{"id":405292,"date":"2025-11-26T05:52:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T05:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/405292\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T05:52:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T05:52:16","slug":"mike-johnson-says-leading-the-house-is-like-being-a-mental-health-counselor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/405292\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Johnson says leading the House is like being a \u2018mental health counselor\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Speaker Mike Johnson<\/a> compared leading the slim Republican majority in the House Tuesday to being an overworked \u201cmental health counselor\u201d and \u201cfirefighter\u201d constantly grappling with emergencies and lawmaker drama.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Johnson<\/a>, who his wife, Kelly, divulged is a \u201creally remarkable\u201d portrait artist, painted an unglamorous picture of being the most important man in the House \u2013 marked by constant phone calls, a lot of take-out food and his teenage son being \u201cembarrassed\u201d to be dropped off at school by his dad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think any of us fully realized how much life was going to change in making the transition from the sort of rank-and-file member to Speaker,\u201d Johnson (R-La.) said of his family, during an interview on the \u201cThe Katie Miller Podcast.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an all-encompassing, literal 24-hour, 7-day-a-week, assignment,\u201d the House speaker added.<\/p>\n

\"MikeThe Johnsons explained how their lives have drastically changed since the Louisiana Republican was elected House Speaker, during an interview on \u201cThe Katie Miller Podcast.\u201d The Katie Miller Podcast<\/p>\n

The Louisiana Republican \u2013 a father of four<\/a> \u2013 revealed that he relies on the same principles of parenting to deal with various personalities and factions in the lower chamber.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have this joke that I\u2019m not really a Speaker of the House. I\u2019m really like a mental health counselor,\u201d Johnson said, \u201cand so when the pressure gets turned up really high and then the stakes are so high and the votes are so tight, I just try to sit down and listen to everybody and figure out what their primary need is and how we can meet that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd sometimes those are long counseling sessions, but we get that done,\u201d he continued, adding, \u201cit\u2019s not unlike, I mean, it\u2019s the same skills you use as a parent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson and his wife both agreed that the most annoying part of being House speaker is the lack of any sort of lull.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHardly any downtime,\u201d Kelly said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, that\u2019s right,\u201d the speaker chimed in. \u201cI mean, even when you think, like, the work of the day is done, and you put the phone down \u2013 I mean, this would be 11:30 at night \u2013\u00a0 ring, ring \u2026 another crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re sort of like a firefighter in a way. You have to put out fires every, you know, every hour.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MikeJohnson lamented that his busy schedule and extensive security detail makes it virtually impossible to enjoy simple things, like going out to dinner at a restaurant with his wife. Michael Brochstein\/ZUMA \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n

Johnson described managing his work-life balance as a \u201cdaily triage.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to have order and schedule, but it gets blown up because there\u2019s an emergency every 10 minutes,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so we\u2019re kind of in survival mode right now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Being second in line to the presidency requires Johnson to travel in \u201ca three Suburban motorcade right now, with a tactical unit and a police car in front,\u201d which he lamented makes it difficult to do hardly anything.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such an ordeal,\u201d he said of having to run to the grocery or hardware store, so he \u201cvery seldom\u201d goes out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big thing,\u201d he said of being out and about, \u201cand it just doesn\u2019t really make it worth it, and that\u2019s the sad part is you give up a big part of your life, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate it because I\u2019m just a regular guy, you know, but you\u2019re not when you\u2019re Speaker of the House,\u201d Johnson acknowledged.<\/p>\n

Kelly noted that her husband starts off his day by taking their 15-year-old son to school, which allows for \u201csome good quality time together\u201d \u2013 but Johnson was quick to point out the security escort required for that activity as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, it\u2019s in a motorcade, so I have to drop him off a block away from school,\u201d Johnson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kelly, laughing, explained that their son \u201cgets embarrassed\u201d by dad\u2019s security detail.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The couple was also asked about the unexpected benefits of being House speaker \u2013 and they were hard pressed to come up with any.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, I would say there\u2019s not a lot of perks,\u201d Kelly said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s really not,\u201d Johnson initially agreed, before expressing his fondness for the Speaker\u2019s Balcony.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the holidays coming up, Johnson noted that he hasn\u2019t \u201chad a vacation day in two years.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

When his wife argued that perhaps last Christmas he had a day off, the speaker shot back: \u201cMaybe Christmas Day, but even then \u2014 yeah even then, last Christmas I\u2019m taking calls from members with their drama.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Speaker Mike Johnson compared leading the slim Republican majority in the House Tuesday to being an overworked \u201cmental…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":405293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[327,210,517,8119,5158,80,67,132,68,5621,1154],"class_list":{"0":"post-405292","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-congress","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-mental-health","11":"tag-mike-johnson","12":"tag-podcasts","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-us-house-of-representatives","18":"tag-us-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115614446713708651","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}