House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) opened up in a revealing Wednesday interview alongside his wife Kelly, sharing some of the challenges he has faced since taking the reins of the lower chamber amid Republicans’ razor-thin majority.
Johnson in an interview on The Katie Miller Podcast said his life was a daily “triage” packed with constant phone calls that gave him and his wife little down time.
“We try to have order and schedule, but it gets blown up because there’s an emergency every 10 minutes,” he said during the podcast, which is hosted by the wife of White House adviser Stephen Miller.
“And so we’re kind of in survival mode right now,” he added.
The House Speaker said he’s given up comfort for the call of duty, noting that his outings are “seldom” as they require a “three Suburban motorcade right now, with a tactical unit and a police car in front.”
He said his son is “embarrassed” by the security detail, which results in him being dropped off a block away from school to avoid drawing attention.
Johnson said one of the biggest struggles is trying to maintain the influx of calls which occur year round.
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“I think literally 100,000 people have my cell phone number,” Johnson told Miller. “The greatest challenge of my day is trying to keep up. Because I miss literally hundreds of calls and text messages in a day. The peril is, I don’t know how important it was, what I missed,” he added.
The House Speaker said he hasn’t had a break in a long time.
“I haven’t had a vacation day in two years. I haven’t been off in two years, literally,” he said. “Last Christmas, I was taking calls from members with their drama. It takes everything out of whomever serves in the position — and by extension, their family,” he added.
He noted that the job has come with some perks. However, Johnson has also faced criticism from members of his own party, such as retiring Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). Other Republicans have also taken aim at the Speaker.
But Johnson says being a father of four has prepared him for the role, teaching him how to navigate controversy with patience.
“We have this joke that I’m not really a Speaker of the House,” he said, sitting next to his wife. “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.”
“And sometimes those are long counseling sessions, but we get that done, it’s not unlike, I mean, it’s the same skills you use as a parent,” Johnson continued.
