Mike Johnson says he is a part-time ‘mental health counselor’

Speaker Mike Johnson quipped that he spends half of his time as a ‘mental health counselor’ trying to assuage the concerns of his notoriously free-wheeling and difficult-to-please Republican conference. ‘I spend half my day as speaker of the House, the other half is as a mental health counselor,’ Johnson told Louisiana radio station Mike and McCarty on Tuesday.

The speaker had been asked if he and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene , R-Ga (Pictured)., had ‘kissed and made up’ after she launched a motion to vacate him from the speakership. ‘Oh good grief,’ Johnson quipped. ‘I don’t carry grudges. You know, I don’t keep a record. I went up to her right after her ridiculous tirade, and said, “You know what? We’re still gonna work together.”‘

Johnson had spent hours offering Greene a private audience to air her grievances after she threatened to call a vote to oust him, but in the end it was all for nothing: the Republican filed her motion to vacate. Johnson avoided meeting former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s fate – Democrats voted to table, or kill, the motion and his job was saved. In an interview with DailyMail.com in November, McCarthy had a piece of advice for his successor: ‘Bring in a psychiatrist for many of these members.’

And seven months into his speakership, Johnson also noted the difficulties of the job. ‘I mean, the speaker the House in the modern era has an almost impossible scope of things to do. It takes 24 hours every single day. I haven’t had a break since October 25 I haven’t been alone since October 25 you know, it’s a full time thing. I’m not complaining,’ he said.

The speaker also accused Chuck Schumer of ‘trying to play both sides’ on Israel and tore into Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg over electric vehicles. ‘I’m a big supporter of Israel, as everybody knows, because I think we have many reasons and obligations to do that, but Chuck Schumer has been trying to play both sides,’ the speaker said, adding that Schumer had relented and agreed to invite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress.

‘I called his bluff last week,’ Johnson said of Schumer. ‘I said I would invite Netanyahu myself and just skip over him.’ Johnson turned to Biden’s green energy policy, which he said is ‘fueling Vladimir Putin’s war machine,’ and said he didn’t even believe Biden knew what he was doing.

‘Every time you pause an export of liquefied natural gas off the coast of Louisiana and Texas, which Joe Biden has done by executive order you make Europe and all of our allies in the other parts of the world have to go to Vladimir Putin to get their natural gas. I mean, it’s just absolute madness.’ ‘I looked at President Biden I said, ‘Why would you do that?’ He looked at me as if he didn’t realize he had. I think they’re giving him executive orders to sign and he doesn’t even understand the implications of it.’

Johnson said Buttigieg ‘got embarrassed’ on CBS’ Face the Nation over the weekend when he was questioned on why $7.5 billion in the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure bill earmarked for EV charging programs had only produced ‘seven or eight’ charging stations so far. ‘[Buttigieg] smiles and says “oh it’s very complicated,” I mean give me a break,’ said Johnson. 

‘This boondoggle about this, you know, radical green energy agenda is madness,’the speaker went on.

Faced with the less-than-impressive number of charging stations, Buttigieg reiterated to CBS’ Margaret Brennan that Biden wanted to build 500,000 stations by 2030. ‘Now, in order to do a charger, it’s more than just plugging a small device into the ground,’ the secretary said. ‘There’s utility work, and this is also really a new category of federal investment. But we’ve been working with each of the 50 states.’ ‘Seven or eight, though?’ host Margaret Brennan said with a laugh. ‘Again, by 2030, 500,000 chargers,’ Buttigieg said. ‘And the very first handful of chargers are now already being physically built.’

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