WASHINGTON — This morning, Speaker Johnson joined Kristen Welker on NBC’s Meet the Press to discuss House Republicans pushing for maximum transparency regarding the Epstein files, the One Big Beautiful Bill’s popular and commonsense Medicaid reforms, and Israel’s efforts to deliver aid into Gaza.
Watch the full interview here
On Republicans insisting maximum transparency regarding the Epstein Files:
Let me be absolutely clear, as we have been from the very beginning. House Republicans insist upon the release of all credible evidence and information related to Epstein in any way. But we are also insisting upon the protection of innocent victims. And our concern is that the Massie and Khanna discharge petition is reckless in the way that it is drafted and presented. It does not adequately include those protections, and I can explain all the details of that. What the important thing on the timing to answer that question first, is that we did not do anything to the term of Congress early. The Massie-Khanna discharge petition was filed so that it would not ripen until a day after Congress had previously been scheduled for almost a year to be out of session and in the district work period for August.
And that is the timing of it.
What we did do this week is end the chaos in the Rules Committee because the Democrats are trying to use this in a shameless manner for political purposes quite obviously. They hijacked the Rules Committee and they tried to turn it into an Epstein hearing; that’s not what the Rules Committee is about. So that’s why the floor votes ended on Wednesday instead of Thursday. But the work of Congress continues and the schedule of Congress was published well over a year ago, December of 2024. So none of this was a surprise. And Khanna and Massie could have brought their discharge petition a day earlier and prevented that, or as noted earlier, anytime over the last four years, they did not do it during the Biden Administration. And that’s an important point for everybody to note.
On issues with the Massie-Khanna resolution:
I agree with President Trump, with the Department of Justice, with the FBI, that you need all credible evidence and information out there. That word credible is important and why? Because you have to protect innocent people’s names and reputations, whose names might be, as you noted at the outset of the program, intertwined into all these files. This has been a long legal process. There’s a reason, for example, that grand jury materials are protected under the Federal Rules of Criminal procedure because they’re not to be put out. The Massie and Khanna discharge petition would require the release, they would require the DOJ and FBI to release information that they know is false, that is based on lies and rumors and was not even credible enough to be entered into the court proceedings. And that would be a dangerous thing.
Our main concern here though, is the protection of the innocent victims. I mean, these are minors in many cases who are subjected to unspeakable crimes, abject evil. They’ve already suffered great harm. We do not need their names being unmasked. The Massie and the Khanna discharge petition does not have adequate protections. For example, in the way that it was drafted, they cite that they don’t want child abuse, sex abuse information uncovered, but they cite the wrong provision of the federal code. And so it makes it unworkable. It requires the DOJ to release grand jury testimony. They are prohibited by law from doing so. So, it is not the right approach. There is another approach out there. The House Republicans on the Rules Committee have a resolution that is well drafted, that is thoughtfully drafted by lawyers that would make this workable. That’s the approach, we have to protect the innocent, we’ll do it at all cost.
On the One Big Beautiful Bill’s popular, commonsense Medicaid reforms:
The One Big Beautiful Bill does not cut Medicaid. What it does is strengthen the program. And we talked about this, Kristen, is that the problem is there’s a high degree of fraud, waste, and abuse in that program. I’m talking about tens of billions of dollars every year. What we did is we went in to go in and fix that. We introduced work requirements, which is a wildly popular notion in public opinion polling because it makes sense. Medicaid is a safety net program. It is intended for the elderly, the disabled, young, single pregnant women, young mothers. And those resources are being drained because you had able-bodied young men, for example, with no dependents who are riding the wagon. That’s not right. It’s morally wrong and it doesn’t comport with the law. So what we did in our big beautiful bill is we went into carve those guys out of that program.
They have work requirements now – 20 hours a week. They either have to be working, looking for a job in a work training program or volunteering in their community, which is good for them and their surroundings. We find dignity in our work. We’re proud of that reform. And by the way, there was a Harris and Harvard poll that came out about two weeks ago. And they looked at 17 of the 21 primary provisions in that big beautiful bill and, and 17 out of 21 are, are majority support in the public. And that’s after the onslaught of the mainstream media and Democrats lying about the bill. So we’re excited to go out into our districts in August and tell the truth.
On Hamas stealing food and resources in Gaza:
The images are disturbing and heartbreaking. We all want peace there in that region. President Trump is trying to forge that and we support it 100%. I would tell you that I’ve spoken it to my friend, Ambassador Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the US and to other Israeli officials. This is important to note. Israel, since this war began, has supplied over 94,000 truckloads full of food. It’s enough food to feed two million people for two years, trying to get that into Gaza. But Hamas has stolen the food, a huge amount. In fact, in 2024, the numbers are that Hamas profited over $500 million in stolen food aid that was supposed to go to these poor people who needed it. That’s half of their budget. So this is a broken system. The UN needs to work with Israel to make sure that the food is getting to the people that need it most. The IDF, I’m told as recently as this morning, will begin tomorrow in opening new channels of distribution to get it to those people who are desperately in need. That’s Israel’s intention. That’s the US’ intention and the UN as well.
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