The Michael Knowles Show - Introducing The Isabel Brown Show： Inside the Shutdown with Speaker Mike Johnson

00:00:00.000 As you know, the Daily Wire added an incredible new talent to our lineup.

00:00:04.040 The Isabel Brown Show premiered on Daily Wire Plus on September 8th, and she has been killing it.

00:00:09.020 Smart, unapologetic coverage of politics, culture, science, faith, and everything in between.

00:00:14.260 Every weekday, Isabel takes on the most interesting issues,

00:00:18.360 from real discussions about what it'll take to save Western civilization,

00:00:22.220 to her perspective as a new wife and mom.

00:00:25.240 This is your invitation to watch The Isabel Brown Show live every weekday at 12 p.m. Eastern on Daily Wire Plus,

00:00:33.020 or find and follow wherever you listen to podcasts.

00:00:36.600 But today, all I need you to do is keep listening right here.

00:00:40.580 You are about to hear Isabel Brown with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on the government shutdown.

00:00:45.280 What happened? Who's really responsible? And what comes next?

00:00:48.820 This is The Isabel Brown Show.

00:00:51.320 Speaker Johnson, thank you so much for taking a few minutes out of your very, very busy schedule.

00:00:54.740 For young people today, the media is very much twisting the narrative of what a government shutdown even is

00:01:00.620 and how we got here.

00:01:01.520 So for our viewers who might be the average 18-year-old that didn't get the world's best civics education,

00:01:06.820 can you explain what's going on this week?

00:01:08.660 I don't blame anybody for not understanding all that.

00:01:10.940 It's kind of complicated.

00:01:11.860 But let me make it really simple, okay?

00:01:14.160 Go back to the 1974 Budget Control Act, okay?

00:01:17.280 There's a federal law that says the way that Congress is supposed to spend taxpayer dollars is very,

00:01:23.840 with great stewardship, okay?

00:01:25.160 You're supposed to do 12 separate appropriations bills every year.

00:01:28.700 And why is that important?

00:01:29.880 Because if you divide all the federal funding into 12 separate categories,

00:01:33.380 then you can accurately debate it and have dialogue and have thoughtful conversation.

00:01:38.160 Gee, what is the best use of taxpayer dollars?

00:01:40.060 We want to spend it efficiently and effectively, right?

00:01:42.040 So you divide all the government into 12 different categories and you do that.

00:01:46.100 Here's the problem.

00:01:47.060 Congress hasn't done that for a long, long time, okay?

00:01:49.320 Because Congress has a tendency to not do its duty and responsibility because it's hard work.

00:01:53.960 So what they do instead is they kick the can down the road until the end of the year,

00:01:57.580 usually right about Christmastime, and there's a giant omnibus spending bill.

00:02:01.680 You heard the term omnibus, right?

00:02:03.560 And that's where they just cram everything in all at once.

00:02:06.120 The bill is sometimes 2,000 pages long.

00:02:08.160 No one's read it, understood it, not debated it.

00:02:10.240 And it's massive amounts of money, trillions of dollars all at once.

00:02:13.740 That is bad stewardship, okay?

00:02:15.720 So I became Speaker almost two years ago in October of 23.

00:02:19.140 I was not expecting to have the job.

00:02:21.080 And I'm a fiscal conservative, and I'm worried about Congress being irresponsible with taxpayer funds.

00:02:27.240 And so I made it a commitment after I became Speaker that I would force the muscle memory back to Congress

00:02:31.960 to make them do what we call regular order,

00:02:34.900 and that is 12 separate appropriations bills going through both chambers and working through it.

00:02:38.320 But it's taken a long time to do that because it's like pushing a boulder up a hill

00:02:42.480 and trying to force people into this job.

00:02:44.900 But the good news is we did it.

00:02:47.140 And this year, the House Appropriations Committee, in a bipartisan fashion,

00:02:51.880 using our Republican majority, we got 12 separate appropriations bills done through committee.

00:02:56.600 We got three of them passed off the floor.

00:02:59.040 The Senate, for the first time in years, passed three separate bills off the floor on their side.

00:03:03.740 The problem is those three bills don't match up exactly.

00:03:06.900 So what happens in our process is that if there's a difference between the two chambers,

00:03:11.480 then you have a subset of members of both chambers who go to what's called a conference committee

00:03:15.760 to work out the differences.

00:03:17.300 That's it.

00:03:18.020 They've finished that up.

00:03:19.220 They send it to the president for signature.

00:03:20.800 We're in the middle of that process, okay?

00:03:22.220 And it's a big thing, a big achievement to get Congress back to it, but we ran out of time

00:03:26.780 because the end of the fiscal year is September 30th, not the end of the calendar year.

00:03:31.860 So here we are on the eve of that.

00:03:34.120 So what do we do?

00:03:35.240 Well, we have the majority in both chambers.

00:03:37.280 Republicans are in charge.

00:03:38.360 We're sensible.

00:03:39.040 We're responsible.

00:03:40.440 We're efficient, effective government people.

00:03:42.320 So we said, let's do a short-term stopgap funding measure called a CR.

00:03:47.920 We call it a continuing resolution to keep the government open for seven more weeks to

00:03:52.480 November 21st.

00:03:53.840 Why?

00:03:54.360 We're just trying to buy time.

00:03:55.540 We just want to have a little more time for the appropriators to finish this process

00:03:58.160 and get it done.

00:03:58.880 Get the bills to President Trump's desk and get them done.

00:04:02.060 And that's a simple thing.

00:04:03.820 Chuck Schumer and all the Democrats here have given speeches for decades about how you can't

00:04:07.720 shut the government down and you've got to keep it open.

00:04:10.020 Suddenly, he just changed his tune, though.

00:04:11.560 And so they voted against it.

00:04:13.540 Now, they've done that a few times.

00:04:15.380 Leader Thune in the Senate is going to continue to put the House's bill, because we passed

00:04:19.020 it in the House two weeks ago.

00:04:20.900 We had one Democrat join us.

00:04:23.300 The rest of them voted to shut the government down.

00:04:25.500 But we got it done.

00:04:26.380 We sent it to the Senate, and that's where it sits.

00:04:28.460 So here's the problem.

00:04:29.780 The clock ran out September 30th.

00:04:31.520 So at midnight on October 1, you know, today, we shut the government down.

00:04:36.840 Now, what's the problem?

00:04:37.700 That's a serious problem because there are real Americans affected by this nonsense.

00:04:42.300 Two questions that ought to be answered there.

00:04:43.900 Number one, why is Chuck Schumer doing this?

00:04:46.500 Why did he change his tune?

00:04:47.500 The guy's been in Washington, like, longer than you and I, almost longer than I've been

00:04:50.940 alive, okay?

00:04:52.040 And he's always been against this.

00:04:53.560 He said it was dangerous, and we'd be derelict in our duty.

00:04:56.200 And how could you crush the American people when suddenly he's doing it?

00:04:59.200 Here's the answer.

00:05:00.480 J.D.

00:05:00.780 Vance said it today.

00:05:01.660 I've said it.

00:05:02.140 We've all pointed it out.

00:05:03.820 It's a good question, and the answer's simple.

00:05:05.780 Chuck Schumer is running scared of the far-left base of his party.

00:05:09.280 He's up for re-election in a couple years, and he's afraid that AOC is going to challenge

00:05:13.420 him because the Marxists are taking over the party.

00:05:15.700 Now, Chuck Schumer's a far-left legislator.

00:05:17.980 He's not quite liberal enough for all of them, so he's got to show a fight.

00:05:21.400 He's got to show that he's fighting Trump, so he's decided to shut the government down.

00:05:24.800 Here's what happens.

00:05:25.560 Real people get hurt.

00:05:26.560 Yeah.

00:05:27.060 I mean, you're talking about the WIC program, right?

00:05:30.180 Women, Infants, and Children Nutrition Supplemental Program.

00:05:33.560 It's not funded anymore because we don't have the ability to send the money because they

00:05:36.500 just dried it up.

00:05:37.740 You've got soldiers, TSA agents, Border Patrol agents who do have to go to work, but they're

00:05:42.680 not going to get paid.

00:05:43.720 It's a real problem.

00:05:44.660 I mean, if somebody's, let's say there's a young soldier who's deployed overseas right now,

00:05:49.060 left his young wife and two small children at home, they're not going to get their monthly

00:05:53.180 paycheck.

00:05:53.800 They don't get it until all this is resolved.

00:05:56.200 You have real problems with FEMA, for example.

00:05:59.580 We're in the middle of hurricane season.

00:06:00.740 I'm from Louisiana.

00:06:01.500 This is serious business.

00:06:02.840 As we sit here today, there are two hurricanes off the eastern seaboard of the United States.

00:06:07.720 If your flood insurance lapses, or if you buy a new home and you need a new insurance

00:06:11.560 policy, you can't get that right now because FEMA just got shut down for those services. 0.96

00:06:16.320 All sorts of veterans' health care.

00:06:18.240 We run the suicide prevention programs every day through this.

00:06:22.700 They just got shut down.

00:06:23.840 I mean, this is real stuff.

00:06:25.780 People get harmed, and it's totally unnecessary, and Chuck Schumer's doing it for politics.

00:06:31.080 This idea of gravitating towards Marxism, what specifically are some of these initiatives

00:06:35.320 that Chuck Schumer's pushing for?

00:06:37.080 Well, when we say big government liberals, I mean, these guys are taking it to the next

00:06:40.880 level, okay?

00:06:42.180 Marxism, of course, you know, communism and socialism are sort of branches of that underlying philosophy,

00:06:47.060 right?

00:06:47.240 And socialism is you just want the government to take over everything, basically, and all

00:06:51.040 means of production and control and everything.

00:06:53.200 That's what they're moving towards.

00:06:54.420 So instead of the simple seven-week stopgap funding measure, a clean continuing resolution,

00:07:00.920 clean, we said we didn't add any of our Republican or conservative priorities to it.

00:07:05.780 We just status quo for seven more weeks, really just buying time.

00:07:08.900 And instead of just voting on that, which he always has through his whole career, and

00:07:13.720 they did 13 times during the Biden administration, okay, over the last previous four years, Chuck

00:07:18.960 Schumer votes no.

00:07:19.980 And instead, he sends us a counterproposal.

00:07:22.700 Well, guess what's in that?

00:07:23.660 He wants to add $1.5 trillion, with a T, dollars in new spending on a seven-week stopgap funding

00:07:31.020 measure.

00:07:32.020 And included in that, they want to make sure they would give health care to illegal aliens 0.98

00:07:35.860 again.

00:07:36.120 Naturally, yes.

00:07:37.000 Which would just stop.

00:07:37.880 And they want to claw back $50 billion that we put into a rural hospital fund to prop those 0.93

00:07:45.180 up, because many of them are in real financial straits.

00:07:49.760 And people say, why would he do that?

00:07:51.700 Well, you think about it.

00:07:52.860 A lot of those rural counties and areas are in red states.

00:07:55.500 I mean, you have to wonder what kind of thought went into this.

00:08:00.240 They just completely overplayed their hand.

00:08:02.440 And it's absurd.

00:08:03.680 Right before I walked into here, I've been on the phone with the president for the last

00:08:06.620 hour.

00:08:07.540 And he and I were talking.

00:08:08.340 He said, Mike, I can't believe how crazy this is.

00:08:11.080 There's nothing for us to negotiate, because the president likes to make a deal, right?

00:08:14.940 Mr. President, there's nothing to make a deal with it.

00:08:16.920 There's nothing we can give.

00:08:17.920 We didn't put any of our priorities.

00:08:19.460 There's nothing I can take back to sweeten the deal.

00:08:21.980 He goes, I can't believe Schumer did that.

00:08:24.300 I can't either.

00:08:25.500 But he painted himself into a corner.

00:08:27.420 That's the part that I think is so fascinating to me, is I keep trying to ask myself and

00:08:31.280 give the benefit of the doubt here to the left on any sort of political legitimacy to

00:08:35.820 this game whatsoever.

00:08:37.520 And yet, I don't think they're aware of where the average American, particularly young Americans,

00:08:42.020 are at right now, especially critical of big government policies.

00:08:46.060 You know, I'm a very close friend of Charlie Kirk, and the last few weeks has been incredibly

00:08:49.820 fascinating.

00:08:50.720 Obviously, heartbreaking as well.

00:08:51.860 But so stirring to see how young people are responding to this and becoming more generally

00:08:56.720 conservative and skeptical of big government.

00:08:59.320 And yet, they seem completely unaware of that from the left side of the aisle here.

00:09:02.740 Well, two things explain it.

00:09:03.940 Trump derangement syndrome is very real.

00:09:05.860 You know, they just, they can't, they can't countenance him at everything he says or does. 0.88

00:09:11.360 They're instinctively for the opposite, no matter how crazy, right?

00:09:14.100 And then you had the woke progressive left that effectively took over the party a few

00:09:18.720 years back.

00:09:19.500 And they're driving that party right off a cliff.

00:09:21.580 This is not your grandfather's Democratic Party, right?

00:09:23.680 This is a far different, they actually are Marxists.

00:09:27.180 In fact, they're literally going to elect a Marxist as the mayor of America's largest

00:09:30.880 city in a few weeks.

00:09:32.840 It's a stunning development.

00:09:34.780 And we've been mourning Charlie's loss.

00:09:37.060 He was a friend of mine as well, as you know.

00:09:38.400 And I think I spoke at four vigils for him over the last couple of weeks.

00:09:42.900 I was speaking at the Kennedy Center, which is the one we did here in DC for him.

00:09:46.940 And there and at all the vigils I spoke at, and of course, at the event in Arizona, I

00:09:50.920 know, I mean, you were there.

00:09:51.840 It's amazing.

00:09:52.980 The numbers of people that turned out and the numbers of young people who are both so 0.52

00:09:58.280 broken because they feel so close to Charlie, you know, this voice is ubiquitous and his

00:10:02.660 image, they're all involved in Turning Point and many more want to be now.

00:10:06.500 So they're mourning that, but at the same time, they feel like there's this sort of

00:10:10.080 burning desire to just get engaged and get involved, right?

00:10:13.460 The Charlie Kirk effect, we're calling it, and it's real.

00:10:16.000 And what I said, I summarized in all the comments that I made, I said, you know, if we're going

00:10:20.020 to honor the life and legacy of Charlie, the best thing we can do is live like Charlie

00:10:24.600 did, right?

00:10:25.540 And two things, you advance his principles and you adopt his approach.

00:10:30.480 Yeah.

00:10:30.780 The approach was one in love.

00:10:32.020 He's trying to win over hearts and minds and he was never hateful.

00:10:34.620 So Charlie was like me.

00:10:36.220 Mike Huckabee said one time, he's running for governor of Arkansas many years ago, he

00:10:39.140 said, you know, I'm a conservative, but I'm not mad at anybody.

00:10:42.340 I mean, that's our approach, right?

00:10:44.420 We're going to be winsome warriors, but you have to be prepared to give an answer for those

00:10:48.320 that you have, as scripture says, and be ready for those debates.

00:10:51.420 And Charlie was, but he never hated anybody on the other side of the table.

00:10:55.040 That kind of message, the hopeful message, the things that he articulated, faith, family,

00:10:59.560 freedom, patriotism, American exceptionalism, people respond to that.

00:11:04.680 And it's in one sense, in my view, it's a response to the woke progressive nihilism that

00:11:10.500 just leads to emptiness and despair and hopelessness.

00:11:14.260 It's an offer of hope and eternity and real truth.

00:11:17.380 And that's what people are yearning for, you know?

00:11:19.360 But if we present that in a political context and we show how those things connect, which

00:11:23.420 Charlie was an expert at doing, now you're really good.

00:11:26.580 And people get engaged for that.

00:11:28.760 We're starting to see that generational shift and the Charlie Kirk effect here on the Hill.

00:11:32.580 I know there's one Turning Point USA alum who's a member of Congress, Representative Luna,

00:11:36.820 who's quite remarkable.

00:11:38.460 And we go way back to see her journey has been absolutely incredible.

00:11:41.860 How do you think that's going to impact the future of the party here on the Hill? 0.98

00:11:44.580 I know generationally, young people are all about big government sucks and socialism sucks.

00:11:49.180 So you're seeing that tug of war happen even on the right side of the political aisle today.

00:11:52.680 How do you think that impacts the shutdown and your agenda moving forward?

00:11:55.360 There's an old saying, if the people will lead, the leaders will follow, right?

00:11:59.380 And so what you'll see is, and you've already seen it, it inspires more backbone and confidence

00:12:04.560 in people who actually believe those things or were reluctant to talk about it.

00:12:08.560 I became speaker a couple years ago.

00:12:10.220 The first thing I did was I did an interview.

00:12:13.020 Well, I did my floor speech and I did an interview with Hannity and we'd just go live

00:12:15.700 that night.

00:12:16.240 And I mean, this is unrehearsed and unprepared because I wasn't expecting to get the job.

00:12:19.720 And he says, people don't know anything about Mike Johnson.

00:12:22.040 He said, what could you say, how could you summarize, you know, what you believe, your

00:12:25.980 philosophy?

00:12:26.480 And I said, I didn't think, I just, I didn't have talking points over here.

00:12:29.560 And I said, well, Sean, I don't know, it's pretty simple for me.

00:12:32.660 If you want to know what I think about anything, go dust off the Bible on your shelf.

00:12:35.520 That's pretty, you know, I'm a Bible-believing Christian.

00:12:37.220 I, you know, I had no idea what a landmine that was.

00:12:40.940 Um, and, and they came after me with sharp knives, you know, but, uh, some of us have

00:12:46.280 always spoken like that.

00:12:47.400 We've been trying to bring back those principles.

00:12:50.160 Charlie, Charlie was about, what I loved about our friend was he, he liked the temporal policy

00:12:54.960 debates.

00:12:55.520 He was about the temporal things, but he was much more about the eternal things, the permanent

00:12:59.240 things, you know, and I try to, and I have always tried to weave that into everything

00:13:02.840 we do.

00:13:03.540 And now more and more people are seeing it that way.

00:13:06.560 And you've heard people as high ranked as the vice president say in the last few days,

00:13:10.860 I've spoken more about my faith in Christ for over the last two weeks than I had, you

00:13:15.100 know, he said.

00:13:15.660 Ever before.

00:13:16.300 Yeah.

00:13:16.920 And everybody's doing that now.

00:13:18.660 So it's so refreshing to us because we're walking around like, wow, we're not the freaks

00:13:22.160 anymore.

00:13:22.600 Like, oh, this is the thing.

00:13:23.760 Everybody, welcome to the party.

00:13:25.560 And more, more people are more, uh, I think, you know, open about what they really believe.

00:13:31.740 And what is the, what is the core foundational principle behind the policies that we're

00:13:36.400 advancing?

00:13:37.260 That's what wins over the hearts and minds.

00:13:38.960 And that, and we have a real opportunity to do that now.

00:13:41.020 Last question for you.

00:13:41.840 If you're giving a message to the next generation for what to expect out of this shutdown and

00:13:45.660 in general, what to expect out of this Congress, what can we expect to see in the next few

00:13:50.020 days and months?

00:13:51.240 Well, you can make an argument really objectively.

00:13:53.700 The first six months of this Congress was the most productive success of any in memory,

00:13:57.720 maybe of all time.

00:13:59.700 Going back to the American Revolution.

00:14:01.400 Why?

00:14:01.560 Because we had unified government.

00:14:02.740 So we had President Trump in the White House and you have Republicans in charge of the

00:14:06.780 Senate and the House because we got a mandate in the election in 24 and we acted on that.

00:14:11.160 So we did the big, beautiful bill and this, you know, marquee legislative achievements with

00:14:15.500 the smallest margin in U.S. history.

00:14:17.200 I had a one vote margin for 90 of the first hundred days.

00:14:20.040 You know, we have defied expectation because the Republicans stayed unified.

00:14:24.480 And my message to all my colleagues is as long as we can do that, we are unlimited in

00:14:28.560 the potential of what we can achieve.

00:14:30.280 So we're planning more of those big marquee pieces of legislation.

00:14:34.140 The big, beautiful bill, the Working Families Tax Cuts Bill, we call it, was a reconciliation

00:14:39.160 bill, which you can do.

00:14:41.220 You don't need 60 votes in the Senate, which is the normal case.

00:14:44.280 You can do it with a bare majority.

00:14:45.740 So we're planning reconciliation 2.0 right now for the fall.

00:14:49.220 I'd like to do a third one in the spring before we're done with this Congress.

00:14:51.920 And then we have some other marquee things that we're doing in addition to all the things

00:14:56.260 the president's done with executive orders that we're codifying, putting into written

00:15:00.080 law.

00:15:00.800 So regulatory reform, tax cuts, and pro-growth policies for the economy, but then also changing

00:15:07.360 the size and shape and scope of government all at once.

00:15:10.500 I mean, this is something that many of us have been working on for our whole lives, you

00:15:14.080 know, and we have marquee achievements for all these things, but there's more to come.

00:15:17.740 And then we go into an election year, the midterm election next year.

00:15:21.100 I just literally got off the phone with the president and he said, Mike, I can't

00:15:24.300 believe, sorry, I'm doing his voice.

00:15:26.760 You're pretty good at it, so we'll keep it.

00:15:28.360 It's only twice in 90 years, you know, the president's picked up seats in the fifth

00:15:32.220 midterm.

00:15:32.660 I said, but you're going to do it, sir.

00:15:34.000 We're going to define history.

00:15:35.620 Lots of reasons for that.

00:15:36.780 But we had a demographic shift in 2024.

00:15:38.800 We'll keep a lot of those voters. 0.99

00:15:40.620 We have a favorable election, Matt.

00:15:42.400 There's way more House Democrats sitting right now, as we're talking, in districts that

00:15:46.640 President Trump won than that Harris won, the Republicans in Harris seats.

00:15:51.100 And we've got a favorable map.

00:15:52.840 The Democrats are in free fall.

00:15:54.740 And the fourth factor that none of us saw coming is the aftermath of Charlie's passing.

00:15:59.660 And the energy that that puts in the hearts and minds of people, young people who want

00:16:04.820 to be engaged.

00:16:05.700 They understand what's happening.

00:16:06.740 They want to take their country back. 0.88

00:16:08.300 And we're presenting to them an opportunity to do that.

00:16:10.460 And I think that has a big effect in the midterms that nobody saw coming.

00:16:15.000 God has a way of working all things together for good.

00:16:17.740 Charlie used to preach that, and he believed it, and we do.

00:16:21.100 His passing was so untimely and tragic and unspeakable.

00:16:24.740 To me, in some ways, it still doesn't seem real.

00:16:26.880 Yeah.

00:16:27.600 But God is going to use that.

00:16:30.440 He already is.

00:16:31.480 And there's such great hope in that.

00:16:33.300 And Charlie is watching all this, and he knows.

00:16:36.660 And that's a great comfort to all of us.

00:16:38.720 Well, as you know, we've been the apologists over here on our show for the fact that Gen 1.00

00:16:42.360 Z will save America. 0.98

00:16:43.680 And we are incredibly excited to keep cheering you on and supporting everything you're doing

00:16:47.680 to serve the American people.

00:16:48.820 Thank you for your service to our country and for bringing back home the message that 0.98

00:16:52.920 big government sucks. 0.90

00:16:53.900 Congrats for all your success. 0.99

00:16:56.060 It's well earned, and we're excited.

00:16:57.780 Keep going.

00:16:58.900 Thank you again to Speaker Johnson for taking the time to join us.

00:17:01.700 And make sure you guys are subscribed to the channel to get tomorrow's episode and every

00:17:05.080 episode thereafter.

00:17:06.440 We can't wait to be spending some more time here on Capitol Hill to unveil all of the great

00:17:10.560 plans to serve the American people the best way our lefted officials know how.

00:17:23.900 We'll see you guys later.

00:17:26.200 Thank you for listening.

00:17:27.780 Bye.

00:17:28.280 Bye.

00:17:28.800 Bye.

00:17:28.900 Bye.

00:17:29.780 Bye.

00:17:29.800 Bye.

00:17:31.040 Bye.

00:17:31.820 Bye.

00:17:32.180 Bye.

00:17:33.200 Bye.

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The Michael Knowles Show - October 05, 2025

Introducing The Isabel Brown Show： Inside the Shutdown with Speaker Mike Johnson

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