As part of a New York City media blitz on Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) entered enemy territory on ABC’s Good Morning America and, unfortunately, weekend co-host Whit Johnson went all-negative in a six-minute-plus interview on turmoil inside the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), negative spin on the One Big Beautiful Bill, harping on the Epstein File hubbub, and demanding gun control in light of the Minneapolis Catholic school massacre.
Whit began with two question about the CDC. The Speaker insisted he would let Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. do his job (click “expand”):
WHIT JOHNSON: I want to ask you about some of the turmoil at the CDC first. The director has been fired, some top officials walking off the job, at odds over RFK Jr.’s vaccine policies. Is this the change that you wanted to see, and what you expect could be happening in the coming days?
SPEAKER JOHNSON: Well, I think overall, Secretary Kennedy is doing a great job. There has been a shake-up that has been needed, and we’ve got to trust the secretary to do his job. They’ve had some great results there. We’re getting America healthy again. That’s well-received across the country and long overdue, in my view, so we’re going to the cabinet do the job and I’m going to stay in my lane and do mine.
WHIT JOHNSON: But with this concern, does this turmoil only add to the deterioration of confidence in the CDC and there is some concern that if the vaccine policies change or if they’re not recommended, then insurance companies won’t provide coverage, and that could mean that people who want them may not have access. Does that worry you?
SPEAKER JOHNSON: We’ll have to see how that all sorts out. The CDC plays an important role in our government and our society, and we wanted to be restored to its original intent. The secretary has made a good point that the existing leadership was not doing that, so we’ll see who the replacement is. I don’t know who that is yet, but it obviously plays an important function and we’ll see how it plays out.
Whit then turned to the Big Beautiful Bill and touted the belief that “[t]he President himself, though is openly about rebranding it because it has been so far quite unpopular” and “a recent Pew survey shows that only 32 percent of Americans approve of it.”
Asked “[w]hy do you think many Americans still aren’t quite on board,” the Speaker tore into this stat as proof of the liberal media’s smear campaign: “Well, I’m not surprised by the number at all because the Democratic Party and mainstream media has spent a lot of time trying to discredit the bill. The individual components of it, when they’re polled, are wildly popular.”
After explaining key tenets of the law, the Louisiana Republican said this was the “largest saving in history” to which the ABC reporter interjected: “And some big cuts, though, even some Republicans concerned about some of them.”
“Well, no, the cuts were to fraud, waste, and abuse, and they were to things that, again, are wildly popular when the American people actually understand what was done. And so, the good news for us is we have plenty of time for people to feel the effects of that before they vote in the midterm election that comes up next fall and for us to go out and talk about what’s really in the bill and not the fake news about it,” the Speaker replied.
Third on Whit’s list was the Epstein hoopla (which the left decided in mid-July to care about as they realized they could use it as a cudgel against Trump) (click “expand”):
WHIT JOHNSON: When Congress comes back in session, there will also be a new push for the release of the Epstein files. There have been some critics within your own party, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie among those who have been critical of your efforts on this. He is joining a bipartisan effort to try to force a vote on the House floor. How would you respond to that, and do you believe that Americans deserve more transparency on the Epstein issue?
SPEAKER JOHNSON: Absolutely. We have been 100 percent consistent about this forever.
WHIT JOHNSON: What about a vote on the floor?
SPEAKER JOHNSON: If it’s necessary, it will. I think what has happened over August over the last few weeks has probably mooted to the necessity because right now the administration is in full compliance with congressional subpoenas. They’ve submitted over 34,000 Epstein documents to Congress just in the last couple weeks and our Oversight Committee is going through the deliberate process. We are for maximum transparency. We always have been, but we also have to be careful to protect the innocent victims, and it takes time to do that, to redact the necessary information. You don’t want, for example, minors who are subjected to these unspeakable Epstein evils to go through another round of harm. And so, that’s the protective sort of lens that’s being used for this, but everything we need to be out. We trust the American people to make their own decisions and they will soon have all that.
WHIT JOHNSON: So, you wouldn’t oppose a vote on the floor?
SPEAKER JOHNSON: No, we’ll — we’ll move vote if necessary. But right now, that process is actually underway, and we’re grateful to see it. I mean, I have been the — from — from the very beginning, we said we want all of it out, so long as we protect the innocent.
Minneapolis closed out the interview and so Whit predictably sounded like a gun control activist by lamenting the “growing frustration that whenever something like this happens, people talk about it, but the politicians are failing to get anything done.”
Ignoring the 2022 bipartisan gun safety law, he demanded to know what Johnson would do “to propose new legislation or anything as it relates to gun violence or mental health?”
Speaker Johnson kept the focus on the families and those directly affected, particularly praising the strength of the father of eight-year-old Fletcher Merkel to make public remarks about his son a day after his murder.
“[I]t’s important that politicians on either side of the aisle do not politicize a moment like this. There are many common sense measures that can and should be taken to protect children at schools and churches that do not involve taking away the constitutional rights of law-abiding American citizens. At the end of the day, the problem in these situations — is not the gun. It’s the human heart and we can put more resources towards the treatment of mental health,” he added.
With time running out, Whit tried to create a sense of urgency:
WHIT JOHNSON: But will we see something this session? Do you plan on proposing something?
SPEAKER JOHNSON: — look, we’re open to any bipartisan solution that address these kinds of issues that actually go to the heart of the matter. And, you know, we’re always open for that.
To see the relevant ABC transcript from August 29, click here.
