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The only thing worse in politics than being wrong,
is being boring.
I'm not sick of winning yet.
And we're crying out as a nation.
♪ (MUSIC INTENSIFIES) ♪
Thank you for having me.
♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
(dramatic, patriotic music playing)
Narrator 1: The Capitol is the very heart
of our system of representative government.
Members of the House of Representatives
are elected for short terms: two years.
But since they have to come up for reelection so often,
they must constantly be responsive to the wishes of the voters.
Narrator 2: The American people are very proud of their government,
for it is a republic.
This means a form of democratic government
where the people are the rules of their l---
(TV clicks off)
Woman: It's day eight of the government shutdown,
and neither side is willing to budge.
Man: Discussions have broken down.
We do expect this to go on for a while.
Matt Gaetz: We are in, uh, what used to be a work closet
for the former Congressman that had this office.
Of the 435 members of Congress,
more than 100 actually live in the building.
For some people, it's an economic decision.
For me, frankly, it's just that, I like being at work,
and, uh, it gives me
the maximum opportunity to get the most out of every day.
Gotta get the makeup on first thing in the morning. Got a lot of... hits.
We usually do our TV in the morning from here in the Capitol,
and there's no Fox News makeup lady, so...
you gotta contour the sides.
Got my, uh, weight loss chart here.
My mother joked that the camera added 10 pounds,
so I needed to drop a few.
All right, this is the critical choice of the day, here.
The tie selection.
Gotta figure out what shoes go with
purple and pewter.
(chuckles)
These are Ivanka's favorite.
She was telling me she liked my shoes.
I wore 'em to the White House.
When a Congressional seat came open,
I'd really started to think about
what this country would be like in a Donald Trump Presidency,
and I knew that it would not be like anything we'd experienced before
with any other type of Republican or Democrat.
I thought, this guy's got some rough edges.
He is very uncharacteristic as a politician,
but I felt like he was exactly the type of person
that could bring the fight to a town that badly needed it.
That could be a change agent.
And if I could be there, and be of assistance,
then I could contribute to that change in a positive way.
Newscaster 1: Nine percent of Americans
approve of the job Congress is doing.
That's the lowest in our history.
Newscaster 2: All you see is gridlock.
No one can agree on anything.
Newscaster 3: Congress is less popular
than a colonoscopy.
Man 4: The American people know that Congress
is broken. And it is broken.
Woman: I believe the voting system is corrupt.
I believe the politicians are corrupt.
I believe the Congress is corrupt.
Man 6: Each and every piece of legislation
virtually has its own price tag on it.
Elizabeth Warren: Giant corporations have bought off our government.
Bernie Sanders: The American political system
has become totally corrupted,
and the foundations of American democracy
are being undermined.
Donald Trump: The unholy alliance of lobbyists and donors
and special interests is bleeding our country dry.
Man: Trump is different because
he doesn't have to answer to any donors,
and the lobbyists.
It's time to drain the swamp in Washington, DC.
We are going to drain the swamp...
It's time to drain the swamp of corruption...
We're gonna drain the swamp of Washington...
We're gonna have fun doing it, and we're all doing it together.
Crowd (chanting): Drain the swamp! Drain the swamp!
Gaetz: You ask whether it's ever possible to drain the swamp.
As President Trump loves to say,
"We'll see."
Nancy Pelosi: Thanks to you,
tomorrow will be a new day in America.
Newscaster: Democrats rode a blue wave to the majority,
setting up what should be a contentious atmosphere in Washington,
in 2019 and beyond.
Kevin McCarthy: Fellow citizens and friends,
let us lead together to show the people that
we are truly their voice, and their vote.
In that spirit,
I extend my hand of friendship
to every member of this body.
And to the Speaker of the House,
Nancy Pelosi,
I extend to you this gavel.
-(cheering and applause) -Thank you...
Gaetz: There is an essence of this place
that doesn't change no matter who wins the elections.
Republicans. Democrats.
And the majority party is simply the party that is first in line
to be the servant to the special interest overlords.
I think that machinery, that infrastructure,
that's the swamp.
A member of Congress
cannot ask another member of Congress
for money in this building.
We are in the Longworth office building.
Or the Cannon office building, or anywhere else.
Except the floor of the House of Representatives.
So, like, when we were on the floor today,
I had a more senior member come to me,
and they gave me my assessment card.
And so, your assessment card lets you know
how much money you owe the party bosses.
It says my name, the Honorable Matt Gaetz,
that my spring dinner assessment
is $55,000.
This is a call to wealthy people,
who, by virtue of their commitment, or their special interest,
would like to give me $55,000
to come have dinner with me and my colleagues.
Now, like, I find myself to be a very pleasant,
uh, dinner guest,
but I cannot imagine anyone,
uh, willing to pay $55,000 to have dinner with me.
This is my namesake, Matt Gaetz, the first.
Uh, he built railroads in North Dakota.
And this is my grandfather, Jerry Gaetz.
He was a state Senator,
and, uh, ran for lieutenant governor.
Gave the speech to be nominated,
and as soon as he walked off the stage,
had a heart attack and died.
My father served as a state Senator,
and so I am the fourth generation of Gaetz
to be in public life.
I keep this picture of a bill signing with President Trump,
mostly because I have no idea why I was there.
This is a bill that I had almost no role in crafting.
Uh, I think I voted for it,
but, uh, sometimes the President just likes to be around some of his buddies.
Trump: You ever watch this guy on television?
He's like a machine. He's great.
Matt Gaetz.
(cheering, whistling)
Great guy.
Gaetz: I think the President is doing
all that he can to change the ways of Washington.
And it'd be a hell of a note if we'd have his back in Congress
every once in a while.
Wolf Blitzer: One hour from now,
President Trump's former lawyer,
his confidante, his fixer,
will unleash a point-by-point take down
like none seen against a sitting President of the United States.
Cohen made millions of dollars by promising access
to his client, the President.
Mika Brzezinski: Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz,
a staunch defender of President Trump,
took to Twitter yesterday evening.
"Hey, Michael Cohen, do your wife and father-in-law
"know about your girlfriends?
"Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat.
"I wonder if she'll remain faithful when you're in prison.
She's about to learn a lot."
A ll the replies and comments on Twitter was like,
"That's witness intimidation.
That's witness tampering. You're gonna go to jail."
Reporter: Were you trying to intimidate him with those tweets?
Listen, I didn't want to intimidate Cohen. I want Cohen here.
It's not intimidation and it's entirely appropriate
to provide context for people
who have a history of lying and likely a future of lying.
There were some who thought it was threatening,
and that was absolutely not my intent.
And so I deleted it for that purpose.
Reporter 2: Why did you come down to the hearing today?
'Cause I'm a member of Congress.
Um, some people think it was inappropriate for you to be there
considering your tweet. What do you have to say about that?
-Nothing. -Thank you.
I believe that right now, with the start of the Cohen hearing,
we're in the first quarter of the impeachment.
I think that Democrats are certain to impeach the President,
and while it's terrible that we're gonna go through this impeachment process,
it will not result in a conviction.
At least the forgotten men and women of this country
will have every reason to show up in 2020 and re-elect their President.
I think that's gonna be the ultimate result.
Michael Cohen: This conversation with Mr. Trump started--
I didn't ask whether you were a good fixer.
I asked whether you were a good lawyer.
Sometimes you have to meld both together.
Massie, he said he was gonna yield me some of his time
if I'd been given unanimous consent to participate.
I'm kind of glad he didn't. His questions are very good.
Thomas Massie (over TV): ...good job. You said you were a good lawyer, right?
Is that being a good lawyer?
To not even consider whether it's legal or not?
Gaetz: What do you think that what we've seen now
does to the Democrats' obvious desire to engage in impeachment?
Um, I think if this was the foundation,
it's, it's shifting on them already.
(chuckling) It's very unstable.
He admitted to being a scumbag lawyer.
-Those are two different things. -(laughs)
-They're not blended. -I'm not a lawyer. He is. (chuckles)
Massie: I'm an engineer at heart, and by training.
Growing up, I liked taking things apart
and putting them back together.
So, I went to M.I.T.
to get an electrical engineering degree,
and I hung around and got a mechanical engineering degree,
and started my own company.
When you hold the PHANTOM in your hand,
you can actually feel the shape that's on the computer screen.
I invented a virtual reality device
that lets you touch and feel three-dimensional objects.
So I started out in the virtual reality industry,
and then after 10 years, I sold my ownership in that,
moved back to Kentucky, and got back to reality on the farm.
But then I ran for Congress and entered virtual reality again.
I'm kind of a Libertarian,
but kind of prefer the label Constitutional Conservative.
I think we should get back to the Constitution,
and put government within the bounds
that the founding fathers put on it.
Newscaster: After three months now of bucking the system,
freshman Republican Thomas Massie
has already earned a nickname on Capitol Hill:
"Mr. No."
Massie: Up here, they've called me "Mr. No."
If you heard that nickname, you'd think I vote no all the time,
but I looked this up.
I only vote no, like, 25 percent of the time.
Twenty-five percent dissension with your party
is a heretic in Washington, DC.
And if people are gonna drain the swamp,
like the President wants to do,
they need better information
about how this place is broken.
And that's my mission in Congress.
So, my friend Justin Amash--
he's a Congressman from Michigan--
got me this for my birthday,
because we both kind of look at the Capitol as the Death Star.
("Star Wars" soundtrack playing)
I mean, if you come up here to visit, there's scaffolding on it all the time.
It looks like it's being worked on, but it's fully functional.
And it can destroy happiness and life anywhere
on the globe.
(exploding)
What I'm doing up here is looking for the one weakness in the Death Star.
(soundtrack continues)
But sometimes I end up in the trash compactor.
Interviewer: Who's Darth Vader?
(Massie laughing)
Massie: Well, Darth Vader was Paul Ryan,
but now it's Nancy Pelosi. (laughing)
(elevator dings)
So this one is reserved for members of Congress.
Not many of us have the heart
to kick somebody off who's not a member.
Virginia Foxx is notorious for kicking people off,
but she won't just kick the staffers off the elevator.
She asks them who they work for,
'cause she tells on 'em, too.
Hey, Virginia.
I was just telling them, you keep,
you keep our elevator for members only.
-These folks are-- (laughs) -I do my best.
Massie: It's so exhausting
to run in place.
And to get nothing done.
That's the frustrating thing to me.
The most frustrating thing to me is the fact that
we know what's wrong.
Every year, we don't pass a budget on time.
We wait until the day before Christmas,
and everybody wants to get out of town.
Everybody votes for this ridiculous spending bill
that nobody's read.
And then we pretend that we're fiscal Conservatives,
and the hypocrisy of,
uh, pretending that we care about spending,
and "we," as the general "we," we care about spending.
-Massie: Please use the general "we." -Yeah.
-'Cause I don't like to think... -It's not you and I.
-...we're doing any of that. -Right.
Ken Buck: My name is Ken Buck,
and I was the founding member
of the Freedom Caucus in the House,
which is the Conservative group that was formed in 2015.
Freedom Caucus has always been a loyal opposition
within the Republican party,
and so I don't expect, uh, members of the Freedom Caucus
to get leadership positions. That's not our role.
Our role is to try to be the conscience of the party.
I had stage 4 Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma,
and my sense of purpose is different
after cancer than before, so I feel like
whether I get reelected or not,
I'm here to do the right thing.
And the right thing to me was to expose what goes on in Congress,
and make sure the American public knows about it.
For many of the members of Congress,
it's a job that they don't want to give up,
and so, their reelection is more important than
the actual problem solving that, that needs to go on in DC.
I wrote "Drain the Swamp" during my first term in Congress,
because we were told by leadership right from the beginning,
"Here are all the goodies that you can enjoy
if you play the game the way we want you to play the game."
And the game is
agreeing with leadership.
Agreeing with the special interest groups
on, on how to vote.
And, and how to govern.
I'm not one of those people that's not very agreeable.
The problem with the Republican party now is,
we have such a fresh history
of violating the Constitution,
of violating fiscal responsibility,
of violating personal accountability,
that we don't have a high ground
to stand and say, "You guys are doing the wrong thing."
Lawrence Lessig: I'd spent many years trying to push policy
that would make the regulation of culture more sensible.
And the regulation of the internet more effective.
And while in the courts we made progress,
Congress was constantly resisting.
At a certain point, a friend of mine
basically said to me, "So, why do you think
"you're ever going to make any progress,
"so long as we have this deep corruption
in our government?"
I realized he was exactly right,
so literally that night,
I promised him I would give up my old career,
and take up a new career. That was about a dozen years ago.
Before we were Republicans,
before we were Democrats,
we were citizens first.
We need citizen soldiers fighting for a democracy
that is beyond party.
That is above party.
That is focused on citizens first.
The Constitution, in Article One, sets up Congress.
Framers gave the pride of place
to the most important democratic institution
within our republic.
Madison describes Congress as being a body that would be, quote,
"...dependent on the people alone."
And I think the most important man
in the history of Congress, after Madison,
is Newt Gingrich.
And I think Newt Gingrich destroyed Congress.
Newt was a very ambitious history professor
who came to Congress
and was keen to turn the Republicans
into a kind of militant opposition,
and then he won control of the House for the Republicans
for the first time in 40 years in the 1994 election.
And starting in 1995,
he began to change the institution fundamentally.
On the first day of the 104th Congress,
the new Republican majority will immediately pass
the following major reforms.
Lessig: One of the ways he changed the institution
was to basically begin the process
of shifting Congress people over
to the life as fundraisers.
He told them, "Don't move your families to Washington.
We'll work three days a week."
The rest of the time, you know,
he said you could be going home, but what happens is,
the rest of the time, they're out there raising money.
It becomes their perpetual campaign,
which dramatically increases the amount of money
that both sides are bringing into the process.
He has changed the culture, changed the agenda,
changed the language, and changed the dialogue.
Lessig: Gingrich's change in the structure of power in the House
was all about assuring that the Speaker
could direct everything.
And the Democrats followed. It's not like it's different
on the Democrats' side.
Buck: The Speaker controls the schedule,
what bills go to the floor, what comes out of committee,
who the members are of the committee.
Massie: I think a lot of people would be surprised to find out
that members of Congress
are expected to pay their party
for their committee assignments.
And this is, like, $200,000, $500,000
every election cycle,
just to get a certain committee seat.
Now, where are you gonna get that money?
You're not gonna go back home and have a fundraiser
in somebody's living room. That just doesn't work.
The people that fund your purchase of the committee seat
are the people who have an interest
in the work product of that committee,
i.e. the lobbyists.
Gaetz: Every committee in the Congress
has a letter grade associated with it--
A, B, or C.
That letter grade is solely lashed to
that committee's ability to generate campaign cash for its members.
If you're on the ways and means committee,
then you have jurisdiction over the entire tax code.
There is no lobbyist in this town
that would not swim across the Potomac
to deliver you a $5,000 back check.
But if you're on the Veterans Affairs Committee,
which is really important,
you just don't have the same bevy of special interests
thirsting for your attention with donations.
Lessig: Under Newt Gingrich, committee chairmanships
were increasingly assigned to people who raised money.
And if you didn't raise that money--
the Democrats did this, Nancy Pelosi did this--
you kicked somebody off the chairmanship.
So this is all about changing what was supposed to be
a really critical institutional role
played by a chairman-- somebody who knows something about the field--
into just the most effective fundraiser in that field.
Massie: So there's a price tag assigned to every committee.
But there's also a price tag assigned to being the Speaker.
So, the Speaker up here is expected to raise about $80 million
every election cycle, and dole that out.
Buck: The Speaker and the minority leader
control distribution of funds to members,
so it's the rank-and-file that chooses the leadership,
but people misunderstand that somehow we're choosing people,
you know, that we think are the best at articulating our positions.
That's not true. It's who can raise the money,
and the special interest groups control the money.
So, the hierarchy of power in Washington, DC,
is special interest groups, leadership, rank-and-file members.
Lessig: That system is a system that makes the members of Congress
so sensitive to what the lobbyists want
that it's hard for them to see above the water
and recognize what the public needs.
And that dynamic
is the corruption, I think of, as the swamp.
Gaetz: The special interests
don't really want anything to get done in this town,
because if we actually started working together on some stuff,
things would change. And if things change,
the people who are getting rich off the current system
would not be getting rich off that system.
That's why I think that the greatest challenge we face
is not Republicans versus Democrats.
It's reformers against those who want to maintain the status quo.
And we got Republicans and Democrats in both groups.
Ro Khanna: My view is,
we need a more progressive vision for America,
but a vision is insufficient
if you don't get things done.
And I do think that there is an appetite
among the newer generation of members of Congress
to build broad coalitions,
and we always have to listen to criticism
from the other side, and understand that they're representing
a particular constituency in America
and a particular perspective.
Gaetz: We would be sort of an odd couple, politically.
I am a Tea Party Republican from Florida.
Ro served in the Obama administration and represents Silicon Valley.
But folks like Ro even, who maybe don't hold my ideology
or my view on every subject,
understand that this place has to change
if we want to do right by the American people.
Khanna: We came here to work for the people who sent us here.
Not for the leadership, not for committee chairs.
And not, certainly, for the lobbyists.
All right, so, some reforms that would surprise people we would agree on.
-Would you vote for term limits? -I would.
I'm one of two Democrats or so who will.
See, I would vote for term limits.
Would you vote for non-partisan redistricting commissions?
-I would. I think that would be great. -I would vote for that.
Would you vote on a lifetime ban on lobbying for members of Congress?
I would. I think there should be a-- no revolving door.
And would you ban lobbyists
from giving money to members of Congress?
I would, and, and, uh, I don't take lobbyists' money,
and I think we should ban lobbyists from doing that.
See? That's the "drain the swamp" agenda. Khanna-Gaetz.
We could run on that and unite 80 percent of the country.
-Good morning. -Massie: How you doing?
-I'm Diana Ohlbaum from FCNL. -Oh, okay.
-Nice to meet you, Diana. -Thank you so much for your vote on this,
-and your support. -Yeah, well...
Diana Ohlbaum: You're a real key person.
Massie: I think you might be surprised
how many Conservatives are just done with war.
Right now, as I'm serving in Congress,
this is one of my top issues,
is to reclaim the constitutional power of Congress to declare war
back from the executive branch.
Newscaster: California Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Lee
and Kentucky Republican Congressman Thomas Massie
want to repeal the 2001 authorization
for the use of military force.
Massie: After 9-11,
there was so much appetite for doing something
that it was almost political suicide
if you decided not to vote for an AUMF
that was responsive to the terrorist attacks.
George W. Bush: We will make no distinction
between the terrorists who committed these acts
and those who harbor them.
Barbara Lee: As we act,
let us not become the evil that we deplore.
Massie: Barbara Lee was the lone vote against the AUMF,
and she did prove that you could stand on principle,
and eventually be right,
and still survive politically,
but a lot of the people who went against the grain
did not survive politically.
Lee: Our constituents sent us to Congress
to make the hard decisions.
We owe it to the American people to take these tough votes,
and repeal the 2001 authorization.
Ari Melber: Bush invoked the bill for potential actions
in over 11 different countries.
His successor added nine more,
including places that had no tie to 9-11.
The overreach here began with Bush,
but the Pentagon and Presidents in both parties
tend to hold on to major powers, not just give them up.
Buck: Our founding fathers wanted to make sure
that a decision that was as significant
as sending Americans overseas to fight and lose their lives
would only be made with a vote
in the people's House, and in the Senate,
and so I think it's really important that we respect that.
I think it was the right move in the Constitution,
and we've gotten away from that.
There's a reason that our founders gave Congress
the power over war and peace.
Because we have to go and answer to our constituents.
And I'll tell you something. There's not a single American
who wouldn't want the violence to end,
and allow food and medicine to get to those kids
who are gonna face death if we do nothing.
I built a coalition in the House
to try to end support for the war in Yemen,
and we passed a war powers resolution,
and there were 16 Republicans who helped with that effort.
Buck: That was something where we had
a number of Freedom Caucus members
and a number of progressive caucus members
working together to pass that.
When it comes to war powers,
those two groups can work together.
Massie: This is not a partisan issue and that's why I'm here today.
There are only about 70 members of Congress out of the 435
that are serving today who were actually here
for the original AUMF vote.
And I can tell you, those 70 who voted for it never imagined,
except perhaps Barbara Lee imagined,
that this would be used to justify all of the wars
that have gone on since then, and all of the military engagements,
and possible future engagements from here on out.
Gaetz: I represent the district that's got the highest
concentration of active duty military in the country.
But I am no cheerleader for war.
Emcee: I'd just like to welcome to the stage Congressman Matt Gaetz.
-Gaetz: Thank you. Oh, thank you, guys. -(applause)
Gaetz: I've seen my whole life, living in my district,
what the impacts of war really are for families.
Parenting disrupted. Marriages destroyed.
Drug abuse. Domestic abuse. Veteran suicide.
Caskets draped in flags.
As I travel home to north Florida this week,
I will meet with commanding officers.
They will brief me on the missions and preparations undertaken,
and if called to combat, my neighbors will go first,
and they'll fight the hardest.
Now I'm at a place with the President
where we speak very regularly.
And so if I can be a good advisor, supporter,
influencer to President Trump,
that will give me a chance to impact the world by
contributing to, you know, the most valuable real estate
that exists in Washington,
and that's between the President's ears.
We're here in Seaside.
This is, uh, where my family has spent our,
really most of our family time most of my life.
This little gazebo up here,
critical spot in the life of Matt Gaetz.
It's the, uh, site of my first kiss, right here.
I'd tell you who, but it would probably be very embarrassing for them.
So this is the Truman house, and in the mid '90s,
one day some producer just shows up in a golf cart,
and, uh, tells my mother that they want to make a movie in this house,
starring Jim Carrey.
Good morning!
-Morning! -Good morning!
Oh, and in case I don't see you,
good afternoon, good evening, and good night.
Gaetz: He made a few other movies and then ended up
painting a portrait of me.
And so, it wasn't the most flattering,
but nonetheless, it was pretty cool to see it come full circle.
So, this is the house I grew up in,
and this was my bedroom during my formative years.
And voila! Love America.
Hey, everyone. This is Congressman Matt Gaetz.
I'm out on Navarre Beach now,
but today is our Won't Back Down Town Hall tour.
("I Won't Back Down" by Tom Petty playing)
Good to see you guys.
(cheering and applause)
I am proud of the fact that I have been a leading member of the Congress
to expose the 22-month witch hunt,
lie, unfair investigation of our President.
(cheering and applause)
What will it take to reinitiate
going after Hillary Clinton for obstruction of justice,
-and Benghazi? -(all cheering)
We gotta call on more people from the bar area.
They got it going on.
Woman: I'm concerned about our young kids in elementary school
that do not know the Pledge of Allegiance.
And then when you go to a football game and they're in high school,
nobody sings the words.
Everybody just stand there like a dummy.
(scattered applause)
You want to sing a few bar-- You want to sing a few bars for us?
Both: ♪ O say, can you see ♪
♪ By the dawn's early light ♪
♪ What so proudly we hail ♪
♪ At the twilight's last gleaming ♪
-(crowd joins in) -♪ Whose bright stripes and bright stars ♪
♪ Through the perilous fight ♪
Gaetz: My district is one of the most Conservative districts in the country.
But one of the little pockets of liberalism that we have
is in downtown Pensacola.
It's the most urban area of my district,
and so I guess it would be easy for me to only go to the places
where everyone's a Matt Gaetz cheerleader,
but I have an obligation
to serve and appear before people who don't agree with me.
Crowd (chanting): Love, not hate!
Makes America great!
Love, not hate!
Makes America great!
Love, not hate!
Makes America great!
Love, not hate!
Makes America great!
Gaetz: Thank you all for coming.
Appreciate seeing you here.
-(chanting continues) -Woman: Love, not hate!
Gaetz: Thank you all for coming.
Hey, good to see you all. Thanks for coming.
Man: Hey, Matt, thanks for coming.
Oh, I'm honored. I'm honored. Hey, thank you all for coming.
(applause)
Man: Hallelujah!
-(cheering) -Hey. Hey, it's good to see you.
I am concerned for our government.
If there could ever be a takeover or a coup,
it really bothers me, that, uh, that this could happen.
You know, when I first started to uncover this troubling evidence
of people who didn't view their obligations
as conducting investigations,
but instead thought that their role was to remove
the duly elected President of the United States.
I came out and said, "That is what a coup is."
-Woman: Not true! -That is what treason looks like,
and that's what we're gonna find out with Attorney General Barr
who is gonna turn the tables on the people
who are trying to destroy our country.
Woman: That's a lie!
Speak the truth!
Boo!
Crowd (chanting): Hey hey! Ho ho!
Baby Gaetz has got to go!
Hey hey! Ho ho!
Baby Gaetz has got to go!
-Hey hey! Ho ho! -Man: 1.2 million dollars!
Hey! Thank you all--
-(woman chanting) -Who threw that?
Who threw that? You go get them.
Woman (chanting): Whose beach? Whose beach?
Whose beach?
Thank you all so much for coming.
I'm grateful you're here. Thank you.
-Whose beach? Whose beach? -Our beach! Our beach!
Woman: You're embarrassing us.
Luke Ball: When that went viral on social media,
we started seeing increasingly violent responses to it.
And it led to people saying,
"We're gonna throw urine on you,"
and then it led to a death threat.
I'll play it for you.
Man (on phone): Hey, Gaetz,
you pathetic piece of shit.
Do you know that I could blow your fucking head
clean off your shoulders from over a mile away?
You got your head so far up Trump's ass...
Ha, ha, ha! I could still take it off your shoulders.
I'm coming after you and your family, Gaetz.
This Congress, we're on record for 10,000 threats
against members of Congress, and I condemn them,
whether they're against Republicans, Democrats,
-Liberals, Conservatives. -Of course.
You know, this is just no way
to operate within our country.
Lessig: Congress operates
inside of a media environment,
that itself profits from the politics of hate.
Everybody profits from the politics of hate.
The liars in the Democratic party,
you can never trust these people, ever.
The Republican party is now fully and totally responsible
for these racist, divisive, un-American ideas.
Do you want people here on merit, or not?
Do you want people to come here to speak English, or not?
This is not just a group of desperate migrants.
We have people who are criminals,
thugs, special interest aliens, jihadists.
You brought to the State of the Union, or you gave a ticket to,
somebody who is a fairly notorious racist and Holocaust denier.
Look, he's a controversial figure.
There were plenty of controversial folks at the State of the Union.
The way that you're able to elevate your profile in Washington
is to drive conflict,
because conflict is interesting.
And I think that the really powerful people in this town
are the ones that can go on television and make an argument.
And that's power that the leadership can never take away from you.
-We're still on for Cuomo tonight, right? -Woman: Correct.
-In person? -Right.
The right says that all the time--
You think people on the right are rooting for more school shootings?
-I see it all the time, and so you do. -Wow, I have never--
You spend all this time on fake news CNN, and nobody watches you.
-Oh, man... -And I'm like, you're wasting your time.
Man-- Okay, true or false?
Lessig: You know, you look at the partisan spin
of cable television--
Fox News and MSNBC and CNN.
Up until 2001, they're basically the same.
And then beginning in 2002 or 2003,
they start splitting dramatically,
so that they are deeply partisan.
And that bleeds into Congress.
You know, you want to rally your base against the other side.
You've gotta make sure that the other side is devil,
and if you don't call the other side the devil,
then they're not gonna be interested in supporting you.
What you see from the radical left today
is an attack on the democracy of our country itself.
The radical left just wants to de-platform, demonize, destroy--
We have Democrats who have no interest in legislating.
It is all about continuing on the next witch hunt
with a new broomstick.
I don't think of a television clip
about how it's going to play on TV.
I think about a clip that's on Twitter or YouTube,
and how do you create an exciting or viral moment
that people are eager to share
and that might offer some new insight.
Lessig: On social media, everything that increases engagement
increases the opportunity to sell ads.
And people are more engaged
the more polarized the environment becomes.
And that bleeds into Congress, too.
If you look at the number of bills that it has passed
in a cross-partisan way,
it's gone in the 1970s
from a very significant cross-partisan institution
to an institution now that just literally cannot do anything
in a cross-partisan way.
You know, compromise, since Ronald Reagan,
has had this framing of weakness,
or duplicity.
So, if you compromise,
as a member of Congress, it's like you're lying to your base.
And that's the dynamic which Newt Gingrich encouraged.
He knows that the way you raise money
is to trigger the hatred of the other side in your favor.
Politics of hate is the most productive technique
for fundraising we have.
I am sickened by how unpatriotically
they undermine the Constitution of the United States.
Pelosi: We are here today
because the Republicans in the House are paralyzed
with hatred of President Clinton.
And until the Republicans free themselves of this hatred,
our country will suffer.
But of course, an institution like Congress
is supposed to find a common ground for the nation as a whole.
And if you're not willing to find a solution that could represent America,
then you're not doing your work as a representative.
And if we get nothing done, I tell you the status quo
will really love that,
because they benefit from nothing getting done.
We're kind of slumming it here, going to Longworth, you know.
The senior members are in Rayburn.
Matt's still stuck over here,
but with the kind of TV time he gets,
he'll have an office in the Capitol soon.
Gaetz: I've seen the way you've been an independent member here.
I'm starting to get a sense that
when you don't always adhere to kind of the establishment,
leadership viewpoint on things
that you see an impact in your fundraising.
I raised about a couple hundred thousand dollars
here in Washington, DC, in my first term,
but after they found out I wasn't here to go along to get along,
it went almost to zero.
In fact, there was a six-month period
where they ranked me number 437 in the House for fundraising.
Gaetz: I thought there were only 435 members.
There are only 435 voting members,
but Guam and Puerto Rico,
-their delegates raised more money. -They don't have a vote!
They don't have a vote, and they raised more money
than me in that six-month period.
But what have you got there? Like, is this your fundraising plan?
-Your campaign? -This meeting I recently had,
I somewhat resented it,
I meet with these guys, and they say, "Gaetz,
"you know, you're on TV, people know who you are in your state,
"and we really think you can run for higher office,
but you don't raise enough money."
And so, they write me this plan, and it's just, like,
it's basically how to whore yourself out for money.
And when I say, like, "Who's, who's gonna do this?"
Like, "Who wants to give me $100,000?"
They basically say, "Well, what--"
The next question is, "What committees are you on?"
How can you use your Congressional pin
to go and, and help a lobbyist
as your primary objective.
It's demoralizing, and folks like AOC, Bernie Sanders,
have proven that you don't need that.
Massie: This is my Congressional pin,
and you'll see a lot of people around here wearing them.
I started to call this pin "Precious."
If you've ever seen "Lord of the Rings" or "The Hobbit"...
My Precious...
"Precious"?
Massie: And the reason I call it Precious is,
it affects how you think.
You can come here as a hobbit,
and put this thing on,
and become Gollum in very short order.
My... Precious!
Massie: Just like Precious made the hobbit invisible,
you walk past the metal detectors here.
You don't go through them, you walk around them if you wear this.
The police do what you tell them to do,
if you're wearing Precious.
The tourists figure out what Precious is.
And if you're wearing Precious,
they know that you must be precious.
And so, because people behave differently around you,
it gives you a feeling of power.
An uncomfortable feeling for me.
And so, I try not to wear it any more than I have to,
because I think eventually it will turn me from a hobbit
into a Gollum, and I see that happen up here.
So, here's two briefing sheets.
This morning, it was reported that
Iran shot down one of our drones.
-There's an in-depth Fox News article in there-- -Call Charlie.
Just call Charlie.
Hey, man. It's Luke.
Um, I got the boss here.
Let me put you on speaker for this part.
-Charlie. -Charlie Truxal (on phone): Yes, sir.
-Tell me what you know. - It's confirmed that one of our drones
was shot down over the evening by the Iranians.
This one was a high-altitude flying MQ-9
from what I am tracking, one of the threads.
And they were able to hit it effectively at high altitude,
-which is unbelievable. -Gaetz: An MQ-9?
Truxal: ...I think ever done that once before.
Gaetz: Jesus. All right, thanks, Charlie.
Jake Tapper: The Pentagon is deploying
an additional thousand troops
to the region as a deterrent against
what the Trump administration calls,
"increased Iranian aggressions."
Reporter: Do you believe right now that you have the authority
to strike Iran without Congress?
Uh, I do like keeping them abreast,
but I don't have to do it legally.
I have not seen intel
that would justify utilizing the 2001 Global War on Terror
authorization to use military force against Iran.
So I'm proud to work with Ro Khanna
and other folks on the political left
to try to achieve a bipartisan consensus,
because if my constituents have to have the courage and bravery
to go and fight these wars and die in these wars,
then politicians in Washington
need the courage to actually vote on them,
and decide what's worthy of spilling American blood,
and what isn't.
Khanna: We're at risk of a serious escalation
that could spiral out of control.
Congress has to be the check,
and that's why I've been working with Matt Gaetz
to have an amendment that we're going to introduce tomorrow.
And the amendment is going to make it very clear.
The President can't take any action in declaring war in Iran,
uh, without Congressional authorization,
and we will defund any such activity.
-Gaetz: Jillian? -Jillian Lane Wyant: I'm here.
-I knew this would happen. -Wyant: I had this--
I asked you, I said three times, I said, "We will get down here,
and we will not have a person here."
I specifically want to reference
information that we've received in a classified setting,
and so for us to discuss that,
there are rooms tucked throughout the basements
and tunnels at the Capitol complex
that are available for a more secure discussion or brief.
Sir, are all your, uh, electronics--
You can take the key of one of those.
-No Apple watch, Ro? -I mean...
-What kind of Silicon Valley Congressman are you? -You know.
Gaetz: So have you done this with a lot of your legislation?
-File it directly in the Hopper? -Khanna: No.
We are going to submit our joint amendment to the Hopper,
which is, uh, how you submit an amendment or a bill
to the House floor to get it for a vote.
We're coming together with this unique coalition
in constitutional prerogative to prevent war.
So, I, I actually think this is a great example of Congress actually working.
Wyant: Trump just came out with a statement
while you guys were talking about Iran.
-Oh. What'd he say? -"Any attack by Iran
"on anything American
"will be met with great and overwhelming force.
"In some areas, overwhelming will mean obliteration.
No more John Kerry and Obama."
We better hurry.
Neil Cavuto: I was just checking. Are pigs flying?
Because Democrats and Republicans
have apparently found something to agree on.
Or at least, these next two gentlemen have.
Recent reporting that was in "The Hill,"
I believe, showed that by a margin of two-to-one,
Americans favored diplomacy and negotiation over war.
Newscaster: President Trump says the military was cocked and loaded
to carry out air strikes against Iran overnight
when he suddenly decided not to do it.
Trump: I'm not looking for war,
and if there is, it'll be obliteration
like you've never seen before.
Newscaster: Tonight, senior administration officials say
all options are still on the table.
Buck: As long as the President is engaging in wars,
we don't have to vote on a war.
And if some American soldier,
a Marine airman dies,
we don't have to accept the blame for that. We can point a finger.
So, all the tough decisions are pushed off
to the executive branch, and power has shifted as a result.
Massie: The military industrial complex,
they got a lot of money to make when we're in war.
They're up here donating to Congressmen.
And so that's a force that keeps war going.
And unfortunately, I serve with some real cowards.
They would rather not ever have to take that vote.
(applause)
Khanna: The biggest thing I found in Washington
is just this total risk aversion.
I mean, people, they don't want to rock the boat.
And people who are in power
have a stake in preserving that power.
(explosion)
(lawnmower puttering)
Gaetz: How many media appearances today,
including Facebook Lives?
-Four? Five? -Wyant: Uh, I think four.
Gaetz: Charles, it's like we're going through "Groundhog Day"
each and every week in the House Judiciary Committee.
We are going over the same facts that were in the Mueller Report.
And it doesn't seem to be moving, uh, the fact that
sixty percent of the country doesn't want to see impeachment go forward.
There was no collusion with Russia.
There was no obstruction,
and none whatsoever.
Newscaster: On the collusion conspiracy issue,
the President is right.
The Mueller Report does not establish
any such wrongdoing.
But on the issue of obstruction,
Mueller does not agree with the President.
Jerry Nadler: Responsibility now falls to Congress
to hold the President accountable for his actions.
This has nothing to do with volume one or volume two of the Mueller Report.
(indistinct arguing)
Man: They don't know anything about the Mueller Report!
Nadler: Gentleman will suspend.
Gaetz: Chairman Nadler and the Democrats
on the Judiciary Committee
are dying to impeach Donald Trump.
They would have impeached him yesterday if they could.
But Nancy Pelosi knows
that impeachment is like poisonous candy.
You know, you can look at the candy, you can want the candy,
but if you eat the candy, you're gonna die.
Newscaster: She doesn't want Democrats in swing districts
having to take a tough vote on impeachment.
That's a really ugly vote.
Gaetz: It's my view that the Mueller Report
was the dispositive word on collusion,
and that we all ought to move on as a country.
But if Democrats really want to probe these issues,
why are we eating around the edges?
Why don't they just call Robert Mueller?
(news theme playing)
Newscaster: The former special counsel is about to make
back-to-back appearances before the House Judiciary
and Intelligence committees.
Gaetz: I don't think I slept very much last night.
This is kind of our version of the Super Bowl.
Getting ready for an opportunity to
display the work of our office over the last two years
in a very condensed, uh, high-intensity setting.
All right.
Off to see the wizard.
For the last couple weekends,
I have, uh, spent a lot of time on the phone
with some of my colleagues: Jim Jordan, John Ratcliffe.
We have had a number of mock sessions
where I'll pretend it's my five minutes,
and ask one of my colleagues, as if they're Mueller, the questions I have,
and then they'll turn around and ask those questions of me.
Who's the one member of the Judiciary Committee
who has refused to show up to a single prep session,
a single practice, a single mood court?
Ken Buck. Ken Buck. A gamer.
Doesn't wanna leave any on the practice field.
Christopher Jaarda: Um, what we're doing is we're laying forward that
there are ten separate fact patterns covered in the Mueller Report.
And in many of those,
Mueller could have reached a prosecutorial decision,
which he did not do, even though the regulations
require him to make that decision.
Newscaster: This is really a critical test for Democrats,
who are looking to impeach this President.
This may be their final moment to lay out for the American public
why that is something, uh, that should be on the table.
Newscaster 2: Now, when it comes to Republicans,
they are going to focus on the origins
of the Mueller investigation.
I think there were a lot of facts, uh,
regarding the interaction of people who didn't like the President and Russians...
-that weren't fully developed. -Reporter: Who do you mean, specifically?
Well, uh, you'll, you'll see in just a moment.
Do you have any basis as you sit here today
to believe that Steele was lying?
As I said before and I'll say again,
it's not my purview. Others are investigating what you--
Gaetz (on TV): So it's not your purview to look into
whether or not Steele's lying.
It's not your purview to look into whether or not
anti-Trump Russians are lying to Steele.
And here's what I'm kind of noticing, Director Mueller.
When people associated with Trump lied, you threw the book at 'em.
When Christopher Steele lied, nothing.
Maybe the reason why there are this discrepancies in what you focused on,
because the team is so biased...
-Man: Time of the gentlemen has expired. -... pledge to stop Trump.
Man: Mr. Jeffries of New York is recognized.
I guess he didn't get to the closing.
- All right. I'm gonna start pulling it. -Yeah.
All right, uh, we're starting to pull,
go on critical mention,
try to search for that Florida keyword that I found,
and then you should be able to copy and paste
-the transcript portion. -Is it up here?
Wyant: This is a huge moment.
Now I don't just think in Congress, though.
I think this is in the country, as well.
Because this kind of can dictate where we go next.
Buck: Was there sufficient evidence to convict President Trump,
or anyone else, with obstruction of justice?
In Office of Legal Counsel,
indicates that we cannot indict a sitting President.
Could you charge the President with a crime
-after he left office? -Yes.
You believe that he committed--
You could charge the President of the United States
-with obstruction of justice after he left office. -Yes.
Buck: The liberals will use the answers
that Mueller gave on his report,
and they will allege that the President committed obstruction,
and it's an impeachable offense.
The Republicans will talk about how unfair this investigation was,
that the people that were involved in the investigation were biased.
So, I think both sides have takeaways,
and depending on which news organization you listen to,
you're gonna hear, uh, that takeaway.
Ritika Robertson: I think the people that were pro-impeachment before
are still pro-impeachment. The people that were anti-impeachment
are still anti-impeachment. And most of the country just doesn't care.
Newscaster: This is absolutely not the day
the Democrats had wanted it to be. I agree...
The Democrats in the committee on the dais
looked like they had been held at a funeral for too long.
Newscaster: The President, by the way, we know is watching this.
He's been doing so, we're told, from inside the residence.
not in the West Wing of the White House here.
(voice over phone)
Hey, Mr. President. It's your favorite Congressman, Matt Gaetz.
Great day to be an American. Give me a ring at your convenience.
I'll call him at the office.
Mr. President.
I think we won the day, sir.
(Trump speaking)
No, I, I--
Yeah, he is.
No, I think we--
Well, I think the-- the biggest mistake was Nadler.
Bringing this guy in. I mean, this was--
this was a train wreck for them.
I will guarantee you that when, uh, they are polling,
you know, ten days, two weeks from now,
that the Democrats will have gained zero momentum
in their push for impeachment.
(Trump speaking)
We'll tell 'em, sir. Well, hey, thank you.
Oh, Melania said I was handsome.
You keep telling me that, but she never confirms it.
(Trump speaking)
Take care.
He's very happy.
Massie: I haven't read the whole Mueller Report.
I've probably only read about 20 percent of it,
but I read enough of it to decide that it didn't matter.
It's a weapon of mass distraction.
I don't think this is gonna change anything here, really.
We have wasted a lot of time,
but that's what Congress sort of does on its own--
it wastes time.
We're at a very important location
that defines the edge of where,
uh, Congress does official business,
and where Congress switches into fundraising mode.
I can't ask anybody for money on federal property,
so, when you want a new committee assignment,
let's say you're tired of being stuck on the Ethics Committee,
and you want on the powerful Ways and Means Committee,
the first thing the Speaker is gonna tell you is--
They're gonna get out the fundraising numbers and say,
"You're not doing enough work across the street."
So when you hear that code sentence, we all know what it means.
Come down here, cross the street, get a list of rich people,
and start begging for money.
Not for yourself, not for your own reelection,
but for the party.
Gaetz: We just concluded our monthly meeting.
I got the, uh, somewhat unfortunate news that
I have $124,500 left that I owe to pay the party for my dues.
And a lot of times they're telling you,
"Hey, if you're on this committee,
these are the lobbying groups that you need to go see."
Or, "These are the lobbying firms that are most likely
to give to your campaigns."
Taking just a candid look at where you've told me we are,
-we will be out of money in a few months. -Wyant: Yeah.
-We'll be, we'll be broke. -Yes.
If you make me do the typical Washington thing
where I have to go and sit with these lobbyists...
-Yeah. -...and PAC fundraisers, I will quit.
I really think we need to hire a fundraiser.
Is there any projection in which,
if we grow that renewable
-small dollar donor base, -Yeah.
-people who give me $50 from, you know-- -Well, that's the whole point.
The whole point is to one day not need to hire a fundraiser at all.
It really-- The whole point is to get there,
but it just takes time, because you need to get that database.
And at our current operational spend, we'll be broke in a few months.
-Right. Exactly. -Great talk.
Yeah, exactly.
Well, here we are, across the street at the NRCC.
I'm sort of persona non grata in this building.
They don't want me in there, because I haven't been doing my work in there
for the past six years.
If you go in there,
you're gonna see Congressmen sitting in cubicles
going down lists of people who've donated to Republicans before.
In many cases, cold calling them.
Basically glorified telemarketers,
and the same exact thing goes on at the D-triple-C
as goes on here at the NRCC.
I'm not gonna lie to you. I crossed the street myself.
Like, my campaign doesn't run on fairy dust.
So, even though I don't spend any time there,
there's another building right next to us
where I do spend a lot of time wining and dining.
The difference is, I don't pay the extortion
that my party asks of me.
There's somebody doing their work across the street.
His district borders mine.
(light guitar music playing)
I think the topography here
shaped my thinking about government.
We're organized in hollers.
There's a holler, there's a holler. This is a main holler.
And as long as you're minding your own business in your holler,
you don't go over in your neighbor's holler and tell them what to do.
Hey!
Hey, cows!
(mooing)
It's not very Libertarian of somebody
to throw their trash on my field.
Oh. They were having a Budweiser here.
I'm definitely the greenest member of Congress.
I've put that on my Twitter profile.
Nobody will even challenge me on that point.
Everything in my house runs off solar power.
We're off the grid.
My whole house right now is running off of
7,104 little batteries out of a wrecked Tesla model S.
I hate pollution, okay?
Lead, mercury, sulfur dioxide...
All the things that we can prove are bad,
I, I'm against.
One of the things that I disagree on, though, is carbon dioxide.
One of the best things that could happen
for the life on this farm to flourish
is that CO2 goes up.
People forget that. They forget that CO2 is a plant food,
and we're now calling it a pollutant.
Interviewer: You don't think that climate change
is an existential threat to human beings?
I absolutely don't think that CO2,
uh, man-made or man-produced CO2,
is an existential threat to us.
And even if we thought CO2 was not good for the planet,
it's probably not the best place to spend your money,
or to spend other people's money that you're taxing them on.
Where's the cost benefit?
Interviewer: What do you say to the people who might say,
"Oh, well, you're from Kentucky.
Are you just protecting the coal miners?"
So, it's true I'm from Kentucky,
but there's not a single operating coal mine in my Congressional district.
Do I have a parochial interest
because of coal-fired electricity generation?
Yes, I do.
But we look to the government to solve every problem,
and I think that's wrong.
Lessig: In 2010,
the Koch brothers signaled
that any Republican who acknowledged climate change
would be taken out. They'd be primaried.
And what that demonstrates is the extraordinary power
of the threat value of money.
The iceberg effect is
we see a tiny bit of the contributions on the surface.
But below the water, there's an extraordinary amount of
threatened contributions
that have the effect of disciplining members of Congress,
and that's what happening with climate change.
But whether or not the Republicans are more extreme,
the Democrats are also extremely sensitive,
and constrained,
by the way they need to raise money.
Newscaster: Senate Democrats have a super majority of 60.
Republicans will be powerless to stop them.
Lessig: The Democrats couldn't bring climate change legislation
when they had a super majority
in the House and in the Senate,
because they knew the cost from the carbon industries
jumping in and defeating Democrats would be too great.
And what we need is an opportunity for Congressmen
to decide what to do on the basis of what they think is right,
independent of this anxiety
that these tiny numbers of very powerful funders
will make it so that their decision is too costly
for them and their party.
Announcer: Chipping away at your rights.
Chipping away at your freedom.
And now they're attacking our Second Amendment rights.
Chipping away at your future.
But you can stop them right now.
On November 2nd, vote Ken Buck.
He defends our Second Amendment rights.
The NRA Political Victory Fund is responsible for the content of this advertising.
Sure, I ran for the Senate in 2010,
and the NRA spent a lot of money in that campaign.
The truth is that I've never received, um,
more than one or two percent
of my total campaign contributions from, uh, the NRA.
I'm not influenced by anybody in the gun area.
I am a firm believer in our Second Amendment rights,
and that's why I vote the way I do.
I was a district attorney for 10 years,
and it's the best job I've had.
As a district attorney, you really get the 30,000-foot view
of crime in a community,
and what can you do to solve that crime,
and to change the way a community looks at crime.
Man: You wanna shoot bad guys, or you wanna shoot targets, or--
-Buck: Bad guys. -Chief of Staff? What do you say?
-Oh. -Woman: Do you have any terrorists?
Um, do we have any Osamas left?
That, that guy looks great. The third from the bottom there looks great.
I think candidates,
elected officials, and political parties
all react to a narrative created by special interest groups.
And that narrative is often single issue.
And the narrative is often extreme.
Woman: The only way we save our country
and our freedom is to fight this violence of lies
with the clenched fist of truth.
I'm the National Rifle Association of America.
And I'm freedom's safest place.
(fires)
(shots firing)
Man: Boom! That's what I'm talking about.
Buck: And if you don't conform to that narrative,
you lose support financially,
you lose support of a certain group of voters,
who say, "I'm not gonna vote for that candidate.
"I want this person who is the most extreme,
the, the person who's gonna throw out the most red meat."
So, yes, I think, that, uh, part of the problem
with nuancing is that people expect to hear red meat,
or they consider it a weakness.
(firing)
Newscaster: Panic in El Paso this morning
when a day of shopping turned into horror,
with an active shooter on the loose.
Newscaster 2 : Law enforcement officials in Texas say
they believe the attack was motivated by anti-immigrant hatred.
The weapon used in today's shooting was an AK-47
semi-automatic assault-style rifle.
You know, I'm a proud lifetime member of the NRA.
I'm a gun owner.
America has nothing to fear
from law-abiding gun owners.
Newscaster: Right now, here in studio,
Congressman Matt Gaetz from, uh, the great state of Florida.
Gaetz: It is a tough time for our country
in these instances of great casualty.
President Trump was right when he said that,
"It's not the gun that pulls the trigger."
It is this hate-filled motivation
that we've gotta get to the bottom of.
-Man: Always a pleasure. -Thank you guys for having us on.
-Yeah, thanks again, Todd. -Absolutely.
Gaetz: All right. Best of luck to you.
Hi, there. Matt Gaetz.
-Marlene. Marlene June. -Where are you guys from?
-Red Bank, New Jersey. -Oh, wonderful.
-Happy to see you, meet you. -Nice to see you, as well.
I want to be thin, sexy, happy... Republican.
I want to be all those things, too.
-(laughing) -We'll use the soft lens.
-Marlene June: Thank you so much. -No, thank you guys.
-Man: Are you gonna do anything? -I appreciate you. Have a great day.
Man: Or you just gonna do the same thing? Sit on your hands?
Do something! Stop letting people die all the time
from these white supremacist terrorists!
John Sarbanes: If you're angry and passionate
about the fact that we can't get the most basic,
common sense gun safety measures in place,
then be angry about the fact that the gun lobby and the NRA
have been spending millions of dollars up here
to advance their agenda.
That's just connecting the dots.
You care about tax policy, health care, the environment,
you gotta care about where the money's coming from.
And members of the public,
voters out there, they're starting to connect these dots.
Somewhere in America,
there's a family in their living room
hearing another report about how billionaires
and super PACs and insiders are running Washington,
and calling the shots on what happens in their lives.
And they're asking themselves, "Do we matter anymore?"
H.R. 1 says to that family,
and millions of families across the country
who feel the same way,
"We get it. We hear you.
We want to change this place."
Lessig: Nancy Pelosi was convinced by John Sarbanes
to make H.R. 1 the first thing that Congress took up after 2018.
And H.R. 1 was the most important
reform legislation that Congress has considered
since the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Sarbanes: The reforms we proposed:
fixing partisan gerrymandering,
making it easier for people to vote,
boosting election security,
more disclosure on where dark money is coming from,
public financing to power campaigns in this country,
so we don't have to go hat in hand
to lobbyists and big money donors.
Every single one of those polls at 75, 80, 85 percent in the public,
so there's a lot of Republicans that support these reforms.
It's just a matter of getting their representatives in Washington
to pay more attention to that and deliver on that.
Newscaster: House Democrats passed sweeping anti-corruption
and voting rights legislation,
234 to 193 on party lines.
Massie: There are these messaging bills, like H.R. 1,
where the party in power in the House
never really intends for them to pass the Senate.
They're just trying to send a message.
Buck: It was a Democrat bill
that focused on getting folks that had low turnout
to turn out to vote, because they believe that
if they could turn out those voters, they would win more elections.
Gaetz: I voted against H.R. 1
because I do not support public financing of campaigns.
It is taking money away from taxpayers
to fund efforts that annoy the shit out of taxpayers.
Lessig: If you are not willing to take on the role of money
in the election of members to Congress,
you're not a serious reformer.
Like, you can call yourself a reformer.
But you're not changing anything
if you don't change the core dynamic of incentives
for electing people into Congress.
A party line vote, Republicans have been killing it,
noting it would use taxpayer dollars
to help fund political campaigns.
Majority leader Mitch McConnell says
it's dead on arrival in the Senate.
A power grab
is smelling more and more
like exactly what it is.
Lessig: Mitch McConnell called H.R. 1 a Democratic power grab.
And it is, in a small "d," democratic sense,
because the existing system we have right now
disables incredibly important swaths of Americans
from being able to participate equally
in our political system.
Pelosi: H.R. 1 restores the people's faith
that government works for the people's interest.
Not the special interests.
I've been critical of Nancy Pelosi.
I think in many ways, she practiced exactly the kind of corruption
that I care about addressing.
I don't think she was ever personally corrupt.
But she was one of the biggest fundraisers in Congress.
But I know that many in that Democratic caucus
did not want to vote in favor of H.R. 1.
And she basically made it a requirement.
Sarbanes: The hardest thing in the world to do
would be to get these reforms passed.
Even if Democrats end up getting the opportunity
to do it across the Capitol and in the White House,
because it's human nature to feel like
if you're in control, order has been restored,
and maybe you don't have to go do all those dramatic things
that you talked about.
But the power of this message, as it's been used,
this fighting corruption, fixing democracy,
draining the swamp, whatever you want to call it,
the electoral power of that is a validation
that the public across the spectrum
wants to see these changes.
(cheering and applause)
Trump: The special interests, Wall Street,
the career politicians...
The system is rigged,
and I've been saying it for a long time.
The super PACs are a scam.
They have total control over the candidates.
These interests have rigged
our political and economic system
for their exclusive benefit.
But with your help, we're going to beat the system,
and we're gonna un-rig the system.
John Roberts: Congratulations, Mr. President.
Lesley Stahl: You said that lobbyists own politicians
because they give them money.
-You admitted you used to do it yourself. -Sure.
But your own transition team, filled with lobbyists.
Everybody's a lobbyist down there.
-That's what they are. They're lobbyists -No, wait!
On your own transition team--
We're trying to clean up Washington. Look--
How can you clean it up--
Everything-- everything down there...
There are no people. They're all people that work--
That's the problem with the system.
Interviewer: What has President Trump done to drain the swamp?
President Trump's most, I think, uh,
antiseptic impact on the swamp
has come through a mentality
that the professional class around here is not in charge anymore.
Interviewer: But we're talking about draining the swamp.
I thought he was talking about getting rid of the lobbyists
and special interests' hold on this town.
With President Trump in office,
the lobbyists and special interests
have never been less empowered.
Reporter 1: President Trump said that he would "drain the swamp,"
taking power away from Washington lobbyists and special interests.
Now, more of them have seats at his table in his cabinet.
Reporter 2: In total, more than 300 lobbyists
now work in the Trump administration,
many overseeing the industries they used to lobby for.
Reporter 3: They've essentially sold out government agencies,
and the White House, to industry.
Reporter 4: Wall Street loves Donald Trump.
Reporter 5: Big money contributions from friendly donors
are paying off for them.
Reporter 6: Large political contributors
buy access to President Trump
using political contributions to Trump's super PAC...
Reporter 7: Trump businesses are making a killing
from political groups and federal agencies.
Reporter 8: President Trump's landmark Washington, DC, hotel.
It's been a hot spot for lobbyists
who want to gain favor with the Trump administration.
But if you look at drain the swamp, I am draining the swamp.
Thank you very much.
So what are you hearing about our amendment?
Khanna: That it's still a little bit uphill,
but, uh, they're pushing it.
-What are you hearing on your side? -Same thing.
I'm hearing that there are definitely some members of the war lobby
who are singularly focused on
ensuring that our work product's not included.
Gaetz: The Khanna-Gaetz amendment passed
in the House of Representatives.
Woman: The "yeas" are 251,
and the "nays" are 170.
The amendment is adopted.
Gaetz: We got essentially every Democrat vote,
and we got 27 Republicans to vote for it,
so it is in the House version of the NDAA,
and when it was voted on in the Senate,
we got 50 votes, and there were fewer than 50 votes against it.
But in the crazy rules of the United States Senate,
even when you get the most votes, you can still lose
if you have not reached a 60-vote threshold.
And we're making the case that
because of the broad bipartisan support of Khanna-Gaetz in the House,
and because more people voted for it than against it in the Senate,
it should absolutely be presented to the President for his signature.
Where has McConnell traditionally been on these war powers issues?
I think the best guess of where he's gonna be on this issue
is, uh, where the President wants him to be on this issue.
And the President sees this
as an important part of his rebuilding the military,
and he's not gonna send the signal to Mitch McConnell to,
to, uh, work with us on this.
Huh.
Trump: This destructive cycle
of intervention and chaos
must finally, folks, come to an end.
Come to an end.
We need to ask those who voted for the war
how can you give the President a blank check,
and then act surprised when he cashes it?
We keep trying to elect Presidents to end wars.
It's no coincidence that Donald Trump
became President in the Republican field.
He said that the war in Iraq was a blunder
in the Republican primary.
The war in Iraq was a big, fat mistake.
And yet, we've been too slow to roll back these wars.
And I think we need a Congress
willing to stand up to a President, regardless of party.
Massie: It would be a very solid brick in the wall
in reestablishing
our Congressional war powers
if something like Ro Khanna's amendment
could get placed in the National Defense Authorization Act.
But it always feels like Charlie Brown and Lucy.
We get ready to kick the football, and Lucy pulls it away.
Charlie Brown: (screams) Ugh!
-(thuds) -(grunts)
Announcer: This is an "ABC News" Special Report.
George Stephanopoulos: Good afternoon.
We're coming on the air right now
with major breaking news from Capitol Hill.
The House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made that dramatic shift
to decide to open a formal impeachment inquiry of President Trump.
It comes in the wake of President Trump's confirmation
that he withheld military aid from Ukraine
about a week before a July 25th phone call
with the Ukrainian President,
where he was reported to have encouraged the Ukrainian President
to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter,
who had business interests in the Ukraine.
Newscaster: Zelensky was interested in Javelin anti-tank missiles
to defend himself from Russian-backed rebels.
Mr. Trump replied,
"I would like you to do us a favor, though."
What you just described is a quid pro quo.
We do that all the time. Get over it.
The fact that Trump called Zelensky a day after Mueller testified,
tells you everything you need to know
about the hubris of this President.
-He's very happy. -Pelosi: The President of the United States
used taxpayer dollars
to shake down the leader of another country
for his own political gain.
Gaetz: Why are Nancy Pelosi and today's House Democrats
not giving President Trump the same due process rights
that Newt Gingrich and Republicans
gave to Bill Clinton during his impeachment process?
Instead, what you see are secret hearings, secret depositions,
and then selective leaks to try to fit a predetermined narrative.
What we see in this impeachment
is a kangaroo court.
And Chairman Schiff is acting like
a malicious Captain Kangaroo.
"Chairman Schiff is acting like a malicious Captain Kangaroo."
Trump's being railroaded by the terrifying Thomas the Tank engine.
This whole thing is a load of Howdy Doody,
and is brought to you by the letters "F" and "U."
Gaetz: A lot of younger Republicans
who've just been elected come to me,
asking for advice about how to grow their profile
and become more proficient in media, and online.
And I tell 'em at the outset,
"You make yourself a target when you live like I live."
I mean, if you want to really get in the fight,
there's going to be some return fire.
And most of the time, when I let folks know that that's the case,
they're not interested in any more advice about how to do it.
I, uh, don't go out to eat much, because...
in this town, you know, if you go out to eat,
it's always the opportunity, for...
you know, someone with an iPhone and an axe to grind
to come up and try to have their viral moment
at your expense, so...
Most nights, it's not, uh, any fancy restaurant.
It's Uber Eats.
And, uh, I'm feeling lamb chops tonight.
Thanks, I appreciate it.
(elevator dings)
This Ukraine stuff
is not impeachable conduct.
But it is a different dynamic to litigate for us
as members of Congress than the Russia probe,
because so many of us were involved in the President's campaign.
Gotta watch a little CNN. Opposition research.
In 2016, I was speaking at Trump rallies all over the country,
I was communicating with people who were
running the President's campaign in various states.
And so I had an insight that this was not someone who was engaged
in some vast criminal conspiracy with the Russian Federation
to negatively impact the US election.
But this ain't Russia.
(TV playing indistinctly)
Hey, Mr. President. It's Matt Gaetz.
I don't need anything, sir. Just calling to tell you
you did a great job today.
Don't let these people get you down.
We're gonna keep fighting for you with all we got.
(Trump speaking)
Well, thank you.
(Trump speaking)
(chuckles)
All right.
Yeah.
Well, wait till you see what we got for tomorrow.
Right.
Well, and, and Zelensky was shit-talking Macron and Merkel.
About how they don't do anything, and it's the United States,
it's your movement to drain the swamp
that inspired Ukraine to better days.
Thank you. You're the best, Mr. President.
Will do.
We will. See you.
(TV unmutes)
Gaetz: Our central point is that
regardless of how people feel about the President,
this is no way to run a railroad.
You know, that we should not be, uh,
hiding things from the American people, and from members of Congress.
So, uh, those who want to say a piece, say that.
Just kind of keep on that message.
And then, after we're done, we roll back there.
Andy Biggs: It's another moment in history, actually.
Ten years from now, you'll be able to say, we went down there.
We demanded it.
And we're not-- And we're not allowed in.
Yeah, we weren't allowed in.
-Let's do it! -(indistinct chatter)
Gaetz: I'm gathered here with dozens
of my Congressional colleagues
in the basement of the Capitol.
because if behind those doors,
they intend to overturn the results
of an American Presidential election,
we want to know what's going on.
And so we're gonna try to go in there
on behalf of the millions of Americans
that we represent
that want to see this Congress working for them,
and not obsessed with attacking a President
who we believe has not done anything to deserve impeachment.
We're gonna go, and see if we can get inside. So...
Let's, uh... Let's see if we can get in.
Newscaster: Congressional Republicans
stormed this closed-door deposition in a secure room
and disrupted the testimony
of the Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary.
Congressman: Do it in front of everybody!
In public! In public!
We just want to see what you're doing! Why are you hiding?
(indistinct chatter)
There's three doors to get into the actual SCIF,
into the actual intel committee.
So after the press conference
they all went to the second door,
which is where the police officer actually is,
and he won't let anyone in.
But then they start chanting, "Let us in,"
over and over again.
And then they kind of bum-rush the door,
to where all the members just kind of went past the police officer,
and they weren't, obviously, going to arrest them.
Newscaster: It isn't over yet.
Those Republicans are still in that secure room,
refusing to leave.
One Democratic Congressman tells CNN that snacks were brought in,
and they are now eating pizza.
We're happy that everything turned out favorably, and...
-Khanna: Making news all over the place. -Gaetz: Hey, man.
Um, I, uh, I talked to Smith,
and, uh, you know, I mean...
-Yeah. -News looks bad.
-Does it? -Yeah. I mean, I don't know if they're, like,
getting ready to give up fighting or what, but,
-doesn't look good. -I haven't, I haven't heard.
-Yeah, he just said that-- -He keeps telling me that
-they're still fighting, pushing, so-- -Yeah.
-Maybe he's just trying to encourage me. -(laughs)
-All right. -See you, Ro.
Well, it was a scene not in the United States Congress,
but at a fraternity.
I mean, you had about 20 Republicans come in.
They were yelling, they brought in
their phones into the SCIF,
which everyone knows is against, uh, the law.
Uh, and then they started ordering pizza, and there were pizza boxes
strewn all over the SCIF.
I mean, they didn't even clean up.
I mean, it was really just an embarrassment.
And by the way, Republicans are in that room,
they get to ask questions, they get equal time as the Democrats,
so it's the height of hypocrisy
for Republicans to complain.
Passerby 1: Shame!
Passerby 2: What an asshole.
TMZ reporter: You know, you just single-handedly
led a group to shut down this entire impeachment investigation.
What-- What were you thinking, man?
We were, uh, like, you know, the 300,
standing in the breach, to try to stop the radical left
from starm-- storming over our democracy.
Did the President tell you guys to do this or did you decide on your own?
No, I, uh, haven't chatted with the President about it,
thought I suspect he may have a view he might want to share after today.
Lou Dobbs: The President tweeted this:
"Thank you to House Republicans for being tough, smart,
"and understanding in detail
the greatest witch hunt in American history."
Khanna: You know, when you read Madison's "Federalist 51,"
his theory of separation of powers was very simple.
He said, "Politicians are ambitious,
and ambition will counteract ambition."
You don't really have to worry about the President being too powerful,
because there will be ambitious people in Congress.
They'll want to have their own power,
and they'll make sure that they put a check
on the Presidency.
Madison didn't count on partisanship.
He didn't anticipate that people would be less loyal
to the institution they serve in and more loyal to their party.
And what you've seen now is a total abdication by Republicans
of willingness to hold the President accountable.
Gaetz: I didn't run as someone to unify Washington.
I ran to change Washington.
And I do believe that there is a consensus in the country
that that is necessary.
Interviewer: Do you think that you exacerbate partisanship?
(laughs) Uh...
You know, I, I, I'm sure that there are days
when I advance partisanship.
I think there are days when I advance bipartisanship.
I don't think you sort of choose one style or the other.
I think you can be partisan, bipartisan fluid.
(wind whistling)
Pelosi: Today, the House takes the next step forward
as we establish the procedures
for open hearings
conducted by the House Intelligence Committee,
so that the public can see the facts for themselves.
Jackie Speier (on TV): You have endured and orchestrated
character assassination
that was laced with enormous campaign contributions
to the President's reelection campaign.
Gaetz: Honestly, I did not sleep last night.
So frustrated that I am not able to participate
in these hearings as a questioner.
If we were doing this with all cards face up as a fair process,
this would actually be going on in the House Judiciary Committee where I serve.
But because we kicked the Democrats' ass on Mueller,
they've moved to the Intelligence Committee.
You confirmed to President Trump that you were in
Ukraine at the time.
And that President Zelensky, quote, "Loves your ass." Unquote.
Do you recall saying that?
Yeah, it sounds like something I would say.
(laughs)
Massie: Can you get a number from Jonathan
how many people have completed our impeachment poll?
John Ferland: Yeah. I'll get that for us.
Massie: Has the impeachment been a fundraising boon
for both sides? Absolutely.
But I have resisted the temptation
to raise any money off of impeachment.
I haven't even sent out a fundraising letter
since the impeachment started.
Ferland: So, around 3:40, you head down to the HVC.
What's the meeting in HVC?
-Um, it's all impeachment. -(scoffs)
-Okay. -Impeachment, impeachment.
Then 4:30, we're planning on vote times.
-That'll run till about 5:30. -There're, there're--
-There are no committee hearings? -Not a single one.
-Mm, okay. Makes it easy. -Yeah.
-I'll just take some more phone calls, then. -Let's do it.
Woman (on phone): Yes, hello?
Hi, this is Thomas Massie. Who am I talking to?
This is like Russian roulette.
I don't know if they are happy, or angry,
or undecided.
I'm just taking their call straight up.
Hi. This is Congressman Ken Buck's office.
(woman speaking on phone)
This is Congressman Ken Buck.
(woman speaking on phone)
Tell me why you believe I don't understand the rule of law.
(man speaking on phone)
Mm-hmm.
(woman speaking on phone)
Here's, here's what you have from me.
You have my commitment to keep an open mind.
I'm gonna watch as much of this hearing as I can today,
while I'm taking phone calls.
(man speaking on phone)
Buck: I'm sorry.
(woman speaking on phone)
Massie: Okay, well, I'm trying not to interrupt you, but I do,
-I do have other people I need to take calls from. -Woman (on phone): I know.
(man speaking on phone)
Well, I appreciate--
I appreciate your feedback very much.
-You have a great day. -(man speaking on phone)
That's great. Take care.
Bye.
I've had enough.
I have to tell you, I think that this place has drained me
of a certain amount of life.
After having been here for five years,
I have no illusion
that what I say anybody cares about.
I have thought about leaving and I don't know whether
this is my last term or whether I'll run for one more term.
Uh, I do know that a lot of the folks at home
will not understand the long-term implications
of what's happening here in DC.
Throughout the White House right now, they're going to do an omni
that apparently is going to bust the budget caps.
I just heard.
Buck: This President has presented budgets
that are huge.
Typically, the Freedom Caucus would be leading the charge
to criticize an executive branch proposal
that costs that much money.
Now, that's just not the case.
And it's not the case because
when Freedom Caucus members look at their political base,
they realize that so much of their base are Trump lovers,
where nothing this President does can possibly be wrong,
that they can't criticize the President.
So, we did 40k for October. 40k.
-Net? -Yes, netted.
-Wow. -And then for Nove--
So from November, right now,
we are already at 15.
-Netted. -Netted.
-Yeah, 15,000. -So, what do you think we'll
-net then, this month? -I think we're gonna get around 40.
-That's amazing. -Yeah.
So, when we met last on fundraising,
you said we were functionally bankrupt,
and now what has saved us has been impeachment?
Yeah, so all of it is mostly small dollar,
but everyone's doing well off of it.
It's not just our office.
Some lobbyists have randomly texted me
that they've donated or given money.
Has there been any revenue from the special interest community?
I would say about $3,000. Not much.
-(laughs) As is usual, then. -Yeah.
But, you know, I mean, if we were to make some announcement
that, like, we, we have converted to this new faith
that, that is absent any lobbyist or PAC money--
I mean, once you cross the Rubicon, you can't go back.
Well, that's, that's my only concern with it.
What I don't want you to do is shoot yourself in the foot
for a later time in 20 years from now
when you want to run for something that's bigger, you know?
I assure you, I will not be running for anything in 20 years.
Never say never.
Sarbanes: Before January,
there were seven members of Congress
who were corporate PAC free.
And today it's 60. Six-zero.
So, in one election,
we've brought in a whole new cohort
of members that are saying,
"We want to do something different here."
So we have a proposal in H.R. 1
to create a small donor matching system.
This is something Larry Lessig has worked on with me.
If voters give $50, or $25,
a six-to-one match comes in behind that from the government
on those small donations.
When they go to candidates who say, "You know what?
"I'm not gonna take the big money.
"I'm not gonna take the PAC money,
"and I'm gonna step into a system
"where it's the average citizen
who's the most important person to me."
I'm not a career politician.
Party leaders don't control me, and they never will.
Corporations do not run my campaign.
Gaetz: Katie Hill was a new member of Congress.
A freshman. She ran a very different kind of upstart campaign
without corporate PAC money,
and she was on the Armed Services Committee with me.
And then suddenly Katie Hill was victimized
by a husband who had pictures of her,
uh, where she wasn't wearing any clothes,
or doing other weird stuff,
and he leaked them.
And she had to resign from Congress as a result.
Newscaster: You said about this situation, "This is absurd."
"Who among us would look perfect
if every ex leaked every photo and text?"
I don't think these issues should be partisan in nature.
I think that if someone is trying to destroy
one of your coworkers,
you should sympathize with the fact that the only reason
that this information is in the public square
is because someone is committing the crime of revenge porn.
So I sent out a tweet defending President Trump
and Katie Hill in the same tweet.
So, Katie just saw the tweet and texted me,
"Thanks for the shout out,
though I defs disagree with you on Trump."
To which I replied, "It's okay.
He disagrees with me about you, too."
And she wrote back, "LOL. You're a true bridge builder."
Do you think that the way money is raised here,
the way the lobbyists and PACs operate
hurts us or helps us? Like, what's the play
if you're a young person and you're trying to make it in DC,
'cause I'm not sure I've figured it out from
the fundraising side of things.
Well, a lot of my fundraising was literally in a backlash to Trump.
So we're coming from very different places--
Yeah, but you weren't raising money from lobbyists.
No, that's my point is that, like, I came--
I, I was able to raise money from individuals.
I didn't take a dime of corporate money.
There are more Democrats that are not taking corporate PAC money
-than have ever happened. -Right. How many are there now?
I think there, I-- The last I heard, there were, like,
-over 65 or something like that. -I think the only--
I think there are not many Republicans who don't do it.
Right. Are you-- Do you not?
-Kinda? -I'm thinking about it.
I think you'd be the first, on the Republican side. I'm pretty sure.
The first thing that we have to do to change things
is to get money out of politics.
And so that's why, you know,
I feel strongly about other parts of H.R. 1, as well,
including the way that districts are drawn.
-I think gerrymandering needs to be gone. -I agree.
-Do you? -Yes.
Well, then, why are you not for H.R. 1?
I don't like taking money from the taxpayers
to fund political campaigns,
because I think that that's like welfare for politicians.
The reason that I'm for this,
and again, I think even a few years ago
I would have been differently--
By the way, I'm a fucking good fundraiser.
-Yeah. -So, like, I don't need
public financing. It's not for me.
It's for people who couldn't have access to that.
And you're talking about people from, like, North Dakota.
If you're not willing to take oil money from North Dakota,
like, how are you gonna have a chance?
You know, I came from a political family.
I had advantages other people didn't have.
But, but I do think that, like,
if you just say everybody gets the same amount of cash,
-it does, like, shave off-- -But it's not about everybody gets the same amount of cash.
Because, like, you have to raise a certain amount on your own,
-and then it's matched, and it's like, one to five. -That's a fair clarification.
So, you know, I-- So I think you have to show a certain amount of grit.
And I was able to jump in at the right moment
because women particularly,
were mobilized around the fact that fucking Trump had become President.
And I, and I was the, I was the, like, antidote.
I was the thing that they saw that, like, could help
protect our country from the guy you're pals with.
-But, um-- -He's so great.
I'll never love another President again.
-I love him so much. -I remember you telling me that
like one of the first times I talked to you as we were getting on the elevator,
-and I'm like, is this real? -I was trying to trigger you.
Like, do you really believe this?
-I do. -But, um... whatever. (laughs)
You know, I, I, I, I defend flawed people.
-It's sort of my thing around here. -I mean, that's fine.
I defend flawed people, too.
I just feel like I-- I'd have to defend our Constitution.
But, um...
Can I get a picture for the camera?
Oh, sure. Happy to.
I actually met you at Janine's party
-two weeks ago. -Yeah, yeah! That was a great party.
All right. Here, I got the selfie arm.
-Do we get some light? -We'll see, see where we can get a little Trump light
-in our background. -Sounds good to me.
Gaetz: All right, there you go. Thank you.
-Good seeing you again. -Keep up the great work.
(laughs) Will do. We need more fighters.
-Nice seeing you. -Nice seeing you.
("Deck the Halls" playing)
Hey. Good to see you, my man.
Thanks for welcoming us again.
-All right, man. -(laughing)
-You're awesome. -(laughing)
♪ Don we now our gay apparel ♪
♪ Fa la la, la la la, la la ♪
Thank you for what you're doing every day. You fight our fight.
And thanks for giving it to 'em in those hearings.
♪ Fa la la la la, la la, la la ♪
This is only the fourth time that the House judiciary
has begun considering articles of impeachment.
-There's my man. Cheers to that. -(glasses clink)
Chris Cuomo. He's one of the great adversaries I have.
♪ Fa la la la la, la la, la la ♪
♪ See the blazing yule before us ♪
♪ Fa la la la la, la la, la la ♪
I watch you every night on Fox.
I thought you were the bomb.
-Oh, thanks for saying so. -Literally the bomb.
♪ Follow me in merry measure ♪
♪ Fa la la, la la la, la la la ♪
♪ While I tell of yuletide treasure ♪
♪ Fa la la la la, la la, la la ♪
Nadler: Today, we begin consideration
of two articles of impeachment against President Donald J. Trump.
The first article charges that the President
used the powers of his public office
to demand that a foreign government
attack his political rivals.
The second article charges that the President
obstructed the Congressional investigation into his conduct.
Buck: How will history judge this impeachment?
I believe the American people
will remember this impeachment effort unkindly,
instead remembering Democrats have been resisting,
and looking for an excuse to impeach this President
since the day he was elected.
I hope you've had your fun.
Say goodbye to your majority status,
and please join us in January of 2021
when President Trump is inaugurated again.
I yield back.
Man: Gentleman yields back. Mr. Gaetz.
House Democrats aren't clarifying that no one's above the law.
They're just clarifying that none of them
are above partisanship, and politics.
The only relevant quid pro quo
is the American people's decision
to send President Trump to the White House,
in exchange for Trump's commitment to support our workers,
restore our economy, defend our troops,
and drain the swamp.
(crowd cheering)
We are going to Washington, DC,
and we are going to do what?
Drain. The. Swamp.
I don't know those gentlemen.
Newscaster: Fruman and Parnas are charged with making
$325,000
in illegal straw donations to a Trump super PAC.
Newscaster 2: After making these political contributions,
they were setting up meetings
in order to push for the removal
of Ambassador Yovanovitch.
Marie Yovanovitch: Ukrainians who prefer to play by the old,
corrupt rules, sought to remove me.
Newscaster: Her removal allowed someone else to step in--
a Trump donor and EU ambassador
who urged the Ukrainians
to look into the President's campaign rival.
Was there a quid pro quo? The answer is yes.
Newscaster: The hotel mogul donated a million dollars
to President Trump's inaugural committee,
which helped him secure his diplomatic post.
Lessig: It's astonishing to think that we went into the 2016 election
with Donald Trump appearing to be the anti-corruption crusader,
because he had called out super PACs,
he had said politicians were all owned by the special interests.
But what's so tragic about Donald Trump is
there was an opportunity for him to change the status quo.
But he was never interested in doing it.
Crowd (chanting): Drain the swamp!
Drain the swamp!
You know, when I first heard that term, I hated it.
I said, "Oh, that's so hokey."
But I said, "Look, let's give it a shot."
I tried to-- The place went crazy.
This place went crazy. I said, "Whoa.
What's this?" Then I said it again.
The place went crazy.
Then I started saying it like I meant it, right?
Gaetz: We will face this illegitimate impeachment
with our heads high, our facts straight,
and our commitment to our transformational President
deeply intensified.
We'll see you on the field in 2020.
Lessig: It's not clear it's possible
to get us beyond that blinder of hyper-partisanship today.
There are real differences we have to work out.
But Donald Trump is a short-term problem.
Whether he gets reelected or not, he will be gone.
And I am so absolutely convinced
that we have broken the core institution of our democracy.
And at a certain point,
winning elections in a broken system doesn't get you anything.
It might get you a victory on election night.
But it doesn't give you the capacity to govern.
And if we can't rise above the partisan difference,
country over party, for the single purpose
of fixing the institution of Congress,
then our government will just continue to fail.
Massie: We're looking at 3,488 pages
of the National Defense Authorization Act
for the fiscal year 2020.
They introduced it at 10 p.m.
the night before we had to vote on it.
The leadership assures you that you do not need to read this bill.
Nancy Pelosi and Kevin McCarthy
each have their own summary of this bill
which is only two pages long.
One page front and back.
And it says, "Oh,
there's a pay raise in here for the military."
The efforts that I've undertaken
with Barbara Lee on the other side of the aisle
to curb the wars that we are in,
none of that made it into this NDAA.
But the NDAA has never failed.
It's one of those trains that when it leaves the station,
it's going to its destination.
And so, the vast majority of the money in this bill
goes to the military industrial complex, not the soldiers,
but because they've got a pay raise for soldiers
in this 3,488-page bill,
a lot of people don't need to read any further.
Like, "Man, I can't vote against that."
Gaetz: We've just stepped off the floor
where the National Defense Authorization Act passed,
and pretty bittersweet for me, you know.
I'm glad to see our troops get a raise, I'm glad to see a lot of
positive things for our military families in that bill,
but it is deeply saddening that Khanna-Gaetz was left out,
despite having the support of the people,
the support of the House of Representatives,
and more votes for it than against it in the Senate.
The bipartisan amendment
to stop the war in Iran
stripped by the White House.
At some time,
we can't just rhetorically give standing ovations
when the President says we're gonna end endless wars,
and continue to vote to fund them.
I voted no. The defense budget was too high in my view,
and the fact that they had stripped the Iran amendment,
and they had stripped the Yemen amendment,
uh, I couldn't vote for it.
Now, I understand it was a tough vote for people,
because they did have increase for the troops,
and they did have, uh, increase
in terms of parental leave for federal employees.
But the fact is, we shouldn't be having these kind of votes.
We should have clean votes on these issues,
as opposed to what they do,
which is force you to cast a tough vote
because they lump in pay increases for the troops
with, uh, not stopping the war in Iran.
Gaetz: I thought there was more good than bad in the bill,
and so I voted for it, but I also can understand why
someone would, uh, would take a different position,
because there's just so much more that,
that should have occurred here
to reflect the overwhelming will of the people in this country.
You know, anytime you see the votes line up with the people,
and yet the outcome doesn't happen,
it is a reflection of a broken system.
-Man 1: Are you Congressman Gaetz? -Yeah.
You have got be kidding me with this defense of Trump.
-The guy used taxpayer money-- -I'm not kidding at all, man.
-Man 2: Don't listen to him. -Man 1: No, no, no, no, Wait a second.
-I'm an attorney-- -Man 3: We're with you, Congressman Gaetz.
Don't listen to him. The American people are with you.
Man 2: We need more people like you in Congress.
Man 3: The American people are with you, sir.
Man 1: You don't think that this man used taxpayer money
to try to front the Ukrainian government?
-To try to engage the Biden administration? -Man 3: What about Joe Biden?
What about Joe Biden?
Man 1: Answer the question!
Khanna: I think what frustrates people today is,
it seems that we're unable to find a sense of,
what can we do together?
But at our best,
our country has risen to the challenge
of finding common purpose, or the common good.
We've done it when we have defeated tyranny
in World War II,
when we've helped establish the international order.
We've done it in building the interstate highways,
winning the Cold War,
inventing the internet,
and sending a man to the moon.
Our country has done extraordinary things,
and most of those extraordinary achievements have been bipartisan.
So the idea that we can't rise to the occasion again
defies American history.
Lessig: I don't know how to say this
as strongly as I feel it.
Because, you know, I'm this sappy patriot,
who deeply loves the traditions of our country.
Not that there aren't things to criticize,
and I spend most of my time finding how to criticize them,
but the dream, the ideals,
of this republic,
are things we all should be proud of.
And we have to find a way to convince people to fix it,
because it's not as if there aren't hard problems
in the future we need to solve.
Everybody's so obsessed in deciding what we should do,
as if we can do something.
Everybody's arguing about, you know, should we have single-payer health care,
or climate change legislation,
as if it's possible to get those things done.
None of these issues can be addressed sensibly
until we address the deep corruption inside of our government.
Sarbanes: There are people in the country,
and I can understand it, I relate to it,
who are so angry at Washington
that just the simple act of handing someone a baseball bat
and saying go up there and poof...
shake things up.
gives them a certain amount of satisfaction.
I, I understand that.
And what we're trying to do with our reforms is say
these can be as consequential
as any baseball bat could ever be.
Because instead of tearing your democracy down
to satisfy your anger,
we're gonna build it up,
and we're gonna put you right back in the middle of it.
Buck: There is no incentive for leadership
to reduce its own power by reforming Congress.
But Congress will react when the people stand up and demand action.
Massie: The force than runs everything is the electorate.
Everybody up here can lose an election.
It doesn't matter how powerful you are.
So, the final arbiters of who holds power here
are still the voters back home.
Gaetz: So many of the challenges that are impacting our country
aren't going to impact Republicans and Democrats differently.
They're going to impact us all the same.
And so I think the thing we can do
to drain the swamp the most
would be to just achieve some common understanding
that on a lot of this stuff, we are in the same rowboat.
And if we're rowing different directions the whole time,
we're just gonna spin on the top of the water.
Reporter: In 230 years,
since the US House of Representatives began its work,
only twice has it launched the debate we will witness today.
Democrats will bring to the full House
two articles of impeachment against President Trump.
("Impeach the President" by The Honey Drippers playing)
♪ Some people say that he's guilty ♪
♪ That he's guilty ♪
♪ Some people say I don't know ♪
♪ I don't know ♪
♪ Some people say give him a chance ♪
♪ Give him a chance ♪
♪ Aw, some people say wait till they convict him ♪
♪ Till they convict him ♪
♪ Impeach the President ♪
Woman 1: Matt Gaetz, country over party.
Come on, where's your soul?
Right here.
Matt Gaetz. Matt Gaetz...
Save our country. You could be a hero, dude.
-You could be a hero. -Woman 2: That's the funny thing. He is a hero.
You could stand up for our country.
-The Constitution, dude. -Woman 3: Go back to Russia!
Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. You people are something.
Come on, Matt. You can do it! I believe in you.
Go, Matt, go! Truth! Truth!
Truth, Matt!
♪ Impeach the President ♪
♪ Aw nah, we can't do that, man ♪
♪ Impeach the President ♪
Article one is adopted.
Mitch McConnell: I'm coordinating with White House counsel.
There will be no difference between
the President's position and our position.
We all know how it's gonna end.
There is no chance
the President's gonna be removed from office.
♪ There's a lot of things ♪
♪ That we don't know about ♪
Khanna: The President should not have taken an offensive action
against Iran without coming to Congress,
and this could get us into another Middle East war
where American lives are at risk,
and trillions of dollars are wasted.
♪ Impeach the President ♪
Massie: An hour before I went to vote on that,
I got a call from the President,
and he wanted me to vote with the party,
or I was gonna get a primary challenge.
And sure enough, within 12 hours of voting
the way that I felt I should vote,
I got a primary opponent.
And now, the next 90 days of my life
are gonna be a sort of hell
where I have to go do what I hate to do
which is get on the phone, grovel,
raise money, and try to beat this guy.
And I can trace it all back to that one vote.
Interviewer: Do you regret your vote?
I don't regret that vote at all. I told the President,
"Look, if the worst thing that happens to me for this vote
"is I have to go back to my farm and live out my days,
I'm okay with that!"
Buck: Taking on President Trump is unwise.
And President Trump has no problem doing a touchdown dance
every time a Republican critic loses.
And so he reinforces the idea
that it is a bad idea to take him on.
Gaetz: I will never again
accept a donation from a federal political action committee.
Not one red cent.
The American people are my one and only special interest.
(cheering and applause)
Interviewer: How do you feel?
I feel great, man. Feel relieved. Feel like, uh...
Just like a tremendous weight has been lifted.
Don't know what it's gonna mean, but
I tell you, it's one of my best days in Congress.
(dramatic orchestral music playing)