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Coming up on C-SPAN's Washington Journal, we'll take your calls and comments live.
Then we'll talk with California Democratic Congresswoman Sidney Kamlaugurdov about the incoming Trump administration and women's issues.
Also, Republican Congressman Mike Flood of Nebraska talks about the incoming Trump administration and House GOP priorities.
Washington Journal starts now.
Good morning from Washington.
Capitol Hill was a buzz yesterday when the House Ethics Committee met behind closed doors on its investigation into Matt Gates, President-elect Trump's pick for Attorney General.
The committee could not agree on releasing its report on allegations that Mr. Gates paid for sex.
This morning, your reaction to the committee's work, as well as whether or not you believe Mr. Gates, the former congressman, should serve as Attorney General.
Join the conversation by dialing in this morning.
Democrats, your line is 202-748-8000.
Republicans, 202-748-8001.
Independents, 202-748-8002.
You can also join us in a text, include your first name, city, and state, to 202-748-8003.
You can also post on facebook.com/slash C-SPAN or on X with the handle at C-SPANWJ.
We will get your take on this this morning in a minute or so.
Joining us this morning, though, is Michael Schnell.
She reports for the Hill Congressional Reporter.
Michael Schnell, tell us what was happening behind closed doors with the Ethics Committee yesterday.
Yeah, Greta, the House Ethics Committee made up of five Democrats and five Republicans.
They met behind closed doors yesterday in the Capitol for roughly two hours.
And I'm told from a source familiar with the matter that one of the things that was discussed, of course, was this report into former Congressman Matt Gates.
The committee actually held a vote to release the report as is.
That failed along party lines.
And then the committee took another vote on just releasing the exhibits as part of the report and to Matt Gates.
That also failed along party lines.
And then there was a third vote to formally complete the report.
This is a procedural thing that has to happen when you deal with an ethics investigation and report.
And that one passed with bipartisan support.
So now the meeting broke.
And now we're expecting the ethics committee to meet again on December 5th.
That date was announced by Susan Wilde, the ranking Democrat on the House Ethics Committee, probably to still talk about this Matt Gaetz ethics report because this pressure is still mounting on the panel to release the report as Matt Gates continues to go through this confirmation process for Attorney General.
Matt Gaetz was on Capitol Hill yesterday meeting with senators.
What was happening on that side of the Capitol?
Yeah, it was quite the split screen in the Capitol yesterday.
As I mentioned, the House Ethics Committee meeting about whether or not that the panel should release this sprawling report.
It's been the investigation's been going on on and off for about three years now, whether that they should release that report into Gates.
And on the other side of the Capitol, the former congressman was crisscrossing different congressional offices, meeting with senators to talk about his confirmation.
This is something that always happens when you have a presidential nominee and their confirmation forthcoming in the Senate.
You have to meet with all the individual senators to discuss the confirmation.
But of course, this one happened with a different context, right?
As the House Ethics Committee was debating whether or not it should release the report.
And a number of senators, including Democrats and Republicans, have also called on the ethics committee to release this report because they want to look at the findings before weighing in on Matt Gaetz's confirmation.
So right now, things look dicey, but nonetheless, the president's team and the former congressman really plowing ahead with this nomination, as we, like you mentioned, saw Matt Gaetz talking to senators just yesterday.
There have been leaks of what this committee found out.
How does the ethics committee normally conduct their work and what do we know?
Yeah, the ethics committee is very typically conducts its business in secrecy, right?
The way that the committee is set up, five Democrats, five Republicans, it's meant to be so that the committee does not police its own members.
It's supposed to be a very bipartisan place on Capitol Hill and a very secret place on Capitol Hill.
But as you mentioned, there have been a number of these leaks, though, you know, there have been some leaks from lawyers of witnesses who have spoken to the committee, going to news outlets and talking to them about what their witnesses had testified.
We've seen some leaks from other areas as well.
Matt Gates, somebody who has been investigated by a whole slew of folks, not just the House Ethics Committee.
But it's pretty, you know, rare for the ethics committee.
As I mentioned, they typically conduct their business in private, in secrecy.
They don't like for things to leak out.
They like to do their investigation in that manner.
But of course, this situation has just blown up because Matt Gaetz, A, was always a controversial figure up on Capitol Hill, something that really solidified after he led the charge to oust Kevin McCarthy.
And B, he's now the nominee to be attorney general.
And there are some questions among lawmakers of, well, did Matt Gaetz resign from his seat following his nomination to be AG?
Did he resign from that seat early in an effort to stop the ethics report from coming out?
The ethics committee does not have jurisdiction over former members of Congress.
So there is some precedent.
There is some history of them releasing reports on former members once they've already departed Congress.
So some questions there if Matt Gaetz left early to try to thwart the report.
But nonetheless, a lot of new things that we've been seeing in terms of the ethics committee with the situation involving Matt Gaetz.
What has been leaked out?
What are the details?
Well, we've heard from some lawyers representing women who have spoken to the committee that those women saw Matt Gaetz having sex with a minor with a 17-year-old.
Those women, according to the lawyer, those women have testified that they did receive money from Matt Gaetz for sex.
We recently saw just yesterday a report from the New York Times that the DOJ and its investigation of Matt Gaetz had a web of Venmo transactions and other monetary transactions between Matt Gaetz and other individuals, including some women.
So, we're starting to get a sense of potentially what the committee was looking at because it's possible that the committee has a lot of these materials as well, and what evidence is behind these allegations.
We've been hearing these allegations about Matt Gaetz for some time now.
As I mentioned, the House Ethics Committee investigation has been going on since 2021, on and off.
So, roughly three years on and off.
The Department of Justice, which is the very agency that Matt Gaetz now wants to lead, was investigating him for some time and then it decided not to press charges.
There were some reports that it was because there was concern among prosecutors that the witnesses could not stand up credibility before a trial.
So, we have seen these leaks for a while now.
We're starting to get a picture of what's behind these allegations.
But it's important to note that Matt Gaetz does deny any wrongdoing.
And again, he is still charging ahead with this confirmation process, meeting with senators on Capitol Hill just as recently as yesterday.
Yeah, President-elect Donald Trump has said he stands by his nomination of Matt Gaetz.
What is the outline for moving forward with this confirmation?
What could happen in the new Congress when they convene in January?
Well, I think it's actually for Scretta what could happen before.
You know, there's still a high stakes about a month we have until we'll get to that conversation about a potential confirmation hearing and vote.
The House Ethics Committee A is scheduled to meet again on December 5th.
I spoke to a source yesterday who suggested that, said that members left with the understanding that the report would be, quote, ready by the time they huddled again on December 5th, suggesting that they may hold another vote on the releasing the report then.
So that's going to be a key date to watch.
And then just yesterday, there were two House Democrats who moved to force a vote on resolutions that would compel the Ethics Committee to release its report into Matt Gaetz.
Now, there's one example of this happening in the past, 1996.
House Democrats had tried to force the Ethics Committee through a resolution to release its preliminary findings on then Speaker Newt Gingrich.
That effort failed.
So we're going to have to see what happens with those two resolutions from those House Democrats because it was brought to the floor as a privileged resolution.
Leadership has to act on the measure within two legislative days.
That's today, could happen today, possibly unlikely.
It's flyout day.
Lawmakers are leaving town for the Thanksgiving recess.
But if not today, they're going to have to deal with that when they return after the Thanksgiving recess.
So that's another time to watch.
And then, of course, as we continue to watch these conversations about the report, that all leads up to what would happen likely in January, where we see Matt Gaetz, as is customary for all presidential nominees, to have a confirmation hearing in the Senate and then that all-important vote on whether or not he would be confirmed to the cabinet.
What about a recess appointment?
So this is still a conversation that's floating around on Capitol Hill.
A lot of uncertainty surrounding recess appointments.
There are a lot of folks who are trying to figure out what the constitutional law is here, what would have to happen for recess appointments to take place.
So, I mean, I would say it's definitely a possibility.
It's something that we know we've seen President-elect Trump demand, ask for, particularly when the Senate GOP leader race was going on.
Trump said whoever is the next Senate Republican leader has to agree to use recess appointments.
So it's definitely a possibility on the table, but there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding that, what it actually looks like constitutionally, and what appetite there is for that among lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
So still something to dig into, but definitely something to continue talking about.
Michael Snell, you were part of the swarm of reporters that was covering this story yesterday outside of the committee room where that House Ethics Committee met.
There were a lot of reporters gathered there waiting to get word from any one of these members of Congress.
show our viewers what happened when Michael Guest, the chair of that committee, left the committee yesterday after they took those votes you were talking about.
We can't talk about ethics committee meetings.
We have regular schedule meetings between now and the end of the year.
Are you at least wanting to release it to the Senate?
There has been no agreement to release the report.
My favorite question is Attorney General without this becoming public.
Have you spoken to Matt Gaetz at all, has he had a chance to look at his first floor?
Is the case closed?
What happened in there?
Mr. Guest, was there a vote?
Excuse me.
That was incredible.
So that was the scene yesterday, Michael Schnell.
It was after chair guest had left the proceedings and he's walking over to one of the House office buildings.
You were with the reporters.
That video from Scott Wong of NBC described the scene.
Chaotic, in one word, that's probably the best way to put it.
Us reporters, we've been camped out outside the House Ethics Committee room for about two hours.
And remember, we know that there's a lot of business going on behind there, but the ethics committee is known, again, for conducting its business in secrecy.
So we wanted to try to get any ounce of information that we could from any of those members who walked out.
Chairman Guest was the only one who spoke, other than others who said, you know, wait for the chairman.
We're expecting the chairman to give a statement.
Chairman Guest said there had been no agreement by the committee to release the report.
Had later mentioned that they would continue to meet, but of course we had more questions, so he was not answering them.
But though that very brief statement actually prompted a response from Susan Wilde, the top Democrat on the ethics committee, who came out moments shortly after and delivered a statement on behalf of all Democrats on the ethics committee and said, I don't want you to think that from what Michael Guest said was that there was unanimous agreement for us to not release the report.
And she suggested that that vote on releasing the report was along party lines.
It was.
I later confirmed that with the source.
But Susan Wilde saying that there are five Democrats and five Republicans on this panel.
In order to release a report, we need at least one of those Republicans to vote for it.
We need a majority vote.
And that did not happen today.
And going into this meeting, Susan Wilde herself and some other Democrats had said that they wanted the report to be released.
So again, the committee is something that always conducts its business in secrecy.
So we're trying to get tidbits from all over the place.
But it was interesting to see guests come out and then to see Susan Wilde follow him with such a strong response about the remarks, the very brief remarks that guests had given.
Michael Schnell is following this story, and you can follow her reporting if you go to thehill.com.
You can follow on X as well at MY.
Michael Schnell, that's all one word, at Michael Schnell on X and at The Hill.
Thank you, as always, for your time.
We appreciate it.
Thanks so much for having me.
Let's get to the discussion with all of you.
Cal in Ellicott City, Maryland, Democratic Caller.
Cal, what do you think?
Good morning.
Good morning.
You know, I think this is like major gaslighting.
I want to preface this by saying I'm an academic and I was formerly a police officer.
And before I meet Old Gloria, I hope to become a practicing attorney.
But how do I teach America's children about social justice, being ethical, practicing civility, and all that important stuff when those at the very top are scoundrels?
Right?
Now, one of the things that Matt Gates should be charged with, I think, in my opinion, is child pornography.
Even if you don't get him for prostitution or the Man Act of moving people across state lines for sexual reasons, he showed pornography of a child on the House floor.
Now, the last thing I want to say, and I thank you for taking my comment.
Most of these folk, both on the Democrat side, but mostly on the Republican side, will get on this call and talk about how they want justice and what's right and what's moral.
And America has yet to give African Americans reparations for not only the crimes that they've committed during slavery, but thereafter up into the present.
Okay.
Now I'm going to move on to John, who's in New York, Independent.
John, we're talking about this ethics report, the debate over releasing it on Capitol Hill, and his nomination to serve as Attorney General.
Go ahead.
Well, I expect this to go on for months, especially with the Washington Journal.
Every day for the past five days, you've had a segment on it.
But could you, you're talking about ethic violations.
Could you please inform your audience about Eric Swalwell, Christine Tang, the fact that he hired her and put her on his staff.
She was a Chinese spy.
She was spying on him.
He was going out, going out on dates with her.
And then he had, she was also spying on other representatives.
And then there was another ethical violation by Harden.
What is it?
Ben Harden, yeah.
Him and one of his co-workers filmed a sex act in one of the halls, one of the halls in Congress, the House, where they were running the January 6th committee.
And they have that on tape.
It went viral.
Then you have another representative, Newhouse, who one of his staff members was sitting in his office, and he was doing sex acts that also went viral, but that was rushed under the rug.
So fast.
Suo didn't get fired.
There was no upheaval.
Ben Cardin didn't get fired for the acts.
And Newhouse is still working as, I think he's still there or not.
No big uproar by John.
So let me ask you then, do you think the reports and allegations should be disclosed for the public to review for themselves, including this report by the Ethics Committee on Matt Gates?
What do I want?
Do you think that this reports on allegations like the ones against Matt Gates and others should be open for the public to review?
That's all.
All right.
Patricia, Circleville, Ohio, Republican.
Hello.
I have a question.
My understanding is that there is a fund in Congress that pays out with taxpayer money for complaints against Congress by whoever is there in the White House or in the Congress.
And I would like to know if that should be released.
Okay.
That's Patricia's thoughts there in Ohio.
John, St. Louis, Missouri, Democratic caller.
Hi.
I know the law, and I'm positive that Matt Gates is not going to be the Attorney General.
Donald Trump is not going to be 47.
Why?
Because of January 6th, people.
All these charges he has put off and put off and put off.
And then the summer, over the summer, I seen this Democrat celebrating because I watched too much sea screen.
And they wanted.
I'm sorry.
That's all right.
We'll move on, John.
Solomon in Silver Spring, Maryland, Independent.
It's your turn, Solomon.
What do you say about this debate?
Yes, I think it should be released.
And just to bubble, to pick back on the last call, two of them, I think he stated he's a teacher.
How is he going to teach the young ones about ethics, public ethics?
We need to bring leaders in our public arena who are ethical objectives.
And I come from a country where it starts from the head and then it goes to the parliamentarians, well, you call them secretary of state leader, and then it goes to anybody else.
If leaders elect their own leaders just because of picker fancy instead of people who are going to serve, whether Republicans or Democrats, people who are going to be objective, people who are going to be ethical, then we're not going to look at America as a model state.
We as the outsider insider, we look at America as a model state of democracy, institutions, and justice.
So, yes, I say let it be released.
And if the public decides to all right, Solomon in Silver Spring, Maryland, breaking up there a little bit, as Michael Schnell told all of you yesterday, Susan Wilde, who's the top Democrat on the House Ethics Committee, came back to that scrum of reporters after leaving the closed-door meeting and after the votes that they took to clarify, she said, the Democrats' position on the committee.
Five Democrats, five Republicans on this panel.
It's evenly divided so that they act in a bipartisan way.
Here's what she had to say.
We just concluded a two-hour meeting of the Ethics Committee, and it was not my intention to make any comment.
I walked out of this committee without making one and walked back to my office.
But it has since come to my attention that, in fact, we had agreed that we were not going to discuss what had transpired at the meeting.
But it has come to my attention that the chairman has since betrayed the process by disclosing our deliberations within moments after walking out of the committee.
And he has implied that there was an agreement of the committee not to disclose the report.
That is an untrue, to the extent that that suggests that the committee was in agreement or that we had a consensus on that, that is inaccurate.
And I will say that a vote was taken.
As many of you know, this committee is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, five Dems, five Republicans, which means that in order to affirmatively move something forward, somebody has to cross party lines and vote with the other side, which happens a lot, by the way, and we often vote unanimously.
That did not happen in today's vote.
And I do not want the American public or anyone else to think that Mr. Guest's characterization of what transpired today would be some sort of indication that the committee had unanimity or consensus on this issue, not to release the report.
That would be an inaccurate portrayal, and nobody should take that from what they have heard so far.
There was no consensus on this issue.
We did agree that we would reconvene as a committee on December 5th to further consider this matter.
And this statement that I have just made is on behalf of all of the Democratic members of the Ethics Committee.
Congresswoman Susan Wilde, the top Democrat on House Ethics Committee, addressing what the committee did behind closed doors yesterday on its investigation into Matt Gates and whether or not he paid for sex.
According to news reports, from lawyers who represented the women at these parties that he attended and paid for sex, allegedly, one of the women was 17 years old.
While that was happening on one side of the Capitol yesterday, across the Capitol over at the Senate, the former Congressman Matt Gates meeting with senators ahead of what he hopes to be a confirmation hearings about him serving as the Attorney General at the Justice Department.
President-elect Donald Trump has chosen him for that position.
Reporters caught up with the former Congressman Matt Gates in the hallways of the Congress yesterday, and here's what he had to say.
Good advice.
I'm looking forward to a hearing.
Folks have been very supportive.
They've been saying we're going to get a fair process.
So it's a great day of momentum for the Trump Vance administration.
Any reaction to the ethics committee?
They said they're not going to release the report after their meeting today, at least at this point.
Any responses?
I'll be honest with you.
I've been focused on what we got to do to reform the Department of Justice.
I have been meeting with senators.
I haven't been paying much attention to that.
I haven't talked to the president today, but had a great time with the Vice President-elect talking about how we're going to end weaponization at the Department of Justice.
We're going to tackle fentanyl.
We're going to ensure that we don't have the DOJ involved in censorship anymore and make sure that we get the country back on track and are there for President Trump's total fulfillment of his promises on an immigration agenda.
Are you confident you can get confirmed by the Senate?
Do you feel like it was a great day?
More meetings tonight.
Yes.
Matt Gates on Capitol Hill meeting with senators.
From Punch Bowl News this morning, they say a Gates confirmation vote is likely two months away if it happens.
An eternity in fast-moving situation like this.
GOP senators who support Gates are privately wondering whether they'll end up wasting precious time and political capital on a toxic candidate who many now believe is unconfirmable.
With 53 Republicans in the chamber come January, Gates can't afford to lose more than three votes.
Far more than that number have indicated privately that they oppose Gates.
Some of Gates' supporters in the chamber told us they think most of those holdouts aren't persuadable.
Gates opponents have even quietly discussed reaching out to President-elect Trump or his inner circle and asking for the nomination to be withdrawn.
Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, whose brand of Maverick is increasingly rare in the Senate, are the obvious possibilities of no votes.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell could also be in that group.
McConnell won't be in leadership anymore and will be free from the accompanying political pressures.
From Punch Bowl News this morning, Hattie in Houston, Texas, Democratic caller.
Hi, Hattie.
Hi, how are you?
Good morning.
Yes, I'm so glad I got on the phone.
Now, you know, one thing, I, you know, this is a dictator.
If this man was a Democrat, they would have already did that.
So they'd be back and forth, back and forth, and he shouldn't be to insult a 17-year-old and everything else with that.
He shouldn't even be up for glad with that.
So I'm hoping they would go on and vote him out and get somebody else that dick.
Now, I mean, you know, this does not make any sense.
It seemed like if you are Republican, you can do whatever you want to do.
Like Trump, 34 felons, but he's president.
And I mean, this is just not right.
If it had been Biden or President Obama when he was in there, if he had done that, he would have never made president.
All right, Hattie.
Hattie's comments there.
We'll go to George, who's in Hurricane West Virginia, Republican.
George, what do you think?
Thanks for attacking my call.
It's been a couple of years since I've called.
You know, the DOJ, they decided to not prosecute him.
And so far, this is Gates has just been accused of this, not, you know, convicted of anything.
I was listening to Newsmax or News Nation or something, one of the other programs, and one of the congressmen or congresswoman or senators suggested that if they release this, they should release all the other ethics reports on all the other lawmakers.
And she said that there was a slush fund, I thought, she said, that was used to pay off the accusations against lawmakers.
I was wondering while I'm on the line, because I don't call much, if you could look up how many past presidents have and what the numbers are they have deported since that had come up before.
I understood that Clinton had deported more.
All right, George, I'm going to stick to the topic right now for this part of the Washington Journal this morning.
Dee in Baltimore, Democratic caller.
Hi, Dee.
Hello.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Yes.
What I wanted to say is I don't understand for the life of me.
And I hope you'll indulge me because I see people calling with stuff that don't even make sense, but they're allowed.
I think that it is shameful that we have all of these men with sexual assault.
This is dangerous to allow this type of behavior in the Congress or even to think about it.
We're not thinking about the victims or anything.
Oh, let it go.
Let it go.
But this, even with the president-elect, it's shameful.
They are not, he's going up for attorney general, which is a law enforcement position.
So he can go on in there.
He's talking about to reform the attorney generals, I mean, the other law enforcement officers, so he won't be prosecuted later down the line.
No, you should not come in there with any type of clowns over his head.
He is a law enforcement officer.
He would be one of the highest ones.
And the way he used to act in the House of Representatives, he should never touch any type of leadership position because he was shameful when he was in the House of Representatives.
And then the guy who was a part of now, who was his friend, has been convicted and is in jail for the same thing.
I don't know why the DOJ did not prosecute him.
I don't know why.
We don't know why.
Maybe we need to know why.
Who knew something about it?
Because if you're talking about child trafficking, he's just locked up now waiting to go to court for child trafficking and sex charges against minors.
But all of a sudden, this man, he's walking free trying to be an attorney general.
This is unbelievable.
We need to get a grip.
So do you agree with some senators who have said that the Justice Department, the Democrats on the panel, led by Dick Durbin, the current chair of that committee, he will not be the chair come January.
Republicans will take over.
But for now, those Democrats are saying we need to see the Justice Department's investigation.
Yes, yes.
We cannot confirm this man with this cloud over his head.
Sex offense is a serious thing.
We need to take it for what the seriousness it is and to continue to make excuses for this behavior is wrong.
We have to get a grip on these charges.
People are coming in.
And it appears that with all the nominees, at least two or three of them, they're men who have sexual offense allegations against them.
Is this going to be the new normal?
American people, answer the question.
Is this going to be the new normal?
No.
All right.
Dee's thoughts there in Baltimore.
Democratic caller.
Let's listen to Senator Corey Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, a member of the Judiciary Committee, responding to a question about why Democrats from that panel have requested the Justice Department's documents.
We have a constitutional requirement to advise and consent.
And in order to do that, we need all the information.
Taxpayers paid for that report.
And instead of us being duplicated on this side, costing taxpayers again considerable amounts of money, why don't we just share the report across the Capitol?
It's something that we should have.
If there's sensitive documents in there, we do that all the time for other candidates, dealing with things in a sensitive manner.
But we should have all the information before we consider somebody to be the top law enforcement officer in the United States of America.
That was Senator Corey Booker, a member of the Judiciary Committee.
Wall Street Journal reports this morning that it is against FBI practice to provide investigative files to Congress, in part because it is generally illegal to share grand jury material.
And officials often have other concerns about identifying witnesses and exposing law enforcement tactics.
The FBI said it received the letter and declined to comment further.
Tim in Michigan, Republican.
Tim, good morning.
Welcome to the conversation.
Yes, good morning.
I was just listening to this, and it's funny because I watch every day now for a while.
And it's funny because the Democrats do the same thing that the Republicans do.
So nobody gets anywhere with the situation at hand.
So basically, it's just a big pile of dung that nobody actually just keeps getting stirred and stirred and stirred.
So nobody actually, the investigations that we've got going on right now, we've got probably 50 of them, and none of them's been resolved in the last eight or 10 years.
So you actually.
Do you think then the public should see not just this Matt Gates investigation, but they should see all the investigations, that the work by the ethics committee should not be behind closed doors?
Is that what you would argue?
My argument with the whole show is that if I can say, okay, ma'am, I know that you went out, and this is not, this is just a hypothetical.
If I say, I know that you went out and you swept around on your husband, and I can make that statement, and then I can say, well, well, this is what happened and everything like that, then you have to, you know, say that, no, I'm innocent.
Okay?
You can't, you know, if I say that and I charge you with that, then how do I know?
How do you know?
You know that you didn't do it.
And I know that I'm in the wrong for saying that, but it doesn't matter.
It's out there.
All right.
So it's not good.
All right.
Time there in Michigan, Republican caller.
Let's listen to the Speaker, Mike Johnson, who is opposed to the Ethics Committee releasing their report.
This is what he had to say on Sunday.
Yeah, so I don't know anything about the contents of the report because the way the rules work, of course, the Speaker of the House can't put a thumb on the scale or be involved in an Ethics Committee report.
What I do know is that the comments about this being, there's a precedent for releasing reports is not exactly accurate.
Yeah, there are two breaches of the tradition in the past under very extraordinary circumstances.
I don't think this meets that criteria.
Look, Matt Gates is a colleague of mine.
We've been serving together for more than eight years.
He's one of the brightest minds in Washington or anywhere for that matter.
And he knows everything about how the Department of Justice has been weaponized and misused.
And he will be a reformer.
And I think that's why the establishment in Washington is so shaken up about this pick.
But with regard to the report, there's a very important reason for the tradition and the rule that we always have almost always followed, and that is that we don't issue investigations and ethics reports on people who are not members of Congress.
I'm afraid that that would open a Pandora's box because the jurisdiction of the Ethics Committee is limited to those who are serving in the institution.
That's its very purpose.
And I think this would be a breach of protocol that could be dangerous for us going forward in the future.
That was the speaker on Fox News on Sunday saying he opposed the idea of the Ethics Committee releasing this report.
The Ethics Committee met behind closed doors.
They could not come to an agreement.
They were split along party lines about whether or not to release the report.
They did vote to complete it, and they are going to gather again in early December.
According to Michael Snell, who joined us earlier, a reporter for The Hill, according to her reporting, the committee will have this report done by the time they meet again.
So there could be another vote on whether or not to release it.
All of that happening ahead of any confirmation hearings and votes over on the Senate side for Attorney General, President-elect Donald Trump, picking Matt Gates to lead that agency.
From ABC News, their reporting yesterday, Democrats on Capitol Hill on the House side try to force Ethics Committee to release the Gates report.
Democrat Sean Kastn of Illinois offering a privileged resolution, two of them on the floor yesterday.
Here's a portion of his remarks.
The form of the resolution is as follows.
House resolution directing the Committee on Ethics of the House of Representatives to release to the public the committee's report on its investigation into allegations against former Representative Matt Gates.
Whereas on April 9th, 2021, the Committee on Ethics of the House of Representatives said it had begun to review allegations that Representative Matt Gates may have engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds for personal use, and accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift in violation of the rules of the House, laws, or other standards of conduct.
Whereas the Committee on Ethics of the House of Representatives has completed its review into the allegations pursuant to Committee Rules 14A3 and 18A that Representative Gates may have engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations into his conduct.
Whereas on November 13th, 2024, President-elect Donald Trump announced his nomination of former Representative Matt Gates to serve as Attorney General.
Whereas, on November 13th, 2024, Representative Matt Gates announced his resignation from Congress.
Whereas there is precedent for the Committee on Ethics of the House of Representatives to release reports on former members of the House of Representatives should information in those reports remain relevant to the function of Congress.
Whereas the decision by the Committee on Ethics of the House of Representatives not to release the report on its investigation into the serious allegations against former Representative Matt Gates impedes the ability of the Senate to provide advice and consent on this nomination.
And whereas a failure of the Committee on Ethics of the House of Representatives to release its report on its investigation impedes the dignity and integrity of the legislative proceedings of the House.
Democrat Sean cast it on the floor yesterday offering a privileged resolution to force the House Ethics Committee to release the report on Matt Gates.
The Conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board, their opinion this morning, the House Ethics Report on Matt Gaetz.
They say for understandable reasons, the norm is that such ethics inquiries are closed quietly if lawmakers step down.
But Mr. Gates abruptly quit Congress last week, mere hours after Mr. Trump announced his nomination for AG.
The committee was reportedly days from releasing its investigation.
It's one thing to keep sordid details private when a lawmaker accused of misbehavior is chastened enough to resign and go back to private life.
This looks more like an effort to dodge accountability by getting a promotion.
And they go on to say this, that even without the House report, the Senate could call the same witnesses to testify as Senator John Cornyn, a Republican of Texas, suggested this week.
Quote, in order to do our job, we need to get access to all the information, he said, but also to protect the president against any surprises that might damage his administration.
The Senate would be justified in sticking to that line, whatever the political pressures that Mr. Trump might bring to bear for a speedy Gates confirmation.
There are other Republican senators who are saying they should be able to look at this ethics report on Matt Gates.
What do all of you say?
Rob in New York, an independent.
Hi, Rob.
Hi, Bear.
Before I made this telephone call, I'd like to say that I went to the library and did my due diligence on the advice and consent clause.
And I'd like to say that the consent part of that phrase means an informed consent.
The Senate needs to be fully informed.
And they must do their constitutional duty.
Going back in history, there was a time when the Senate stood in recess or in adjournment, but there were also a few senators that stayed behind while their fellow senators traveled home, and they stayed back in Washington to provide the president with advice and consent in the event that something came up requiring it.
So the Senate has a constitutional duty to be fully informed.
Now, whether they are informed in a public forum or if they are informed in an executive session where they are permitted to be fully informed by reviewing the report remains to be determined.
Whether this man is still in the House or not does not act as a shield against the Senate being fully informed.
Thank you.
All right.
Robin, Independent in New York, and Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, Republican of Oklahoma, agreeing with you that, according to the Washington Examiner's reporting, he said looking into the report is outlined in the Constitution under the advice and consent role.
Let's go to Joanne, who's in Nevada, Republican.
Hi, Joanne.
Hi.
Didn't nobody hear what the reporter had said when the Department of Justice, top law enforcement, said the witnesses were not credible.
That's why they didn't go through with the case.
So what are you people thinking?
All right.
You know, you got it right there in your face, Greta.
You're just pushing a bunch of crap out here.
All right, Joanne.
Joanne in Nevada, Republican caller.
William in Pennsylvania, or in Ohio, excuse me, William in Ohio, Democratic caller.
Hi, William.
Good morning, Greta.
This is the old, dumb, 89-year-old True Hill Billy.
Yes, I think he should be released.
I am so disgusted with this corrupt-ass givenments.
The biggest waste of taxpayer money is paying these crooked-ass politicians their salary.
I feel so sorry for my little great-grandkids.
They're not going to stand a Chinaman's chance in hell thanks to Donald Trump and his tariffs.
That's why everything is so messed up right now is because of Trump's tariffs.
So wait till he comes again here very shortly.
I'm just thankful I don't have that much longer to go, but I do worry about my little grandkids and great-grandkids.
Thank you, Greta.
All right, William.
Mark in Pennsylvania, Republican.
Hi, Mark.
Your turn.
Good morning, Greta.
Yeah, I totally oppose them releasing the report.
They should have done it long before this if they wanted to do it.
They always do this with Democrats.
As soon as they find some salacious details, they want to smear everybody in public.
They did with Trump.
They're doing with Jesus.
They're doing with this guy.
Anytime they don't like somebody, this is how they do it.
It's pretty disgusting.
And the Democrats, the Republicans, excuse me, always play along with it.
They're the only party I know that will take the gun and stick it in their mouth and shoot themselves in the head when they won.
I've never seen anything like this.
So let me give you an example of this abies and consent nonsense.
Over 100 years, there was only three, only three that they rejected for a confirmation seat.
Out of all the time that they checked this, you can go to senate.gov and find this information.
And the bottom line is they only did seven in the entire history of this country.
Most of them were rejected because they found that they actually did break the law straight up.
Now, we know he didn't because he wasn't prosecuted.
So why do we have to rehash this and drag this guy through the mud?
This was consensual sex.
The lawyer for both parties, both women, which the Senate would hear, was on one of the shows yesterday, I think it was, or the day before.
And he told us that the girls frequented these parties.
It wasn't just a one-off thing.
And they did this over and over dozens of times.
And so this was not something that was illegal.
They made rational choices, consensual sex, and whether Matt Gates participated or not is irrelevant because it's not against the law to have sex with a woman.
And I know the issue is, oh, she was 17.
She was a couple months away from 18, and she went back multiple, multiple times.
So this is not something like a child doing this.
What about paying for it, Mark?
Well, paying for it because she sweated them for, well, I don't know.
See, that allegation is kind of the guy that was supposed friends with Matt Gates actually did most of the pay.
You know, women, when they're younger, they don't have a lot of money to come to parties and they Uber and stuff.
And guys send them money all the time for doing stuff.
This is just normal.
It doesn't necessarily mean you're paying for sex.
It means maybe you want to hang out with them and they can't get there or their car broke and they give them money to fix the car.
This is like almost a full-time job for some of these girls to do.
How do you know that, Mark?
How do you know that?
Because I know younger women, because I have daughters and stuff, that have done that to guys, you know, and other women that do that to guys.
It's a big thing out there on the internet.
You know, they're friends with guys on the phone and they say, hey, look, I want to meet up with you.
I don't have any money to get to this thing.
Can you send me some?
And they do this all the time to guys.
Front page of the New York Times, Mark, on this payment.
Federal investigators established a trail of payments from Matt Gates, President-elect Donald Trump's choice to be the Attorney General, to women, including some who testified that Mr. Gates hired them for sex.
This is according to a document obtained by the New York Times and a lawyer representing some of the women.
The document assembled by investigators during a three-year sex trafficking inquiry into Mr. Gates is a chart that shows a web of thousands of dollars in Venmo payments between Mr. Gates and a group of his friends, associates, and women who had drug-fueled sex parties between 2017 and 2020.
This according to testimony that participants are said to have given to federal and congressional investigators.
That is the New York Times reporting.
And this was the headline from Wednesday, February 15th, 2023 on CNN.
DOJ officially decides not to charge Matt Gates in sex trafficking probe.
That was decided back in February of 2023.
Alan in Stanley, Virginia, Independent.
Hi, Alan.
Hey, good morning.
Good morning.
Thanks for taking the call.
I'll just make a few quick comments.
But first of all, you know, this report is irrelevant.
And I'll say this because, you know, a majority of the people in this country, the Senate, the House, and the Congress elected Trump.
The president should have a right to select who he wants.
But again, we back to this same old Democratic game.
I just heard your senator speak a little bit earlier and different ones talking.
Well, you know what?
I would like to check their records and see what they do.
As far as Matt Gates, he didn't do anything illegally.
The Justice Department has already said that.
The investigation is completed.
So this is about going on and on and on.
And the Hawaiians can't get what they want.
Well, guess what?
We just had an election.
Shut it up.
We sit under Biden hires for four years and got nothing, but just turn our country apart.
Then we want to attack people we don't know much about.
And a guy has been down there for eight years.
So again, you lost.
That means you lost the election.
Okay, it's over.
You'll have a chance in two years.
You'll have a chance in four years.
But until then, crawl in your nest and take a nap.
Hey, thank you so much and have a nice day.
Alan in Virginia, an independent caller there.
Front page of USA Today and other news.
Texas offers border site to detain immigrants.
On Tuesday, the Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham offered Trump a 1,400-acre ranch near the border in South Texas to host a mass deportation facility.
Buckingham bought the ranch earlier this year, she said, because the previous owner refused to let Texas build a border wall across it.
That's the front page of USA Today.
And there is also this story in the Wall Street Journal this morning, food industry GERDS for deportation push.
America's food supply chain relies on predominantly immigrant workforce for some of the most challenging jobs, such as picking fruit, applying pesticides on crops, operating machinery, and slaughtering livestock.
About two-thirds of U.S. crop farm workers are foreign-born, and 42% aren't legally authorized to work in the country.
That's in the Wall Street Journal this morning.
There's also this front page of the Washington Times, shot in the arm with a picture of RFK Jr. Kennedy must persuade the Senate to let him, quote, go wild on health.
That quote from President-elect Donald Trump.
And there is also this story in the Washington Post this morning on RFK's nomination to head up the health agency.
Republican senators say RFK Jr. must explain his views.
So a look at a confirmation hearing for RFK Jr. that will be held when the new Congress convenes in January.
Kathy and Michigan Democratic caller Kathy, we're talking about this Matt Gates ethics report and his nomination to serve as Attorney General in the Trump administration.
Hi, Kathy.
Good morning, Greta C-SPAN.
First of all, the gentleman from Pennsylvania, 17-year-olds don't have the right to consent to sexual relations.
There was an article in Lears magazine.
I still have it.
I can't find it right now.
It was published probably 20 years ago or more about sexual abuse.
It was a 26-page article, if I remember.
One in three children in this country are sexually abused.
Half of the victims are boys, half of them are girls.
Half of the predators are women.
Half the predators are men.
I did my internship for college with a woman who has her PhD in psychosocial nursing.
Most of her clients, particularly in one town, were victims of sexual abuse, sexual abuse that went back many, many generations.
It is a very serious crime.
Mr. Gates isn't fit to hold public office.
And if he went out into the public and tried to find a job with his reputation and his record, he would have a very difficult time finding employment.
This is a serious matter.
I don't know why Mr. Johnson and anyone who has that much control can just push this aside and think that it's okay.
Donald Trump is a sexual predator.
Why his wife stays with him is really beyond me.
It is time that we really push back hard and just start saying what needs to be said as Democrats.
I'm tired of the Mamby-Pamby attitude.
We've let Mr. Trump pretty much take over this country and put us in such a sad state of affairs.
There's no happiness.
All right, Kathy, I'll leave it at that point.
Carl, who's in Gaithersburg, Maryland, a Republican.
Carl, it's your turn.
Yeah, I was just wondering about this Department of Justice report and whether the Department of Justice report, which, you know, they declined prosecution of Mr. Gates, whether that is going to be released as well.
Well, the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is now controlled by Democrats, it won't be in January, but they, led by Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, they've asked for the Justice Department's investigation.
So will they release it to the public?
Well, according to the Wall Street Journal, the FBI does not do that.
They do not hand over their investigation to Congress because it's against the law and they don't normally do that.
But that is what the Senate Judiciary Committee, led by Democrats right now, they've asked for that.
And here's my concern.
It all seems to be one-sided.
I'm just remembering the quote that says, the first to plead his case seems just until another comes along to examine him.
And we're looking at the House report, and we really don't know what it says, but we're all looking at it all seems to imply that he's automatically guilty.
And then there seems to be this Department of Justice report out there that seems to exonerate him because the people who witnesses, there's some question about their credibility.
And yet everybody's lobbying to release the one that basically disfavors him, but they don't want to release the other that may exonerate him in some manner or another.
And I guess that's my only point that C-SPAN maybe ought to do a little bit more talking about that article.
Like there was an article in the Federalist on the 19th about the Department of Justice report.
And I'd like to hear a little bit more detail about that.
So Carl, Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, has said we could call these witnesses as part of their work into whether or not they confirm Matt Gates as Attorney General out of the Senate Judiciary Committee first before it goes to the floor for a vote.
Do you think that they should do that?
That way they would hear from both sides.
I think that's true, that they ought to do both.
And it's my personal opinion that both reports ought to be released.
And we ought to know the understanding as to why the Department of Justice declined prosecution in that case.
Because you're right, these are serious charges, and yet they declined prosecution.
So there must be a logical reason that they did so.
All right, that's Carl's thoughts there.
In Gaithersburg, Maryland, a Republican.
Jeff is an independent in Michigan.
Jeff, we'll hear from you next.
Yeah, good morning.
I'll try to stay, not ramble.
What if somebody said you and I had a thing going on?
Huh?
How many people are going to believe it?
How many people aren't?
Bingo, bang.
Your point, Jeff?
My point is, why do people just fall for anything they hear and not dig into it?
All right.
Joe in Maryland, Independent.
Hi, Joe.
We're listening to you.
Hello.
Thanks for having my call, and thanks for putting up with all of us.
Yeah, I just agree with the caller a couple calls ago who said that he'd like to see the DOJ report and the House report released.
You know, I think it works both ways.
You know, I think the concern if these charges are true is that when you have someone in a position like the head of the Department of Justice, if there's not only is it, you know, a vague moral character issue, but those issues have concrete ramifications.
If there's somebody who he was with that, you know, privately knows certain things about him that he could be blackmailed into letting someone off the hook or declining an investigation from someone who had similar charges against them or just different charges against them.
It doesn't have to be something similar.
It could be something like serious embezzlement or helping a foreign country at the expense of America.
But if he can't say anything about it because they have dirt on him, then that's impeding the Department of Justice's work.
At the same time, if these reports show that he is innocent of the charges, that's the kind of thing that America needs in order to have peace of mind that our Justice Department is being run by somebody with integrity so that we don't have further division in this country.
Okay, that's Joe in Maryland, Independent.
Joe, and to our previous caller, this is thefederalist.com's article about the DOJ's investigation.
The report comes after years, years after DOJ dropped its investigation into the same claims on the grounds that the two central witnesses had serious credibility issues.
Yet these are the same two central witnesses the House Ethics Committee has relied on for its critical report of Gates, the same report it is leaking to compliant reporters as part of a coordinated effort to thwart his nomination as President-elect Donald Trump's next attorney general.
That is from thefederalist.com's website about this Department of Justice investigation into Matt Gates and why they did not pursue a case against him.
Dave in North Carolina, Republican.
Hi, Dave.
Good morning.
Good morning.
This is what amazes me.
Over 20 million, I know we're talking about Matt Gates, but over 20 million illegals come across the border to thank the Democrat Party and the federal government is Santa Claus.
Okay, are you going to tie this back to the debate?
Yeah, what I'd like for the Democrats to know about Matt Gates, bow down to what Trump wants this time.