Falling in between ABC’s George Stephanopoulos’s partisan hectoring on Wednesday and Thursday’s respectful exchanges with CBS’s Tony Dokoupil, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) finished a tour of the broadcast networks Friday on NBC’s Today.
There, co-host Craig Melvin battled him over the government shutdown by using week-old polls claiming Americans believe Republicans are to blame, but insisted “we can’t get to” the GOP’s “misleading” claim illegal immigrants receive free health.
Melvin started as Dokoupil did a day earlier about the state of negotiations to reopen the government, but then moved to this polling folly that left out a few critical details. Most significantly, three of the four were taken prior to the shutdown plus none had the GOP at 50 percent or higher blame (and one — The New York Times/Siena poll — only placed GOP blame at 26 percent):
Melvin tried the rise-above-it-all strategy and wondering what he would say to the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who feel “they’re being used as pawns in this tug of war between Republicans and Democrats.”
“A lot of folks in this country are absolutely tired of the unending political battles and now these battles are actually affecting people’s paychecks,” he wondered.
Johnson responded he “agree[d]” it’s a shame federal workers are working without pay. He then pivoted to the funding to cover health care bills for illegal immigrants.
Melvin interjected just as Johnson tried to cite the page and section of the Democrat counterproposal. The Today co-host said he “had a hankering feeling you were going to bring that up and I actually did look at it and we can’t get to it, obviously, on — on the show, but that last bit was a bit misleading.”
Watch as Johnson fought back:
Melvin tried again with the both-sides argument:
[T]his conversation we’re having as important, as it may be, to folks who are just sitting and watching and listening and thinking, you know what? These guys can’t keep the government open. In the United States of America, in 2025, Democrats and Republicans can’t even work together to provide a functioning government.
When Johnson replied the House has “done [its] job” and are awaiting the Senate to get its act together, Johnson concluded by hitting him from the left on the Senate filibuster (click “expand”):
MELVIN: Mr. Speaker, technically, not to get too far in the weeds, I know you run the upper chamber and the lower chamber, the senate could reopen the government if they abandon the super majority rule, if they just decided to invoke the so-called nuclear option, they could open the government. At some point, do you consider that? Would you call on your Senate colleagues to employ that?
JOHNSON: Yeah, in the House we always talk about that, because we do it by bare majorities, as you know in the House. But that’s their tradition, that’s their — they think that is a sacred rule that they have to keep, so you got to argue with the Senate about it. But it is frustrating for us in the lower chamber. as you say, in the people’s house because we do everything by a simple majority and we did do that. We got it done. And we’re proud to send that product over, but now we await the upper chamber.
Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker further emphasized the liberal media’s alleged giddiness over polls giving more of the blame to Republicans, alluding to the one from The Washington Post and boasting the GOP may have “overplay[ed] their hand”:
Take a look at this poll. It shows the majority of people blame Republicans for the shutdown and nearly a quarter of respondents say they don’t know who to blame. So, that could create potential vulnerability for Democrats if they lose the messaging war. Some Republicans now, it is important to point out, are getting jittery about the possibility of federal layoffs. Senator Kevin Cramer was quoted as saying this, Sheinelle: “We as Republicans have never had so much moral high ground on a government funding bill in our lives,” but he also went on to say, “I just don’t see why we would squander it.” Really highlighting some of the concerns about overplaying their hand.
To see the relevant NBC transcripts from October 3, click here and here.
