inclinations. >> with me, a predominant motive has been to endeavor to gain time to our country, to settle and mature its yet recent institution. >> watch our 10-part series, speeches that defined a presidency, saturdays at 9:30 a.m. and p.m. eastern on american history tv, on c-span2. president biden: the state of the union is strong because you, the american people, are strong. >> president biden delivers the annual state of the union address outlining his priorities to congress on tuesday. his first state of the union speech since republicans won back control of the house. we'll also hear the republican response and take your phone calls, texts and tweets. watch live coverage of the state of the union beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span now, our free mobile video app, or online at c-span.org.

>> c-span is your unfiltere view of government. we're funded by these television companies and more, including comcast. >> oh, you think this is just a community center. >> no. it's way more than that. >> comcast is partnering with 1,000 community centers to create wi-fi enabled buildings so students from low-income families can have the tools they need to be ready for anything. >> comcast supports c-span as public service alodge with these other television providers giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> house speaker kevin mccarthy defended his action to remove democratic congresswoman ilhan omar from the house foreign affairs committee. the g.o.p. resolution passed by a vote of 218-211. during the news conference, speaker mccarthy said he'll be meeting again with president biden to discuss the debt ceiling. he also announced that arkansas governor sarah huckabee sanders will give the republican response to president biden's state of the union address.

mr. mccarthy: thank you all for coming. good to see you. i don't know if you heard, but we've got the youngest governor in america, sara sanders -- sarah huckabee sanders, and the first woman governor in arkansas, and the very first father-daughter ever to be governor of a state is going to give our state of the union reresponse. we're excited about it. especially what she's been able to achieve so far as governor in arkansas. so i'm very excited by that. we'll also have a response in spanish. juan's story, immigrating to america at age 11. his father drove as but in tucson, arizona -- drove a bus in tucson, arizona. just a true american story as

well. yesterday i had a meeting with the president. i got to see the president again this morning. he said it was a good meeting as well. no predetermined idea buzz we're going -- ideas but we're going to meet again about the debt ceiling understand and ways we can -- and ways we can find ways for savings and put ourselves on a path to balance. i think that's very important. if you look at any of the latest poll, 74% of americans believe there has to be some savings in what we're spending. we're at 120% of g.d.p. meaning our debt is larger than our economy. one of the greatest threats we have to this nation. and when i look at it, if you look at just the last 12 years in congress, republicans controlled eight years of that, democrats controlled four. in the last four years that the democrats controlled, they increased discretionary spending by 30%. more than $400 billion. we had control of that for twice as long. discretionary spending during those eight years didn't go up $1. they actually went down $10

billion. so i know we can find savings and get our economy stronger. when republicans were in the majority we had a tax package. revenue in to the government has never been higher. the highest revenue we've ever seen in. so it's not a revenue problem, it's a spending problem. we'll continue to work on that. couple interesting things happened on the floor right now. you had almost, if you combine the number of democrats who voted no and voted present, there's 100 democrats that won't stand up against socialism. that's a real concern to me in america today. it's not just -- that wasn't a college vote on a college campus. that was a vote in the u.s. congress that 100 democrats couldn't say socialism was wrong. that's a scary point of view. but you also understand why we're in a spending problem that they are, when they were in the majority, that's why you understand the challenges that we have here. so let me stop there and take any questions you might have. reporter: the white house said that the president's open to talking about the debt ceiling in a separate discussion about

ways to control spending, do you -- what do you think about when you hear that? that they want to separate those two? mr. mccarthy: which ever way they want to talk about it, i'm very clear, he will not pass a clean debt ceiling here without some form of spending reform. so they'll never be a clean one -- there will never be a clean one. i don't know how they want to say it, that's fine. but at the end of the day we're going to get spending reforms. i believe you have to lift the debt ceiling but you do not lift the debt ceiling without changing your behavior. so it's got to be both. reporter: some of your members have voted for this omar resolution, like congress member gonzalez. some see a tit for tat retribution. is this the message you want to send to voters as come into power here? mr. mccarthy: no. it's not tit for tat. let's put it in perspective of what the democrats did and what republicans are doing. so the democrats in the last congress removed republican members from all committees.

they even judged one republican member, not based upon what she had said as a member of congress but what she said prior to ever getting here. and she -- they were removed -- they removed her from all committees. i'm not removing from all committees and i'm not judging something someone said when they were not a member of congress. the first two people we did not allow to be on intel. if you got the briefing i got from the f.b.i., and i know you all personally believe it as well, simply as an american, you know swalwell should not serve on the intel. i'd throsk take -- love to take a show of hands here. how many believe, if you're a member of congress, and the f.b.i. says nothing, but the moment your leadership appointments you to the intel committee, the f.b.i. comes knocking on the leadership's door and says, we have a problem, this person has a relationship with a chinese spy. how many believe that that person should stay on intel? so, yeah, it's not the same. and he's no longer on intel. but there are a number of other democrats concerned.

now, the chairman of the intel committee, adam schiff, i actually believe i helped him. because what he did to the intel committee, he used that position as chairman, knowing classified information that others didn't, and he conveyed to the american public something that was not true to try to confuse them. on a number of times. from the whistleblower, even "the washington post" acknowledged that that is true. what he did when he went after devin nunes, even the inspector general said he was lying about that. he turned the intel committee into an apeach -- impeachment committee. so now schiff serves on judiciary. that is actually the committee for impeachment. that is where he should serve. so now the intel committee would go back to the responsibility that it had to protect the american public. now, when it comes to congresswoman omar, based upon what she said, the anti-semitic comments, it's all about the benjamins. the military in america is equal to hamas and the taliban.

on 9/11, something happened that day. even the former democratic chair of the committee believed her comments were wrong. when a resolution was brought up to deal with this last time, she never apologized. they changed the resolution to say anti-semitism is wrong. we're not removing her from other committees. we just do not believe when it comes to foreign affairs, especially the responsibility of that position around the world with the comments that you make, she shouldn't serve there. but this is is clear. if it was tit for tat, we would have picked people and took them off all committees. what i asked jeffries to do is select a couple members, along with himself and mine, and i have a couple members, ken buck and some others, and i said, what we should do is put into the rules, look, there's a code of conduct here, but i don't know the definition exactly what

all that's going to mean. i think that should be clear. so if there is a concern, it's not tit for t tarvetion t but i think -- tat but i think moving forward, every single member of congress has the responsibility to how they carry themselves. let me finish the question. and it's responsible upon us to let them know what that is and then what is the due process in a bipartisan way that we can deal with it? so i'm going to put a group of democrats that hakeem will select and a group of republicans and we'll work to come and clarify the rules and pass something for not only this congress, but future congresses as well. reporter: there's acrimony in congress. we've seen it play out in many of these committee hearings, where members are calling each other names. i spoke with congresswoman omar as a back drop against this. with the acrimony between republicans and democrats right now, how account american people be confident you'll be able to get things done? mr. mccarthy: because this is nothing like the last congress where you move somebody from all committees. this is nothing like the last congress where you have a speaker that tells republicans

they can't even be on committees. this is nothing like the last congress where they would deny the rights for bills to even go through committee. this is nothing like the last congress where you never had an open rule. so let's just judge the few weeks we've had now to the last congress. this is the first time in seven years any bill has come to the floor in an open rule. almost a decade since that has come -- a bill has come to the floor that's not an appropriation bill. look at what we've also done the first week. in a bipartisan way, 146 democrats joined with us when we opened a select committee on china. this is actually a fundamentally different congress. i've had democrats coming up to me telling me, we're running it much better, especially the time allotment. they like the openness and the working. i give you another example. inner workings, right, there's times that i was going to be given a briefing, i call up the minority leader, take the briefing with me. because there's ways that i look at the way we were treated in

the past, i don't think was right. and i'm glad you asked this question because this is a much different congress, much more -- now the public can actually be here. you can be here. how different is that? the public is going to be back in the people's house. we're going to have a state of the union where the public can actually watch it. so, yeah, i'm really excited how this is so different than the last congress. i'm sticking to one side. let me come back to you. that's not fair. reporter: on hunter biden and his calls for a federal investigation now into the dissemination of the laptop, how is that going to impact your own investigation with him? mr. mccarthy: i don't think any way. i think it's delayed in his tactics. i think it's an attorney tactic to try to stop something. but one thing i will say from that, he's acknowledging now it is his laptop. so he was a little slower than the rest of the papers, twitter and others, but now we know it's true. and i think the investigations here, the uniqueness is you'll

have republicans and democrats and we'll get to the bottom of all this. reporter: to follow um. on secretary mayorkas, there's obviously now people calling for articles of impeachment. what about a timeline? when can we see an inquiry happen? mr. mccarthy: we will never use impeachment for political reasons. it's just not going to happen. that doesn't mean if something rises to the level of impeachment we with a not do it. so what you're finding now, committees have just now been organized. i said early on, going down to the border a number of times, fortunately the president finally went down to the border after 40-some years. we can't sustain what's happening. every community now is a border community. we're watching fentanyl, in my own community, a cartel came in and killed six people. a young baby shot in the head. the fentanyl is just decimating the most productive years of americans between the ages of 18 and 45. so what you'll find is, in the last month, even though we said

we were going to have an inquiry, in december we hit the highest number we've ever had. so what you'll find is the committees are together. they'll start the inquiry and let it go wherever it takes them. reporter: do you think you have the confident of the conference to move forward with an inquiry? mr. mccarthy: oh, yeah. i think democrats will join with us too. nobody wants to see the border the way it is today. reporter: just want to get you to comment on some of the things that leader jeffries said. he had a press conference before you. he had posters of up of some of the words members of your conference have said in the past. can you respond to some democrats who -- mr. mccarthy: i wasn't at the press conference. can you tell me an example? reporter: for example, he has comments from marjorie taylor greene up. mr. mccarthy: is she on foreign affairs? is she on intel? ok, i make my case. next question. reporter: you've been talking about the meeting with the president again following these discussions. you have a timeline for your next meeting with him and realistically what are the next steps? are you going to bring some members perhaps to meet with him

at the white house? are you bringing some democrats as well? what's the next step in the process? mr. mccarthy: the next step is very clear. we left it that he'll give me a call in a couple days to set up the next meeting. today i got to see him at the prayer breakfast, he sat next to me, he said, very good meeting. we're going to treat people with respect and i have respect for the president. i want to be very responsible with how we deal with this. i was very clear with the president. we should not wait five months. let's not put america through turmoil, right? i looked at the latest polling, greatest fear people have is government. they want their government to actually work. we have a government that's designed, we have a government that the american public decided to have a check and balance. where republicans are in charge of the house, democrats in the senate. he halls the presidency. so -- he has the presidency. so i believe the most sensible way to do this is we sit down together and we start talking. yesterday, i know before he said

he wouldn't negotiate, but yesterday was a very nice conversation for more than an hour. doesn't mean we agreed but we staked out different positions and i think at the end of the conversation between both, we thought, you know what, this is worthwhile to continue. we're going to continue it. reporter: [indiscernible] reporter: we've seen pressure in the senate, in order to get that briefing, specifically from democrats and republicans on the senate intel committee, does the the house have its own plans -- does the house have its own plans to apply pressure on the biden administration to get the briefing that congress -- mr. mccarthy: yeah, i mean, this is -- take away the -- what we're talking about, but the house and senate have a constitutional right to oversee this. these agencies do not have a right to withhold information to members of congress and especially on the intel committee. so you will see members inside the house intelligence committee to join with the senators as well. it's just purely jurisdiction of

congress. reporter: on immigration, what's going to happen with chip roy's bill on h.r. 29, gonzalez has spoken out about the language about asylum -- [indiscernible] -- mr. mccarthy: whether we deal with immigration, a lot of members have a lot of different positions. both of those members from texas have a lot to say. tony represents almost 2/3 of all the border. he has a lot of great input in there. whatever comes through is going to come through kevment i know members are work -- committee. i know members are working together to try to get to a place to get there. we'll try to find out the very best policy. i think there will be a number of bills

i can't believe they would even defend that. then they wanted to send schiff who lied to the american public. then they wanted to send omar, i'm not removing any of them from committees like they did. she sat and gave anti-semitic comments, a enpeople in her own party said -- even people in her own party, i bet if eliot were here today, the former chair, he would have voted with us. she said the american military is equal to hamas and the taliban.

from a member of the foreign affairs, she said, americans only like israel because it's all about the benjamins. three years later she said, i didn't know it was a trope when referring to someone who is jewish with money. she said on 9/11, on 9/11, as a member of congress, as an individual who is sitting on foreign affairs, something happened that day. what does that say to other people around the world? what does that say to somebody else who wants to create another 9/11 america? i'm sorry, it's not right, we were right in our actions, and she can serve on other committees. but it puts america in jeopardy and i'm not going to do that under my watch. and it's fair in the process, unlike them. reporter: last month the state department -- [indiscernible] -- mr. mccarthy: i don't have anything scheduled right now. reporter: that's not my question. in response, he pointed to

speaker pelosi and said that the chinese -- [indiscernible] -- obviously referring to their escalating military activities. my question is, if you go, are you concerned that there might be -- [indiscernible] -- military activity in that region? mr. mccarthy: let me be very clear. china's never going to tell me where i can and can't go. but i have nothing scheduled right now to go to taiwan. last question. yes, sir. reporter: sir, a group of your colleagues took to the floor. they had a special order on directv is the platforming of newsmax and -- deplatforming of newsmax. is the house contemplating hearings on that? mr. mccarthy: i had discussions with a couple members now, because it's very concerning to me. newsmax is the first one, another one as well. i think america should be able to have a choice in the news

they are able to get. a choice in being able to see it. i would hate to see that someone's being kicked off simply because they provide something conservative. so i think it is a place that we should look at. especially coming after all the things we saw happening in social media. now what we found out that happened at twitter, when they told us, oh, it wasn't happening. it's a real concern here. it's better to bring sunlight and get all the facts to know that if someone's being jeopardized being on television simply because of their philosophical beliefs, that's wrong and it's something we should look into as well. thank you. hope you all have a great weekend. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2023] >> fridays at 8:00 p.m. eastern, c-span brings you after words from book tv. a program where nonfiction authors are interviewed by

journalists, legislators and others on their latest books. this week community organizer, author of the great eape, retells the story of how a group of men from india enter into the u.s. as guest workers, only to become trapped in fced labor. he's interviewed by migration policy institute senior fellow. watch after words every friday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span.