Fmr Kevin McCarthy aide speaks on Trump s expletive rants to GOP House Speakership saga

A new book is offering an inside look at the rise and fall of the former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and at how President Trump has kept what the New York Times calls a quote iron grip on Republicans in Congress. The book is called Glory, Grief and the Gavel and was written by one of my friends and McCarthy's former advisor John Leganski. He was there alongside McCarthy for his lengthy battle which required 15 ballots before he was finally named Speaker of the House in 2023. McCarthy was ousted after just nine months as Speaker and went on to resign from Congress at the end. Now John Leganski is here right now with Rising to discuss. Okay thanks for joining us John. Thank you for having me. Let's talk about this because there's a lot of conversations whenever a tell-all comes out about transparency, credibility, you work with the Speaker. So what would you respond to any critic that's like why now? How do we know to trust this side of the story? Yeah well this is a historical event as you said. This was the first multi-ballot Speaker's election in a century. The longest since the Civil War. I wanted to have a record out there because when we went through this we had no one else we could talk to who had been through this before. I don't believe it's a tell-all. I know that's how it's been characterized in some publications and that might hurt my sales but I want this to be a through line. The subtitle is an inside guide to running for Speaker of the House. That's with a through line. That was my career with Kevin over 10 years. He ran in 2015. We didn't get there. That was kind of our our ebb in the hero's journey. We're able to get there in 2023 and so I put some of those lessons that we learned some of the guides that you need when you're running for Speaker of the House into this book and I think it's a great resource for Hill staff present and future. What do you think is the most surprising part of this book and the long tenured Speaker fight for Leader McCarthy? Yeah I think just how you know emotional it got. I think most folks they see the you know the tv and they think it's all scripted and and you know everything is is play by play. This was uncharted territory and so I take you in those rooms from those backroom conversations uh the negotiations that again the cameras never see and I had a couple reporters read this book and tell me you know I was reading and I said how did he get that oh wait he was in the room for it you know so it's that level of fly on the wall front row seat that I don't think you'll get in a lot of other books these days. So I want to talk about the central revelation in the book about President Trump and his expletive filled phone calls that would happen uh for Republican holdouts right the president was and still I think has the same language we see him just talk to senators a few days ago and got in a blow-up argument with Cassidy um what surprised you about there can you tell us more about that? Yeah so New York Times picked that up um I was most impressed by the fact that in public you know he keeps it so under wraps I need to watch my swearing honestly right and he is able to let it fly in private but then in public it's buttoned up so I never heard the um he's quite deft at using um you know uh words to to emphasize his points and the holdouts I think felt that obviously they were able to break uh shortly after those phone calls. There was so much historicness to that 15 round speaker fight but there was also a lot of history to Kevin getting there what do you think about the kind of story of Kevin ultimately getting that gavel and you being able to share it? Yeah well he had the fastest rise ever in house history from going from rank-and-file member to majority whip to majority leader as I mentioned uh one year after uh he became majority leader speaker Boehner stepped down and he was put forward to be potentially the speaker of the house um he pulled back that time but I think it's a story of resilience I think it's a story of endurance we had millions of viewers watching that week I had a Romanian legislator tell me that she recognized me from those votes Pope Francis told Kevin they were watching the balloting from the Vatican and so I think it's a story of resilience persistence and and that's why I wanted to put this down and share it with the public. What do you think that Kevin's experiences tell us about the stability or instability of the Republican party as a whole? Yeah I think the house is going to be very difficult to govern for the foreseeable future part of that is the margins right we have shrunk the battlefield in the house from when I came to Washington it was like 70 seats then it was about 35 for the last decade that's on track to be less than 15 swing seats deciding the house representatives out of those 435 members and so you see it this week right they had to cancel votes that's going to be a feature of our politics especially I think on the house Republican side of the aisle but you know I saw the elections in New York this week you have some DSA candidates winning if the house flips um you know leader Jeffries is going to have a fight on his hands in my opinion to keep everyone in line when again any couple groups of members can can break off and make things hard. And as you look back on your tenure in Congress and your work with McCarthy what stands out most to you? Well I mean I think we we were able to do a lot of good that's what I appreciate Aaron you're on our team for many years um I think it's such a cool place in Washington where a young person can come and have an impact. Kevin himself helped elect more Republican men women minorities and veterans than ever in our history enacted largest deficit reduction bill with President Biden in office in the Fiscal Responsibility Act stood up the China Select Committee helped win back the house not once but twice so you know his legacy lives on and and it was really a joy just to work with him up close learn and and those are the lessons I'm going to take moving forward. Kevin stepping away from politics not politics maybe Congress um it's like a sign of you know other people follow him we saw Marjorie Taylor Greene step away what do you make of the decision to just kind of say I'm going to be detached right now is it just like an exhaustion with the process? Well I think being a former speaker there was a sense of you know you don't want to be the backseat driver all the time so he knew Mike's the guy in charge now I'm going to let Mike lead and so there was a awkward period I think when he was still in Congress and Mike was leading where it's kind of like having two popes right who who's in charge and so I think he knew that he had to step away let the new guy lead and Mike's done a great job um other members have had their own reasons I do know there were a lot that left after what happened to Kevin because they were exasperated by the chaos Patrick McHenry, Garrett Graves, Kathy McMorris-Rogers, Mike Gallagher these are all chairs and members of leadership that said you know this isn't maybe the best place to have an impact I hope that is not the case moving forward I want good people to serve that's my final call in the book is we need good people we need good members good staffers to do these jobs but it is it's a tough job it's tough business and my hat's off to the people that are in the arena every day doing it. And to finish this out here when you think about the chaos in Congress right now and what we're looking at what is your prediction going into and do you think things can actually get better in the Capitol? I think it's going to be tight one way or another every election you know recently has been a I think a jump ball this country split down the middle 50-50 I think the redistricting push is a big change right Republicans have netted in some estimates eight or nine seats so if you were looking at a house right now that was 228 members for Republicans I think the prognostications of Dems winning the house would be a little bit different and so that's the playing field that we're looking at I think it's gonna be within a couple seats either way and whoever's running for speaker next Congress they're gonna want to read this book because you may go multiple ballots and and want to learn uh the ropes and lessons that we learned. Don Legansi I like that you're very pragmatic and not very optimistic you just it is what it is we have a lot more to talk about on Rising thank you so much for joining us and you guys stay with us. Thank you so much.