krooech's -- c-span's tv networks and radio, plus a variety of compelling podcasts. c-span now is available at the apple store and google play. download it for free today. c-span now, your front-row seat to washington any time, anywhere. >> today, former secretary of state mike pompeo shares his views on public service and international affairs, including the ongoing war in ukraine. watch this conversation live starting at 3:30 p.m. eastern on c-span. also, c-span now, our free mobile video app, or online at c-span.org. >> earlier on capitol hill, house speaker kevin mccarthy spoke to reporters on his party's legislative agenda after the first week of legislative work in the 118th congress. he also talked about classified documents that were found at president biden's delaware home.

speaker mccarthy: thank you very much. i wanted to hold the first press conference here for a reason. just where those cameras sit under father sierra, if you listened to my speech, is my favorite place in this building. the reason why it's my favorite place is there's a little tile that this was the first chambers after we moved from philadelphia and that's where abraham lincoln's desk sat. in the back of the chamber, one-term congressman, with all

of the challenges that america faced, long hours, tough work, but as he sat there i imagined at times he would leek over at cleo. cleo writes down what is transpired in this house. he probably looked at that clock wondering how long it would go. that's the exact same view, the exact same clock. but if cleo continues to inscribe what has happened in the last five days, passed a rules package, that no longer the power rests with a view but to the voices of america of who they elect. we repealed and stripped the funding for 87,000 i.r.s. agents. government should be here to help you, not to go after you. be able to protect the unborn. we just protected the strategic petroleum reserve where the president can no longer deplete

and sell our oil to china. and we opened the house back up for the public, something the public has not been able to be a part of for the last couple years. that's just the first five days and we're just getting started. so we made a commitment to america and we're going to keep it. with that, let me open up for questions. reporter: you had a growing number of republican members that are calling on representative george santos to resign or not sit on committees. [indiscernible] admitted to lying to, stealing, why put him on a committee? speaker mccarthy: the leaders elected george santos. if there is a concern, he'll go through ethics. if something is find he will be dealt with. they have a voice in the process. yes. reporter: [indiscernible]?

speaker mccarthy: i didn't mention the other thing we did. pass the very bipartisan bill with 146 democrats, joining with us to create a new select committee on china that congressman galliher will chair. i met with leader hakeem on this -- hakeem jeffries. this will be a very bipartisan committee. i think it's very important. a number of reasons why i believe we have lost jobs to china, intellectual property, because many times we don't speak with one voice from america. what i am trying to accomplish is, get members on both sides of the aisle, from all different perspectives, not just from militarilily, from financial, from agriculture and others, to bring those jobs back to america, to make sure china's not with inside america, give a level playing field. we watched during covid, them controlling 50% of the market.

we watched from our medical pills and others what they control. this is something that is very not just disturbing to me but for the future of america. i would say in this first five days is probably one of the most powerful things we passed. the very bipartisan way a step forward. i would hope the senate will do it as well and we can speak with one voice as we move forward to bring the jobs back to america. yes. reporter: a lot of rumors about [indiscernible] side deals for you to get leadership. does the american people deserve to know all the -- speaker mccarthy: yeah. they deserve to know. and it's a commitment to america. there's not a side deal to anything. you watched the rules package. exactly the same rules package we had back on january 1. what does it do? the only change within is vacate the chair from five to one. the other thing we did and i'm glad you keep bringing this up.

we watch what is happening right now with the president of the united states. not once but now we're finding two different locations classified information just out there in the open. it just goes to prove -- and we're finding out now after being sworn in that this was discovered by the election. another faux pas by the biden administration, but treating law differently based upon your political beliefs. treats one -- president trump one way but treats president biden a whole different way. that's why we had to provide a new entity from our church style to look after the weaponization of what's gone on. you want a equal playing of the law to all americans. let him finish. reporter: this matter regarding the classified documents going to -- [indiscernible] speaker mccarthy: it can go from that committee to others but i think congress has to investigate this. here's an individual that's been in office more than 40 minutes.

sat on "60 minutes" that was so concerned about president trump's documents locked and now we find the president keeping it for years in the open in different locations. i do not think any american believes that justice should not be equal to all. and we found from this administration what happened before every single election whenever comes -- whatever comes up they tried to falsify it, they try to have different standards from their own beliefs, that doesn't work in america. reporter: do you trust someone who has admitted to lying about major assets he has, could be facing fraud charges from brazil, have access to top-secret information? speaker mccarthy: you're referring to george santos. he has a long way to go to earn trust. the one thing i do know, you apply the constitution equal to all americans. the voters of his district have elected him. he is seated. he's part of the republican conference.

there are concerns with it. so he will go before ethics. if anything is found to be wrong, he will be held accountable exactly as anybody else in this body would be. that is the fair way to handle anything. that's how i'll deal with any single issue that comes forward. reporter: do you see a difference in former president trump denies the requests for all hiss classified -- his classified documents -- turned in documents after finding them? speaker mccarthy: no. from one standpoint, they knew the documents were there. they actually asked president trump to put another lock on it. you look at president biden, he wasn't president. he was vice president. he held these in different locations right out in the open. he criticized president trump. did he utilize the justice department to raid president trump? do you think that was right? they knew this happened to president biden before the election but they kept it a secret from the american public. he goes on "60 minutes",

criticizes president trump even knowing what he was done when he wasn't president. he refused to -- his press secretary won't answer the questions. you watched the leaked photos of files. where are the photos of president biden's documents? he knew this going into an election, going into interviews. this is what makes america not trust government. you can't have one form of law because somebody philosophically has a different opinion than you and you can't use the justice department to go after people that are politically different as well. it has to be equal across and what i'm finding what's happened with president biden time and again, you go from a laptop saying not only that it wasn't true but utilizing your own friends to go into companies to tell them to say the same thing. to try to knock down information. to try to make sure the new york

post story couldn't be printed. you should be offended by that. you are of the press. you should be allowed to write even when you knew it was true. reporter: [indiscernible] would you be open to include higher taxes? speaker mccarthy: i watched when republicans were in power those eight years, discretionary spending increased zero. i watched democrat takeover for four years. they increased it by 30%. went from $4 trillion to $30 interest. i watched inflation go. we have to get our house in order. the one thing i will tell you as republicans, we will always protect medicare and social security. we will protect that for the next generation going forward. but we are going to scrutinize every single dollar spent. it's the hardworking taxpayer that actually pays it and we want to make sure it's spent

wisely. reporter: i want to ask -- [indiscernible] to expunge one of former president trump's impeachments. what do you think about that? speaker mccarthy: when you look -- when you find the final information that the russia document was all a lie, when you watch -- i understand why members would want to bring that forward. our first priority is to get our economy back on track, secure our borders, make our streets safe again, give parents the opportunity to have a say in their kids' education, and actually hold government accountable. i understand why individuals would want to do it and we'll look into it. reporter: a bunch of republicans, about 20 of them left, called on speaker pelosi at the time to release the capitol hill security footage, all things that happened on that day. is that something you would be interested in doing? congressman gaetz said you would

be willing to do that. speaker mccarthy: i watched what nancy pelosi did, where she politicized it. where for the first time in the history as a speaker not allowing the minority to appoint to a committee, to pick and choose. we watched the politicalization of this. i think the american public should see what happened instead of a report that's written for a political basis. i think the answer -- we're looking through that. i want to be very thoughtful about that. yes. i want to be engaged in that. reporter: on the debt ceiling, can you guarantee republicans will provide votes necessary to raise the debt ceiling and avoid -- speaker mccarthy: look, we want to put any fiscal problems to our economy and we won't. fiscal problems is continuing to do business as usual. i remember when trump was president and nancy pelosi was speaker, they became a debt ceiling agreement and it was a cap agreement for two years. to cap the spending and make those decisions. this is something that people

have utilized. i ask all of you and all americans -- if you have a child and you give them a credit card and they spend the limit, so you increase the limit again and again and again, when does it end? we got to change the way we are spending money wastefully in this country. and we're going to make sure that happens. it's the hardworking taxpayers. paul, how are you? it's good to see you. reporter: senator cornyn became dismissive of some of the house republican plans [indiscernible] speaker mccarthy: what did he say? reporter: i don't have the exact quote. [indiscernible] speaker mccarthy: that's interesting because in the house here, we just have probably one of the biggest bipartisan votes to have a select committee on china. is the senate even in this week? what did they do this week? oh, yeah, they haven't done

anything. so i think the house has been very productive in the first five days. yes, i sat down with all of the republican senators and talked to them about ways that they can be more productive. they didn't even pass one appropriation bill last year. they didn't even pass an ndaa. so the ways we can make the senate more productive would be great. i think us working together will help them in the process to do that. yes, ma'am. reporter: [indiscernible] you may have brokered some kind of deal with the [indiscernible] speaker mccarthy: i'd say they're wrong. reporter: [indiscernible] on the rules package, are you concerned that moderates will do the same? speaker mccarthy: look, we are one party. we don't have just one idea but we go from the reagan philosophy, if we agree with people 80% of the time we're all together. i like having a party so large

that you have a lot of beliefs inside it. you have a foundation of our beliefs. and i think what we went through last week will only make us stronger in the long run. reporter: you mentioned a cap agreement, a budget cap agreement alongside the debt ceiling. is that one of the things [indiscernible] speaker mccarthy: i laid out an example what happened last time when nancy pelosi was speaker, that's what transpired. to get a debt ceiling, they also got a cap on spending for the next two years. spending is out of control here. there's been no oversight. and we cannot continue around the same process. i had a very good conversation with the president when he called me. i told him i'd like to sit down with him early and work through these challenges. because, yes, your question earlier, paul, the house is different. the american public made a decision where they fired the democrats and they put us in charge. we put out a commitment to america to tell them exactly what we would do if they gave us the power. and in this first week, we

continue to keep that commitment. we repealed 87,000 i.r.s. agents. we created a select committee on china to bring the jobs back. we continued to work for the -- going after accountability in this government. the church-style committee of where we're going. we just stopped the raid of our petroleum reserve so it won't be sold to china anymore. we continue to keep our promises. you'll watch it week after week after week. yes, ma'am. reporter: are you concerned that the -- [indiscernible] speaker mccarthy: no. mine wasn't ignoring a subpoena. i said i would gladly go if we got people to appoint the committee. it wasn't political. you will find the fundamental difference of me being a speaker and nancy pelosi. the other side will get to name their members on the committee. it won't be hand picked by me

and denying the democrats their voice. so whatever transpires out of that committee is work for republicans and democrats to move forward. reporter: [indiscernible] you said you would [indiscernible] you also indicated [indiscernible] speaker mccarthy: i was very clear early on. let me bring something very direct to you. if you got the briefing i got from the f.b.i., you wouldn't have swalwell on any committee. and you tell me that other democrats can't fill that slot? he can't get a security clearance in the private sector. so would you like to give him a government clearance? you ask me questions about santos. you asked the questions about swalwell. not only was he getting a clearance, he was inside an intel committee. he had more information than the majority of all the members. did you ever raise that issue? no. but you should have.

you're going to tell me there's 200 other democrats that couldn't fill that slot but they kept him on it? the only way that they even knew it came forward is when they went to nominate him to the intel committee and then the f.b.i. came and told the leadership then he's got a problem. and they kept him on. that jeopardized all of us. adam schiff openly lied to the american public. he told you he had proof. he told you he didn't know the whis blow. he put -- whistleblower. he put america for four years through an impeachment that he knew was a lie. at the same time we had ukraine, at the same time we had afghanistan collapse. was that the role of the intel committee? no. so what i am doing with the intel committee, bringing it back to the jurisdiction it's supposed to do, forward looking to keep this country safe. keep the politics out of it. so yes, i'm doing exactly what we're supposed to do.

last question. no. right here. i'll -- you go first. let her go first. let her go first. reporter: congress has priorities to investigate biden's classified documents but you don't that congress has the priority to investigate [indiscernible] speaker mccarthy: what's an interesting question to me is, who is the special prosecutor? they raided mar-a-lago when he was gone? they came in with sirens even though they knew it was there. put another lock on it. if asked they could have picked it up. why would me do that? -- why would they do that? why would they go after a political oopponent that way -- opponent that way, leak photos? why would they go through the former first lady's clothing? why would they raid in the manner they did? at the same time prior to an election you found a sitting president when he was vice president with top-secret

documents. why did they handle that differently? we live in america. we believe in equal justice. why did they not say anything? how do we find out a second location and he's shocked by it? why aren't you asking him these questions? why doesn't he come forth to the american public? we don't think there needs to be a special prosecutor but i think congress has a role. yes, last question. reporter: as a member of congress, have you ever used a lawyer [indiscernible] speaker mccarthy: a lawyer or attorney -- i have a lawyer. i don't know the point. help me further. reporter: [indiscernible] speaker mccarthy: no. i use my hands and my own. i think it's kind of -- i think if you call a lawyer to remove something from your office he must have known ahead of time. i think he has a lot of answers

to the american public. the good thing about that is, the american public has a congress that can get the answers. thank you, all. i hope you all have a great weekend. >> c-span is youunltered view of government. we're funded by these television companies and more, including cox. >> homework can be hard. but squatting in a diner for internet work is even harder. that's why we're providing lower income students access to affordable internet so homework can just be homework. cox, connect to cpete. >> cox supports c-span as a public service alongith these other levision providers giving you a front-row seat to democracy. >> today, former secretary of state mike pompeo shares his views on public service and international affairs. including the ongoing war in ukraine. watch this conversation live starting at