CNN "CNN Newsroom" - TRANSCRIPT Kevin McCarthy Finally Wins House Speaker Race on 15th Vote; Interview with Representative Bruce Westerman (R-AR) about the House Speaker Vote; Virginia Teacher Shot by 6-Year-Old Student; Head Injuries Have Marred Football Since Its Inception. Aired 7-8p ET

Interview

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BROWN: Congressman Westerman joins us now with more.

Congressman, hope you were able to get some sleep last night or this morning, I should say, given how late the vote went. That was also before a near scuffle broke out on the House floor. We just heard. And do you think Americans believe, actually believe that this GOP Congress is ready to go to work and that things are going to be different in D.C. after watching it in action this past week?

WESTERMAN: Good evening, Pam. And, you know, sleep is often overrated. But I did get a little bit of it. And we're ready to go to work. And, you know, I want to talk about the narrative a little bit. I keep hearing the word concession. I call these agreements. I don't think there were a lot of concessions made. There were agreements made that made our rule package stronger. And I'm very excited about the rules package.

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And really the only changes to those rules agreements from what our whole conference had looked at a week before is going from the five members that can do the motion to vacate to one member. And I actually think that's better. That was the rule of the House for over 100 years. And Speaker Pelosi changed that in the last Congress. So if you set the level at five or one, I don't really think it makes any difference.

And I think it actually helped, if it's only one member, then they're out there on an island. But if you've got five members, you've got a problem there. I don't think that's going to be an issue. I think rank-and-file members, more input in the process, and I'm really looking forward to getting to work on behalf of the American people.

BROWN: As you know, though, I mean, McCarthy had been reluctant for a while to do that, to lower the threshold to one. I mean, going to five was a concession for him. And there were moderates who worry that it would weaken him. And I'm wondering, you know, you yourself said the drama was probably a precursor to how difficult it will be to get some legislation passed.

And for those Americans who are watching all this play out, you know, thanks to kind of what had to be done here for McCarthy to get the votes, has he already weakened himself as speaker? Can he govern? People might watch this and think, OK, he's just kind of go through this just to get the speaker votes. How is he going to get the votes for legislation?

WESTERMAN: I think everybody realizes right now how resilient Kevin McCarthy is. And I think this made him stronger. These debates were going to happen at some point, so it's better to get that out of our system right now, to go in and pass a rules package, start addressing issues like energy, national security, the border. Those things that our constituents voted for us to go to Washington and work on.

And people said it took too long, it was messy, but in the long run, I think America is going to remember the quality of what we've done instead of how quickly we got it done. They're going to remember that good job versus just pushing something through. And it's going to be tough to get a bill passed off of the floor. It's going to be the same struggle to get the 218 votes no matter what we're working on. It may mean less legislation on the floor, but I think it will be more meaningful legislation.

BROWN: So on that note, you know, talking about how it might be difficult to pass votes, you know, you heard on FOX News, Matt Gaetz saying, you know, we're at this stage right now I'm running out of stuff to ask for. And that does raise the question how this has played out, is whether, you know, McCarthy -- this is how he needs to govern to pass legislation, basically offering congressmen like Matt Gaetz whatever they want in exchange for the vote because in this case it did work in Matt Gaetz's favor, and Lauren Boebert's, and some of those hardliners' favor until the end. Like he said, I got everything I wanted, there was nothing else to ask for.

WESTERMAN: I'm not sure what all he was specifically asking for. The real negotiators in this were Chip Roy or Scott Perry, Byron Donalds. Matt was kind of the organizer on the 20 that were pushing back. But I didn't really see him as the real negotiator. I saw Chip Roy really as the key one that was doing that.

Chip's very thoughtful. He looks at -- he knows the legislative process. He knows what can be done to make things work better. And it was really an agreement that we can move forward with these rules in place and it will make our Congress more efficient. It will make us more effective and it will give individual members a bigger voice as we go forward.

We know that we're one-half of one-third of the federal government. But we are the division of government that writes appropriation bills. We're the ones that have more control over the spending. And we've got to figure out not only how to leverage against a Biden White House, but also against a Senate that continually pushes these big spending bills on us and create these shutdown situations.

So that's where a lot of the efforts were put on how do we stand up for the House, how do we do the job of the House, and how do we give individual members a voice in doing that. I actually think Democrats will like this as well.

BROWN: Well, and we will have to see, right. Time will tell on that. But the first major test may be the debt ceiling. And, you know, a failure to get that done would be catastrophic for the U.S. economy. So everyone is watching to see what's going to happen there in this GOP-led House and of course the Senate as well.

Congressman Bruce Westerman, thank you for your time, coming on given how I'm sure exhausted you are after the past week that you've just had. We appreciate it.

WESTERMAN: Well, I've had plenty of coffee and I'm ready to go. Thank you, Pam.

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