House Republican Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview on Thursday the many victories over the last six months of the Republican majority came from learning to work as a team.
Emmer spoke to Breitbart News as House Republicans just crossed the six-month threshold, during which Republicans racked up several impressive victories facing a razor-thin majority, an obstinate Senate Democrat majority, and a president who refused to work with House Republicans to solve the many crises unfolding under President Joe Biden’s administration.
Emmer, as the House Majority whip, has shepherded Republicans towards its many victories by coalescing many majorities to pass the Republican legislative vision for its majority, otherwise known as the Commitment to America.
The Minnesota Republican, a former hockey coach, said that the newly formed Republican majority figured out how to work together to overcome the odds.
House Majority Whip Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., leaves a news conference after a meeting of the House Republican Conference in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday June 6, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Emmer said, “They were going to know to get to know how to work together and that they could be a team. Because no team that I’ve ever coached is a team, the first day of practice, I mean, you got to start drilling them you got to start working on they got to run into each other, they got to start to learn one another and respect one another and trust one another.”
He emphasized that the size of the majority matters less than the ability of Republicans to come together and pass legislation.
Republicans confounded Biden’s and Democrats’ expectations by passing their own debt ceiling, which led Biden to negotiate with Speaker Kevin McCarty (R-CA), and the subsequent deal, the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found that the debt ceiling bill would cut the deficit by $1.5 trillion over the next ten years, and House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) said that the bill would have a “huge” impact on inflation.
WATCH: Rep. Tom Emmer Is Interviewed In March, 2023.
Emmer’s whipping efforts also led to the passage of the Lower Energy Costs Act, a bill sweeping bill to unleash American energy production and independence, a sweeping border security bill to address the porous southern border, and the Parents Bill of Rights Act, a bill to help to give parents more say over their children’s education.
Biden has signed GOP bills over the opposition of his Democrat peers.
Biden signed a Republican bill to repeal D.C.’s soft-on-crime policies, saying he does not support Washington, DC measures such as lowering penalties for carjackings. He also signed legislation that would end the coronavirus national emergency first declared in March 2020, under President Donald Trump’s administration.
As Emmer told Breitbart News Saturday in March, with each victory, the House GOP Conference becomes more united.
Now, this week, House Republicans are moving to pass the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which as Emmer says, has over 1,500 amendments.
He said, “Our job is just to try and stay on top of it and try and make sure that the team gets the information they need the individuals so that they can actually vote as a team when they finally come to the floor. But make no mistake about it. Nothing is easy.”
While the bill will change depending on the amendments, Emmer said that the bill has many conservative victories in it.
U.S. House Republican Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) attends a press conference on the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act at the U.S. Capitol on January 25, 2023 in Washington, DC. The REINS Act would require Congressional approval of all major regulations issued by federal agencies before those regulations could effect. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
He explained, “Take out all the woke garbage that is in there. I mean, you’ve got a White House through executive orders and leadership in the military, that are you know, they’re spending money on CRT, they’re spending money on drag queens shows I mean, they’re spending money on just outrageous things that have nothing to do with the defense of our nation.”
“It takes out all of that stuff,” he added.
Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) told Breitbart News Saturday that the NDAA includes his amendment that would ban the military from working with NewsGuard, the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), and other organizations that blacklist conservative media.
“Republicans in the House with Kevin McCarthy’s leadership have just been passing common sense legislation that, frankly, is to the benefit of every American,” Emmer said.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3