Outgoing Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), who served as acting speaker before Rep. Mike Johnson (R–LA) was elected in 2023, did an “exit interview” with Politico:
POLITICO: How have you seen the House GOP change as you’ve changed as a lawmaker?
McHENRY: The people that are outside of positions of authority in the House — they’re the most frequent guests on media, your most ample quotes and most active online — are not meaningful players internally, almost to a person, in this institution. The rewards, the incentives, have shifted in my 20 years to attention and people assuming that this place is a platform for that attention.
