Former U.S. Senate Majority Leaders Tom Daschle and Trent Lott said Thursday they were hopeful that new U.S. House Speaker Michael Johnson can be an effective leader in a polarized Congress.

Johnson became the 56th Speaker of the House following the tumultuous weeks the chamber had without a Speaker after the October ouster of California U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy.

Lott, a Mississippi Republican who served in the Senate from 1989-2007, said he is scheduled to meet with Johnson next week. He said he will urge the Louisiana Republican to approach the job with an open mind when dealing with differing political interests.

“I’ll tell him things that Tom and I did to get things done,” said Lott, who developed a close relationship with Daschle in the 1990s and early 2000s, as the two rotated leadership positions during the Bush Administration.

Lott, 82, said he is “hopeful” for the new House Speaker, a 51-year-old who first took office in 2017.

Daschle, 75, a Democrat from South Dakota who served in the Senate from 1987-2005, said he is trusting his friend’s opinion over the conservative lawmaker’s appointment to the role.

“Trent said he knows the Speaker very well and speaks highly of him,” Daschle said. “That encourages me. Me? I have my concerns. But if Trent has high regards, I’ll start at that level.”

The two former senators, who co-wrote a book about bipartisanship in 2016, were at the University of South Alabama as part of the 2023 Irving Silver and Frances Grodsky Silver Endowed Presidential Lectureship that included a luncheon question-and-answer session with a group of honor students at the University of South Alabama at the Mitchell Center.

Lott called Johnson “very conservative,” but someone who was more “moderate in his demeanor.”

Johnson has come under fire by Democrats in recent days for his past record that includes close alliance with former President Donald Trump, and for his staunch opposition toward abortion and LGBTQ rights. Johnson, according to published reports, once likened abortion to “a holocaust” and linked the judicial philosophy that legalized the right to an abortion to Adolph Hitler.

“He’s a devout Christian, he’s conservative so right to life is an important issue to him,” Lott said. “That doesn’t mean he can’t deal wit the issue to get results where you have to. He’s also a lawyer, a constitutional lawyer.”

Daschle said that Johnson has the opportunity to “write a completely different approach to the way he looks at his role” in Congress.

“I think both Senator Lott and I can say from personal experiences, it’s one thing to be a congressman or a senator, but it’s entirely different to be a Speaker or Majority Leader,” Daschle said. “The Speakers are really the leaders of the entire body. If he acts and speaks as that leader, he has a new opportunity to redefine himself and step up to the plate and bring both parties together. I’m very hopeful he’ll do that.”

Lott said he’s already concerned, though, with Johnson’s past vote on international military aid. Johnson is an opponent to providing aid to Ukraine at at time when the Biden Administration is seeking a nearly $106 billion request from Congress to support military efforts in Israel, Ukraine as well as other national security needs.

“He voted against the Ukraine vote, and I disagreed with him,” Lott said. “I would convince him that is a mistake and that if we don’t stop Russia and Ukraine, we’ll have to deal with (Russian aggression) in the Baltic states or Poland. But there was maybe some reason for (Johnson’s stance). For instance, in the case of Ukraine, we put a lot of money there. Is it all going for missile and defense or is it all going to help small businesses and humanitarian aid? I would not be for that.”

He added, “The first thing (Johnson) will have to do is … break it up into pieces. It takes more time to do, but you won’t be able to ram through a package that big which is over $100 billion.”

Lott said the prolonged Speaker fight left him upset, calling it “not good” for the Republican Party. He quoted Thomas Paine, saying “these are the times that try men’s soul,” adding that he would have supported efforts to keep McCarthy in the Speakership.

“I would have voted against (Ohio Republican Rep. Jim) Jordan and would have voted for (Louisiana Rep. Steve) Scalise,” said Lott. “I think Mike Johnson was a good compromise candidate.”