Transcript: Mike Johnson Unnerved as ACA Revolt Worsens: “Bullshit!”

Sargent: Well, I want to pick up on what you just said there, which is that Mike Johnson is ideologically opposed to the subsidies getting extended. Clearly, he calculated that if it did get a vote, it would pass, right?

I mean, this is the thing. What’s been revealed here is that the Republican position is very unpopular—so unpopular that, finally, a bloc of moderates had to break with Mike Johnson and the Republican conference to join the Democrats, right?

Segers: I do think that Republicans realize how much of a critical issue this is. We have seen Trump pollsters—like Tony Fabrizio, I’m thinking of, but we have had Trump pollsters—look at this issue and say, “This is going to be a big issue for Republicans,” because it’s not just, as with Medicaid, very low-income Americans who are going to be affected. It is everyone who participates in the ACA marketplace.