“I used to sit in the office with Kevin,” Howard told Ryan Lizza, host of Deep dive into the playbook. “We would dream of this day. We would do it sleep about.»

But Howard has a bone to pick. He doesn’t like the way everyone talks about his old boss. The conventional wisdom about the new speaker is that he gave up everything to secure the job and that he is one wrong step away from losing it if he angers his restive colleagues in the Freedom Caucus.

According to Howard, that part of Washington CW is wrong.

For this week’s episode of Deep dive into the playbook podcast, Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza spoke with Howard in his Penn Quarter office to understand McCarthy’s worldview. They had a wide-ranging conversation about the state of the House GOP, the impact of the rule changes McCarthy agreed to to win the gavel, the debt limit showdown and McCarthy’s relationship with President Biden.

Oh, and also at that time Howard was reprimanded by members of the Republican Party for ruining the most famous episode of Game of Thrones.