Over the weekend, House Speaker Mike Johnson sat down with the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins, who asked the fellow Louisiana Republican to talk about what he’s heard from the public about the party’s message.
To hear Congress’ top GOP official tell it, things couldn’t be better.
House Speaker Mike Johnson says "it's a fun thing" for Republicans to meet the public these days because there is "euphoria" among voters about what the Trump administration is doing. Really? Is that why GOP members are avoiding town hall events like the plague? www.peoplefor.org/rightwingwat…
— Right Wing Watch (@rightwingwatch.bsky.social) 2025-03-24T19:04:26.075Z
“All over the country, I’m going to all the states and everywhere we go, Tony, there’s euphoria,” the House speaker said. “I mean, people are excited. And I mean, from your average voter to moms and dads who are now feeling freedom again being that we’re turning the tide. You’ve got business owners at every level, large and small, who are making decisions to expand business and they know that help is on the way and it’s already begun and they feel good about it.”
Johnson concluded, “There’s a real sense of excitement, patriotism, people just have this sense of relief, and it’s a fun thing to go out and talk about and share on the campaign trail.”
I’m not in a position to know whether the House GOP leader genuinely believes this. It’s possible, I suppose, that the speaker has convinced himself that there’s widespread “euphoria,” from coast to coast. Maybe, in Johnson’s heart of hearts, he’s sincere in his belief that Americans have taken a good look at what’s unfolded over the last nine weeks, and they’re celebrating “feeling freedom again.” But watching the clip, posted online by Right Wing Watch, I was reminded of this NBC News report from a few weeks ago. Congressional Republicans are again being advised against holding in-person town halls after several instances of lawmakers being berated by attendees went viral. The chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, which is the Hill committee that works to get Republicans elected to the House, told lawmakers in a closed-door meeting Tuesday morning that there were more efficient ways to reach constituents than in-person town halls, according to two sources in the room.
The NRCC chair wasn’t alone: Mike Johnson himself also advised his members to stop holding town halls. So, which is it? If Republicans are witnessing public celebrations “everywhere” they go; Americans are feeling a “sense of relief”; and it’s “a fun thing” to go out and pitch the party’s message, shouldn’t GOP officials be holding all kinds of town halls? If for no other reason than to bask in the “euphoria”?
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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