helped conservatives his entire life. This is precisely what I mean. Again, I’m not a special pleader for Newt, but I watch what’s taking place. And then these these so-called new conservatives, these young. Are they right? Like Marxists? Time to throw out the old and bring in the new throughout the old. What shall we throw out the old Bible? Shall we throw out the old declaration throughout the old Constitution? Shall we? Throughout our founders and framers, they don’t even realize they sound like Marxists, they think like Marxists, and they are enormously egocentric. So that is a problem we have to just like. So many parents have with their children. And they like to lecture us. The third one terms, they don’t even describe. They don’t even define. And they want you to think they’re really smart. Draw attention to themselves. You know how you draw attention to yourself? By not trying to draw attention to yourself. Do the right thing. Be principled and consistent. One day somebody might write a book, not me, about what’s taken place the last four or five days. And I suppose I will have some prominence in that book. I don’t look for it. Absolutely don’t. Same with other situations in the last 20 years. Again. I don’t look for it. I don’t want it. People come to me for advice. And on certain occasions I see things going on where I want to provide advice. Sometimes things don’t just happen, ladies and gentlemen. Sometimes battles are not so easily divided between good and evil. Are conservative and non-conservative. And you in your own lives be very selective about what you listen to, who you listen to, what you read, because there’s a lot of people trying to play you. Including some people who don’t even identify as conservatives, who now say, I’m not a conservative. My, my, this I’m a that I’m not, you know, cool that. Well, these guys aren’t Aristotle. Exactly. They’re not Cicero. They’re not Adam Smith. I don’t know what they are. But I’ve said what I needed to say. I’ll say more next week when we’re back. We’re going to have a great show on Sunday with Representative Comar, who’s going to head the House Oversight Committee. And I want to know about everything that’s on their plate and how they intend to go about that. And we have Chip Roy coming up now, at least supposedly on our radio program. And we’re hopeful and also expect to have him on the Sunday show as well. I’ll be right back.
Hour 1 Segment 3
Chip Roy, how are you, sir? Good, my friend. How are you? I’m good. You’re in great demand now. Do you know why? Well, right now I’m still I’m still in the bowels of the capital, running around trying to make sure we get this all inked and squared away. But we’re still working to try to find. But that’s why. Because I would say the last 48 hours or so, you’ve been a key person trying to negotiate a deal where these rules could be put in place and where the vast majority of the members could have their speakers and that about. Right. Well, we’ve had a pretty busy and successful three or four days. That’s true. Trying to get actual change to the way this friggin place works. And you and I have spent you know, and we’ve known each other, I don’t know what, 15 years now or something. And and we have spent our lives dedicated to conservatism and limited government and trying to stop the swamp, basically, to use the former president’s terms. And unfortunately, as you know, this place is hardwired to do a bunch of stupid stuff. And we’re trying to break the back of that. And that’s what the effort has been about for the last five or six weeks. And obviously it’s been done through the conduit of the speakership, which necessarily gets ugly. But what we’ve been able to do by kind of leveraging that is pretty exceptional. If we can get it done, we have to get through the votes tonight and we’ve still got to get a rules package adopted. But but what we’ve gotten is pretty darned exceptional for empowering rank and file members to stand up for our constituents against the swamp, because the swamp always wins. If we don’t change the rules of this place, it doesn’t matter who’s in the chair. If we don’t have the right rules to get it done without getting in the names of personalities here, you had different personalities among the 20 with different objectives and different motivations too, did you not? You know, we had differences of opinion, no doubt, and different ways of approaching it. But of course, all of Congress has different, different ways of approaching these things. And, you know, from the beginning. So if you back up. Right. So some of the some of the guys that that that some have said are more recalcitrant and unwilling to move understand that the leverage we were able to get to change things was due in significant part to their willingness to say I’m against Kevin early on in December, in late November. Now, the posture I took was to work with some folks to put together a document to say, Hey, here are the seven or eight things that I think should form the nucleus of what it would take to support anyone for speaker. And then we spent and that started the conversation of moving, you know, negotiations. Okay, well, let’s change some rules. And so, you know, we were able to negotiate a rules package to get single subject bills and germane this so that you’re not getting all these random topics and stuff. 72 hours to read the bill. Not now. Just a couple, you know, things like the vacate the chair, right, where you have the accountability on the speaker, which is important for members to, you know, defend their minority rights. So all of that was predicated on our willingness to say, hold on a second, there won’t be a coronation unless we’re able to get the kinds of things that are necessary to make the house work again because it’s been so badly broken. So, look, I think there’s been a lot of people out there, and I’ve gotten calls from donors and activists and and frankly, some of them, with all due respect, I’m in the middle of negotiating on their behalf and they’re pounding me with text message saying, you know, you got to do this, do this deal right now. I’m like, well, what the hell do you know, man? You know, I don’t think you write me. By the way, I got the same thing here. I’m getting something here now. Well, yeah, go ahead. Well, you know, these guys, they write a 1500 dollar check or they show up to events. Well, God bless. I’m glad they do. But my duties with 750,000 people I represent and to make sure that I can actually do the work for them. And I can’t like even if even if we just if we’d anointed Kevin on December 1st, we never would have gotten these substantive changes and these substantive changes and more conservative representation on the Appropriations Committee, more conservatives on the Rules Committee. I’d have more to say about that tomorrow once we get this all in tonight. But when we’ve got all that stuff set, we’re not going to have the ability to stop the kinds of crap that Mitch McConnell, which I think is crucial. But but, but yeah, but we have to be honest here. Some of these people, the rules were the rules and they use the rules, but they were just trying to settle scores. I happen to know three of them. They just don’t want McCarthy Right. There are certainly some individuals that I think are pretty, you know, not willing to want to support. McCarthy And look, that’s fine foreignness. And I say it. Yeah. Right. And in fairness, if you go back in time, some of the votes in the past and some of the decisions in the past and I could go down a laundry list, but at this point we’re trying to move forward because we’ve got some changes in place. There are some darn good reasons not to trust. There are, you know, the creep that. Hold on now, Pat. Hold on now. But so then why didn’t you guys have somebody to rally around and why wouldn’t somebody step forward? Well, that’s that’s part of the thing. But but also, it’s difficult for individuals to pop their head up sometimes when the threats are going around. So let’s rewind to Monday. We were putting forward some last minute good faith efforts to try to get to 218 on Monday. Well, Tuesday morning we go to the Republican conference meeting and they start ripping everybody’s heads off and they lied about the way that things are done. They accused us of wanting petty things. Hold on a second. I put my name on a list to be on the Rules Committee. I don’t want to be on the Rules Committee. I might do it if asked, but I don’t want it. And I didn’t ask for anything. Not one thing. I’m not getting any plum assignment, but some of them did. Literally. I think some people have bought and sold their votes, and a lot of people that aren’t a part of the 20 have bought sold their votes because that’s the way this place works. I’m not doing that. But but then they accuse us for some of that crap. And then Mike Rogers said, We’re going to kick you off the committees. Now look easy, buddy. By the way, I don’t even know who Mike Rogers is. He’s the chairman, right? He’s the chairman of the Armed Services. Or you will be you go to the Armed Services Committee. And so he’s. I never liked that guy, by the way. Well, and look, these and I’m going to try to I’m going to I’m going to be a nice guy. I’m going to try to not swing at these guys. We were all coming together right now and we got to go turn our fire to the Democrats. However, our Republican friends, our appropriator friends, our military industrial complex friends need to take a step back and stop spending money we don’t have in the name of our men and women. Slow down. So let’s hold on now. Let’s talk about the military. Yeah, Everything you guys stand for is not necessarily conservative. You could be pro-military and be conservative and want to cut the military, be conservative, correct? Correct. Correct. You and I don’t see eye to eye on the military, do we? I actually think we do accept the distinction as I’m trying to fight a battle on spending. That means I can’t accept the default position of where a lot of the military guys here are. I want to grow our military. I want to increase. I want to have, you know, the best Navy. I want to make sure that it’s the most modern and well equipped. But I want to carve out a bunch of the woke crap. And we don’t we never hold that, no matter how conservative. No conservative disagrees with carving out the woke crap. But my question to you is handed, though. But like always. Okay, then cut it out. I don’t disagree, but. But that’s not what the says. Because it. Well, putting a cap. Well, no, because I. Well, no, no, no. So the spending caps that we’re saying we need to put in place to cap spending in FY 22 levels says nothing about the defense. And that’s what a whole bunch of people are running around like chickens. Their heads cut off. Hold on, hold on. But they’re not just a whole bunch of people at some of the 20 who are saying this. They’ve said it to me. Well, I don’t think any of the 20 or saying is going to cut defense spending. Gates has said it’s going to cut defense spending. Well. Well, if he’s or if he said that, then he’s playing and he’s playing some games on that. But the fact is, the one what it is, is 1.471 $1.471 trillion, those spending levels and then everything under that we have to set. So what we should do is go cut non-defense discretionary and then go do what we need to do to get it to hold and to balance for ten years. That’s what we’re putting forth in our plan. It’s kind of like the cut, cap and balance of 2011. We’re putting constraints on the appropriators to check the spending. We got to make them eat it. Look, you know, you and I both know how this is probably going to work. We’re going to try to get something passed. Schumer won’t do it. And we’re probably going to have a continuing resolution next September. That’s almost certainly what’s going to happen. But our effort is to try to force us to go through and set spending levels at fiscal year 22 caps because we blew the lid off of it after COVID with non-defense discretionary spending. I want to shift the spending from non-defense discretionary to defense discretionary. Now, I want you to tell the American people, simply given with all these rule changes and so forth, that there really is only so much the House can do with one party control, a different party in the Senate, different party controlling the administration and a five vote majority. Isn’t that right? It is. Right. But I’ll give two caveats. One, with the oversight powers, we can obviously do a lot, and that’s part of it. And that’s I mean, with that. But I’m not talking about that. I agree with that. I’m talking about. Well. And financially. Sure. Well, but the second thing is, on the dollars, we can certainly stop the advance of spending. So a continuing resolution, Well, that would save a lot of money because you know how Mitch McConnell and the appropriators want to do, they’ll increase more spending so we can at least hold that spending in check. The third thing that’s important is the stuff we’re debating now, these rules and all these things that seem arcane to the average listener. And I get that we’re trying to force this place to reflect, have them fight for them in 25 and 24 and 25. So, Lord willing, we get a Republican president and we get a new Congress and we get the Senate that we’ve set the tone and the culture and the rules. To not screw up like we did in 2018. Remember when we blew it on on health care? When I say we, I wasn’t here, but they they blew it on health care. They blew it on the border crap in July of 20. I got a couple more quick questions. Yeah, I know you’re going to you’re on your own. Know you’re in demand. Yeah, but the fact is, if you’re presented with some massive bill from the Senate, even though you’re trying to prevent that and you come to loggerheads, you’re going to have to shut down the government. We actually it needs to be done ship. Well, so, look, I’m I’m not I’m for playing that hardball tactic, you know, that number one. Number two, and of course, Trump did that. That was when I came into office in 2019. We were in shutdown, but we did include a provision in in this agreement that House Republicans will advance a continuing resolution within 30 days from when we pass our appropriations bills to set spending at 98% of current level spending. Now, why does that matter? We’re setting in a trigger, a default haircut on on C.R. spending. So you’re reducing spending so that we’re not shutting government down and we’re going to send that over to the Senate. Now, they won’t pass it, but will message it again. So maybe we enforce it, pass it, But I doubt it to say, look, nothing’s going to shutdown. They’re going to be spending it’s going to be in a haircut. Now, you want to you want to get stuff done. Let’s sit down and do appropriations, but stop playing your short, your shutdown game. So we’re going to try to message that. We’ve got that in our agreement. We’re going to message the debt ceiling that we don’t think we should pass a debt ceiling increase without a combined fiscal year. Senate House deal. Is there anything in the rules about the border? Well, there is, in fact, not in the rules, but in our agreement with the leader in order to get our votes and support, it’s that we must move through what I call the Texas border plan, which is what we developed. We have all Republican members except for one you No one in the Texas delegation that got on board, and we got that through. And he’s agreed to move that, including a really important bill that I introduced that says you must turn away or detain rather than encounter and release, and that you put that into law. Now, Biden is not going to sign that, but it’s important that we pass it. And then we’ve got tools to use when we’re fighting on spending next year to try to. Jan Biden with that stuff. I just want the audience to understand you got McConnell, who’s a complete sellout in the Senate, and he’s got a majority of those Republicans behind him no matter what he does. And you’ve got Biden in there. So if they think that that this is going to change the world, it’s not going to change the world. It will change how the House operates. It will change, as you say, the messaging. That’s very, very important to persuade the American people and tee it up for the next election. And I’m all for those things. But I don’t want us to mislead. And you’re not. But I don’t want us to mislead the American people to thinking that now we’re going to be able to get rid of 87,000 IRS agents. We’re not. We can tee it up, but we’re not. That that’s true. At the end of the day, we’re going to. What are we? We’re going to fight over spending. We’re going to have oversight, but we’re going to pass some righteous bills that the Senate will pass. That’s basically what’s going to happen over the next two years. But it is important that we change the culture. So we have a provision here to say I can now offer amendments on the floor during appropriations to cut spending. Mark has been able to do that for a decade. That’s one of the reasons why spending is off the charts. We have other changes in here to give us more power in terms of the single subject bills. 72 hours to rebuild. So you’re happy with the package, right? You’re happy with it? I am very happy that this package is is truly pretty transformational if we adopt it all and stick to it. So let me ask you about the accountable. You think you’re going to get the remaining two votes or three votes you need at 10 p.m. tonight? I believe we probably will, Mark. And I don’t want to get ahead of my skis. It’s important for negotiation purposes. I believe we’re going to be in good shape. There’s still there’s some debate about whether some of the moderates in our party will accept the rules package. And that’s that’s something we’re trying to work through tonight. I hope that’s I hope that’s not a hiccup. We can get the votes, we get the rules package done, and then we’ll get busy working under these these are these the terms of this agreement to have fiscal accountability opening up the House for rank and file members and ensuring that we’re going to be able to hold the speaker accountable. Those are all very important things. And importantly, that we don’t have control of the Rules Committee with three solid conservatives on the Rules Committee, I hope. And and how many Republicans are on that committee? Nine. There are nine. It’s usually nine and four. And importantly, if you’ve got three, you’re in a good spot to get the details, but you’re in a good spot to make sure that only good stuff gets through. Well, let me just say this to you, Chip. On the first day of this, things were kind of messy. I think you’d have to agree with that. And then. And then I think. I think you took it upon yourself to try and pull it together, try and get a position for at least a majority of the 20. With respect to some of the rules and some of the positions you were taking, in other words, you still had to organize yourselves. And I think the last 36, 48 hours, that’s what’s happened in large, largely due to you. Am I wrong? Well, outlet here that you saw from the heads that I’ll let other people judge that what my like my role here is to fight my constituents and work with my friends and colleagues to do stuff. And it is important to say Mark and to move forward my conservative allies and this includes some of the people that that have been a little recalcitrant, that are great patriots that fight and fight hard for the country. We move the ball forward a lot. This is really important what we’ve done. You know, my friend Russ Vote, former director of ops. I got 30 seconds. Yeah. All right. Russ loves this stuff. He loves what we’ve got here on the defense spending. Also, the Church Committee, I think. Talk about that. We got a a truly church committee style, a goal to be honest. To be honest with you. I discussed with Jim Jordan months ago. It’s been called a church committee, but he was planning on creating some kind of a force He hadn’t decided on what to do, exactly what you guys pretty much have come up with. I, I know what Jim’s a good friend, but we made it a lot better in the last 48 hours. I promise you. Much better. All right, brother, Because that’s my focus, frankly. All right. God bless you, Chip. Hopefully we’ll have you on our Sunday show. Take care of yourself. Working on it. Working on it. God bless. All right. You too. We’ll be right back.
Hour 1 Segment 4
I’m under the clock when you’re on radio, unlike podcasting and like live in TVs. So I wanted to get a number of questions in. And I’ve known Chip Roy a long time. We talk a lot. And early on, you know, when he and others said they were having this great debate on the House floor, I still didn’t see a great debate on the House floor. All of this is being negotiated behind closed doors. And other members are now just learning about the various rules. Some of the information was put out, but all the details were not put out. So, of course, the irony is they weren’t an open process. This was not really an open process, but in the end, they’re going to vote on it. So I guess it’s open in that sense. But to me, when you say it’s this is the way it’s supposed to be, a great debate. There was no debate even now, there’s no debate. We’ve got more big news. We’ll be right back.