Mike and Kelly Johnson detail their transition from Louisiana to Washington D.C. as Speaker of the House, managing a 24/7 schedule that requires selling their home and relying on their daughter for meals. They navigate security risks like motorcade travel while maintaining faith, with Kelly holding veto power over household decisions. Addressing anti-Semitism and transgender issues, Mike advocates for biblical principles, teaching children to be moral "thermostats." Despite national debt and AI concerns keeping the host awake, Mike compartmentalizes stress, rarely uses social media, and prioritizes church attendance, illustrating how their family sustains unity amidst political chaos through shared faith and strict boundaries. [Automatically generated summary]
How do you keep your marriage strong among the midst of all the chaos, busyness, noise of this life?
Keeping the Lord the center of our marriage is how we keep it strong.
Which one of you has veto power at home?
Probably me.
100%.
A man has to know his place.
Well, I had my feelings surgically removed back in the 80s, so it's just...
Who's the hardest member of Congress to deal with?
Mm-hmm.
Oh.
You know I can answer that question.
Who blows up your phone the most at the most inopportune time?
I can't.
There's a lot of people who...
I'm sure he won't mind.
It or she.
Who's in your office the most?
She's good.
Why and when did you decide to switch up your glasses?
I don't know.
We went to like Glasses R Us or whatever.
I don't know.
It's one of these, like a chain store in the mall or something.
I don't know.
It was just a functional thing for me.
I wasn't trying to be a style icon or something.
Hi, everyone, and welcome to this week's episode of the Katie Miller Podcast.
Please remember to like, follow, subscribe, and share.
We are joined today by two very exciting guests.
It's our first joint interview.
Really?
Yes.
You asked if I'd interviewed any men.
This is our first joint interview.
Wow.
With the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, and his lovely wife, Kelly.
Thank you so much for being here.
Thank you.
Thanks for having me.
Normally.
Thanks for being here, by the way.
Thanks for watching.
Ceremonial room in the Capitol.
Admit it.
Is this the coolest place you've done an interview?
It is really cool.
It's high up on the rankings, but like you can't knock the White House or Cowboy Stadium.
Okay, all right.
Never mind.
But the House is a very prestigious institution.
Yes, yes.
One you govern very well, sir.
We're trying to defend that, yes.
But normally, I would say most people are so excited to interview you and you are the star of the show.
But today, it's all Kelly.
Of course.
So with that, you essentially went from being a regular member from just a district in Louisiana to being speaker practically overnight.
What was that adjustment like for your family, like flying up here when he was getting sworn in, right?
If you go back in time, it all felt very rushed and not something I don't believe you guys prepared for.
Oh, no, not at all.
In fact, it was such a surprise that I wasn't even here for it.
As I told him, I said, we don't know what's going to happen.
I mean, we've already seen what's already happened.
And so I'm just, I'm not going to come up there.
And then, so I missed it.
But yeah, our lives changed overnight.
And we were not prepared for it, but we've just been taking it one day at a time.
And we are adjusting, finally.
We are finally getting used to it.
How did you prepare your children to kind of go from being just one of many members of Congress to being the speaker and all the media scrutiny that comes with it?
Well, we have some great kids.
I credit this lady here for that.
They rage in ages now, 24 to 15, just turned 15.
Yes.
And they're accustomed to this because we had been in Congress for six and a half years when I became Speaker and I served in the state legislature for about a year or so before that.
So they were sort of part of our lives, but I don't think any of us fully realized how much life was going to change in making the transition from sort of rank and file member to speaker.
And it's an all-encompassing, literal 24-hour, seven-day a week assignment.
And so it takes a whole family sort of buy-in for that.
And we had never made a decision to run for office or do anything until we, I mean, we were serious about this.
We pray about it together as a family and everybody felt like they were part of it.
And so our kids have been kind of raised with this ethos that, you know, we're in public service, we have a duty, and everybody feels that.
And now as they're getting to be young adults and getting starting their careers, you can see that reflected.
I mean, our two oldest kids are our daughters.
They both work on Capitol Hill now.
One's a lawyer for the Oversight Committee and one works for the Judiciary Committee on immigration and stuff, which is near and dear to your family.
And then our oldest son's at the Naval Academy, wants to go serve his country, wants to be a SEAL.
And then our 15-year-old is in freshman and high school, and think about his future.
So it's sort of now, it's sort of in the family blood now.
Do they live with you?
We just have one left at home, just our 15-year-olds.
But they're close.
They're all close.
One of our daughters, the one that's not yet married, is living with us temporarily here.
Temporarily, yes.
Just south of Capitol Hill.
So it's fun.
We had the whole family together.
We sort of reassembled the Johnson family literally on Capitol Hill, which is something we never could have imagined or done because before I became Speaker, I was one of the members that went back and forth every weekend, every non-session day.
So it's been a big adjustment in every way.
Yeah, we came in.
He was elected, I guess, what, 2017.
And we stayed back in Louisiana and I was raising the kids and he was just going back and forth and it was not easy because he had to be away so much.
But when he was elected Speaker, I think we were at home that first year and realized that it just couldn't be done because we never saw him.
Our son never was able to see him.
So that's when we decided to also have a little place up here so we could be together as a family.
What's easier, being here as a family and being speaker, or having him travel back and forth and just be a member of Congress?
Oh, travel back and forth and be a member of Congress, no doubt, was much easier.
And that was not easy.
That was difficult.
Well, the way that the modern speakership has evolved, it is such an all-encompassing role because you're in charge of not just the policy and legislative side, but it's the fundraising, the politics, the member management, you know, all the various aspects.
And it is a, I mean, somebody asked me the other day, we were accusing, when we were out of session when the Democrats closed the government down a couple weeks ago, Hakeem Jeffries is Democrat leader in the House, and he was out saying the Speaker Johnson put the House on vacation.
And I thought it was laughable.
And I was on Fox News Sunday last weekend, and Shannon Bream asked about that.
I said, that's funny.
I haven't had a vacation day in two years.
I haven't been off in two years, literally.
So it really does.
On Christmas Day, maybe.
On Christmas Day, but even then.
Even then.
Last Christmas I was taking calls from members with their drama.
So, I mean, that's part of it.
We accept the responsibility.
It's first season of life.
It's not forever.
But it takes everything out of whomever serves in a position and by extension, their family.
So we're blessed to have a very close in that group.
It's a team effort for sure.
And you have to feel called to it together, no doubt.
And it's a true honor, though.
It is difficult, but it is an honor to serve our country.
When there's critical news articles of your family, I know probably you're a bit more of a seasoned professional.
It rolls off you a bit more.
But how does that affect you, you know, at night when you're sitting there reading it and in those conversations that you guys have on how to deal with it?
I think, you know, I have learned over time that it is best to not read it, to not pay attention to it.
Because, you know, at first when this first began, it wasn't easy.
It was hard.
But now I just decide, I just decided I'm not going to look at that anymore and just focus on us and what we're doing.
And that's how I handle it.
And then now it's just easier.
It just rolls off the back easier now.
You don't take it personally.
And you don't carry grudges.
And you have to be a very forgiving person.
I mean, there's a lot of passages of scripture that we repeat back and forth to one another all the time to remind ourselves of this.
But, you know, the Bible says that you're supposed to bless those who persecute you.
I mean, that's heavy.
That's heavy.
But there's also a favorite psalm that we always repeat to one another, Psalm 37.
And it says, do not fret when men succeed in their wicked ways.
And it says, commit your way to the Lord and trust in him, and he will do this.
He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn.
Justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
And a lot of comfort in that.
We do our duty.
We do our responsibility.
We do what we believe to be right.
And we let the chips fall where they may.
And people are going to be critical.
That's just human nature.
But it doesn't deter us in any way.
And right over the target when they're shooting at you.
You've had a little taste of it.
Yeah.
Yeah, you get it.
But I also think as you age and you get older, it gets easier as well.
Don't you think?
Oh, yeah.
I think I can let it roll off, but then there are certain times when I don't let it roll, and it will bite at me a little more than it should.
I understand.
I have to fight that sometimes as well.
Well, I had my feelings surgically removed back in the 80s, so they can't hurt my feelings, you know.
But I mean, really, that's been the key to this job, Katie, is that, because when you're in a time as we are right now when you have a very small margin, if I carried grudges or if I returned fire to somebody who's criticizing me, the agenda would grind to a halt because at the end of the day, I got to get every member to yes, literally everyone.
We have a one or two vote margin on any given day.
Oh, yeah, great.
Great.
What's the most surprising thing about being speaker that no one warned you?
I guess this is what we're describing, the all-in commitment.
I mean, you sort of have a sense of it when you're just a member.
I mean, I was on the leadership team.
I was the number seven-ranked Republican.
No one cared or knew.
But I watched it sort of from that distance, but no one fully appreciates, and we didn't, until they handed me that gavel.
In fact, Patrick McHenry was the interim speaker for that three weeks of turmoil when we didn't have a Speaker of the House and we couldn't convene the House.
And after I was elected, he handed me the gavel and he said, you know, when I hand you this gavel, your life's never going to be the same again.
And I went, ha ha ha ha.
We had no idea.
We had no idea.
But that's the most surprising.
What's the most annoying part about being Speaker?
Probably no downtime.
Yeah.
Hardly any downtime.
For me.
Oh, that's right.
I mean, even when you think like the work of the day is done and you put the phone down, I mean, this would be 11.30 at night.
Ring, ring, what?
Another crisis.
You know, I mean, you're sort of like a firefighter in a way.
You have to put out fires every hour.
So when you became Speaker, you got a security detail.
When's the last time you've gone to CVS, a grocery store?
Very seldom.
Once.
Because it's such an ordeal.
And when we're back home in Louisiana, I think we're the only motorcade in all of North Louisiana.
So you're not subtle.
No, and I hate it because I'm just a regular guy.
But when you're Speaker of the House, you're second in line to the presidency and you can't.
I mean, I get it.
But it's no fun at all.
The Speaker's Security Detail00:03:44
We love our detail.
Our security team are amazing.
They're all part of the family.
There's like 30 of them that rotate in and out.
But it's a three-served motorcade right now with a tactical unit and a police car in front.
I mean, it's like, I got to go to Home Depot and buy a hammer.
Oh, boy.
Oh, my gosh.
It's like this big thing.
They pull up and everybody's got the, and you go in, and of course, everybody, you know, you're not conspicuous, you know?
And so it's a big thing, and it just doesn't really make it worth it.
And that's the sad part is you give up a big part of your life, you know?
So what's that like been for you picking up the slack of some things and parts of your life that he used to be able to do?
Oh yeah.
You know, it was so overwhelming.
In fact, we sold our home.
We had so much to do that just keeping up the house, the yard, everything was too much.
So we sold our house and now we just rent.
We rent here, we have a little brittle place back home, and then we don't have those responsibilities.
So I just tried to get rid of as many things as possible and simplify so we could focus on doing this job and doing it well and still having a great marriage and taking care of the family.
Today, MBS was here.
Yes.
Who's been your favorite world leader that you've met here in the capital, not overseas?
I will say he's a very engaging person, but I've gotten to meet a lot of heads of state.
I've met my counterparts of other parliaments.
I do think the Arab leader is the most intriguing.
The King of Jordan has come a few times.
But I hosted B.B. Netanyahu, Prime Minister, for a joint address to Congress, and that was a big evening for us and for me, and I was glad to host him.
So I'm probably closest to him.
What's the most underrated thing about MBS that nobody knows, based on your experience?
His sense of humor.
I mean, he's just a very engaging guy.
And we had a forum today with the top Republican and Democrat leaders, both sides of bipartisan, the chairs of the various committees of jurisdiction.
And he just wowed them.
And my Democrat colleagues were leaving, and Greg Meeks, he wouldn't mind if I said this, New York, Democrat, he said, he's really good.
I said, yeah, he is.
He is.
So it was encouraging.
We need that partnership between the two nations.
And I think it was good.
Do you believe, because you just said Benjamin Nutanyahoo is a great world leader whom you've come to know, do you believe it has overblown the schism in the Republican Party over the idea of anti-Semitism and those who are claiming one person is and one person isn't?
I wish we could put that aside and I wish that everybody would acknowledge the importance of that relationship.
And as has been noted, there are lots of scripturally based biblical reasons to support Israel.
But even if you don't accept that, you have to look at this objectively and say it's really important to have that ally and partner in that corner of the world.
And it's the only stable democracy in the Middle East.
It's a tinderbox.
So you can make all sorts of arguments of why this is a really important friendship and alliance.
But the anti-Semitism stuff ought to be universally rejected and called out.
And I'm very insistent about that.
We've got to love everybody and certainly the Jewish people.
When you try to reach him during the day, I presume you have a way to reach him no matter what he's doing.
What's the most important meeting you've stepped out of to call your wife back?
With the president?
Yeah.
And I think he understands that.
And what did she need on the other side of that?
I don't even remember, but I know that if she calls me more than once in a row, I've got to address it.
But the president really likes Kelly, and he gets that.
And he endorses it, you know, so that's a good sign for him, too.
Stability Amidst a Tinderbox00:15:05
Yes.
What's the most cancellable take you have?
Take.
I don't know.
What would you say?
I don't know.
I have to think.
I have to ponder that one.
We'll come back.
Okay.
What's a conspiracy theory that you believe in?
I'm not really into conspiracy theories.
To the frustration of some of my colleagues, I mean, I don't know.
I'm pretty sure we went to the moon and all these other things.
We actually have a subcommittee that works on this.
All of Anna Paulina Luna, you know, is the chair, and she's digging up conspiracies every day.
And I'm like, I don't know.
I don't know.
What's a hill you would literally die on that no one else cares about?
Wow, these are great questions.
I don't know.
That's a good question.
What would I die on it?
I mean, look, I...
You die on hills all the time.
There's a hill every 10 minutes.
I really am focused on preserving this institution.
I'm convinced that we have the greatest experiment in self-governance in the world history and the greatest nation in the history of the world.
And a lot of it is dependent upon the foundational principles that make all this work.
And so I think those are things that are worth fighting for.
And increasingly, a lot of people are ready to reject and move on from those things.
But it's something I take very seriously.
What's your daily routine like as a family?
It varies, right?
I mean, we're kind of in triage every day.
And every day is different.
There's no pattern for the schedule.
So everybody has to be very adaptable.
I will say, though, that he is now taking, he takes our son to school.
And so that kind of starts the day.
And he and our youngest get some good quality time together on the way to school, which has been really nice.
Cause you know, we didn't have that when we were back in Louisiana.
Of course it's in a motorcade, so I have to drop him off a block away from school, because it's- Because he gets embarrassed.
Yes.
You don't have that much attention drawn to it.
When the kids were growing up, I presume you were home for dinner?
Yes, mostly.
Yeah.
When they were young, for sure.
And now that's kind of become impossible?
Yes.
We treasure those family dinners.
There's typically three or four of us there now, but to get at all of them.
In fact, there was, was it last weekend, our son, Jack, was in from the Naval Academy on leave for two days.
And we had all four of our kids around the table and then the spouse of my oldest daughter.
My son-in-law.
And so, and I stood there and I was like, we have everybody here.
We did.
He goes, they have all the children.
We started taking photos.
It was wonderful moments.
It's fun.
And they're all very cherish those moments now.
Why and when did you decide to switch up your glasses?
The other ones, the old ones broke.
And my kids are like, Dad, you have the same look that you had in the 80s.
It's like time to update.
And so they wanted me to put patterns in my suits and whatever.
And so, I don't know.
We went to like Glasses R Us or whatever.
I don't know.
It's one of these little, like a chain store in the mall or something.
And I tried on like, I don't know, 50 pairs or whatever.
And they said, do those.
And so now, like, people, people are trying to figure out who the maker is.
This is like the cheapest.
I think these are like $90 glasses.
I don't know.
It was just a functional thing for me.
I wasn't trying to be a style octane or something.
He's kind of a simple guy.
I'm very simple.
Very simple.
What's the one issue that you disagree with your husband on?
Unless there's many, in which case we can go through the full list.
Oh, my goodness.
What do I disagree with him on?
I love that you have to think about this.
It's fantastic.
I mean, we are equally yoked.
Yeah, we agree on most things, I would say.
Help me, what do we disagree on?
I mean, we disagree.
I can assure you.
See, I try to focus on the things that agreement on.
So I can't think.
It's small things, you know.
It's probably, it's small things.
The big things, we are pretty much on the same page.
But there are some small things that we disagree on for sure.
What's he most often wrong about?
Oh, dear.
Do we have enough time, Dr. John?
How long something's going to take him, I would say.
So she says I overestimate my ability to accomplish.
Overestimates his ability to get things done and underestimates maybe how much time it will take.
So he says, I should be able to do this in 30 minutes, you know, and then here we are two hours later.
It's like, yeah, no, I don't think so.
Yeah, but I got the big, beautiful bill done a few days earlier than my target.
He did.
There's that.
There's that.
What's the one tactic you use with members of Congress to vote for something that you've also successfully used with your kids?
It's actually the same principle.
I mean, I don't, I try to meet people wherever they're at.
We have this joke that I'm not really a speaker of the house.
I'm really like a mental health counselor.
And so when the pressure gets turned up really high and then the stakes are so high and the votes are so tight, I just try to sit down and listen to everybody and figure out what their primary need is and how we can meet that, you know?
And sometimes those are long counseling sessions, but we get that done.
But it's not unlike, I mean, it's the same skills you use as a parent.
You want to understand your kids need.
And we're very focused on, like when our kids are younger, right, and they're growing up and we tell them something's wrong, we stop and explain why it's wrong.
The reason we don't do this is because it could lead to your harm or it could do that, you know.
That's so important.
Communicating like that with your children is key and with each other in marriage.
Yeah, and so that same transparency that we use in parenting, I do with members, and it's kind of a foreign thing on Capitol Hill because people aren't used to that, you know, and it was jarring to people in the beginning when I was handed the gavel, but it's become part of what we do now, and people expect that, and your word is your bond here, and if you don't have that, you don't have anything.
And so, you know, we just try to practice that.
And I admit when I'm wrong, and I don't, Ronald Reagan said, it's amazing what can be accomplished if you don't mind who gets the credit.
And I want everybody to be of their highest and best use and everybody to be successful.
And that's just kind of the way we operate.
And, you know, it's what's needed in a time like this.
We've talked a lot about how your family has changed since before you became speaker and after.
What do you miss about that timeframe?
I would say even before you were an elected member to present day, I think for both of you, because I think it'll be a different answer.
I miss all of us being at home together more.
You know, when the kids were small and him, he was able to be at home more.
He was never home a lot.
He's always worked a lot, but so much more than now.
And I just, I miss having the kids at home, you know, under my feet and him there and us all just being together.
Because it truly does fly by.
I know everybody says that enjoy every second.
It goes so fast.
But it's true.
I mean, I feel like just yesterday, our kids were your kids' sizes, you know?
And so, yeah, I would say that's what I miss the most.
Now we're in that phase where we're waiting on grandkids, right?
So like, because our oldest, our girls are in their, you know, early mid-20s, one's married.
And you're in that in-between stage where you're waiting on the next round.
And all of our friends, because many of our friends our age are now having their first grandkids and they're said, oh, it's a whole new ballgame, you know?
But we're not in a rush.
No, we're not in a rush.
We have enough on our plate right now.
One person sounds like he's in a rush.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It'll be fun.
Fun seasoned life.
What's one unexpected perk for your family that has since come with the job?
You know, I would say there's not a lot of perks.
It's really not.
People think that there are.
The speaker's balcony?
Yeah, we love the speaker's balcony.
That's fun.
It's the most beautiful view.
You know, it looks down the National Mall.
When people come and visit dignitaries, celebrities, everybody comes to take a photo out there.
And it's like our balcony right now on loan to us, of course.
But we've had the family assembled out there.
I mean, the night that we were elected speaker, we brought the family.
We ate sandwiches on the balcony.
And it's just so surreal to think of the history of the place and what it is.
It is truly.
But they're the little things like that that you really appreciate, especially when there's so much on our plate.
Yes, absolutely.
So I'll go down the list.
You've been with the president at UFC?
Yes.
The Commanders game?
Yes.
Those are perks.
That's true.
That's true.
We're getting somewhere.
They're perks.
Yes, yes, yes.
What's been the best event or thing you've attended when you were like, that is so cool.
I cannot believe I have this job.
Well, the UFC fight was pretty awesome because we were there with Kid Rock and Jelly Roll and Elon and like the whole team.
You know who Jelly Roll is?
Do I?
No, yes, we have selfies together.
There's one hay in my office.
No, he's actually a really cool guy.
I really like him.
But I've been able to go with the president to a lot of cool stuff.
And we did the national championship.
Okay.
LSU, the greatest college team of all time, was 2019 National Championship Team, Joe Burrow.
I mean, that's an objective truth, okay?
This is the moment for you.
I'm a double LSU alum.
And we went to the, we beat Alabama at home that season when we were undefeated.
And then we went to the Superdome in my home state, Louisiana, and we played the national championship, and I was with the president and the whole thing.
And my buddies back home, all my redneck friends and my Cajun friends and everybody, they think that is the greatest thing of all time.
That I was with President Trump in the box while we won the national championship.
You know, that's pretty high on the list.
Yeah.
Which one of you has veto power at home?
Probably me.
100%.
A man has to know his place.
It's a secret to a happy marriage.
We've been together 26 years.
Yeah.
And the secret is.
In fact, can I tell her the best advice we ever got?
So when I was a state rep in Louisiana, they did an annual contest to find out who was the longest married couple in Louisiana.
And so it turned out this elderly black couple in my district was the longest married.
They'd been married 82 years.
So I get to go and present them certificate from the governor and balloons and all that on Valentine's Day.
So I go to their house.
I live in a small home in a rural part of my district.
And a big happy family.
I mean, they had 40 people there, their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren.
I went with you.
You went with me?
Yes.
Mr. Player, his name, he was 104, and Mrs. Player was 99.
And so, of course, we want to ask him marital advice.
What's the secret to a happy marriage?
So I lean in, and he says, Lean in real close.
I said, Yes, sir.
He said, It's two things.
He said, Let her think she's the boss.
Yes, sir.
And buy her a new car every three years.
Right.
And then we looked out the window.
She had a shiny camera.
She can't drive it.
She had a beautiful new car.
I don't think she had driven in like nine years or something.
But there's this beautiful car out there, and all the kids are like, that's it, that's the truth.
And so Mr. Player Kelly is long overdue on the car.
Okay, but she clearly is the boss.
That's the secret to happy marriage.
Yes.
That's really good.
Who does the cooking at home?
Our daughter, Abby.
Our daughter.
Yes, sad to say.
I think after I had my fourth child and lives started getting super hectic, my cooking kind of went out the window, didn't it?
Well, certainly during this season, I mean, we are, when I say literally, it's daily triage.
We try to have order and schedule, but it gets blown up because there's an emergency every 10 minutes.
And so we're kind of in survival mode right now.
I mean, we order in food a lot because we just don't have the time.
We don't have the luxury of like cooking.
And our daughter likes to cook.
She enjoyed it.
And she's good at it.
So what's the best thing you Uber eats in the area?
We order a lot of Ted's bulletin.
Right.
Right.
See, we're simple people.
We are very simple people, yeah.
If somebody were going out in D.C. and wanted to catch the Johnsons out to dinner, where's the go-to spot?
Well, my favorite restaurant closed.
What was it?
Tortilla Coast.
Really?
That was our favorite.
And it was right there.
I loved it.
That was right.
To be honest, you will seldom see us at a restaurant because if we do that, we go to a back room somewhere, just security, which is really sad.
Really sad.
But on occasion, we'll go to like the farmers markets or what's the farm to table?
Founding farmers.
Founding farmers, yeah.
Yeah, we love that place.
And they'll give us a little corner, you know, as best we can.
And when the kids are with us, we'll go down to the Navy Yard or the wharf or, you know, there's lots of great places down there.
But it's sad.
The reason we order a lot of food in is because it's just not worth the whole getting out in the public thing, you know?
How do you handle his other people's demands on his time?
If you schedule something and it gets blown up, which I'm sure happens very frequently, that you say there's a date on the calendar and we're doing this as a couple or this as a family, and suddenly now there's another emergency.
How do you handle that?
You know, that's something that we've been working on, and we're getting better at it.
He has an incredible staff, the most wonderful schedulers, and they're so considerate of me, and now they check with me and let me know what's going on.
And they give me veto power for the most part, and we do this thing where we say, okay, on a scale from 1 to 10, you know, how important is this event?
Because we may have another event that we need to do.
But we find these days, on the scale of 1 to 10, most events are like an 8, 9, or 10, just about all of them.
Well, they don't even, they don't even suggest, if it's not that they don't even suggest it.
Um, so uh, but um, and I I have to just get my mind right about it that he's just not going to be available a lot these days, but it's a season, so we're going to call this section Congress confidential.
I think you can see what's going.
Who's the hardest member of Congress to deal with?
You know I cannot answer that question with the reference.
I mean we can give a range.
The people that require the most amount of my time self-identify, because they're on social media and you know they're expressing their opinions and you can probably guess who acts who in those towns?
Who's the easiest, the easiest?
There's a, there's a.
There's a big category of people who are just complete team players, never want to make trouble or cause a stir.
I couldn't even begin to name them because and really that's most of our colleagues look, I want to say this, I genuinely love every single person that I work with.
I do, and even when we're at odds, you know, on something, I don't take it personal.
Um, you know, I respect their service and their time and I try to find the best about everybody.
And even when they're, you know, cantankerous or whatever um, you know, you got to look through that and if you, if you genuinely come to that point where you genuinely love the people you work with, you can tolerate a lot more of the daily strife and stress stuff.
You say it so politely when you say intense fellowship.
That's our southern term.
Yeah, where'd you come up with that one?
Tolerating Daily Strife00:04:50
I don't.
I mean, I don't know it was.
It's maybe in the southern Baptist Territory, I think we heard a pastor say it at some point.
He said that about his wife.
He said sometimes we have intense, we have intense fellowships.
So that's what we say.
Yeah, we don't argue, we have intense fellowships.
Who blows up your phone the most at the most inopportune times?
Um, who the yearful?
I know I got gay look, I mean I.
The problem is um, I think literally like a hundred thousand people have my cell phone number, you know and I changed it a couple years ago I don't think i'm then seriously and so there's probably one member who calls you undoubtedly when you're like just about to sit down to dinner.
Terrorists like is consistently who have who it happens to.
I can't, I can't.
Okay, there's a.
There's a lot of people who, or she uh there um, there's a lot of the.
My problem is, the greatest challenge of my day is trying to keep up, because I miss, I mean literally hundreds of calls and text messages in a day and I don't really the.
The peril is, I don't know how important that was what I missed, and sometimes i'll find out a week or two later and like, oh my gosh, I didn't know.
Now no, most people, if they can't reach me that way, then they'll, they'll have, they'll call the team and go get him.
He's got to hear this, you know.
But boy, I miss a lot of stuff and i'm constantly apologizing to people for that and I think they understand, but it's.
It doesn't make it easy.
Who's most likely to butt dial you?
He's most likely to butt dialogue And she's like, make sure your phone is off.
You're talking about, you know, this is related to national security.
I mean, who's listening?
I don't know.
We're going to keep going down that probably do not answer out.
Who's in your office the most?
She's good.
She's just going to be in the middle of the morning.
My chairman are in my office the most, and I'm very proud of that because what I'm trying to do is spread out the power of the speaker's office and sort of diffuse that a little bit.
And I'm empowering those who are supposed to be in charge of their areas of jurisdiction.
So I've spent a lot of time with those people that we're delegating all that to.
Who's the funniest member of Congress?
Probably Tim Burch.
You know, he's hilarious.
Who's most likely to lose their phone?
Jody Arrington.
Probably, I don't know.
Probably.
Other than you, who does the best impressions?
I think I'm the king.
What's the best one you do?
The president, probably.
Probably the president.
Clay Higgins, any number of others.
There's some, you know, we try to be lighthearted, especially in these really tense times when you can drop a Trump impression in the middle of the tension.
Everybody kind of laughs a little bit and lightens up.
It turns out to be a great tool.
Which member would you trust to cook you Thanksgiving dinner?
That's a good one.
Lisa McLean, probably.
She's our conference chair.
She's very responsible.
Given that this is airing Tuesday right before Thanksgiving.
Yes.
What's Thanksgiving like at the Johnson House?
We try, well, at least until the last two years when I became Speaker, we really try to turn everything down and just focus on the family time and be, I think, be real intentional about what it is we're thankful for and the origin of the holiday and what that means.
It's uniquely American holiday.
People don't think about that.
But we're blessed to be in this nation, to live under this flag and to have these freedoms and liberty and opportunity and security and to recognize, especially on that day, we're so thankful for all that.
Right.
The bountiful blessings we have and that they're not to be assumed that we're always going to have them.
You know, freedom's not inherited in the bloodstream, as Reagan said.
So you've got to fight for it and protect it and pass it along to the next generation.
Thanksgiving's a great opportunity to do that.
There's a huge national divide in America right now, and I'm curious where you fall.
What time should Thanksgiving dinner start?
I'm a traditionalist.
I don't know, 6 p.m.
What would you say?
Well, sort of a moving target with our families.
It is, because we have Thanksgiving lunch with his family, and then we go and have dinner with my family.
And if those are too close, it doesn't work.
You're going to get stuffed twice.
That's right.
Another controversial topic.
Do you prefer the homemade cranberry sauce or the jelly canned kind?
I hate to not play, but I'm not a cranberry sauce guy.
It's like the one thing on the table that I just don't eat.
Almost anything except cranberry sauce, mayonnaise, and bananas.
It's true.
Those are the things he will not eat.
And candy corn.
Oh, I hate candy corn.
Yeah, I hate that.
I'm going to be on that one.
Yes, yes.
If you could only pick one pie to eat on Thanksgiving.
Which one is it?
The chocolate pie at my mom's.
Yeah, that's chocolate pie at her mom's or key lime, which is not traditionally a Thanksgiving dish, but we have it.
Living One Day at a Time00:08:50
How do you keep your marriage strong among the midst of all the chaos, busyness, noise of this life?
I would say keeping the Lord the center of our marriage is how we keep it strong.
And in fact, that's the only way to do this is through each of us having our own personal walks with him, with the Lord, and then, of course, as a couple.
And then just being deliberate about making time to be together and and to talk to one another, to really communicate with each other.
And you know, we're not perfect we've.
We've had hard times that we've had to go through, but we have learned from that and we've, and now, in our 50s, we are fine tuning, aren't we fine tuning?
See, the beauty of a long marriage is that.
It's the familiarity, you know, and and we've in a sense grown up together, and so she's my most trusted advisor and I value that so much and and we we think so much alike because we have the same experience set and and she's she's a very bright lady in her own right.
She's a licensed professional counselor.
She helps other people get their lives straight.
So i'm the guinea pig.
You know she's diagnosed me with everything in the book and not really just kidding, but she she is.
She has great instincts on policy and politics and everything that, because we come up through this together.
And it's a great asset to have a spouse who you can trust like that.
You know, so that that draws us together in tough times.
Do you find that at night, when you're dealing with heart issues, you still take the time to discuss it amongst yourselves, for clarity, for sure.
I mean constantly, and but then sometimes I have to throttle back because I don't want her to carry the entire load that I have, because it's it's, it's too much.
There are times when i'll tell him I, I can't know anymore.
Yeah, like you can't tell me anymore, I can't carry anymore.
And and you know, men and women are different in this way is that men have can compartmentalize things?
Yeah, men's brains are like waffles.
Yes, they have little compartments and they can think on one little compartment at a time and close it.
And men actually have a compartment that has nothing in it.
So when you ask him, what are you thinking about?
And he says nothing, he means it means it he really is thinking about, he's not thinking about, like the Roman Empire.
There's that too.
There's a whole compartment.
But women we, we cannot do that.
We are always thinking.
In fact, our brains are like spaghetti, because it's the, the meatballs, the pasta, the sauce, the oregano, and we're thinking of all of it and we can't stop thinking so.
So in this, in this arena, like i've compartmentalized all these, you know a myriad number of high level, high stress issues, and I can just turn them off and sleep and then, and then i've just unloaded this in her at, you know, 11 p.m and she's laying on the bag.
Oh my gosh, what is going on?
Sorry, honey.
So i've learned to sort of at least the late at night stuff.
I try to throttle back before I go back to a serious question, how often do you think about the Roman Empire?
Uh, I do quite a bit actually.
I don't know when that thing came out I was like that's true I, I don't know why.
I don't know why, but maybe because we're returning to the days of the Roman Coliseum at this point, you know.
But I mean uh, Gladiator and Braveheart are my two favorite movies, not in that order, Braveheart's first, but I mean, I think of that all the time.
I use those analogies when i'm talking to the Republican Conference.
You know it's, it's funny, I don't know why.
What advice would you give to moms who struggle with a husband who is working a ton, traveling a ton and still carrying the burden of raising and being the primary parent at home?
I would say, Take it one day at a time.
That's the most important.
I would say don't, I mean, this is a common saying, but truly, don't sweat the small stuff because it is going to flop off.
I mean, you only get about 18 years with those babies at home.
And it's just not worth all the small stuff worrying about it.
Try to enjoy them, invest in them, love them.
There's a scripture that says that love covers a multitude of sins.
And I love that because when I feel like I haven't, maybe I haven't been the best mom or I haven't done all the things or taught them all the things they need to know.
You know, I've loved them.
And God then, he takes it from there.
He really covers us when we do the best we can.
But if your husband is gone a lot, I would say have fun with the kids.
Enjoy them.
Invest in them.
And then invest in yourself.
Take care of yourself.
Do something for yourself, whether it's exercising or going out with your friends or possibly if you want to work, you know, or have a little part-time job.
Something that keeps you going and gives you something of your own.
She's taught me a lot about margin and balance, which are two words that I did not understand.
And so she started to teach me that.
Boundaries and balance.
Boundaries.
Yes, both.
And balance, all of it.
And that's really important because you have to stay healthy so that you can serve everybody else.
So it's a very liberating thought.
Love covers over a multitude of sins.
And then the liberating thought for me is what John Quincy Adams said.
Duty is ours.
Results are God's.
So it's a very liberating way to live.
You do your best.
You try to be faithful in the best that you can in your flawed way.
And then it's a very comforting thought to know that we are not the sovereign.
God's in control.
And ultimately, his will is going to be done.
So we just want to try to work our way into that as best we can.
In the age in which there are many, I would say it's going down, going down now, but for a while there was an increasing prevalence among kids who became transgender and entered into a phase of what I will call mental illness for a multitude of reasons.
How did you raise children that I will say are successful, well-adjusted, share your morals and values?
Because I think raising three small children now, right, that's my greatest fear, is how do I raise them to be the adults I want them to be?
Yes.
And so I turn that over to you as a mom of four children who has done it successfully.
That's a great question.
You know, I think, you know, just good quality time talking to them, communicating to them, explaining things to them, because they can understand more than you know.
And so explaining things and taking time with them is just so important.
And staying consistent, you know, as much as possible, being consistent with them.
Can I share it a little bit too?
I mean, there was a saying that somebody taught us when we were a young couple.
I think we went to a marriage conference or something.
And somebody said, what we tolerated in moderation, our children excuse in excess, right?
And so we took that to heart because we started thinking of our own lives about our friends and people we knew in our lives who whatever the parents did, the kids had a tendency to take it to the next level and it could be dangerous for them.
And so we decided before we had our started having our children that we wanted to be very intentional about this and set a standard, a family standard, you know?
Not in some weird way.
You know, we're not fanatics, but we do believe the Bible and we believe what it teaches and we try to teach that to the kids, but not just teach them the principle, but teach them the foundation behind it and why it's important for them, as I mentioned.
And so, for example, we taught our kids, like, look, if you're going to be a young, a Christian, young Christian gentleman or young lady, you're called to be salt and light to the culture.
What does that mean?
Let's talk about that.
What does it mean to be salt and light?
And then we want to be, in our family, we do not want to be thermometers.
We want to be thermostats.
What does that mean?
Well, you don't go into a new environment and take the temp and adapt to it.
No, because you stand for something that's unchanging, eternal truth.
And so instead of a thermometer, you are a thermostat.
You gradually change the atmosphere of the place you're in.
If you go to a new school, new setting, new whatever.
And we just kind of talk about these principles in a calm way, and it makes it part of their philosophy, their worldview, you know.
And so, and scripture says if you teach them this when they're young, they will not depart from it.
And we've seen, that's our story, that's our testimony.
Our kids do that.
We're not like magic parents.
We're asked to go do parenting conferences and marriage conferences and stuff, and we've done all that.
But we just tell them it's real simple.
Just follow the actual instructions in the book.
To us, I mean, that's, as the Bible tells you, it has the whole recipe right there.
Yes.
Do you go to church every single Sunday?
Becoming the Thermostat00:08:09
I wish.
We used to make it almost every Sunday when we were in one place.
We had a real life.
We had, yeah, but we try to go as much as possible now when we're in town and wherever we are.
We do our best to do it.
So last Sunday we all went together here on Capitol Hill, but then we had to go to the late service because I did the Sunday shows in the morning, you know, Fox News Sunday, and then run in and get everybody and go.
And we try to make it a priority.
But our kids know, even if the schedule prevents us from doing it, they know that our faith is our priority, you know.
And that's the important thing, you know.
We're going to play a game now of Would You Rather?
Please go to both of you.
Hopefully you agree.
Would you rather be late for church or late for a flight?
I guess church.
God forgives it.
But I hate that.
I hate being late for anything.
Yeah.
I would have to say, that's a hard question.
I don't want to miss my flight, but I don't want to be late for church.
That's a tough one.
Would you rather clean the kitchen after a big dinner party or fold a week's worth of laundry?
I take the laundry.
It's sort of therapeutic.
Laundry.
Would you rather spend date night out on the town or at home in pajamas?
At home.
At home.
In pajamas.
When we were younger, we would like to do the other thing, but now I think we're getting old now.
Now we're tired.
Would you rather share a closet or share a phone charger?
Oh, a bunch charger.
Yeah, absolutely.
In fact, I don't even have any closets because I've yielded it all to her.
I'm at a little trunk almost.
No, not really.
Would you rather lose Wi-Fi for a day or have a broken dishwasher for a week?
Oh, probably a broken dishwasher.
Yeah, probably so.
What keeps you up at night?
Not much, which is sort of surprising in this position, but I do, I am concerned about the national debt and the threat of China.
To me, that's, you know, those are two top concerns.
And the rise of AI and what that might do to a society.
But I don't want to go down a long list.
But look, I'm able to compartmentalize most of the time.
He does.
He's kind of like a robot sometimes.
He has like a button.
He can just turn that button off, lays down, and he's out.
Men can do that.
They can.
It's really incredible.
I cannot.
I can't either.
I'll be up for six hours overnight.
So you're wired different.
That's what we're talking about.
That's right.
Which AI do you use?
I don't, actually.
In fact, I don't even really use my phone much at all.
I don't really have time for social media.
He's to communicate, really.
It's like I text and call.
I really don't have the luxury of time to do that.
You've never used AI?
I don't think I ever have, honestly.
Really?
Really?
Yeah.
I mean, I know all the guys, like, Sam Walton was in my office at first.
I've only tried it once, and that was to arrange furniture in our living room.
I mean, the only thing I did on there was catching tea, I guess.
I mean, if I'm going to sit down and like write a speech or something, I mean, it has to be my own personal.
So, like, I guess a lot of the normal things that people would use it for, I just haven't gotten into it yet.
My life is not normal right now, okay?
And AI has really been, it's been become in popular use really during the term of my speakership for the last two years, and so I just haven't had time to like engage, you know?
Which fictional house speaker do you most identify with?
Fictional house speaker.
Fictional.
I could present you options if you'd like.
Give me the options, okay.
All right, we have Alan Trumbull in Olympus Has Fallen, played by Morgan Freeman.
Yes.
Glenn Walkin in the West Wing, played by John Goodman.
Yes.
Nathan Templeton in Commander-in-Chief, played by Donald Sutherland.
You know, maybe I shouldn't admit it, but I was a huge fan of the West Wing.
He loved West Wing.
I mean, he still watches.
It's a classic.
It's just a classic.
We came up on that.
So I guess I picked the West Wing.
What are you watching at night right now?
I like to watch Dancing with the Stars.
I hate to.
I do.
Are you sad Whitney was voted off last night?
I have not.
I've kind of got behind you.
Oh no!
I'm sorry, Whitney, whoever that is.
I like the young man, the environmentalist.
Erwin.
Yes, Erwin.
I like him.
This is such a girl show.
Sorry.
What's the last girl show you've watched?
Pride and Prejudice, probably.
They make my daughters and she make me watch that.
What's your favorite DC political drama?
I really don't watch them because I have enough of it here.
It would be West Wing when he used to be.
Yeah, I'm still old school.
I'd say West Wing for sure.
What's the last book you've read?
I don't read any fiction, so it'd have to be a probably How Now Shall We Live?
Yeah, Chuck Colson, How Now Should We Live.
It's a classic.
All right, so we close every episode with the same question.
If you could host a dinner party with three people, dead or alive, who's sitting at the table, and what are you eating?
Can we say Jesus?
Yes, you can.
Dead or alive.
But you're both going to answer separately.
Okay.
Well, obviously Jesus and George Washington and I guess Lincoln.
I'm very American-centric, aren't I?
That's okay.
Yeah.
Which is so crazy because you got two of mine.
Jesus.
George Washington.
That my third.
Help me.
He's my third.
Abigail Adams.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think it would be Abigail Adams.
And what are you eating?
And what are we eating?
Well, probably, well, I would say I would choose my favorite food, Mexican food.
It's my favorite.
So, yeah.
I'd have something healthy, fish-based, you know, Jesus and George Washington and such.
I think they would have enjoyed it.
Salmon.
Probably salmon.
To close, I swear for real this time.
What is the one thing nobody knows about Mike Johnson that if you thought if only the world know they'd love him so much more?
Oh, the one thing.
That's tough one thing because I will say what you see is what you get with this guy.
This is who he is all the time.
He doesn't change.
And he loves people and he believes the best about everybody.
He really does.
It's really, really remarkable.
And he's an artist.
He doesn't like people to know that, but he is a very talented artist.
Like George Bush level artist?
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
He's very good.
He's painted my portrait and the kids' portraits, and they're just beautiful.
I just don't have time to do that anymore, sadly.
What do you love most about your wife?
Everything.
She is my dream girl.
I married my dream girl.
And I fell in love with her the night I met her, like instantaneously.
It took her quite a bit longer to come around to that.
But what I like to say about Kelly is she upstages me in everything.
I mean, you know, but I love that about her.
And everybody loves her.
And when they get to know her, they're like, is she like that all the time?
She is.
And what I say about her is I say, she said, I'm nervous about what I'm going to say.
I said, what you are thunders so loudly they cannot hear what you say.
That's so beautiful.
It's her way, and she just has that thing.
I hope Stephen says that about me.
He does.
He does.
He certainly believes that.
I've seen how he watches you.
He was your biggest cheerleader last night.
He was.
Yes, yes.
Thank you so much for doing this.
Thank you.
Thanks for doing it.
Thank you, everyone, for watching this week's episode of the Katie Miller Podcast.
Please don't forget to like, follow, subscribe, and share.
We're available every Tuesday night at 6 p.m. where you get your podcasts.
Thank you both to Mike Johnson and Kelly Johnson for joining me on this week's episode.