| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
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Christine Noam's Lawless Charade
00:05:51
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| Looking for people who are willing to invoke her lawless charade. | ||
| I'm going to use every opportunity to implore my colleagues across this institution to wake up and join this effort because protecting communities from unaccountable power isn't optional. | ||
| That is our duty. | ||
| Courage is contagious. | ||
| And with that, I'm honored to yield to one of the most courageous among us, Representative Nydia Velasquez. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Good morning, everyone. | ||
| And to all my colleagues here and to Robin Kelly, thank you so much for this action. | ||
| When the president was running for office for president, he made a pledge to the American people that he will be the no-world president. | ||
| And yet, he is invading sovereign countries like Venezuela. | ||
| Also, sending a message to Cuba, Mexico, Iran, and in our own streets of America, he's launched war against American citizens. | ||
| So, let's get straight to the point. | ||
| We are here today because the Department of Homeland Security has been turned into a weapon of political revenge. | ||
| This agency thinks it's above the law. | ||
| Christine Noam has treated the Constitution like a suggestion and our communities like a battlefield. | ||
| I have represented the people of New York for over 30 years. | ||
| I have seen a lot of presidents, but I have never seen an administration use federal agencies to explicitly punish cities just because they didn't vote for them. | ||
| That is exactly what Donald Trump is doing. | ||
| And Christine Noam is his willing executioner. | ||
| In my city, ICE is no longer a law enforcement agency. | ||
| It's a rogue operation. | ||
| Mass agents are abducting high school students from their neighborhoods. | ||
| They are snatching fathers and mothers outside our immigration courts doing routine checks, turning places of justice into traps. | ||
| Even this week, they detain a city council staffer who is here in New York legally. | ||
| This agency is completely out of control. | ||
| Every time you see an ICE officer interacting with Americans now, they are screaming, cursing, and smashing windows to pull people out of their cars. | ||
| It is the wild west out there. | ||
| And I guess that is why Christine Nom loves wearing that cowboy hat. | ||
| The difference is, Ms. Noam, this is not a show. | ||
| Lives are on the line. | ||
| When she bragged about shooting her own dog, she wasn't just telling a story. | ||
| She was showing us her character and how she might run a government agency. | ||
| When you give untrained individuals a badge and set them loose, Americans are going to get hurt. | ||
| Just like we saw last week in the tragic killing of Renee Nicole Good. | ||
| And what was Christine Nom's response? | ||
| Did she demand an investigation? | ||
| No, she went on national television and smeared a dead American as a domestic terrorist. | ||
| The articles we are firing today lay it all out. | ||
| The obstruction of Congress, the violation of the public trust, and the self-dealing. | ||
| While her agents are out there shooting citizens, Nome is busy funneling hundreds of millions in taxpayers' dollars to her friends at agencies through emergency contracts. | ||
| Christine Nom has betrayed her oath, she has betrayed the Constitution, and she has betrayed the American people. | ||
| Quiero decides that we are con estos articulos para procesar a la secretaria de homeland security. | ||
| Una persona que no dicna de la confianza del pueblo Americano, estabiolando la constitución, no tiene la capacidad de centir ni sentient detener ni sentimiento sobre justicia y mucho meno repetal el proceso legal de toda la personas que 1cuntra en losados unido por está y otras razón. | ||
|
Close to 70 Signed On
00:12:52
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| Estamos hoy aquí para tread justicia a la familia nosolamente de nico, pero toda la familias imigrante family que estam biviendo a terorizadas. | ||
| Hi en esta nacion que tiene la estatua de la libertad que sepone que sea, the beacon of hope. | ||
| Racia. | ||
| Thank you so much to my colleagues from East Coast to Hawaii for standing with me today. | ||
| And now I'll open it up for questions. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Cluda. | |
| If I can just ask, obviously, you have many members here. | ||
| I think you said there's 70 people who have signed on. | ||
| Close to 70. | ||
| Does Leader Jeffries support this effort? | ||
| You'll have to ask Leader Jeffries, but I would not be standing here if I was told not to do it. | ||
| You know, there was some. | ||
| You've spoken to him directly about this? | ||
| Yeah, our staffs have spoken. | ||
| It was 50, just some time ago, at 70 today. | ||
| Do you anticipate that the majority of the caucus will eventually sign under this effort? | ||
| Yeah, I expect more to sign on. | ||
| That's what we're doing now, trying to build more sponsors of the legislation. | ||
| I mean, people joined on quickly. | ||
| You know, when I put it out there, people contacted me almost immediately, and it's been growing and growing and growing as people find out about it. | ||
| And just to follow up today, have you encountered any resistance from Democrats? | ||
| Not really. | ||
| You know, I can't say there's all different kinds of people if you look at who signed up in all different caucuses, as you see right here. | ||
| You know, there's many different people that have signed on. | ||
| So, you know, not really. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I want to ask, why do you think so many folks have signed on? | |
| There are a lot of proposals around reining in ICE, reigning in DHS. | ||
| Why do you think that impeaching the secretary is something that has rallied so many members of the caucus towards the effort that you're pursuing? | ||
| I just feel like enough is enough. | ||
| We've been working on this for a little while. | ||
| This wasn't just a knee-jerk reaction because, of course, they've been in Chicago for so very long. | ||
| And I know other colleagues are working on other parts. | ||
| And I believe that people will join with those colleagues too. | ||
| But I just think that people are sick of it. | ||
| And anyone can answer the question because they've signed on. | ||
| I could add that public sentiment is everything. | ||
| We are watching the polls. | ||
| The American people are upset. | ||
| They didn't sign on for this. | ||
| The most fundamental principle and value for the American people is fairness and humane policies, not beating the shit out of people, especially vulnerable women and children. | ||
| Let me just say that while everybody is vulnerable, I can attest to the fact that the Latino community, as chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, has been disproportionately targeted to the degree that even in Minnesota, where there is a clear intent to go after the Somalian community, the vast majority of the people arrested are Latino men. | ||
| For that reason, I will be going Friday to Minnesota as I went to Chicago for the shadow hearing there. | ||
| Para que todo sepan, la comunidad Latina estades proporcionadamente afectada por este asalto. | ||
| In Minnesota, la gran malloría de personas que son arrestadas son hombres Latinos. | ||
| In Chicago, tabien la grand malloría de personas arrestadas son Latinos. | ||
| En Nuevo Orlín, in New Orleans, the people targeted are workers from Honduras that went to New Orleans to rebuilt the city after Katrina. | ||
| So this is a hit job against Latino communities. | ||
| And let me tell you, people are regretting. | ||
| Some folks, many folks are regretting their last vote and turning around. | ||
| And so I would like to stress that because I think that's an important factor. | ||
| Well, I can just speak to my constituents in Minnesota. | ||
| We are being terrorized by Homeland Security and ICE and Secretary Christy Noam's orders in the state of Minnesota right now. | ||
| And let me be clear. | ||
| I'm from a swing district in Minnesota. | ||
| I have been one of the most bipartisan members of Congress that you will find in the Congress. | ||
| This has crossed a line. | ||
| Minnesotans, we want safe and secure borders. | ||
| We want violent criminals to not be in our community, but this is not what we signed up for. | ||
| This rogue agency is violating the rights of immigrants. | ||
| It is violating the rights of American citizens in our communities. | ||
| And last Wednesday, the violation of those rights, the escalation by ICE in our communities, got Renee Good killed. | ||
| And now this administration is going after her widow and going after her and six U.S. attorneys, who, by the way, are patriots in Minnesota at the U.S. Attorney's Office had said, no, we are not this. | ||
| This is not who we are as Minnesotans. | ||
| This is not who we are as Americans. | ||
| And so I believe you will continue to see members of Congress from across the ideological spectrum stand up, speak out, because we know the difference between right and wrong. | ||
| And Americans can see with their own eyes that what's happening in Minnesota and in Illinois and most possibly coming to New York is just plain wrong. | ||
|
unidentified
|
May I say something? | |
| Americans across this country have been protesting what they see with their own eyes and the lies that they're told, which are belied by the things that they're seeing. | ||
| What they're looking, they're out there protesting and they expect Congress to use every tool that we have to push back, to hold accountable, and to show the American people that we are fighting for this democracy, for constitutional laws, and for treatment and respect of all of our communities. | ||
| So that happens to be a time when you had the horrible situation in Minnesota. | ||
| We've had the horrible situation in other cities. | ||
| This particular resolution comes just at a time when enough is enough is enough. | ||
| And people are looking to us to do everything we can to show that we have responsibility in this space. | ||
| Also, I wanted to say that I've gotten phone calls that I know my colleagues have too from constituents, but from people from across this country, people I do not represent, people in different states encouraging what we're trying to do. | ||
| The other thing is, you asked me about Leader Jeffries, that we have concentrated so much on the cost, affordability, and health care, and I never want to detract from that. | ||
| But when you think about it, and we work with many different people and committees, but this is affecting people's health care. | ||
| This is affecting affordability. | ||
| When I think about Chicago and people afraid to go to work, when I think about restaurants that don't have as many people coming to eat there, when I've heard stories about people afraid to go to the doctor, afraid to take care of their health, because they're afraid to come outside. | ||
| I had a town hall meeting in a grocery store, and people told me stories how they're just simply afraid to go outside, whether it's shopping, whether it's going to work, whether it's going to health care, you know, to their health care needs. | ||
| So this is affecting, you know, it's widespread. | ||
| It's widespread. | ||
| I'm not good at this. | ||
|
unidentified
|
When you think about impeachment, obviously there's a numbers game that's involved with that. | |
| If you put the merits of your resolution aside and think about just that numbers game of getting passage in the House and conviction in the Senate, is this more about sending a political message right now or previewing the playbook for Democrats should you take back the majority? | ||
| Or what sort of the impetus is just striking the moment with current events? | ||
| You know, for me and others can answer, it was like Congresswoman Bonnie Watson-Coleman said, enough was enough. | ||
| You know, and I just feel like we need to use every tool in our toolbox. | ||
| If we do nothing, nothing will happen. | ||
| And so just really now trying to build on momentum, getting as many people signed on as possible, that's the first step. | ||
| If I can just add, you know, we cannot be cynical at this moment. | ||
| We have to stand up for our country. | ||
| And if we are cynical that nobody's going to join or we're not going to get it passed, nothing happens. | ||
| And we proved that with the ACA extended premium or the premium tax credit extension. | ||
| People thought that there was no way that we would pass that in the House. | ||
| And we have to continue to message what's right. | ||
| The American people can see what's happening is wrong. | ||
| They want us to act. | ||
| I had a town hall in less than 24 hours. | ||
| We're standing perpetual applause for impeaching Christine. | ||
| I'm like, the people want us to do something, and that's our job. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You talk about using every tool in the toolbox. | |
| If this effort does not gain enough momentum, what other options are House Democrats considering? | ||
| There's been a lot of talk of defunding ICE through the appropriations process, also abolishing ICE. | ||
| What options are on the table? | ||
| Well, actually, I think at this point, all options are on the table. | ||
| We just have to see, you know, what's going to work, and we have to have, you know, more discussion around it. | ||
| But yes, I've heard conversation around that too. | ||
| But those are all tools in the toolbox that we have to look to. | ||
| You know, I'm hoping, maybe I'm an optimist, but I'm hoping against hope that when she sees, as people have talked about, the momentum, the public, the polls that are so much against what she's doing, that she will realize that she's a public servant and that she's serving the American people. | ||
| And the American people do not like what she's doing or what they're seeing. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| You know, the situation in Portland's been brought up. | ||
| When we talk about this, when, you know, DHS side of the story is that the individual involved driving the car was a member of Trende Araga or believed to be a member of Trende Aragua. | ||
| They're alleging that the driver weaponized their vehicle against law enforcement. | ||
| Is it okay to be lumping these cases together, considering that Rene Nicole Goode was not a member of a gang, and does that hurt the effort at all? | ||
| What I'll just say is that the first and foremost issue is that people have rights. | ||
| Due process is available and a right to every single person in this country. | ||
| You do not become the executioner because somebody is driving away. | ||
| And that is absolutely a principle that our law enforcement in Portland has really been very intentional about rebuilding trust in the public right now. | ||
| So these sorts of lawless activities undermine trust with our public officials, our law enforcement agencies that really are doing the right thing. | ||
| So I think it's important that people get their day in court, that they are prosecuted if they are criminals. | ||
| This is the same issue when Obrego Garcia was taken to El Salvador. | ||
| It is a right to be able to prove your innocence or be found guilty in a court. | ||
|
C-SPAN's Role in America 250
00:02:57
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| And that is what these folks are not getting. | ||
| And even though you differentiated with Renee Goode, they still called her a domestic terrorist. | ||
| Thank you guys so much. | ||
| Congressman Cohen, welcome to the program. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| It's good C-SPAN still funded by the government. | ||
| It is not funded by the government. | ||
| What do you mean? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I thought the DOF had any money from the government at all. | |
| No, not at all, and we never have. | ||
| What a disappointment to Elon Musk. | ||
|
unidentified
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I'm sure he liked to doge you. | |
| Thanks for having me. | ||
| Love C-SPAN. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Appreciate the opportunity to come out. | |
| You know, I wish we could have a thousand C-SPANs across the media spectrum. | ||
| Unfortunately, we don't. | ||
| Now, I think C-SPAN is a huge, huge asset to America, not just the coverage that we get of both chambers on one and two, but programs like Washington Journal that allow policymakers, lawmakers, personalities to come on and have this question time during Washington Journal. | ||
| So it's a huge benefit. | ||
| I hope that all these streaming services carry C-SPAN as well because it's an important service to the American people. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm actually thrilled that this time in Washington Journal, I'm getting a lot of really substantive questions from across the political aisle. | |
| Our country would be a better place if every American just watched one hour a week. | ||
| They could pick one, two, or three. | ||
| Just one hour a week, and we'd all be a much better country. | ||
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| Join us for remarkable coast-to-coast coverage, celebrating our nation's journey like no other network can. | ||
| America 250, over a year of historic moments. | ||
| C-SPAN, official media partner of America 250. | ||
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|
Holding Clinton in Contempt
00:03:50
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|
unidentified
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Whenever and wherever it matters most, we'll be there. | |
| Cox supports C-SPAN as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front-row seat to democracy. | ||
| Republicans on the House Oversight Committee have announced they plan to vote next week on holding former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress after they refused to testify behind closed doors on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as the panel continues its investigation. | ||
| Committee Chair James Comer made the announcement after Secretary Clinton missed her scheduled deposition earlier today on Capitol Hill. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Well, I think everyone knows by now Bill Clinton did not show up. | ||
| And I think it's important to note that this subpoena was voted on in a bipartisan manner by this committee. | ||
| This wasn't something that I just issued as chairman of the committee. | ||
| This was voted on by the entire committee in a unanimous vote of the House Oversight Committee to subpoena former President Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. | ||
| Now Hillary Clinton's supposed to show up tomorrow. | ||
| We'll see what happens there. | ||
| But with respect to the former president, he did not show up today. | ||
| One reason I think most Americans want President Clinton to answer some questions is because he visited the White House. | ||
| Jeffrey Epstein visited the White House 17 times while Bill Clinton was president. | ||
| I've been in Congress nine years. | ||
| I think I've been to the White House nine times in nine years. | ||
| Epstein was in the White House double the amount of time that I was under one president. | ||
| And then we know that Bill Clinton flew on Epstein's plane somewhere around 27 times after the presidency. | ||
| So no one's accusing Bill Clinton of anything, any wrongdoing. | ||
| We just have questions, and that's why the Democrats voted along with Republicans to subpoena Bill Clinton. | ||
| Not a single Democrat showed up today. | ||
| Not a single Democrat. | ||
| The ones that have press conferences on the capital steps and talk about how they're trying to get justice for the victims and all that. | ||
| It just seems like they only care about questioning Republicans. | ||
| And we've had a former Trump Cabinet Secretary Acosta in for a grilling. | ||
| We had Bill Barr, former Attorney General, in for a grilling. | ||
| But for whatever reason, President Clinton didn't show up and the Democrats on the committee don't seem to have a democracy is always an unfinished creation. | ||
| Democracy is worth dying for. | ||
| Democracy belongs to us all. | ||
| We are here in the sanctuary of democracy. | ||
| Great responsibilities fall once again to the great democracies. | ||
| American democracy is bigger than any one person. | ||
| Freedom and democracy must be constantly guarded and protected. | ||
| We are still at our core, a democracy. | ||
| This is also a massive victory for democracy and for freedom. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Friday on C-SPAN Ceasefire, at a time when finding common ground matters most in Washington, Republican New York Congressman Mike Lawler and Democratic New Jersey Congressman Josh Gottheimer come together for a conversation on the top issues facing Congress as both parties prepare for the upcoming midterm elections. | |
|
Powell's Transparency Crisis
00:15:17
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|
unidentified
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Join host Dasha Burns. | |
| Bridging the Divide in American Politics. | ||
|
unidentified
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Watch Ceasefire Friday at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on C-SPAN. | |
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| Joining us this morning is Congressman Mike Haradopoulos, a Republican on the Financial Services Committee. | ||
| Congressman, thank you so much for being with us this morning. | ||
| Great to be back. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| All right, you serve on that important financial services committee, which of course has oversight over the Federal Reserve. | ||
| Can you just tell us your thoughts about the now criminal federal investigation into the Fed chairman Jerome Powell? | ||
| Well, it's something that we all have to look at. | ||
| As you know, there's been about a billion dollar cost overrun with the Fed building. | ||
| He was asked multiple times, you know, give us more information. | ||
| We want to understand why we go for a billion dollars over budget on this particular building. | ||
| It seemed like he didn't want to respond to those questions. | ||
| And of course, they're putting a little more pressure on him to say, look, we need more transparency in general in government. | ||
| And I think that's the direction where the president, I should say, the attorneys chose to go. | ||
| But in general, we are frustrated with Powell because we think interest rates should be lower. | ||
| As you know, the inflation rate has been cut dramatically in the first year. | ||
| And we've also been frustrated, as he admitted in the committee, the very question I asked. | ||
| I asked, did you make some mistakes during the Biden years of not adjusting the rates accordingly? | ||
| And what was the reason for inflation? | ||
| And he said point blank in the committee, he said, overspending the last four years caused inflation by the government. | ||
| Now, let's run through some of what's involved in this investigation. | ||
| According to New York Times here, it's what to know about the criminal investigation into the Fed chair. | ||
| And it says that the probe revolves around Jerome H. Powell, who has led the central bank since 2018 in his oversight of a $2.5 billion renovation of the Fed's headquarters in Washington. | ||
| As you said, the project is running roughly over $700 million over budget. | ||
| It's expected to cost $2.5 billion. | ||
| Prosecutors are looking into whether or not Powell misled Congress when questioned last June before the Senate banking committee about the project, as well as spending records they say that they requested from his staff. | ||
| Do you believe that these allegations are credible? | ||
| You have someone who you just said have spoken to Powell before. | ||
| And one, are they credible? | ||
| And two, is there a place for your committee to do something more on this matter, requesting more documents in tandem with the federal government? | ||
| Well, I think you answered the question that we should get information. | ||
| I mean, the trust in government is way down, and partially because it's not transparent enough. | ||
| I come from the great state of Florida. | ||
| We have what's called the sunshine laws. | ||
| Everything is in the sunshine, including the budget, how we spend dollars, even the companies that get government dollars. | ||
| We need a lot more transparency. | ||
| And as I understand it, they've asked multiple times for the Fed chairman to provide the information. | ||
| And look, there are cost overruns, especially as after COVID, the supply chains went up, et cetera. | ||
| I think he should just be transparent on why we have the cost overruns. | ||
| At this point, it seemed like he's ignored the request over and over to just answer the basic questions of why there are cost overruns. | ||
| And that causes great frustration given some of the craziness we're seeing in places like California and Minnesota, where people are really fraudulently using money or lying on applications to spend those important taxpayer dollars. | ||
| So do you view these allegations as credible? | ||
| Well, I think you have to. | ||
| I mean, we're talking about the United States government and we're talking about the Fed Board. | ||
| And anytime that any allegations like that, you have to take it seriously. | ||
| But I think this problem would be alleviated quickly if Powell would just come forth and say, here are the numbers. | ||
| This is why we're spending so much more over budget. | ||
| I think we'd solve the problem overnight. | ||
| And on the Financial Services Committee, who has oversight over the Fed? | ||
| You guys, you're saying that you don't have that information. | ||
| We do, but I mean, I think this has gone beyond that. | ||
| Again, they asked them over and over again, where are the records? | ||
| And why would you ignore an investigator who's, again, it's not your money, it's the government's money. | ||
| We want to know how it's being spent. | ||
| It's that simple. | ||
| Now, I want to point you to a tweet from the U.S. Attorney Janine Pierrow, who after that video that Powell released, she said that the United States Attorney's Office contacted the Federal Reserve on multiple occasions to discuss cost overruns in the chairman and congressional testimony, but were ignored, necessitating the use of the legal federal process, which is not a threat. | ||
| The word, quote, indictment has come out of Mr. Powell's mouth, no one else's. | ||
| None of this would have happened if he had just responded to our outreach. | ||
| I believe that a source told the Washington Post in the last few days that they did receive these emails, but it didn't include anything about an indictment or a deadline, I believe is what they told the Post. | ||
| But I wonder, just not responding to an email from a U.S. attorney, is that a legal basis to start an investigation? | ||
| Well, again, as I think she put very well, multiple times they ask. | ||
| This has been an ongoing situation. | ||
| As you know, the President, Mr. Powell, had a very unique conversation mid-part of last year, literally at the building, saying, you know, why are these cost overruns taking so why are they so radically high? | ||
| And so I think that's the frustration. | ||
| He knew these questions were coming. | ||
| And it's like anything else. | ||
| I'm a person who used to not only be a college teacher, but also a business person. | ||
| People, clients expect transparency. | ||
| And when you're spending that much money, I mean, think about the number, $2.5 billion on a Taj Mahal for the Federal Reserve Board. | ||
| They want to know why we're spending almost a billion dollars more than expected. | ||
| And he chooses just to ignore a request from an attorney from the Justice Department. | ||
| I mean, if I get a call from the Justice Department, I think I'd be responding to those questions. | ||
| Now, before we continue our conversation, Congressman, I want to invite our audience to join in on the conversation. | ||
| Democrats, your line is 202-748-8000. | ||
| Republicans, your line is 202-748-8001. | ||
| Independents, your line is 202-748-8002. | ||
| Congressman, I want to play you a clip from Tuesday with Senator Kevin Kramer talking about what could happen if Jerome Powell says that he would resign. | ||
| Take a listen here. | ||
| Maybe pulling back, but maybe the point should be if you're the attorney for J. Paul and you want to avoid an indictment, how about you go to Gene Piero and say, I'll make a deal. | ||
| I'll step down today if you'll drop the investigation today. | ||
| To me, that would be a win-win for everybody. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I love that. | |
| I mean, we've all talked about getting him out of there. | ||
| I mean, doesn't this give credence to the criticism that this investigation is one that is meant to pressure the chair to step down? | ||
| Well, it might be. | ||
| But again, I think you look at Powell's tenure, it's not exactly been a world of success. | ||
| He admitted in our committee that he had made mistakes with interest rates that allowed the inflation rate to get to about 9%, as you know. | ||
| I mean, this affects all of us across the board. | ||
| And he admitted that in committee, and he also admitted that the government overspent in the Biden years and it caused inflation. | ||
| And so I think the president's looking to make a change. | ||
| We're hopeful that will happen sooner than later. | ||
| Should Mr. Powell choose to stay, it's his decision. | ||
| But again, all he had to do was simply comply and say, we were spending too much money. | ||
| I need to show you why we're spending too much money. | ||
| Why would he ignore a simple request from a United States attorney? | ||
| It just doesn't make sense to me. | ||
| But his term is up in May. | ||
| Why not just wait for him to leave? | ||
| Well, I think it's also about accountability. | ||
| If you went in and I said to you. | ||
| But Kramer just said that if it was him and he would tell his attorney just to step, just to say that he's going to resign for the investigation to go away. | ||
| So is that really about accountability? | ||
| This is a senator saying, this is what I might do. | ||
| This is not the attorney who called him over and over again and said, please provide the information. | ||
| We allocated X amount of money for you. | ||
| You spent a lot more than we thought you would. | ||
| Tell us why you spent so much money. | ||
| And instead of saying, you know what, you're right, I shouldn't have spent so much, or this is why we spent too much, he chose to ignore a United States attorney. | ||
| And we all know the power that United States attorneys have. | ||
| A lot of people went to jail for not complying in years past. | ||
| And I think Mr. Powell would solve a lot of problems if he would just be transparent and put out where they spent the money. | ||
| That's what I'd like to see as a new member of Congress. | ||
| And remember, that's what I'm used to. | ||
| In Florida, we put it all out in the sunshine. | ||
| And in Washington, we need more sunshine so we can make better decisions. | ||
| Because when you see how they spent money with USAID, some of these problems in Minnesota, the train program in California, all people want is transparency because people are working incredibly hard right now with higher prices and high taxes. | ||
| And they're saying, why am I giving all these tax dollars when these people spent it like it doesn't matter? | ||
| I want to ask you one more question on this before we turn to the economy. | ||
| But your chair of the Financial Services Committee, Chair, Representative French Hill, also a Republican from Arkansas, I want to read you what he wrote. | ||
| He said, pursuing criminal charges relating to Powell's testimony on building reservations at a time when the nation's economy requires focus creates an unnecessary distraction. | ||
| The Federal Reserve is led by strong, capable individuals appointed by President Trump, and this action could undermine the future of the administration's ability to make sound monetary policy decisions. | ||
| We must stay focused on our work to foster more opportunities with higher wages and faster economic growth for the American people. | ||
| That at the same time, as there's been a lot of reporting, that Treasury Secretary Scott Besson was unhappy with this investigation, and he told the president directly. | ||
| I mean, I wonder if you can kind of square those comments with yours, because you seem to be saying that not only are these allegations credible, but they're warranted because the Fed didn't respond. | ||
| Well, I think that everyone answered the question correctly. | ||
| If Mr. Powell will just turn over how they spent the money, all these problems go away. | ||
| He's not been indicted. | ||
| They're just looking at information. | ||
| There's a big difference between someone looking at something and actually having an indictment. | ||
| He has not been indicted. | ||
| And so, what I'd like to see as a new member of Congress, again, I don't pretend to know the inside baseball of everything in Washington, D.C. after one year, but I do know this: Mr. Powell takes away a lot of pressure if he says, Here is the information you requested. | ||
| After all, again, it's not Mr. Powell's money, it's the money of the United States government because people have worked hard to pay taxes. | ||
| I think what French Hill is saying is accurate. | ||
| We all want to focus on the economy. | ||
| And what alleviates all these pressure points, Mr. Powell, turn over the information and all these problems go away because we can look and see how we can better spend your hard-earned tax dollars. | ||
| Do you think that this one undermines the financial markets or will have an effect on monetary policy discussions? | ||
| Well, I think if it would have undermined the financial markets, we would have seen a big problem this week. | ||
| Clearly, that's not the case. | ||
| The Dow is near actually at record numbers right now. | ||
| As you know, your 401k is up probably about 15 or 20 percent versus one year ago. | ||
| So, the markets are in very good stead, especially in comparison with the last four years. | ||
| We've not made a full recovery yet, but we're a heck of a lot better off than we were a year ago at this time. | ||
| All right, let's turn to some phone calls. | ||
| Jessica from Cocoa Beach, Florida, Republican. | ||
| Home District. | ||
| I love it. | ||
| You're on the line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, Congressman. | |
| My concern is that you have compromised your office in order for your wife to get and keep her job as acting chief of staff for the Surgeon General, which she got after you took your seat in Congress. | ||
| This is nothing to say anything negative about your wife's capabilities. | ||
| It just seems very improper to me as one of your constituents, hoping that you would make me 100% your focus. | ||
| Instead, now you have to worry about what you do in order to keep your wife in her job. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And my concern is because you show no understanding of one of the key aspects of your job, which is to check and balance the executive branch. | |
| You vote 100% of the time with President Trump, and you often go on Fox, and now you're coming on C-SPAN to push his agenda. | ||
| Well, first of all, I'm insulted by the fact that you would even question my integrity, let on my wife's on this situation. | ||
| You might want to know is that my wife is actually a medical doctor. | ||
| She's a person who was on the Florida Board of Medicine, unpaid. | ||
| She was also what's called Florida Healthy Kids, which is a great program which provides low-cost health insurance for kids. | ||
| She's got an incredible resume, and she was approached by the Trump administration because that incredible resume. | ||
| And she is doing great work with the Secretary of HHS, RFK Jr., as well as with Dr. Oz and others. | ||
| I'm so proud of the work she is doing to make America healthy again. | ||
| And as far as where I'm voting, I'm very transparent. | ||
| I hope you're getting my newsletter every week. | ||
| I tell people exactly how I vote and what I stand for. | ||
| And the great news for the Space Coast is that we actually got a budget passed for NASA, which includes $10 billion additional dollars for the space program. | ||
| We're going around the moon for the first time since 1972. | ||
| And in a few weeks, or at least the next couple of months, we're excited about that. | ||
| And we made sure that NASA's funding was fully in place. | ||
| And so the Space Coast is booming. | ||
| I'm proud to be the chairman of that committee to make sure we continue to win the space race. | ||
| And I could not be more proud of my wife. | ||
| She does amazing work. | ||
| And you might want to check your facts sometimes a little more succinctly. | ||
| Edward from New Jersey and Independent, you're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, thank you. | |
| So yeah, I want to know if you guys have been briefed on the oppositional groups in Venezuela. | ||
| Seems pretty ridiculous that you can't even get a caravan of ICE agents to drive down the road without committing atrocities. | ||
| And now you're going to be guaranteeing these flows of oil for people who are not going to want to be giving up their rights in their land. | ||
| And also, have you guys pulled the record on ICE and see what these guys have been wasting any of our money doing all the nonsense that they're running around chasing toilet scrubbers around the country? | ||
|
Arresting Violent Criminals
00:02:14
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| Thank you. | ||
| Well, I'm not exactly how you want me to answer that one, Edward, but look, ICE's job is to remove people here illegally, especially criminal aliens once they came to America. | ||
| What's incredibly disappointing in my mind is that persons who came to this country illegally, one, breaking the law, two, once they got here, they broke the law, in many cases, violent crimes, that they should be removed from the country. | ||
| And sadly, a lot of folks in what they call sanctuary cities would not only let these people out who should be in jail, they're enticing or trying to get people to get in the way of these officers in a very difficult situation. | ||
| Again, just to give you my background, again, my dad is a former FBI agent. | ||
| He's a person who was part of law enforcement. | ||
| And when you go into a situation where you need to arrest a violent criminal, which is happening across the country because a lot of people who came in overseas were violent criminals, it's a very tense situation. | ||
| And the last thing you need is to involve yourself in a very tense situation. | ||
| And what happened in Minnesota is tragic. | ||
| But as my parents taught me, when you see a police operation going on, the last thing you want to do is get into the middle of it. | ||
| But this never should have happened in the first place. | ||
| All they had to do when they arrest a violent criminal is to keep them in jail. | ||
| Don't let them out, let alone go back into a community where they might do harm once again. | ||
| I support the operation, which they're doing. | ||
| What people need to do is that when you're going to see a violent situation, a very tense situation, we leave this to take you live to the house where members are considering partial government funding legislation here on C-SPAN. | ||
| The prayer will be offered by Chaplain Kibben. | ||
| Would you pray with me? | ||
| Holy God, let all who are faithful offer their prayers to you. | ||
| Trusting in your care, teach us the way we should go. | ||
|
Shelter From Discouragement
00:00:21
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| That we may yield ourselves to your instruction and have confidence that your righteousness is our strength. | ||
| When we are overwhelmed or in distress, even the inundation of mighty waters will not overtake us. | ||
| For you are our shelter, a hiding place where we are protected from discouragement. | ||