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| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
| We'll be right back. | ||
| This is the payoff at the Capitol of last week that the state's been whitewashed. | ||
| Stay with us. | ||
| So, you guys have paid for your testimony? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Nope. | |
| Well, we just saw the gentleman give you money. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It doesn't matter. | |
| Traveling expenses, baby. | ||
| So, you guys with a million mark? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No. | |
| Wait a minute, who are you with his camera in here? | ||
| No, he's a guy who has some Austin show. | ||
| He has a TV show here in Austin. | ||
| Oh, I'm sorry. | ||
| Actually, it's campaign contributions. | ||
| Campaign contributions. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Man, nobody's getting paid for nothing. | ||
| What I said in there, that's what I feel for my heart. | ||
| Well, I mean, who gave you the money? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It doesn't matter. | |
| The money I've been in, I've got money all over. | ||
| Looks like what I saw. | ||
| This gentleman giving you money? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I gave him. | |
| You got traveling expenses. | ||
| And I saw you testify, sir. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| You were here with Nina Butts, funded by George Soros, the foreign currency speculator. | ||
| So this is how business is done. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Man, who are you? | |
| I'm Alex Jones. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Firehouse purchaser and seller to miners. | |
| Oh really? | ||
| I didn't know I was in that business. | ||
| I thought I was a radio talk show host. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But really? | |
| Oh, that's an effective deal. | ||
| So you guys are taking over the country now, right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Nope. | |
| You are, dude. | ||
| Just as soon as people are disarmed, right? | ||
| Just like Hitler. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| So how much did he pay you? | ||
| It looked like thousands to me. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It was. | |
| It was 20,000. | ||
| Well, I saw wads of 20s and 100s. | ||
| I had to get my camera. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I was across the holder. | |
| The police told us about it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We're going to go buy a lot of guns, and we're going to come back and sell them to the NRA. Hey, we're making it so hot that we're going already. | |
| Remember, Hitler was for gun control, guys. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hitler was for gun control. | |
| And if I ever catch him on my block, I'm going to shoot him. | ||
| So how did the Million Mom March get in touch with you? | ||
|
unidentified
|
We're not even... | |
| You said the name of a group you were with. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Young Texas Against Gun Violence, baby. | |
| Recognized. | ||
| And you get paid to do it, huh? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Nope. | |
| We get a stipend. | ||
| We get a stipend for volunteering. | ||
| From who? | ||
| From that old man? | ||
| That old man's our best friend. | ||
| Campaign contribution. | ||
| It's not my son. | ||
| It's not his son! | ||
| You just called little kids' names. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You don't want to lose your 4'8 shooting glove, do you? | |
| No, I don't. | ||
| Well, there's a little bandage where they won't be able to train you how to shoot. | ||
| And that's their goal. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yep. | |
| And so you guys were the 4-H shooting club. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, we're here for the useless. | |
| And you've been waiting all day and they wouldn't even let anybody talk. | ||
| So they had all the Nina Buttses up there first. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Unbelievable. | |
| I saw you paying those people off, your guy. | ||
| Paying those guys from Houston hundreds. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Excuse me. | |
| Excuse me. | ||
| I have a hundred dollars. | ||
| I caught him on tapes. | ||
| They're caught, lady. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Really? | |
| Who are you talking about? | ||
| What did you see? | ||
| Because across the hall, I saw wads of money. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I ran to get the camera, and I missed it, and I came back, and I caught him, and he hid the money. | |
| She told me that the woman... | ||
| We went over there, and he was counting them out, the money. | ||
| I saw 120. We think he gave each guy, like, $400, right? | ||
| Well, no. | ||
| All I saw was $400 that I saw him count out. | ||
| A lot of you guys are looking from the outside in. | ||
| You know what I'm saying? | ||
| You guys are looking in on the situation and you guys are living it day to day. | ||
| I have friends who sell guns, who buy guns from people who go to the gun shows and get guns at large quantities. | ||
| You know, I mean, I know all these people. | ||
| I live there, where all this is going on. | ||
| And, I mean, you guys might think That they already have everything under control, but it's not. | ||
| I mean, regardless if we pass this law or not, things might change, but this right here, this bill, all three of these bills, this is just the beginning. | ||
| Because there's bigger threats out there and there's bigger laws that we need to focus on that aren't being enforced in America. | ||
| But these three house bills right here, this is... | ||
| Just the beginning, from all forward. | ||
| And like I said, you guys are looking, most of you guys are looking out from the outside because I'm there. | ||
| I'm there every day. | ||
| I've even gone into researching. | ||
| I don't even want to know where these companies are located at none of that. | ||
| But... | ||
| But then what makes you think that they're selling guns? | ||
| Who else is going to get them? | ||
| They don't have a factory in the hood where they're making guns. | ||
| You don't think some of those guns might be stolen? | ||
| They're not, man, how can, where are you going to get too many stolen guns from? | ||
| From 200 houses in a year, 10 houses in a year. | ||
| I see nobody, nobody says, all right, nobody. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| So, I'm sorry, just wanted to clarify. | ||
| I think what I'm hearing you saying that at least one source of these guns on the street is the gun show. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| First question I would like to ask is, do we have an epidemic of gun violence because the performance of the legislation It delays the very well-intended and sincere testimony from my March members and others would lead to believe we have an epidemic of gun violence. | ||
| That is not the case. | ||
| Texas and the United States are safer than they have ever been. | ||
| I won't go into detail. | ||
| If you look through the clipping file here that has information from the National Center for Health Statistics and the Center for Disease Control, U.S. gun deaths at lowest since mid-'60s, you'll see that we do not have an epidemic of gun violence. | ||
| Payments made to backers of gun bills. | ||
| Questions arise over cash given to three witnesses who support gun show background checks. | ||
| Proponents of gun owners' rights asked lawmakers Friday to investigate cash payments made to three Houston men who appeared before a House committee this week to support bills that would require instant background checks at gun shows. | ||
| Dave Smith, president of Houston-based Texans for Gun Safety, A known front that is funded by Hanger Control Incorporated said he gave the three members of Young Texans Against Gun Violence, Nina Butts' group is Texans Against Gun Violence, about 300 each to cover their expenses and lost wages for the trip. | ||
| All three men, however, said they are currently unemployed. | ||
| So they can't get their lies straight. | ||
| That's lie number four right there. | ||
| It was reimbursement for their jobs, but they're unemployed. | ||
| Otarius Kelly, 20, one of the witnesses said it is ridiculous that someone would raise concerns about their testimony. | ||
| It's against my morals, Kelly said. | ||
| An admitted gang member, by the way, in the Houston Chronicle. | ||
| There's another story about this in there. | ||
| Another witness agreed. | ||
| The money that was given to us was not to change our testimony, said Bruce Brown, 18, who did not speak to the committee but submitted a witness form that showed he supported the bills. | ||
| Smith, who gave the men the cash just outside the committee hearing room, said Young Texans Against Gun Violence is an arm of his group. | ||
| The subsidiary group receives donations from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. | ||
| And the Alliance for Justice. | ||
| Those groups encourage young people to get experience in the political process, Smith said. | ||
| Yeah, right. | ||
| Reimbursing witnesses for travel expenses is not unusual, said Susie Woodford of Common Cause Texas, a group that monitors government ethics. | ||
| But she said other witnesses using cash and paying for witnesses, time raises ethical questions. | ||
| It totally undermines the witnesses' credibility, Woodford said. | ||
| I got here. | ||
| I said, how will this look? | ||
| It says, complaints about the payments began circulating after Austin-based talk show host Alex Jones, who was at the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, meeting Tuesday, aired videotape interviews with Smith and the young men. | ||
| They told Jones the money was reimbursement, stipends, and campaign contributions. | ||
| So, three different stories. | ||
| It's like the famous scene in a movie. | ||
| Where are you guys going? | ||
| What are you doing? | ||
| Going to see my mother, going to get something to eat, going to the moon. | ||
| It's just making it up. | ||
| Head of Gun Owners Alliance has asked his thousands of members to seek a house investigation of the payments and to have the hearing disregarded. | ||
| Smith said complaints are being raised because the young men are minorities. | ||
| Jones, a strong supporter of gun owners' rights, said Smith was trying to cover up his dirty activities by making accusations of racism. | ||
| He's sitting here, caught on tape, throwing out different stories and giving out money, said Jones, who mentioned the payments during his testimony against the proposal to require background checks at gun shows. | ||
| How dare he try to divert attention by saying, I'm a racist? | ||
| Committee members Rick Green, R. Dripping Springs, and Juan Hena Hosa. | ||
| McAllen said they were uneasy about taking Jones seriously because of other inflammatory comments he has made. | ||
| Hinojosa, the chairman of the committee, said that although he didn't know details about the payments, he is not concerned if the witnesses are compensated for testifying. | ||
| Hinojosa said lobbyists are compensated for their work to influence policy on behalf of other interests. | ||
| Maybe these kids were paid for their travel, but I don't see anything improper about it, Hinojosa said. | ||
| It is part of the process. | ||
| It is part of open government. | ||
| State law requires people who are paid more than $1,000 in three months or who spend more than $500 a quarter trying to influence legislation or agency action to register as lobbyists. | ||
| So you broke the state election laws, bud. | ||
| You're not a lobbyist. | ||
| We checked. | ||
| Smith said not reimbursing witnesses for lost wages would mean average Texans would be left out of legislative debates. |
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