But what are your thoughts on how this latest addition to Trump's inner circle, how's this going and how do you think it's going to ultimately play out?

First, I'll tell you that the job of White House press secretary, not a job that I would ever want to sign up for.

Incredibly difficult job.

And there's no question.

I think her first briefing wasn't what many were hoping for.

But I do think that that's going to come with time.

I believe that she obviously had big shoes to fill and she had a very short time from the time that that announcement was made till she was out there in front of her colleagues in the White House press corps.

What are the conversations that are happening between Congress people, between senators? What's happening on Capitol Hill surrounding this particular story?

But when he said that phrase yesterday, what's your takeaway about what that might have meant?

Well, I'm not real certain, to be honest with you.

Look, if you follow President Trump for any length of time, he often comes up with very creative ideas to rally the base.

And frankly, I think some of these things that he brings to these rallies is an example of that.

And I You know, I think there's just, again, things that this White House is doing.

I mean, when he announced the fact that he was going to rescind the tax on diesel, that was a major step that he took.

And, of course, he mentioned that out there in Nebraska as well, allowing on-road use of red diesel.

What are your thoughts?

Can you break it down a little bit for us?

Yeah, the Parity Act, Tony, thank you for asking and for giving me an opportunity just to remind folks of what's kind of on the table.

Senator Jim Banks over in the Senate has introduced this, as I have introduced it in the U.S. House.

The Parity Act, as you mentioned, which in short is going to do away with this 90-10 rule that has been in place that is really just discriminating against a lot of our proprietary schools out there that are training the workforce for the future.

Under that rule, it basically says that these proprietary schools have to have at least 10% of their funding coming from sources other than the federal government.

The problem with that, quite frankly, is where it discriminates against them is that we're wanting to see the workforce pale.

We're wanting to see those kind of things that are being put out there to be utilized by our veterans, being utilized by people that are wanting to really get into a career where they can make money.

Do you have any thoughts on kind of redoing the census regarding that representation in apportionment?

Could we do the same thing, keep our diesel to home, maybe get it below that $6.31 national average it's reached today?

Well, I think it's certainly something we need to take a long, hard look at and be willing to do whatever we need to do to grant our people some relief.

I mean, I'm hearing from folks across my district, in fact, quite frankly, heard from one of our key supporters just the other day that said, look, Mark, I'm losing faith in Republicans and their leadership.

He said $6.50 a gallon for diesel is over the top.

And I...

I understand his concern.

I understand his pain.

These are both problems, are they not?

Great to have you

... listen, this is a serious issue.

In fact, yesterday, uh, I was part of a subcommittee hearing that we held for the Judiciary Committee on this very issue of birthright citizenship.

And one of the, the questions that, that I raised in the midst of it was that this whole conversation cannot be discussed without talking about this birth tourism issue that we have, which is a real problem.

You referenced it a little bit earlier, Terrence, when you were talking.

And, you know, right now we've got 500 companies, 500 companies in China that are actually, uh, selling the opportunity to come over here for birthright, uh, for their children to be born, and then they walk out.

Some 50,000, uh, Chinese are becoming citizens through birth, uh, when they're born here because of this big business that it's become.

Uh, you know, I just gotta ask you about this because if that many Democrats, uh, will not condemn socialism, is that indicative, sir, that, that the DSA and just socialism in general have taken root? I, I, I don't know how hard it is to condemn some- to get- condemn something as bad as socialism, but what does that say about the state of the Democratic Party?

how long did this go on with your kids and where are your children now?

Well, it went on.

I got the kids back.

Then they started talking.

They started talking about their grandfather's arsenal of weapons and all this crazy Knight Templar Freemason stuff.

And that resulted in me trying to get it investigated and getting retaliated against again.

He snatched the kids again with the help of local officials, hid them, used them in extortion demands to drop the allegations if I want to see my kids, you know, again.

Are you in fear of anybody now on retaliation or anybody else coming after your kids or you?

So walk us through those huge accomplishments that you guys got done last week.

Well, Ginny Beth, thank you so much for mentioning those because it was a busy week on Capitol Hill.

I mean, even in the midst of those votes, we were still going through markups and we were actually held the judiciary markup on HR2, which is the strongest immigration legislation that really backs up what President Trump has had to do by executive order.

We're wanting to get HR2 passed, hopefully in this Congress and Judiciary Committee took it up just this past week as well.

So in the midst of all of those votes, but those were crucial votes because you're exactly right.

We wanted to take with the continuing resolution, we wanted to take the page out of the Democrat playbook that they have seemed to go to every time.

And that is in order to slow President Trump down, in order to stop the America First agenda, Their best notion is let's just shut the government down.

Tell us about those bills that you're introducing and leading the way on that mean the most to you.

The Senate doesn't have the votes to pass it, but do you really stop everything unless the Senate acts?

Well, listen, first of all, thank you for having me this morning.

And you're exactly right.

There is great concern.

There's great frustration.

There's great anger that seems to be erupting here on Capitol Hill at the fact that the Senate has not done their job and moved the Save America Act.

something that is supported by Republicans and Democrats alike, actually, and high percentage, maybe 75% of Democrats and 85% or 90% of Republicans support the Save America Act.

I mean, what do you hope to see happen here?

Anyhow, your take.

take.Well, let, let's just kinda break some of those down.

First of all, when you look at the, uh, Strait of Hormuz and what's happening, it's obvious that, uh, President Trump has followed through, uh, throughout the weekend to make sure that Iran understands that you're not gonna fire on ships and not pay a price for it.

And, uh, he continues to negotiate from a position of strength, and he's not gonna give that up.

So it was important for us to do the things that we're doing.

I do think the fact that, uh, Iran spoke up...

Listen, the whole region has unified against Iran, including Oman, which was one of the last countries just over the weekend that Iran kept looking to and saying, "We're going to work out a new plan for how folks are gonna, uh, navigate the strait." And Oman even stepped back and condemned, uh, what Iran was trying to do.

Uh, what is your expectation in terms of actually moving forward, continuing the work, uh, that you're contracted to do there in Congress? Will there be work done, or are we at a stalemate? How is this gonna ultimately work out?

What do you think happened here, Mark?

To sound cliched, you know, too early to tell, but we have some clues.

You know, the information that's come out just in the last two hours totally changed my opinion of what, you know, may have happened here.

And that information, if it's correct, if it's credible, is that the aircraft made a dramatic turn, 180 degree turn back towards the airport.

Now, The question, I think the big question is why did the aircraft turn? Did the pilots make that turn or did they lose control of the aircraft because of some malfunction? You know, one of the riskiest things we train for as pilots and I train pilots, you know, week after week on this and evaluate them as an engine failure on takeoff.

This could have been caused by engine failures, plural, I'm not an expert on the B-52, but I've read a little about it.

They can withstand losing an engine and still have pretty good performance.

Any truth to that?

Where are we with Iran right now, do you think, best guess?

Well, it's a great question, Steve, and thank you for having me this afternoon.

When you look at where we are with Iran, I think there's no question that President Trump is trying to get to a diplomatic solution as best he can.

We've all known that the situation over there is tenuous at best.

And when you stop and think about the fact that Who are we really negotiating with? Because you've got the Revolutionary Guard that it seems to be in control at a certain level, and they don't want an end to this.

You've got the governmental officials that seem to try to want to find some way out of it and are working in negotiations.

And then you have the situation like just occurred with our Apache helicopter getting shot down by a drone.

Was it enlightening?

Your thought.

Well, David, first of all, it's great to be with you this morning and always enjoy the opportunity to join the gang here.

Listen, I think that Todd Blanch has proven his leadership and I think he's proven that leadership to President Trump, that President Trump has a confidence now and is stating that and perhaps moving forward here with Todd Blanch as a nominee.

To your point, you know, we've got to get through Senate confirmation and everything is just a roll of the dice over in the Senate anymore.

It seems from day to day, from reconciliation all the way through.

But I think Todd is an excellent choice.

And listen, what a tremendous presentation that he laid out that you played there earlier on rewarding these cities that are working together.

What can you tell us about this particular campaign and the issues at stake and why they're important to you?

And how do you capture that unaffiliated vote? Because I know they came over for Trump, but it's increased by another, like, 4% since the 24 elections.

Well, one of the things that I'm hopeful for when you look at North Carolina, even with that unaffiliated vote, a lot of those are Democrats that have been Democrats forever.

And they just were a little nervous about crossing all the way over to the Republican side.

So they moved to unaffiliated because the Democrat Party is not the Democrat Party of my grandfather or my father.

It's just a whole different Democrat Party now.

And so those unaffiliated, I believe that if we will continue to deliver our message and that it will not be something that we are scared of, but we will paint with those bold colors like Reagan did, because a lot of these folks were Reagan Democrats.

A lot of these folks were Jesse Helms Democrats in years past.

What does the GOP have to do to secure it?

Why do you think they are so willing to be so desperate so publicly now?

Well, I think the bottom line is this is not the Democrat party of my grandfather.

This is not the Democrat party of John Kennedy.

This is a Democrat party that, quite frankly, is not just in liberalism.

They have moved into Marxism in such a big way.

And And I think those that are realistic about it and those who speak to that fact know that that's a reality.

And I think that when you start seeing it moving in that direction, they'll do whatever they need to do.

Tell us about it.

It's been a month.

Well, thank you so much for having me.

And yes, I am.

I'm very anxious to hear this briefing and understand the latest update on where we are.

I think we're continuing to see our American troops perform at incredible levels.

I think they're meeting the goals of taking out these missiles, which were absolutely critical.

I think that they're taking out the missiles.

Why is it so important for us to be focused on that area?

Your thoughts, and tell us why you believe it.

Thank you so much for having me today.

And you're exactly right.

The stunt and I call it the stunt that was pulled by the Senate in the wee hours of the morning last Friday left everyone really just sort of taken aback.

I mean, at 2.30 in the morning, they managed with just a very handful.

I mean, I think I heard the number five, including the person in the chair, were on the floor of the Senate and passed by unanimous consent this crazy bill that was really just garbage.

I think the leader referred to it as garbage.

And Save America Act gets, what, backburnered?

It's affecting Americans who are traveling every day, and it makes me think that, that maybe for the American people and maybe for Democrats toTo not support what they are supporting, you gotta have Republicans doing town halls at airports or something, something so that people make the connection between Republicans who want to fund this, keep the American people safe, and keep planes in the air, versus Democrats who don't want to fund it, don't want Americans to be safe, and want the planes to be on the ground.

That's exactly right.

And if you're standing in those lines in the Atlanta airport or the Charlotte airport or Philadelphia or wherever you may be, and you're spending four hours in the TSA line, find a Democrat and thank them for all the experience that they're giving you there, because that's exactly where this lies.

We have been trying to fund TSA, uh, the Coast Guard, Secret Service, all of these folks, FEMA, that are all part of the funding of the Department of Homeland Security.

And yet the Democrats have taken a page out of their playbook where all they're interested in doing is creating chaos and trying to somehow throw a wrench into the mechanism and, and really, the, it's pathetic that this is all they've got.

But yet it seems to be the game that they're playing.

And listen, the administration has tried to work with them.

How important was that moment this weekend?

What do you think?

Listen, I think the president is spot on.

And I think that Congress has a responsibility to get this act done and to get it done now.

I mean, look, I flew back into Washington today and I went through the Charlotte airport.

I spoke to some TSA agents, in fact, on the other side, just to thank them.

They didn't recognize that I was a congressman.

And one of them said, you know, we appreciate your appreciation.

Do you think we can get there? What do you think the next few days might bring?

How important was that moment this weekend?

Boy, I think it was very important, John.

It certainly made clear, and I think it got the attention of the folks in Europe.

President Trump has been working for weeks now trying to get the Europeans to step in, trying to find partners that are going to stand with us to keep the Strait of Hormuz open.

And listen, this whole thing, President Trump was right.

He recognized what Iran had, that he learned from the negotiations they were in earlier, that they had 900 pounds of enriched uranium.

They were within 11 days of having the ability to have a nuclear weapon.

However, are you hearing from any of your colleagues behind the scenes up on Capitol Hill who are a little hesitant about it and saying, well, we hope this is over soon because this could affect us in the midterms? What are you hearing up there?

Congressman, how will the House respond to the Senate's handling of the Save America Act?

Well, Gina, it's great to be with you this morning.

Thank you for having me.

I think we continue to hold out hope, or we have over the weekend, that the Senate was going to force, that Senator Thune was going to force this talking filibuster to take place and really just wait out or wear out the Democrats while they try to do it.

I'm still hopeful that something is going to happen there in the Senate.

But even with that, the president last week when we were away on our retreat, talking about the issues as we move forward, really ramped up what he encouraged us to pass in the House.

which would be not only the Save America Act with those first two provisions, but add to it three other things that really ties into what you guys were talking about earlier, and that is creating a contrast election, which is going to be very, very important to get beyond some of the Twitter wars, to get beyond some of the personalities and to come back to exactly what Terrence was talking about, really driving home these policies that really differentiate Republicans from Democrats and move forward with that in the midterms.

What are you hearing from constituents down there? And what's the appetite for how long they're willing to put up with higher gas prices and the military operations in Iran?

What are your thoughts today?

Well, first of all, Steve, I certainly want to just applaud having just yesterday been in that hearing with Secretary Noem.

I think that Secretary Noem has really and truly worked just diligently to carry out the task of what is an overwhelming job.

And I think she has done a yeoman's work in being able to see the things through that she has.

I think that when you stop and consider what has happened in this country, that we've now seen 2.6, 2.7 million illegal aliens that are now out of the country since Secretary Nguyen was in that position.

And just the messaging that took part that really got a number of people, nearly 1.9 million have self-deported.

And I think that a lot of the work that she did was strong.

Any idea what this is about?

What's the final result that you saw?

Well, Eric, thank you so much for having me today.

You're exactly right.

We brought Secretary Noem in.

And of course, as a freshman in Congress, I'm one of the last ones on our side to get a chance to ask questions.

And so I sat there really in between different committee meetings that I had today, but overwhelmed, quite frankly, I said this when I started to speak, I was overwhelmed by by just the contempt and lack of decorum and lack of respect that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle had for our Secretary of Homeland Security.

I mean, my goodness, whether you agree with her or disagree with her, whether you like her policies or don't like her policies, I've never seen people just treat someone with such contempt.

Your thoughts on that? Very important Senate seat, by the way, because balance of power right now about 53, but one you need to keep, sir.

Uh, how will Americans deal with that very strong contrast?

Well, John, I think the American people are, are continuing to see through the antics.

They're, they're seeing through what the Democratic Party has, has become.

And I think it is very, very tragic when we have come to this place that we are.

But, but let's get real.

This is what tends to happen when a party has sort of been taken over by the far left, a party that really doesn't have a, a true leader of it.

They really don't have any winning issues with the American people, and they seem to be rudderless, as I oftentimes describe it.

How do Republicans counter that fear and make sure that the truth gets through it?

[chuckles]

Uh, the things he ran on, of sealing the border, he's done just that.

I mean, we've...

I think that we've eight months running that we have not had illegals getting across the border, uh, and into our country, which is huge.

He has started, of course, the finding those criminal illegal aliens and, and getting them deported, and that's a huge step in the right direction.

We've seen hundreds of thousands of folks deported.

We've seen nearly two million that have self-deported at this point because of the emphasis that he's had.

As a member of the House Education and Workforce Committee, what are you thinking over the last year of Trump's administration, and do you think he's gonna take maybe a, a lap of victory on more support for school choice, for example?

How will Americans deal with that very strong contrast?

Well, John, I think the American people are continuing to see through the antics.

They're seeing through what the Democratic Party has become.

And I think it is very, very tragic when we have come to this place that we are.

But let's get real.

This is what tends to happen when a party has sort of been taken over by the far left.

a party that really doesn't have a true leader of it.

How do Republicans counter that fear and make sure that the truth gets through it?