House GOP Leaders Detail New Steps To Take On DOJ Transcript

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for being here.

(00:12)
Last week, the mainstream media once again underestimated the House Republican Majority, and we once again delivered results for the American people, passing a strong National Defense Authorization Act. The American people are fed up with the radical, far left, and failed policies of Joe Biden and House Democrats. I also want to comment on the breaking news. We have yet again another example of Joe Biden’s weaponized Department of Justice targeting his top political opponent, Donald Trump. And this week, I want to highlight our oversight work on this two-tiered, fundamentally un-American system of justice.

(00:51)
We will be hearing from credible IRS whistleblowers who have provided evidence showing how the Department of Justice interfered into the investigation into Hunter Biden with a delay, divulge and deny campaign that ultimately shielded and protected him. There cannot be one set of laws if your last name is Biden and another set of laws for law-abiding Americans. As I said, this is a two-tiered system of justice that is fundamentally un-American.

(01:18)
We will also have a hearing later this week on the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government to examine the federal government’s role in censoring Americans, and focus on the Missouri v. Biden case and Big Tech’s collusion with out-of-control government agencies to silence speech of Americans. Accountability is here and House Republicans are committed to rooting out the corruption inside Joe Biden’s federal agencies.

(01:42)
On the House floor, legislatively, we have a robust agenda. We’ll be voting on key legislation ensuring America’s aviation superiority through the FAA Reauthorization Act, and we’ll be keeping illegals out of children’s schools through the Schools Not Shelters Act. We’re also honored to welcome friend and long-standing ally, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, to Congress tomorrow to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Israel’s statehood.

(02:09)
My House Republican colleagues and I look forward to hearing from President Herzog and continuing our strong work advocating for Israel and its people. This is in stark contrast to the vile, anti-Semitic comments you hear coming out from some of the prominent leaders within the Democrat caucus. Every member should condemn those statements of Representative Jayapal.

(02:30)
As we do every week, we’re highlighting some of our freshman member who are rising stars and are leading legislation. I want to first start with Mike Collins, from Georgia’s 10th District, who is on the T&I Committee, and he’s focused on FAA Reauthorization.

(02:44)
Mike.

Thank you, Chair Stefanik and Majority Leader Scalise for having me here, a representative from the state with the world’s busiest airport, Georgia.

(02:58)
It was a pleasure to work on this legislation, not only as a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee but also as a member of the Aviation Subcommittee. Y’all, a robust and well-functioning aviation industry is critical. And also, as a small businessman and as an entrepreneur, it was really encouraging to see that we are continuing to encourage innovation.

(03:25)
Hypersonics is here. And one of the things in this bill was the requirement that the FAA get out there and develop standards and rules and a certification for the hypersonic industry. And it’s things like that, that are in this bill, that will ensure that America remains a leader, the leading aviation industry in the world.

(03:50)
I’m proud to stand here with the House Majority and continue to deliver on our commitment to America. Thank you for being here, and I am going to turn it over to Representative Molinaro.

[inaudible 00:04:12] say my name. I’m from [inaudible 00:04:12].

(04:12)
I cheer a [inaudible 00:04:13] thank you to speak. We’ll be considering the Schools Not Shelters Act. Because of the president’s failures through the border [inaudible 00:04:21] seriously humanitarian crisis at our Southern border, every state in this country now [inaudible 00:04:27] border. That is magnified in states like New York, where undocumented immigrants are being transported to the City of New York, a city that declared itself a sanctuary and welcoming city. Thousands upon thousands of individuals not screened, not considered are coming into the City of New York and mayors like Mayor Adams in New York City have been transporting those migrants, those individuals upstate County. Taking the extreme measure of in fact converting public schools, K-12 schools, into shelters.

(04:57)
The Schools Not Shelters Act is a very clear statement and it’s supported by families all across the country. We join with moms and dads and families, not only in New York but in every state of America, making very clear that our schools are places for our kids to be educated. During the summer months, there were after school activities occur, where safe places exist for young people to take part in athletics and academics. And in some cases, by the way, these are the locations where those kids with disabilities are receiving fundamental life [inaudible 00:05:29] services. These are not shelters. And so, we join with families across this country making very, very clear that our schools are to be the places that bring people together for purposes of education, athletics, and a center community. And we make very clear that they are not meant for shelters.

(05:45)
And I would lastly say that places like New York, upstate counties and communities like us, just don’t have the resources. We aren’t given the support by the city, we’re not provided a leadership by the Governor, and we certainly not given the respect by the President and therefor can’t shoulder the burden of becoming a shelter community.

(06:06)
And with that, I’ll pass the microphone to Chairman James Comer.

[inaudible 00:06:09] Chairman Stefanik for allowing me to [inaudible 00:06:19] press conference [inaudible 00:06:21] mid-January, the House Oversight Committee has worked very hard to try to hold this administration accountable, to try to identify and root out waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in the Federal Government. The Oversight Committee has also made rapid progress in our investigation into Biden family’s domestic and international business [inaudible 00:06:38] to determine whether these activities comprise US National Security and ultimately the President himself.

(06:45)
In just six months, we’ve obtained thousands and thousands of pages of financial documents. This includes bank records for Biden family associates and suspicious activity reports generated by the Bidens and their associates’ high dollar or foreign business transactions. What these records reveal is really astonishing. Americans now know that the Bidens created over 20 shell companies or 20 fake companies, most of which were created when Joe Biden was Vice President. And that’s very important to remember: most of these shell companies were created while Joe Biden was Vice President. Americans now know the Biden family, their business associates and their companies received over $10 million from foreign nationals and their related companies in China and Romania. Americans now know that a lot of this money poured in while Joe Biden was Vice President and the Biden family took deliberate steps to conceal the payments. What were the Bidens selling? Nothing but influence to the Biden network.

(07:51)
IRS whistleblowers recently provided information to Congress that confirmed many of these investigations’ findings. Tomorrow the American people will hear directly from these credible, highly respected IRS whistleblowers. These brave whistleblowers provided information about how the Justice Department refused to follow evidence that implicated Joe Biden, tipped off Hunter Biden’s attorneys, allowed the clock to run out with respect to certain charges, and put Hunter Biden on the path to a sweetheart plea deal.

(08:22)
We are currently at a pivotal moment in our investigation. The American people deserve to hear from these whistleblowers and other witnesses about this weaponization of the federal law enforcement power. The White House and Democrats would have Americans believe that our investigation is based on five years of conspiracy theories. These are the same people who took a fake dossier and turned it into a multi-year investigation of President Trump. Unlike Democrats Russian hoax, we have the facts. Bank records do not lie. And new evidence continues to be uncovered by our committee revealing the first family’s corruption. The Bidens have put themselves first and Americans last. The Oversight Committee will continue to follow the money and we will continue our pursuit to root out waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement in the Federal Government.

(09:13)
That gives me great pleasure to introduce our great whip, and a man with exceptional hair color, Tom Emmer.

Good morning and welcome to another week of House Democrats antics, while House Republicans continue to govern.

(09:32)
Last week, House Democrats showed Americans that championing their radical left-wing agenda was more important than bolstering and modernizing our military. Their radical agenda is more important than giving our service members the largest pay increase in 20 years. Their radical agenda was more important than equipping our armed forces with the tools they need to counter CCP aggression. This week, the antics continue with the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Pramila Jayapal, saying, “Israel is a racist state,” and four House Democrats boycotting Israeli President Herzog’s joint address to Congress tomorrow.

(10:20)
The contrast between our two parties could not be more clear. While House Democrats are consumed with their anti-Israel agenda this week, House Republicans will continue leading the charge by bringing common sense back to the nation’s capital by passing the FAA Reauthorization Legislation that maintains America’s gold standard in aviation, as Mike Collins was talking about, prohibiting the use of our schools to provide shelter for illegal immigrants as Marc Molinaro was talking about, providing much needed accountability and transparency regarding evidence of Biden family corruption that Chair Comer was just talking about. And we’re going to be sending a message to the world that the United States will unashamedly always stand with Israel. This week will be another successful week of acing more first big tests as House Republicans continue to deliver on our promises to the American people.

(11:19)
And with that, the tiger from Louisiana, the Majority leader, Steve Scalise.

Thank you, whip.

(11:29)
This is going to be another busy week where House Republicans move forward on the agenda that we laid out last year, getting things done for hardworking families across this country. But I’d remiss if I didn’t point out what we did last week and how significant it was to pass a National Defense Authorization Act.

(11:47)
The week started with a bill that should have been very bipartisan. There were over a thousand amendments filed on the bill, we had over 300 amendments that we brought to the House floor. And everything was moving smooth in a bipartisan way until an amendment passed that pushed back on the indoctrination that President Biden has tried to force into the Department of Defense, moving the Department of Defense away from its core mission of being prepared for the aggressive actions of our adversaries. You see what China is doing with their military. Our military was not meeting that same mission. We refocused the military with that bill. We gave a much needed pay raise, over 5% pay raise, to our troops with that bill. And yet almost every Democrat walked away on the final passage.

(12:43)
What was also important, and there was an amendment that I didn’t see a lot of press coverage about, but I think it says a lot about where the Democrats priorities were, because how we spend the money is as important as how much money is being spent. When you look at the fights over lowering spending, and we need to have those, once we finally get spending brought down to lower levels, we still need to focus on how that money’s being spent and make sure it’s being spent in the right places. And even more important, make sure it’s not being spent in the wrong places.

(13:13)
And so, there was an amendment brought to the floor during that long vote series on Wednesday night that said, “Taxpayer dollars…” I think Thursday night, “Taxpayer dollars cannot go to the Taliban.” And we all know what happened when President Biden made that ill-fated decision to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan, leaving Americans behind enemy lines, creating 13 more Gold Star Families, many of whom I met with this week, who still demand answers from the Biden administration that they’re not getting, and they deserve those answers. This Republican Majority is going to keep fighting to get those answers for those families who lost their loved ones in defending our country. But they sure don’t want to see our taxpayer dollars going to fund the Taliban. And when we brought that amendment, very straightforward amendment, every Republican of course stood up and said, “No, taxpayer dollars shouldn’t go to fund the Taliban.” Almost every Democrat voted against that amendment. They’re going to have to explain those votes.

(14:13)
And so as we move forward this week, we’ve got a very straightforward bill in the FAA authorization, over a hundred amendments that are going to be in order that you saw the Rules Committee move out yesterday so that we can have a robust debate on how best to provide for our nation’s aviation travel. America is still the gold standard, but we have serious problems that need to be addressed and this bill starts that process of addressing some of those problems. But you’re going to see more amendments voted on, but you’re also going to see some important legislation.

(14:44)
I’m glad that Mr. Molinaro is here because he identified a problem as it was happening where they saw that, in New York, they were starting to use our schools not for places of learning, but instead for places of sheltering people who come here illegally. We saw the devastation that was done to our kids during COVID when the union bosses colluded with the Democrat White House to shut down schools when all the science said kids should be back in schools. We were fighting to get kids back in schools and it was Democrats and union bosses fighting to keep kids shut out of schools.

(15:20)
And now the data is very clear that millions and millions of American young people will never make up the learning loss that they experienced. And here the Democrats go again trying to use our schools for their own social experiments, trying to use our schools to cover up for their failed border crisis that they created. The school should be the place where kids go to learn. And I appreciate and applaud what Mr. Molinaro has done, to stand up for those young people and we hopefully will get a very strong vote on that.

(15:51)
I know Chairman Comer talked about the work that he and the other committees are doing. We have three committees coming together this week, tomorrow in fact, not just the Oversight Committee. We’ve got the Ways and Means Committee and we’ve got the Judiciary Committee all coming forward to bring this whistleblower testimony. And isn’t it interesting that the same week that we see President Biden’s poll numbers continue to fall, the same week that President Trump’s numbers continue to rise, but the same week that we’ve got a whistleblower coming forward testifying that, while he was at the IRS trying to dig deeper into this Biden crime syndicate, he was told to stand down by people above him? They wanted to dig deeper and they were told not to because of the last name of the person they were digging into, that now you see the Biden administration going after President Trump once again. And it begs that question: is there a double standard? Is justice being administered equally?

(16:45)
And finally, we look forward to welcoming President Herzog and celebrating Israel’s 75th anniversary as a Jewish state. Many of us have been there personally. We welcome when leaders, whether it’s the Prime Minister or the President of Israel, come here. I think you’re going to see a very rousing applause for the President. And we’re going to be passing a piece of legislation today just to continue showing solidarity between the United States and Israel, to stand up against the antisemitism that unfortunately is growing on the Democrat side, and then ultimately to stand up on those who would try to call out Israel as a racist state and to show that we stand with Israel. And I think you’re going to see a very full chamber and a very raucous welcome for the President.

(17:33)
With that, would be happy to open up. Chad?

Thank you.

(17:35)
We heard what Mr. Comer said about these investigations with the Bidens, but the [inaudible 00:17:40] here is that you have issues with the special counsel investigating former President Trump regarding January 6th. Why not at least look into this and find out if there was a problem there? You’re okay going after the current president and trying to see what were the facts like there. What about this with the former President Trump?

Here, we have a case where it’s not necessarily us going after the former president. It’s people within the IRS who were looking into inappropriate dealings by the current president’s family. And they saw things that looked very alarming, they tried to dig deeper into it and they were told to stand down. And in some cases, because they were told to stand down, statutes of limitation ran out, meaning further investigation can’t even occur because that happened.

(18:26)
We surely don’t see the same kind of coverage of this investigation and others like it that we’re seeing anytime you see someone in the Biden administration go after Donald Trump. I understand they’re scared of Donald Trump because he’s the leading candidate not just on the Republican side, but you see more and more Democrats don’t even want Joe Biden to be the Democrat nominee. They need to remove the politics from this. They need to stop having this perception. In whether it’s real or not, we have a committee looking into the weaponization of government and unfortunately there’s example after example after example of the Biden administration weaponizing government against their political enemies. But it’s created a problem within the country that people don’t view justice as being administered fairly.

Are you suggesting that it’s so brazen that they’re going after him just because this is an issue because there’s-

I’m just pointing out-

No, but I mean specifically to the 1/6 investigation. Are you-

No, I’m just pointing out that it’s interesting that, the same week that you have this whistleblower coming forward to testify before three different congressional committees, you see once again, this isn’t the only time it’s happened, over and over again you see different attacks by the Biden administration against President Trump, and there are many things that you’ve seen President Biden do again, the documents. Raiding Mar-a-Lago when you have documents behind locked doors with Secret Service, and yet when Joe Biden had documents in his garage, in some cases in public view, surely not in the same secured places as you had at Mar-a-Lago, there was no raid. And so it begs the question: are people being treated fairly?

You said the House Republican Conference is standing up to anti-Semitism. This week they were platforming someone that recently just said antisemitic comments that Jewish people are more immune to COVID. That’s how it was created. How do you swear that? How are you standing up there-

I’m not sure what you’re referring to.

RFK Jr., his sickness. He’s sitting before the judiciary today.

He’s a Democrat that’s coming before talking about how you’re seeing a selective shutdown of opposing viewpoints by the Democrats, where they’re taking people that have… And this is not relating… We’re talking about our stand against antisemitism and that’s a problem the Democrat party got. But at the same time, you’re seeing within the Democrat party attempts to stifle opposing views of any kind, political views that they don’t like. Obviously, it’s not just Republican views. They don’t like the fact that they’ve got somebody running against Joe Biden and you’re hearing, by the way, a very robust debate within the Democrat Party rank and file not elected Democrats voters who are wondering why there aren’t more debates, why isn’t the president going to engage in debate. That’s something their side’s going to have to figure out, not our side.

But how do you square that? He did say anti-Semitic comments as did-

He’s got to answer that. We’ve spoken out against it. I surely speak out against any expressions of anti-Semitism. We’ve got a bill on the floor today where we’re all going to have a vote to cast. My vote’s going to be yes, I’m proud to support August Pfluger’s legislation to stand up against anti-Semitism. Every member of Congress is going to have that opportunity and anybody who said anti-Semitic things should answer for it, we surely called them out.

Last question.

But doesn’t that muddy your message on [inaudible 00:21:54] by giving RFK Jr. this enormous platform before the Weaponization Committee said that COVID-19 was designed to target whites and blacks and that Jews-

First of all, I don’t agree with that, but we’re bringing legislation so that every member of Congress can be on record about whether or not they stand up against antisemitism in this crazy notion that Israel is a Jewish state that some of their members hold. We don’t, we oppose that. We’re going to have legislation. I think you’re going to see a strong vote against it.

Last question.

Or a strong vote for the legislation against what Democrats are doing.

Thank you, Leader Scalise.

(22:33)
One, why is Congresswoman Jayapal’s name not in Congressman Pfluger’s resolution on Israel? And second, what do you have to say about the first votes today that are going to be on resolutions to undo national emergencies which, according to Gabriel Noronha who worked on Iran policy in the State Department during Trump administration, would lift terrorism-related sanctions?

Yes. First question, this legislation really deals with the overall desire for us to stand up against antisemitism. You’ve seen many people on the left express those views. We’re having a very direct piece of legislation that stands up against antisemitism. She’s not the only one, but Democrats should have to answer for her statements.

(23:22)
As far as these pieces of legislation, we went back and, when this started coming up by some of our members about all of these emergency declarations, it was valid points that you’ve got over 40 different emergencies that are still out there. Some go back to the 1970s, by the way. And I do think it warrants a complete review of these emergencies that have been used now for things that aren’t directly related to their intended purposes, but still serve a vital purpose, meaning sanctions against Iran, sanctions against the Merchant of Death, who President Biden just let go back to Russia. Those sanctions should still be in place.

(24:00)
The committees are now looking at whether or not we should revise the emergency declarations and that whole process. Right now, a president can declare an emergency and it just lives on forever. Again, there’s one that goes back to Jimmy Carter’s days that is still in place. I don’t know if President Carter knows that a emergency he declared in 1979 is still on the books. That emergency, by the way, should probably be revised. And if the sanctioning entities should still be sanctioned, we should do it in a more modern way. We should modernize all of those. We shouldn’t necessarily just vote for getting rid of all of them because some of the groups that they’re sanctioning should be sanctioned. But I do think we should modernize them. The committees right now are looking at modernizing them. You don’t necessarily just throw them all out, you revise them.

(24:45)
But it does beg the question. We need to have, I think, an overarching revision of the ability where a president can declare an emergency and it can live on forever, where congress plays no role. I do think Congress ought to have a role to play after some period of time. You see that with war powers. I think in the case of emergencies, we should have that too, but right now you don’t just get rid of them. Let’s modernize them.

(25:06)
Thank you.

Thank you.