During an interview with House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday’s CBS This Morning, co-host Gayle King cued up a clip of Hamilton actor Lin-Manuel Miranda rapping his demand that Congress provide financial aid to Puerto Rico.
On HBO’s Last Week Tonight on Sunday, left-wing host John Oliver capped off a lengthy monologue lobbying Congress to provide assistance to the island with the musical performance. The soundbite played on This Morning featured Miranda pleading:
The hard part is in convincing Congress Puerto Rico matters so their heart is in the fight for relief, not a bailout, just relief. A belief you can pass legislation to ease our grief. Paul Ryan, I’ll come sing Hamilton at your house, I’ll dosey doe with Pelosi, I'll wear my Hamilton blouse. Your citizens are suffering. Stop the bleeding, stop the loss. Help Puerto Rico, it's just a hundred miles across.
Ryan mentioned already seeing the segment when it first aired: “I was just getting ready to watch Game of Thrones, which was the season premiere. So I turned it on like ten minutes early and that was on....I saw it live, actually.”
Co-host Charlie Rose pressed: “He wants you to focus on Puerto Rico.” Ryan explained:
Yeah, so we are focused on Puerto Rico....Here’s what we are working on doing, having a very important oversight board to work on debt restructuring and helping Puerto Rico get their fiscal house in order. Taxpayers will not be involved in this. There will be no taxpayer bailout of Puerto Rico.... It's going to be bipartisan. It's going to be an oversight board with restructuring powers, and it will make them have to balance their budget.
The Puerto Rico topic was the final in a series of lightening round questions at the end of the interview. Co-host Norah O’Donnell urged Ryan to weigh in on former House Speaker Dennis Hastert being prosecuted for violating banking laws in an effort to cover up a past sex abuse scandal: “He's accused of abusing at least four other young men when he was their wrestling coach. Do you think Denny Hastert should go to prison?”
Ryan replied: “It's heart wrenching. I can’t – I don't know the details of exactly what happened. I had his portrait removed from the Capitol because that is not befitting of a former speaker or the kind of standards that we uphold for ourselves.” O’Donnell urged: “But no comment on whether you think he should go to prison?”
King tried to draw the Speaker into the transgender bathroom debate: “What about the laws in North Carolina about using the bathroom? Donald Trump says yes for transgender...Ted Cruz says maybe not.” Ryan countered: “The way I look at these issues is this is what our local governments and our state governments should litigate....So I try not to, as a federal official, insert ourselves into administering or arbitrating these difficult issues that are moving through society.”
Most of the interview was spent by the hosts attempting to drive a wedge between Ryan and the Republican presidential candidates:
> ROSE: Let's begin with what your agenda is and how you're trying to define the Republican Party because many people think it's a different vision than the likely nominee.
> O’DONNELL: Mr. Speaker, as you know, however, traditionally in a presidential year, the presidential candidate tends to set the message and the agenda and usually Congress stays silent. You're running a parallel policy shop.
> O’DONNELL: You've released these campaign-style videos, which some people think look like you might be running for president. But in one of them, the message you deliver, you say Republicans are focused on actually fixing the problems facing us, not just bemoaning how bad things are. Do you think that, that's what's happening, that Donald Trump is just busy bemoaning how bad things are?
> KING: And if Donald Trump is the nominee, is he the person to get the country back on track? Is he the true representative?
> ROSE: But back to Norah's point about who defines where the Republican Party ought to be. It seems like you're saying to Donald Trump, if he's the likely nominee, or Ted Cruz, you're saying to them, “You better come here where we are and change where you are in order to win because we have set out the priorities for the country right here.”
Here is a portion of the April 26 interview:
8:10 AM ET
(...)
O’DONNELL: Can I ask you some specific questions on news of the day?
RYAN: Sure.
O’DONNELL: Specifically one of your predecessors, Denny Hastert, going to be sentenced tomorrow for paying hush money to a former student he sexually abused. He's accused of abusing at least four other young men when he was their wrestling coach. Do you think Denny Hastert should go to prison?
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Speaker’s Stand; Rep. Ryan on Hastert Abuse Case & Punishment]
RYAN: It's heart wrenching. I can’t – I don't know the details of exactly what happened. I had his portrait removed from the Capitol because that is not befitting of a former speaker or the kind of standards that we uphold for ourselves.
O’DONNELL: But no comment on whether you think he should go to prison?
RYAN: I just don’t know – I don't know the particulars. I don't want to get into something I don't know enough about.
KING: What about the laws in North Carolina about using the bathroom? Donald Trump says yes for transgender.
RYAN: This – these issues are gonna be –
KING: Ted Cruz says maybe not.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Speaker’s Stand; Rep. Ryan on Transgender Bathroom Laws & Protests]
RYAN: The way I look at these issues is this is what our local governments and our state governments should litigate. And I think this is going to be churning in society, in our culture, and I think through consensus in our communities we’ll come to answers. So I try not to, as a federal official, insert ourselves into administering or arbitrating these difficult issues that are moving through society. So I don't get into what should North Carolina do or Wisconsin do or what should Madison, Wisconsin do or Charlotte, North Carolina.
KING: How about this? Lin-Manuel Miranda has inserted you into pop culture. I know you've seen this.
O’DONNELL: On a different subject. On Puerto Rico.
RYAN: Oh, yeah. I was going to say, what does that have to do with North Carolina?
[LAUGHTER]
KING: Sorry, sorry, sorry. Bad transition.
O’DONNELL: Rapid fire. Puerto Rico.
RYAN: Okay, yeah, that’s the Hamilton guy.
ROSE: She’s now going to Puerto Rico. She just went from North Carolina.
LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA [HBO, LAST WEEK TONIGHT]: The hard part is in convincing Congress Puerto Rico matters so their heart is in the fight for relief, not a bailout, just relief. A belief you can pass legislation to ease our grief. Paul Ryan, I’ll come sing Hamilton at your house, I’ll dosey doe with Pelosi, I'll wear my Hamilton blouse. Your citizens are suffering. Stop the bleeding, stop the loss. Help Puerto Rico, it's just a hundred miles across.
KING: Lin-Manuel Miranda, you call him the Hamilton guy. Sorry, I just assume people knew his name.
RYAN: Do you know how surreal my life has become? I was just getting ready to watch Game of Thrones, which was the season premiere. So I turned it on like ten minutes early and that was on. That guy came on the stage and starts throwing my name around. That was very surreal. I saw it live, actually.
ROSE: He wants you to focus on Puerto Rico.
RYAN: Yeah, so we are focused on Puerto Rico. And the Resources Committee, which is in charge of this, is in the middle of working through the technical aspects on this legislation with the Treasury Department. Here’s what we are working on doing, having a very important oversight board to work on debt restructuring and helping Puerto Rico get their fiscal house in order. Taxpayers will not be involved in this. There will be no taxpayer bailout of Puerto Rico. But we will give the tools that are necessary to bring order to this chaos in Puerto Rico so that they can have a smooth landing, so that they can put their fiscal house in order, and so that they have the necessary tools they need, which they need in law, to be able it restructure this paralyzing debt that they have. And so that's something we're working on. It's going to be bipartisan. It's going to be an oversight board with restructuring powers, and it will make them have to balance their budget.
ROSE: Speaker Ryan, it's great to have you here.
RYAN: I'm sorry I didn’t –
KING: Happy with Game of Thrones, yes or no, so far?
RYAN: Yeah, yeah, it's a great show.
O’DONNELL: It’s a great show.
KING: Alright, Thank you. Norah likes it, too.
