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HC Heather Cox Richardson Heather Cox Richardson Historian of American politics who teaches at Boston College and specializes in the Civil War, Reconstruction and the American West.

“Mike Johnson has made sure the House of Representatives is not in session. So nobody can stop Trump unless he calls them back into session and unless John Thune calls the Senate back into session. And that was really quite deliberate on the part of Johnson's, on Johnson's part. The more Congress is out of session, the more Trump can do. And he's clearly running with that through the midterms.”

Heather Cox Richardson · Policy · October 2026

“Mike Johnson has made sure the House of Representatives is not in session. So nobody can stop Trump unless he calls them back into session and unless John Thune calls the Senate back into session. And that was really quite deliberate on the part of Johnson's, on Johnson's part. The more Congress is out of session, the more Trump can do. And he's clearly running with that through the midterms.” — Heather Cox Richardson on Mike Johnson, Heather Cox Richardson

Context

Said by historian Heather Cox Richardson on her Politics Chat show on October 27, 2026, answering reader questions about the final stretch before the midterms. She was describing what she sees as the administration's strategy while Congress is out of session.

Transcript

Heather Cox Richardson
Heather Cox Richardson

…dramatically help his ability to stay in the war. And of course, Trump's lifting of sanctions on Russian oil have also been an enormous shot in the arm for Russian financing. You can see it. He's just, they're going for broke. They clearly expect they're going to get tripped up on the other side of the midterms, and they're doing all they can in this period. And please don't forget this, where Mike Johnson has made sure the House of Representatives is not in session. So nobody can stop Trump unless he calls them back into session and unless John Thune calls the Senate back into session. And that was really quite deliberate on the part of Johnson's, on Johnson's part. The more Congress is out of session, the more Trump can do. And he's clearly running with that through the midterms. Now, you asked as well, I am trying to get all the pieces you asked. You asked as well about what's going on with the Democrats. And this is a really interesting moment for the Republicans who are jumping off the cliff with the MAGA movement, essentially, which is extraordinarily corrupt. It's not doing anything the American people want. I do think it's really interesting in this moment that…

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

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