>> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more including wow. >> the world has changed. today fast reliable internet connection something no one can live without so wow is there for our customers with speed, reliability, value and choice. now more than ever it all starts with great internet. >> wow supports c-span as a puic service along with these other television providers giving you a front-row seat to democracy. >> next a discussion on the current state of politics with former house speaker kevin mccarthy. he talks but why he voted against certifying the 2020 president election result. his continued support for former president donald trump and the motives behind his removal as house speaker back in october. this is hosted by georgetown university's institute of politics and public service.

it runs just over an hour and ten minutes. >> good evening, everyone. my name is cody becker and on the first graduate student at the mccord school of public quality. it's been an amazing year which is fading and programs hosted by gu politics. i first got involved within last semester through the fellows program. i started as member of the student strategy team fall of 2023 fellow and then currently the team lead for spring 2024 fellow michaela. michaelis erred as for mr. speaker mccarthy's chief of staff and general counsel. by working with michaela, i've learned so much about the ins and outs of congressional work at the highest level. having the opportunity to converse with her regularly and here's some rarely shared insights from one of hill's most senior staff has been truly unique. growing up just outside of seattle i was and always exposed to opinions other than once similar to my own. but by coming here to the city

and the school and by finding programs i've been able to expand my worldview and welcome opinions that were previously foreign to me. this to me embodies the spirit of democracy and exemplifies gu politics mission is all about. and with that today, it is my pleasure to introduce former speaker of the house kevin mccarthy. kevinev mccarthy served as a 50 fifths peek of the house of representatives. he was the u.s. representative for california's 20thca congressional district of 2007-2023. he served two terms as a member of the california state assembly member of the california state assembly before being elected to the u.s. house in 2006. mccarthy served as a house republican chief deputy whip from 2009-201111 and is house majority whip from 2011-2014. in 2014 he was elected house majority leader and later served as house minority leader as

well. well. he was elected to the speakership in january of 2023. following his remarks the former speaker will take your questions in a discussion moderated by mo elleithee executive director of the gu politics. you can join the conversation on social media attacking at gu politics of the usingt hashtag mccarthy at gu. now please join mew, in welcomig to the stage mo elleithee and former speaker of the house kevin mccarthy.ak [applause] >> is a great crowd is close to the end of the semester. i think i was at the tombs this close together semester when i was a student here. thank you all. mr. speaker thank you for coming back to georgetown. he spent some time here. your son graduated a few years back. >> son graduate in 2015. i spent a lot of time here.

it's a stamp, midnight. >> twenty-first, yes. well, thank you for being here. as we would talk about backstage a big focus of the institute this year has been around the topic of trust in democracy. we are seeing poll after poll after poll that shows americans, and not just americans, people across europe, latin america are losing faith in the institution, of democracy, the associate press had a poll just last week that shows only three in ten americans believe that our nation's democracy is functioning well. and our own poll taken last month says 81% of americans believe that democracy is

actively under threat. some want to dig into that a little bit tonight. i've got some thoughts on that that i'm going want to ask you about. white house want to hear yours. we're going to have a conversation in a little bit and about the halfway mark want to invite all of you to join in the conversation as always. the speaker has graciously agreed to take student questions as well. but i want to start their before i start throwing out my theories. why do you think americans trust in democracy is that low right now? >> first of all, thank you for beingcy here. reasons. you've got to think about democracy itself. it is still the greatest form of government. because it was designed itself

it's not fast, it's not overly efficient in certain manners as reasons why people have lack of trust in epic meanwhile the start happened after the pentagon papers during the vietnam war. used it really trust your government. you've got social media, no longer do we just have three tv stations that provide you news, you can go home and get your news from an outlet philosophically agrees with you. it does not matter what position you take and does not matter if you're republican or democrat or a more progressive or more far rhetoric i can ins msnbc instead of the others. when they are providing are not providing news they are providing opinions. you're not hearing somebody and

how effective has congress and the senate been the last little bit? i has been compounded. social media as a whole another aspect to it. and then i would say from this perspective there is another of other reasons it may people begin to question. you slowly have had since the year 2000 every time a publican ran or won a presidency for the first time i got challenged on the floor. then you had republicans challenge the last or present you are generally six. but you have had that go on and governor races and others. he would not pick up on it at first then we had covid. anytime something coalbed happens is like once in 100 years or others those go to the

power of democracy itself. historic study if someone is a leader and it's eight democracy you will lose. it is so changing of your self into the institution itself. the only real leader that sustains itself is inside politics. structure dictates behavior. when covid hit we didn't know what it was. and so the world didn't know what it was hard to react with policy mix at the same time. so in congress the next thing they did i was opposed to it but they would call proxy voting. it was only going to be used if you had covid. so you did not to fly to vote but you did not want to lose your votes you can vote by

proxy. you would think that's a good idea. i was opposed to it. i thought it would be taken further. then they can keep it in the rate we are pascoe in june how people would use it? it didn't matter if you had cody signed a piece of paper as a person at some movie stars wedding in france there is a guy voting on a boat on vacation and he phones in. and it took itself. but this is what happened with it. members weren't talking to each other. and then because of covid made a special rule that they don't want to go through committee in congress you work all the time to get on the committee of that jurisdiction the bill goes randyfight hard for it and peopo lose because some people are home voting another way. how serious are they looking at it? it compounds all of that and. you do not have news provided, this is the information you have

an opinion is going to go from one side to the other. if social media providing something very quickly there's no editor in charge of what somebody says. i have seen a lot of things tired. you got people challenging presidential races and others on both sides of the aisle. technically i have the right to do that. but now it just becomes aware no matter where we are united states of america refers to states is red or blue. and they define you all that weight. it's not just the trusting of democracy, you trust your bank? you trust people down the street but you judge them. how i can hear them say i don't trust them because that person is a different party that i am, right? are my kids would come back know you just didn't do it right, which one is it?

>> i will be upset if my child married outside my film the blank. faith, race, political party political party exceeded faith and races. i guess that is progress. [laughter] but i find that nuts in many ways. to your point people have that visceral reaction. >> given you took people within their own party and define what your party stands for you if they couldn't agree. and they would fight among themselves. to five or six parties in congress. if i just had my own party that eight people not in it i would still be speaker.

[laughter] were going to get to that. [applause] you touched on a lot of things that i want to get to hear. let me start. you talk about people challenging elections. let's start with trust in elections in our most recent poll about 60% of people have some level of doubt the 2024 election will be held fairly and about half of those i feel completely certain it will not be held fairly. and so let's go back to 2020 for a moment. do you believe joe biden won that election? >> can you explain the rationale

behind your vote on january 6 regarding certification of the election? >> and report certification of election is and remember 2020. what happened prior to 2020? covid. have we ever had in election during covid? what transpired states just like congress started during their balloting different. right? you had california said i'm going to send everybody a ballot. you people making decisions is it fair when let you correct the ballot in another does not. the only time you have a question which are very honest with everyone else. if i was successful and my vote for challenging the last

election, who would be president today? joe biden. we get elected by electoral college. we never objected to enough vote that would change the outcome. but that's not the same case to the election a transpired in 2000. or 2006. the problem being you see this progress over time. what would nancy pelosi tell you when they first objected? she said this was your only time to do it. it is to rule the government. but you have covid on top of it. we didn't challenging california of europe from there and everyone got a ballot and they moved so often the lesson for families they do not clean up the rules. if you look at l.a. one point to million more people on the ballot then who are old enough to register to vote there. because they don't clean the roles. when you transfer what happened in 2020. in 2020 if you look at that

election you look at how close it was biden won that election by 48918 votes. 48918 votes. a lot of the states were very close. so to me that's not a problem especially when you're living in the world of covid and people are making others. at your only time to question did it happen? and in a democracy where the cornerstones of the democracy is your ability to question something. and if you don't question it are you more likely to believe it or not? if you are denied that ability then you're really going to assume. we're coming off of also come you got bush/gore in florida. you have got georgia. you have got the challenge of the 2016 race. you got hilary clinton who said

she one. you had jimmy carter said that hilary one. you have hakeem the democratic leader said trump is an illegitimate president. you had invited and who agreed with that. you had it built upon all of this and then you have an unbelievable covid experience people literally change election laws. legislatures could not meet. when else would you be able to raise the question? >> in 2,002,016 it's no surprise there were here there were folks who challenged the election very quickly challenged ohio. >> with democratic nominee had already conceded the race. and it was a few people. it was not a majority of the democratic conference doing it. i bring up that distinction

because in 2020 the income but was still actively trying to make the case that it was not over. and it fueled some of that number that i read. it fueled some of people's distrust in the election. winds everyone said it was hunky-dory. that show of force the income but is still pushing it does that not lead to some of the distrust? >> would hilary push it to she conceded progress note, she will say that i will read your quotes were she said you could run the best campaign, you can win and get the most votes in that whenn party of former president jimmy carter. joe biden was in 2016 was delivery had a race for georgia for governor who said no but yot

the former governor of virginia whose the dnc chair questioning that answer. the one point i would raise to you -- mike those who question the race when george bush won challenged ohio. had they been successful bush would not be president. had republicans who challenge the 2020 race been successful in their two challenges joe biden will be president. when i have the same electoral vote that came out but challenging something doesn't mean you're overturning something. a challenge is a challenge. is there something wrong here? that's the point. a member of congress is elected by themselves but does not matter if someone says something else. i'm sure all of that helps i'm e short brought more votes.

but, remember where the country was that as well. we had been at this point i don't bush/gore you remember them storming into the belt to remember looking at the guy within bible with a hanging chad went to the supreme court to make the decision. these are all added into the question where are they so close? and, having covid on top of it raise the question higher. what's let's talk about what happened in the middle of that day. the assault on the capitol, the insurrection. i guess one of the things i still struggle with as i look at that day reaction ever since honestly even until today are the number of people who are willing to excuse it. to apologize for it. with many of them some very high profile people referring to

those people as hostages, the defendants as hostages. at a time will we are spend defendants as hostages. at a time we were spending a lot of time talking about the rule of law, is that normalizing that kind of political violence, that kind p of rhetoric? >> well look i was a person who sat inside january 6. i got removed from the capital. they broke into my office, right? i didn't leave my office until they're coming through the window. what happened on january 6th was o wrong. i don't apologize for any of the people who did it. i don't think was right. in any way, shape, or form. i don't think was right when we had a couple of months before people protesting appointment to the supreme court and pounded on the door and try to get into the supreme court. i don't like the idea that after

the fact both sides try to politicize it and screamed at him to the of the unbelievers and own style. it was truly he believed it was a bad event, why wouldn't you as speaker of the house with everything else you've ever done let the minority leader of . the republicans to investigate just as you let them appoint a democrat? for the first time in history when he went to perform, and he was the first person to ask to have a bipartisan commission 9/11 to look what happened on january 6th? me. do you know what's interesting? did the reason why i have a problem. i was minority leader at the tighter the sergeant at arms, the sheriff of the capital. have ever met that demand? no. on that day when they had warnings before the fbi in everything else, to thinkin he came to tell me this could be a problem that day? nope. but the person with a is can

talk in front of the capital, the parking attendant told them they could be a a problem. the sergeant at arms who didn't warn any of us. when this transpired, when you literally have the guards moved out, do t you think the sergeant at arms ever called the? maybe two days later. no. he reported to one person. he made the policing of the capital to be political. structure dictates behavior. that shouldn't be the case. just like when speaker pelosi told me no, i couldn't appoint certain members to the committee to investigate it, she would pick who could be, how are you going to get the bottom whether it's toru our not? how do you start the with saying everything isng open, except the speakers communication with the sergeant of. arms that day? what type of antiquity get? if you really want to know the answer. >> so what would you say to

folks today who are downplaying what happened on that day or defending the people who stormed the capital? >> i think they're defending the due process for how long it were now sitting almost four years later why i was sitting in jail and not havingr the ability to o to court? are they being treated fairly? that's arl greater question thai hear from people on the other side. >> i don't want to spin, we've got a lot of maturity, and they keep getting the sign that we're going to move to student questions. >> going to get harder. >> want to talk about, let's talk more about congress. gallup approval rating last month showed 12%. it is now the lowest it's ever been. >> i'm no longer speaker. >> 12%. >> i knew that would happen. >> making that institution may

do what a few institutions that is less popular than both major nominees for president right now. >> that's kind of hard. >> so let's talk about your experience upon winning the majority, running for speaker in that marathon speeded did anybody watch my race for speaker? was it good tv? first of all let me tell you this. i served 17 years. i loved everyov single day. i search speaker, it was tough. i loved every month. the highs and lows. there are two velocities i have to admit i want to learn something new and i could never -- i'm a republican but i was not warning to republican family. family. i was born in a democrat. my son what a georgian but i had no ability to get into georgetown. my family didn't have great wealth. my father was a firefighter. he was a priest on his days off.

i couldn't go away to college so i went to junior college. they instilled in the work ethic. i never give up. now, i met this guy, he had a liquor store and he would sell beer. i lived in the city called baker since i talked them into i will pay 20 bucks if you taking to the l.a. car auction. be given to get in. a big auction. i started like it's on cars and flipping them to pay my way through college. it's illegal but i don't know what i'm doing, right? so you go to junior college, you go visit your buddies are white and colors. my best friend was at stanford. i go to the grocery store to cash a check for that week. lo and behold as in cashing this check, the day before a lottery started in california some want a a lottery ticket and i won the lottery. would you believe the courts put yourself my place. 1985. the most was $5000. before by inflation. so that was money. but just a joke.

[laughing] you are 20, you win 5000 bucks and to spend the weekend in tijuana, right? i come back, take the folks today, give my brother sister each 100 bucks. i put the majority of the rest of the money in one stock. i do pretty well. i make 30%. the next best i take a break from school. aicoa and trying to buy franchise but no one will someone because i'm only 20 years old. i open my own deli and i do pretty well. about two years i now have enough money that i i could py own way through college. go to cow state and local paper says intern in washington, d.c. for my local colchicine. i don't know the man. i thought he would be lucky to have it. so i applied. do you know what he did? he turned me down. you want to know the end of the story? i got elected seat i couldn't get an internship for and became

the 55th speaker in a house pick only in america could that happen, okay? [applause] now i got to be leader for five years. they were tough years for republicans. in those election years republicans lost the presidency, lost both cycles of the senate. we lost governors in the status. but in congress we won both times. i tell you the moment i became a leader, paul had left, president trump did a stint he knew. aye and it walked and for and at the state division we really do republicans and once i come democrats on on the other. everyone wears a certain someone's site stands up, the other side stands up. i'm sitting down and we've gotten us lacking the last election. their site stands up, and it looks like you. looks like america.

every different walk of life. i look over, we stennett, would look like those restricted country club in america. i kind of slump that is that i'm either going to be the leader of a declining party or have to open this part of. i'm very proud of the fact that in those two election cycle we elected the w most republican women, both republican minorities ever before. that's our ability to win the places. when i got elected leader losi got elected speaker. we both come from this same state of california. donald m trump lost california y 5 million votes. do you know how many congressional seats did pelosi add to her majority when she became speaker from california? not one. she lost five. new york, arizona, washington. so the partyas found something different. how i come to this party is

really abraham lincoln, teddy roosevelt and reagan. you would find in d.c. or walk the mall, walk all the way to lincoln, walk up and always read the gettysburg address. for scores and seven years ago our forefathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated proposition that we are all equal. in the end it said of the people for the people by t the people shall not perish from earth. think for one moment what lincoln was saying. okay? we want the world power. we are fighting one another but he knew we would sustain ourselves with democracy of wepl the people. it's more powerful than anything else. nwhen you get down about democracy, but the most important thing when he writes conceived in liberty and dedicated proposition that we are all equal, name me one of the nation in the world that is conceived in liberty.

right?t? we strive to be a more perfect union. we are not perfect. but we have an ability to do it that's always nott pretty. so when something goes wrong we shouldn't say the whole system isis wrong. we have a system that allows us to correct that, to improve on that. we should be honest about what's wrong with the system and honest not getting to the bottom of the answer. if you have democracy don't think it's just e elected officials are going to solve the problem. it's all of us combined. >> you make a lot of concessions from the negotiations -- >> no, i didn't. that is such a misnomer in life. let me give you the truth about that. i'll give you the truth why i'mi mr. speaker, because one person am a member of congress slept with a 17-year-old. an ethics complainth that startd before i ever became speaker, and that's illegal and i'm going

to get tested d did he do it or not? i don't know but ethics is look at it. there's other peoplein in jail because of it. he wanted me to influence. you know what? so than the come out and they say because i kept government open, i would do it all over again. we are not going to pay our troops? i'm going to pay my trips. can't do the job? okay. when it comes to do concession, the motion to vacate about one person be able to make that motion, how long has that been in the rules? forever. the only time it was change was whener pelosi's became speaker e second time. she put the power with the minority leader. i think it's wrong. let them govern. now it takes 218 to have the rule package. there's nothing i can do. i had to fight people who voted for me anyway in the process. i have eight at the end. but everybody had to live by. i live by. i think it it if you would like to the if they think that was a smart phone, i don't think so.

i had the choice of having the vote of motion to vacate edges but the cards in the walkway, no, ind meet anybody stand up, . i think historically it will be viewed as a very sad thing that happened to our congress. >> do think it happensur again? do thinknk it could happen to te speaker. >> was no. aktwo things. the democrats will never let it happen. the interesting part, to one another story? okay. >> not this crowd. >> so i knew i needed to win the majority but 20 votes or i would have a problem. i knew on election night i had a problem. but i tried for speaker beforeph and that made a back injury and had to pull out. but as leader i've never lost a race. i thought i was best prepared for the job. so when people try to, and push it and i kept going, remember plosive speaker at the time. when election was over we were

at a meeting and she goes how you put the vote together? know, , cut this problem. they want to come back with a motion to vacate. just give it toiv them, , just e it to them. i told boehner, i told paul. we will table n that every time. whatever. when it came time, i guess she changed her mind. but when we went through the fight i had to go through 15 rounds. right? i'm irish, we box, it's okay. that only happened hapl war but i think it was a point that if 96% of the conference decide this is a person, what are you allowing 4%? he will not be able to govern. it's not about me being gone but because those eight who partnered with all the democrats, you see the conference is in disarray, right? because there's a consequences.

what if 96%nt to countries that that this person when election but four people said no, i'm never going to support them. in a democracy and in the republic, who has the power? >> two standing mics. starting lineup. where going to go to your questions very shortly. i a lot more that i have gunned his i may try to strangle them in periodically. also let me know where you're from and what you study. as you guys lining up, just staying on this thread for a moment. marjorie taylor greene is threatening to try to do to speaker johnson the same thing and it's around ukraine funding. so my question is, show the house fund, speaking of democracy, should the house vote to give aid to ukraine? because if they don't, president

zelensky has said they will lose the war. and if they do, does speaker johnson lose his job? >> this is what we should have started with. s now, what marjorie taylor greene is doing is not the same thing as matt gaetz. just a note inside politics very festive ways to introduce a motion.. you can make a privilege so it has to come up. you have to have a vote. marjorie taylor greene did not do that. so it's not exactly the same. what she's doing is raising an issue, which as a legislator has right to do. if you read through what she's saying is, and if i sound this with marjorie, you should sit down and talk to her. she's not rigid. if you sit and -- you can come to an agreement. remember, our government is designed that one party doesn't control all. he got to a compromise it's just the way our government is set up. now, i am really worried what

the world looks like and you should be worried. is anybody in here a history major? it looks like 1930s. when was the last time you went and access to evil partner together to fight democracies? iran, russia, china, north korea. you had italy, germany and japan. when was the last time you had somebody, if you look at putin, he's done many of exact same actions as hitler. hitler served in the german army in world war i. he hated that his leadership signed to treat upper side, so much when world war ii when they took france he brought the same railcar back. what does hitler do? he created a new party and he ran into democracy, again and again and again, until he took power to change it. then he went directly against the treaty of versailles and a

rebuilt his military. but the world power said that's because they thought he would keep the colonists at bay. what did you do? took part of czechoslovakia, right? and then what did he do? he created the access. then he told the entire world is going to take the rest of czechoslovakia on a given day. so world power could no longer ignore. so then comes nevil chamblee. hitler does it because it equalizes them to the world power. neville champlin says world peace for our time. hitler sees weakness. and plansan a year later and invades poland and world war iii begins in theld world is changed forever. putin doesn't serve in the soviet military but pfizer's in the kgb. he hated that his leadership collapsed the soviet union to the west. so much so when gorbachev died two years ago he wouldn't attend the funeral. what did you do? he learned that a military makes

you strong dependency make you weak. he rebuilds of military based upon the natural resources of russia. an old pipeline that goes through using kgb tactic to push europe to buy more natural gas. when the powers of ukraine changed he no longer wants to pay the dividends. what did he do? he propose a new pipeline. not to go to any country but to go through the ocean. nord stream ii. locals say great. the only countries to put sanctions on is america. what does it do under the offices of president bush, president obama? he invades other countries, georgia. he takes part of the donbas. the world power sanctions and at the time that kind of he gets away with it, right? he puts 100,000 troops along the border of ukraine. ukraine. every president is going to give pressure when they come in. he's threatened. but when he got his meeting with

joe biden before geffen beating he went to the olympics in china tocr create the axis, the partnership with china, north korea and with iran. and then what happened at that meeting? biden lifted all the sentient on nord stream ii. he watched the fall of afghanistan, bullied ukraine would bewo just as fast. in 2015 i went to ukraine as a member of a congress with a bipartisan group. russia had invaded them. i watched halfssas of ukraine i, how tough the grainy people fought fought for the own defense against his russian defense. they were still holding them back. i went to the white house with a bipartisan group to meet with the person in charge of ukraine. you know what that was? vice president joe biden. i sat in the situation with republican and democrat members and advocated, could we sell them javelins, , a defensive weapon to stop tanks? joe biden at the time told me know.

local would like to. i solicited this. let's train thems on and keep them in poland so we can move them rapidly. said no, we can't do that. we should find ukraine. for the same purpose we should secure our own border. now i disagree with people in america who said you can only do one or the other. you have a government but you have to find compromise in. there's both parties that want some of both. why can't you make that agreement that we make everyday? i am worried it putin is successful you going to get this pushed everywhere else as well. .. and occasional. your name, but you are studying. >> nice to meet you. i'm from new jersey i'm studying

foreign service i'm a first year. i appreciate your comments especially just said about >> my question is about bipartisanship and in particular in the senate and the house. a lot of major bipartisan members of the senate are leaving in 2024, mitt romney, kyrsten sinema, jon tester may be on the rocks, who knows. my question, even though we're polarized right now politically on the face of things, these members have been pushing through a lot of bipartisan legislation which might stave off the polarization in the actual body. what do you think the future of the bipartisan looks like in the senate once they leave? >> look it, the senate is bigger than one person. i like everybody you talked about. i would work out with kyrsten

sinema. and the people that leave don't run for reelection is when they can't win. so, it's back in your own district whether you determine that. you're always going to have bipartisanship and because the bill says it's bipartisan, that doesn't mean it's good. i call a bill bipartisan all the time because i got one person on the other side. when it's designed to have compromise so what you really want, what i love-- i love the old schoolhouse rock. build the bill on all sides. and when i became speaker, open rules, several years. all four years of speaker pelosi and the time of paul ryan, never did a bill come to the floor when it bill came to have an amendment. you represent all of these people, why can't they have a voice? i think the structure is broken down. the reason why the names you

said are not running were not rewarding that type of work. so, how we get our news i think is a big problem. so you would all sit here and i'd ask you who is your favorite people or what do you want in elected official, i want somebody who works with both sides of the aisle, but that's not what shows up in the ballot box and we also have so many races that aren't competitive anymore, so it's all about a primary and then on both sides they're going further the other way that makes it harder there. look, our government is designed this way. it's been worse than other days. it's more about redistricting inside the house, but the senate, there is no redistricting, you have the whole state. you'll see it, it will rock back and forth, but sinema, if you looked at her early career, wasn't there. if you look at mitt romney when he was running for president he wasn't the same mitt romney he was todayment today.

there's one book i'd recommend you to read, well a lot of books. adam's book, you would have a philosophical belief, but you only have this much of the information and you get new information and change your opinion, is that wrong? no, i think that's intellectual and you should challenge yourself on that. in today's society and somebody got more information, oh, i have a different opinion on this, the country would go after you. you would want to start rewarding that. tom cain is doing a great job. >> thank you for coming and answering questions. my name is kwan, i'm studying government, i'm a senior. under -- you talked a little about hanging chads and inconsistencies across the country when it comes to elections, but under your leadership, the republican party blocked at every turn democratic attempts to standardize elections across the country.

and you yourself, after january 6th, you went down to mar-a-lago and you stood beside a person who after many frivolous lawsuits were thrown out, you said this is still the guy that should be leading our party. so do you feel that you have turned your back on democracy to any degree? >> okay. thank you for the question. [applause] >> now, most in this whole place by saying, we have a distrust in democracy. so if i let your question stand and just answer it the way it was, then people would think what you said was true. okay? so that's unfair so i have to challenge you back, not in a disrespectful way. so the first premise is that we denied any election change in the leadership, the answer is no. we actually proposed a lot. i was in the minority at the time we couldn't get through. if you look at my job as

speakership, yeah, we ran a whole new bill that was going through that opened it up more. you said i stood and said-- that's not true. did i go to mar-a-lago, but i didn't say that at mar-a-lago for that basis, right? so that's not true. i also have another philosophy, whether i like you or dislike you, if something bad happens in your life, i want to be the first person to call you because one thing i learned in life is, we have too many facebook friends, we don't have real friends. the first thing that happens when something bad happens in your life, everyone abandons you. i want to call you not to help you with-- i just want to know how you're doing as a person. i do that on both sides of the aisle, as a person who i am i can do that. you can put anything you want me going into mar-a-lago, i got a phone call and i was down there doing a fundraiser would i come by and see the president? yeah. did i think all the attention--

you want the back story on that one, too? i get asked if i could come by and see. look, i like president trump, we have good relationships, we yell at each other at times, we had bad relationships at time. my relationship with him, i don't criticize him on tv i'll tell him back and forth, i think that's respectful. a lot of times he might hear things from me he might not want to do. if i'm going to be a real friend i tell you what i think. we'd had some heated conversations prior to this, and asked if i would come by and see him, and i happened to be in palm beach, could i come back to lunch. i said, yeah, 30 minutes later the new york times was had this, i thought i was going by, no one's going to know and now the press is around and they're trying to build something into it, i go in and i sit down for lunch and the first thing the

president says, did you leak this? i said no, i didn't-- did your staff leak this? no, i didn't tell my staff, do you think my staff leaked this? i said, no, no. he said who do you think leaked it? you. he looks at me and he said, well, it's good for both of us, you know? so, but you endorsed him this time, endorsed him before the iowa caucus. >> yeah. >> despite everything that happened post january 6th and everything that we've been talking about, you think he's the best person to lead our democracy. >> i think he is much better than our current president joe biden. let me make case, right? we could have a strong difference of opinion. >> and we do. >> (applause) >> but, let's -- i have served under both and i have watched

-- what happened in afghanistan never should have happened. i'm in the gang of eight. i get the exact same briefings. the decision that were made on how we left americans behind the 13,everything else, it's going to set our country back decades. moved awe lies closer to china and inflation, the last bill -- i'm sorry not one of the room that sat in the room that i know and negotiated bills with the current president. this is different than being the mayor. this different than anything else. this is the leader of the free world. i sit with other foreign leaders. i know what they say when they sit with president biden. and i'm sorry, even if this

entire room is democrats and wants to vote for a democrat, if i asked you privately, you'd all pick somebody else, too, wouldn't you? this is serious. there is a higher probability in simple statistics someone here in math that if joe biden is elected that he can't carry out his entire presidency. i also know who is running on our side. so i don't have a choice -- when i made a decision it was who was left. do i think who would do the best job, yeah, i've seen it. i know where we'd be stronger. i know where we would be-- we've evacuated five embassies. we've got war in europe. one of our greatest strengths is our natural resources. do you know america natural gas, how did russia become so strong, they sold their natural gas to europe.

do you realize if we replaced american national gas with russian natural gas in one year, we'd lower emissions 218 million tons? american natural gas is 40% cleaner and this president just stopped our ability to sell more of it. what does that do to our economy? what does it do to our world environment. so i've served with both people. it's not a hard decision for me because i think i'm making my vote based upon the america i want to leave for you. and i think you'll have less opportunities. we've got a debt crisis that's going to hit us and we can no longer ignore it. we've got a president that's making politics out of medicare and social security and won't let you debate it. we can't do that. we've got to wake up. we're all in this together. so, you can criticize me about who i want and have a different opinion, i'll respect your

opinion, but one thing i want in america we respect each other's opinion and you come from your opinion based upon your belief. remember, the other person comes from their beliefs. and we can come from differences, and come from that based on experience. based on my experience working with both men, it's not a hard decision. >> let's go to the next question. hi speaker mccarthy, i'm ben doolin, a center in the college from new york, majoring in physics and classics. in might of not passing border and military aid at president trump's, do you see derailing legislation-- >> you would say trump has the

power what comes to the floor. having been in that job, i had a very difficult situation, winning speaker you thought was tough. i thought after winning speaker, i had the debt ceiling, that's a serious issue. you could shut government down, that's not a big deal, but you can't default on the debt deal. as speaker, you've got to have a strategy, now you would all think this would be the best way. why don't you bring the four leaders together and solve it, wouldn't at that sound nice? that's the wrong thing to do as a speaker. remember, i'm sitting with majority of six and the democrats control the senate and the democrats control the white house. you have to-- if you're the majority you've got to use the majority. i said i'm only going to negotiate with the president because that's the best deal i'm going to get because the president will probably agree

to things that hakeem and schumer never could. if the president agrees, hakeem and schumer have to vote for it. i went to him in february, look, let's not play games with this, i want to come to an agreement. let's talk about it and not put the country in chaos. let's work together. good idea. well, schumer got to him and i don't -- i'd probably do the same thing, don't do with kevin, he's got a six seat majority, he can't put anything, push it up to the deadline, he'll fold, but i said no, so i'd go to the press every day and talk about it then i got my conference to vote for something. 48 hours later he calls, let's meet. right? but what does he do? smart move on his part, he brings the other leader, why? they can say no, can't do anything. what do i have to do? blow the meeting up. it's part of a strategy. after the first meeting in the oval the president says there

were three very professional leaders and one that was kind of a jerk, that was me. but it was my strategy, i had to get the others out of the room. right? so i can negotiate one-on-one. now, if you look at the end of the day, what we agreed to, $2 trillion cut to the deficit, welfare reform and these are things you never would have gotten if you sat there with bipartisan leaders, everybody could be no about something, right? i think if you look at when you're successful, usually divided government helps you to be successful. if you go back to bill clinton and newt gingrich, they balanced the budget because they were at a certain position because they had strength and had to come together to use the other side. now, what should have happened and if i was still leader, speaker, would have happened the next month, i wanted to do ukraine, but i knew ukraine was very important to the president. so, what i did when i did the

funding the government, if you notice i added disaster in there because we just had a terrible fire in hawaii, remember that, maui, and i wanted that out of everybody utilizing it. i wanted ukraine by itself with the border. and i don't care where you are, the border is a problem. do you know how many chinese dissidents we caught so far this year? this is the ones that we caught, 22,000. two years before it would have been 200. anybody here on the terrorist watch list? i would assume no, pretty hard to get it on it, right? in last february we caught more people on the terrorist watch list in one month than the last four years. you don't know who is coming across, you've got a problem. i believe democrats, and i don't just believe it i know it, please do something for the

border, it will save my in my election. they don't have the willpower to do it on their own, the package together so the speaker should sit down the with the president and negotiate it out and bring it to the floor. that's a sign of strength from both positions and that's what should happen. >> thank you. thanks. >> let's go over here. thank you, speaker mccarthy, my name is jason goodman, an mba student from los angeles and a fellow dodger fan. >> i went to korea to watch them play the padres. >> awesome. >> that was opening day. >> former president trump often uses rhetoric that immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country like hitler who i know you referenced earlier. can say why they use rhetoric. >> i don't know if he said that exact quote. i'm going to challenge that. >> yes, many times.

i've never heard him say that. look. my grandfather came from italy. my great grandfather came -- we are a country based upon immigrants. all basis, it's a strength within our nation that we unite together. so weigh that with a president who doesn't secure the border at all. so anybody could come through, you know. i've got hanging in my office, the ellis island papers of my grandfather coming here at age 14. guido paladino, asking for a better life. we have a system that works. if you want to rake me to support somebody and go through 100% of what they say, i can come back with all the things about joe biden, and you're going to support him. nobody is perfect in life. i'm a member of congress, i'm able to vote what i think is improper or what is proper and i think the country is based

upon our laws and our rules, so, yeah, people could have a difference of opinion, but i don't think that's what president trump believes my time around him. never heard it. >> hi, speaker mccarthy, my name is cally wicker, studying computer science and political science and just wanted to ask why-- when did you find out about trump's fake electorate scheme and why did you not do anything to stop it? >> when did i find out about his fake electorate scheme? >> yes. >> i didn't know that he had a fake electorate scheme. i met with him after the election. i talked about what to do, where to put the library, you could run later on the next time. so i don't know of a scheme. i've never found out about a scheme so from that perspective i don't know. >> i think we've got time for one-- >> i'll stay longer if they keep asking.

i don't have a job anymore. >> let's go over here. >> michael santist from the district. >> patrick, good man. >> i have a fun question, a serious question. the fun one why did you pick mchenry and this could also be fun is, so we talked about democracy and the threats to democracy and you have the weaponization committee that you did in the beginning. >> yes. >> can you talk about the weaponization of the judiciary system, the $90 million president trump had to pay for legal fees and how that can be a threat to democracy? >> it's a good discussion and we could come back and have this, when you think of threat to democracy i imagine most go to january 6th, would that be fair? is that fair? so let me ask you this question, is it a threat to democracy if you keep somebody

off ballot? just because you don't like them? i think it's a big threat to democracy. you know that's been happening in this election. is it a threat to democracy if you use the court system to try to stop somebody? no, come could be right, some could be wrong. and it seems like some of the cases, that's debate on all sides. the weaponization committee was really created to go to the heart of your first question about democracy itself. if people are on all sides believing we've got a problem and if you ignore it it gets worse. so i created a committee, and another committee i created was the select committee on china which has been an excellent committee. i want to frame that after i answer this, too. but get to the core. democrats can point to whoever they want. and sat down with hakeem and

what's concerning, elon musk is a friend of mine because we've done a lot of work about space. i would say in our relationship starting out he would come to me and say a lot of friends tell me you're the devil, but you're still nice. because i was conservative, they were not. and he buys twitter and wants to come see me, he watches which he never believed government was using to go after people. we think there's some bad people. no, paying them millions of dollars. what about this, is it a threat to democracy if there's a major story that comes out from a major newspaper and people who served in the intel in government from the cia director and others tell you it's russia's falsity right before an election and utilize

social media to say you cannot print other repost? is that a threat to democracy? you know what happened after the election? no, that's true, that really is hunter biden's laptop and 51 people who had top security clearance and ask them why did you say that? well, the guy who is the secretary of state today, who wasn't secretary of state then, but was helping in the campaign, called me and told me to write it down. that's a threat to democracy. so, you've got to bring it up. patrick mchenry, did you watch him being speaker? he was really good. banging that gavel down hard. so when you become speaker, you have to put a letter in for if something was to happen to you, right. the whole idea before this person is going to hang over and be able to do it. so i put a list in and i could rate everybody--

nobody sees what it is, now you all know because you had to open it. patrick wasn't my first one. i had him on the list, but i didn't think he would be used. two weeks prior when i figured this was going to happen and i figured they were going to win, i called patrick one night and i thought different ways, okay, if this happens, i don't think the dems will help me, i'm going to be in a fight and i thought at the time, all right, i'm going back to the 15 round. thinking strategically, who do i want in the chair as also on the floor working, but whoever holds that chair i want to pick the very best person that i would say what if something really did happen and that person has to be the speaker. patrick mchenry by far. they would have done a smart move when they couldn't decide who would be speaker to keep him there. he's been in leadership, he's been chairman. if you watched how he governed in a very fair manner and i think most people would look back and say that exact same thing. >> thank you. >> something you just said me

minded me of something in the news over the weekend. chairman mccaul of foreign affairs and chairman turner of intelligence, both over the weekend came out and said that russian propaganda has infected a good part of the republican base. two republican chairs and seeing it in conservative media and on the house floor. do you agree with them? >> they are rae referring to ukraine with somebody making the argument back to ukraine. >> yes. >> i think what's happening here, you see russia will put things out, this is happening in ukraine and someone repeats it by not checking it. that happens, there's other countries doing this -- that stuff to us every day. and listen, there's a lot of problems right now, but i'd also say if you are the leader of america and you think ukraine is important, you should speak to america about it. what's happening is members, members of reflective of their

district, right? the senate is like the wealthiest country club in the world. you ever go to the senate, it's pristine, no real visitors. the house is like having breakfast at a truck stop, okay? we're a microcosm of society and closer and reflective of what our district is saying so they're getting that feedback, hey. i think it's incumbent upon the president, he should be doing like in the history of america, have the fireside chats and tell america, why is ukraine important. you know what? 9/11 happened before some of you were even born, but it came from a foreign land and america thought wasn't that important to care about. they proved to us if we ignore certain things, it will reach us. there's a reason why america should lead, okay? there's not one american man or woman in uniform dying in

ukraine. but if we allow russia to come in and take another country, why can't china take something the next day, why can't iran? if you want to be the leader of the free world and bring everybody else together and somebody else is willing to fight and the other thing people don't quite understand. how many of you think that money goes to ukraine? nobody? so where does it go? you know where that money goes? the majority of the money doesn't go to ukraine, it goes to replenish our own weapons because we depleted them all. so if you don't fund it, you made america weaker. so we shipped them the weapons and now we've got to go rebuild the weapons so we can protect ourselves. i wouldn't want to leave us in a weaker position, but why isn't somebody out there telling us that? why doesn't the president, if he talks to america, every network will carry it, this is important, i know there's an election coming up, but i have

a job to look out for you and you know what's happening in ukraine? just what's happening in the rest of the world, it's becoming spring, and fighting is going to get bigger and we're losing ground to what was taken before and we told putin that he couldn't do this because why doesn't he go to the baltics next? we've watched world history wars are created this way. the money is to replenish all weapons so we're protected so somebody doesn't think that we're vulnerable and attack us again. don't look that far back, just go back to 9/11 when we thought we could ignore other parts of the world, they attacked us. and now what? those terrorist groups are rolling again. and we shouldn't look weak at this moment. >> mr. speaker, unfortunately, we're out of time. >> kicked out of this room. >> and we have profound disagreements on many issues. when i was at dnc i think i

wrote a few press releases hitting you over the head. >> it was. >> but i am so appreciative that you would come here to georgetown to have a free flowing conversation with me, but more importantly to take our student questions, that's why we exist so thank you for coming. >> i thank you. [applause] >> and i want to thank all of you for coming. we've got two more events this week, continuing with your theme on democracy. tomorrow at 5:30, an icc auditorium with congressman maxwell frost from protest to power, is it gen z's time to lead and thursday at 1:30 in gaston hall with former prime minister of the u.k. boris johnson. >> you'll like boris. tell him i said hi, he's funny. >> thank you, everyone.

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> three journalists are testifying on capitol hill on the importance of a free press and protections for journalists and their sources. among the witnesses is former cbs news correspondent

catherine herridge who had her personal files seized by the network shortly after she was laid off in february. the house judiciary committee should start shortly. live coverage here on c-span2. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> three journalists are testifying on capital hill this morning on protection of a free press. among the witnesses, former correspondent catherine herridge who had her personal finals seized when she was laid off in february. this hearing is scheduled to start shortly. live coverage on c-span2. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> three journalists are testifying on capitol hill this morning on the importance of a free press and protections for journalists and their sources. among the witnesses is former cbs news correspondent catherine herridge who had her personal files seized by the network shortly after she was laid off in february. this house judiciary subcommittee hearing should start shortly. live coverage here on c-span2.