Mike Johnson says running the House feels like being a 'mental health counselor'

WASHINGTON, DC: House Speaker Mike Johnson is offering a surprisingly unfiltered view into his chaotic daily life, comparing the job to being an overworked “mental health counselor” and “firefighter” tasked with managing constant emergencies, restless lawmakers and a schedule that he says hasn’t left room for a real vacation in nearly two years.

The Louisiana Republican opened up about the nonstop pressure during a candid conversation on 'The Katie Miller Podcast', where he appeared with his wife, Kelly.

Mike Johnson says his job feels like round-the-clock counseling sessions

During the conversation, Mike Johnson reflected on how dramatically life changed after he moved from a rank-and-file member to House speaker.

“It’s an all-encompassing, literal 24-hour, 7-day-a-week assignment,” he said, noting that the family hadn’t fully realized how drastic the transition would be. Johnson, a father of four, explained that he often feels more like a therapist than the leader of the House.

“We have this joke that I’m not really a Speaker of the House. I’m really like a mental health counselor,” he said. “When the pressure gets turned up really high and 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.”

The “counseling sessions,” he added, can be long, emotional and unpredictable, a dynamic he compared to managing the personalities of his own children.

“It’s the same skills you use as a parent,” Johnson said.

Kelly Johnson agreed, noting that the hardest part of the job is the complete lack of downtime. “Hardly any,” she said.

Mike Johnson on late-night crises and a family in survival mode

Johnson said the pressure rarely lets up, not even late at night.

“Even when you think the work of the day is done, and you put the phone down, I mean, this would be 11:30 at night, ring, ring … another crisis,” he said. “You’re sort of like a firefighter in a way. You have to put out fires every hour.”

His schedule, he admitted, has become “daily triage.” “We try to have order and schedule, but it gets blown up because there’s an emergency every 10 minutes. And so we’re kind of in survival mode right now.”

The demands of the role also come with intense security requirements. Because the House speaker is second in line to the presidency, Johnson must travel in a three-Suburban motorcade with a tactical team and police escort, a setup he said makes simple tasks nearly impossible.

“It’s such an ordeal,” he admitted. “You very seldom go out.”

Even taking his 15-year-old son to school requires a motorcade. “I have to drop him off a block away from school,” Johnson said, laughing as he explained that his son gets “embarrassed” by the escort.

Mike Johnson jokes that there are ‘not a lot of perks’

When asked about the perks of the job, Kelly struggled to name any.

“You know, I would say there’s not a lot of perks,” she said.

Johnson agreed, noting the one exception: his love for the Speaker’s Balcony. Still, he emphasized that he hasn’t had a true day off in years.

“Maybe Christmas Day,” he said, “But even then, yeah even then, last Christmas I’m taking calls from members with their drama.”