The next is the transcript of an interview with Home Speaker Mike Johnson that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sept. 14, 2025.
MAJOR GARRETT: The Speaker of the Home, Mike Johnson, who joins us this morning from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, it is good to see you. I admire your time. The burdens of speakership are at all times manifold. You already know that. Earlier audio system I’ve lined know that, however they really feel significantly heavy after the occasions of this week. I simply need to ask you, Mr. Speaker, how are you doing?
SPEAKER JOHNSON: I am doing okay, Main. Thanks for asking. No query, it was a tough week for the nation. Definitely, it was felt on Capitol Hill. There is a combination of, , anger and unhappiness and concern, frankly, on the a part of lots of people. It solid a big shadow throughout the nation and the nation’s capital. However what I do know, Main, is that my good pal Charlie wouldn’t need any of us to be consumed by despair. He would need us to go ahead boldly, that was his message, and to do it in love. And I believe that, I hope, is the message that continues within the days forward.
MAJOR GARRETT: It isn’t widespread for this present to select up on one thing mentioned by Connecticut’s Younger Democrats and Connecticut’s Younger Republicans, however they put out a press release that has gotten fairly a little bit of consideration on the web, saying as follows, “there isn’t a place in our nation for such acts, no matter political disagreements.” Do you consider on Capitol Hill there will likely be a technique to forge any type of bipartisan remembrance of Charlie Kirk?
SPEAKER JOHNSON: There will likely be. You already know, we had a second of prayer and silent reflection on the ground on Wednesday inside an hour of his passing. There will likely be, I participated in a big vigil right here in Baton Rouge at LSU, my alma mater, on Friday evening. Tonight, we’ll have an enormous, I hope, bipartisan prayer and reflection vigil in Capitol Hill on the Kennedy Heart. There will likely be a members reflection and prayer second that I am going to lead on Monday evening. It will proceed. I believe that the nation must see leaders in Congress and leaders with platforms throughout the nation talking fact and bringing calm to the scenario. We should always attraction, as Lincoln reminded us so a few years in the past, to the higher angels amongst us all. And I believe this can be a actual second for America [TECHNICAL DISRUPTION] — affirmatively. And I believe one of many methods to try this, Main, is to undertake the way of Charlie Kirk as a result of whereas he liked vigorous debate and he believed within the free market of concepts, and advancing fact boldly, he additionally was motivated by love for his fellow man as a result of he by no means hated the individual on the opposite aspect of the desk. And I believe everybody would do properly to be reminded of that mannequin.
MAJOR GARRETT: Mr. Speaker, you talked about the phrase concern a second in the past. It’s on the lips of members of Congress in methods I’ve by no means skilled earlier than. They’re speaking brazenly. They have already got canceled occasions. Different members are speaking about whether or not or not it is correct of their household conversations to hunt re-election. How do you are feeling this explicit house of tension to your membership, Republican and Democrat?
SPEAKER JOHNSON: Yeah, properly, I have been speaking with loads of them over the previous couple of days about that and attempting to calm the nerves, to guarantee them that we’ll, we’ll make sure that everybody has a stage of safety that is obligatory, that the assets will likely be there for his or her residential safety and their private safety. We’re evaluating all of the choices for that. But additionally, to be- to be, , reminded that it does take a sure measure of braveness to step out and- and to steer. I imply, our first responders do it each day, our members of the army do it each day and political figures as properly. However I believe if all of us undertake these practices collectively and we flip down the rhetoric, we, , stop with this concept that, , coverage disputes are by some means an existential menace to democracy or the republic, we cease calling each other names. I imply calling individuals Nazis and fascists isn’t useful. Look, there are some deranged individuals in society and after they see leaders utilizing that form of language, so usually now, more and more, it spurs them on to motion. We’ve got to acknowledge that actuality and tackle it appropriately. And I am heartened to know, Main, and to see that lots of my colleagues on each side of the aisle are stepping up and saying that and addressing it. I believe this could possibly be a turning level, frankly, to make use of Charlie’s time period, for the nation, and I hope that is true.
MAJOR GARRETT: Would that turning level, out of your vantage level, Mr. Speaker, as a result of I do know you had a protracted dialog with President Trump, lengthen to the White Home itself?
SPEAKER JOHNSON: Nicely, in fact. Look, the President knew Charlie very properly. He was like a member of the family to the Trumps. Many people felt that shut affiliation with him, and he admired Charlie’s strategy to public debate. And you have heard him say that publicly. He was- Charlie was man, and I believe one of the simplest ways we honor his reminiscence is to proceed to try this very factor, and never shrink back from debate, to maintain the free market of concepts going, however to work on the tone of these debates. As a result of I believe that- I believe that serves the most effective of our ideas, our Judeo-Christian heritage as a nation, our civil discourse, and we obtained to return to that.
MAJOR GARRETT: Mr. Speaker, a number of points pending earlier than Congress, not the least of which is maintaining the federal government open. I do know you like a seven-week clear CR, however there’s a press for different points. Extending Obamacare tax subsidies. There’s been a push this weekend for Russia sanctions backed by Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, within the Senate. Will both of these, out of your vantage level, get into one thing to maintain the federal government open?
SPEAKER JOHNSON: Nicely, pay attention, we have been working very arduous within the Home to revive common order within the appropriations authorities funding course of, and that is one thing that nobody’s actually seen for a very long time on Capitol Hill. However I am inspired that, in a bipartisan trend, our Home Appropriations Committee has handed all 12 of the annual appropriations payments by means of the committee. We have got three off the Home ground. The Senate’s handed a couple of, after which final week, we voted to maneuver right into a convention [TECHNICAL DISRUPTION] —
MAJOR GARRETT: — Okay, Mr. Speaker, I consider there is a technical glitch that has pressured us to lose your audio. We will take a fast break, and we’ll come proper again to Home Speaker Mike Johnson in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in only a second.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
MAJOR GARRETT: Welcome again to Face the Nation. As a result of technical gremlins lurk all over the place, they obtained in between my dialog with Home Speaker Mike Johnson. Mr. Speaker, I am glad to have you ever again. You had been in the course of answering about Obamacare tax subsidies, doable sanctions in opposition to Russia and a authorities funding mechanism. Please proceed.
SPEAKER JOHNSON: Yeah, sorry in regards to the interruption there. Pay attention, we’re very inspired that we have been in a position to restore the common appropriations, common order course of —
MAJOR GARRETT: — Proper, however are we going to get this finished? Are these two different issues going to be added to the method, Mr. Speaker?
SPEAKER JOHNSON: We’ll need to see. I obtained to construct consensus round all of it, however I believe we’ll want a short-term funding measure. A clear CR that can enable extra time to determine all this out. We actually hope that Democrats will go alongside on that, as a result of, if not, they actually haven’t any excuse. In the event that they shut the federal government down, it will be their unilateral determination to take action.
MAJOR GARRETT: And when Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, says, as he did this weekend, now could be the time for Russia sanctions. President Trump opened the door on tariffs in opposition to India and China as a technique to create financial leverage to finish the struggle in Ukraine. The place do you stand on all that?
SPEAKER JOHNSON: Pay attention, I do consider that determined instances name for determined measures, and I believe applicable sanctions on Russia are far overdue. I imply, I believe there is a massive urge for food for that in Congress, so we’re keen to work with the White Home and our Senate colleagues within the Home to get that finished and I am anxious to do it, personally.
MAJOR GARRETT: Are you ready for the President to provide the inexperienced gentle or may Congress act on this by itself volition?
SPEAKER JOHNSON: Nicely, Congress actually cannot do that by itself volition as a result of, in fact, the President would want to signal no matter we do into regulation. So it must be a partnership, however we defer to the commander in chief. I imply, the President is a powerful and daring chief on the world stage. He has brokered peace around the globe and different conflicts in a approach that nobody earlier than him has been in a position to do, and so we’re trusting that he can use that very same drive and that very same strategy to result in, lastly, an finish to this struggle in Ukraine. Everybody in America needs that bloodshed to finish, and President Trump is forcing that, and I actually [TECHNICAL DISRUPTION]–
MAJOR GARRETT: Okay. Mr. Speaker, I am informed that the technical difficulties preserve arising, so a bit prematurely we will finish our dialog right here to spare you and spare our viewers from continued mayhem by technical gremlins. Mr. Speaker, I admire the time. Thanks for becoming a member of us on Face the Nation.
