Katie Miller podcast: Speaker warns GOP on antisemitism
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Katie Miller interviews Speaker Mike Johnson and his wife, Kelly Johnson, at the Capitol last week. Photo: Courtesy of "The Katie Miller Podcast"
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) uses a very personal interview on "The Katie Miller Podcast" to warn fellow Republicans that "the antisemitism stuff ought to be universally rejected and called out," and appeal to them to "put that aside."
- "I'm very insistent about that," Johnson told Katie Miller, a former Trump official, on an episode of her podcast posting at 6 p.m. ET on Tuesday. "We've got to love everybody, and certainly the Jewish people."
Why it matters: Miller's podcast, which launched in August, has quickly become a favored destination for powerful newsmakers. A furious debate over Israel, antisemitism and hate speech has engulfed MAGA this fall.
Miller asked the speaker — during a joint interview with his wife, Kelly, a pastoral counselor, taped last week in the Speaker's Ceremonial Office in the Capitol — if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a great world leader, and whether the Republican Party's schism over antisemitism is "overblown."
- "I wish we could put that aside. And I wish that everybody would acknowledge the importance of that relationship," Johnson says during the 51-minute interview. "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," he added. "And it's the only stable democracy in the Middle East. It's a tinderbox. So you can make all sorts of arguments ... why this is a really important friendship and alliance."
🦾 Asked "which AI" he uses, the speaker replied: "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."
- "It's like I text and call. ... If I'm going to sit down and, like, write a speech or something, I mean, it has to be my own — personal."
📱 Behind the scenes: Johnson — who's second in line to the presidency, after the vice president — says the modern speakership, which includes "fundraising, the politics, the member management," means he's dealing with members 24-7, even "last Christmas, I'm taking calls from members with their drama."
- "I mean, literally hundreds of calls and text messages in a day," he said. "The peril is, I don't know how important that was [that] I missed. And sometimes I'll find out a week or two later and, like: 'Oh my gosh, I didn't know.' Now, most people, if they can't reach me that way, then they'll call the team and [say], 'Go get him, he's got to hear this.' ... But, boy, I miss a lot of stuff, and I'm constantly apologizing to people."
- The speaker has started taking their youngest son to school — but has to drop him a block away because he's embarrassed by the motorcade (three Suburbans "with a tactical unit and a police car in front").
🧇 During the lighter repartee that dominates the 16th episode of Miller's pod, Kelly Johnson, asked how men and women compartmentalize things differently, replied: "Men's brains are like waffles — they have little compartments. And they can think [in] 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. He really is thinking about nothing."
🌮 Asked about their favorite D.C. restaurant, both said Tortilla Coast, a Capitol Hill institution that closed in 2021. "To be honest," the speaker said, "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?"
- His wife replied: "Founding Farmers" — a D.C.-area staple with nine locations.
Preview clip ...Full interview, 6 p.m. ET on Tuesday: YouTube ... Apple Podcasts ... Spotify.
