On this episode of Newt's world, former Speaker of the House and my good friend,

Kevin McCarthy announced in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on December 6th that he'd be leaving Congress.

The son of a firefighter McCarthy describes himself as an optimist having served 17

years in the same congressional seat representing California's 20th

congressional district from 2007 to 2023. Since he wrote that

op-ed he has left Congress and started the next chapter of his career. I consider him a good friend

so I want to have everyone today to talk about what's next for him and what we can expect in the coming

months with the elections of the House and presidential

campaign. So I'm really pleased to welcome my guest, the 55th Speaker of the House,

Kevin McCarthy. Thank you for joining me again on Newswirled.

Well, thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's an honor to be back on your podcast and spend a little more time with you.

As somebody has gone through a similar experience, I'm just going to go right into it.

Tell us about the first couple of days and your reaction when you didn't have to get up in the

morning and go to the house. You know the first part is so much of your life for the

last couple decades has been in the house making sure everything's working you're

worried about every little thing and you know what it's able to go

without you and when you turn on the TV and you look at the more chaos you kind of

think I'm glad I'm not there right now but hopefully you would have made it a

little better a little different.

You've had a great career. I think I first remembered you when you were, I think first an intern and then you worked briefly

with John Boehner on the election subcommittee looking at a recount if I remember correctly.

Yeah, it was House administration. The whole story I tried to get an internship I got turned down from

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