Original subtitles

The Capitol is the very heart of our system of representative government.

Members of the House of Representatives are elected

for short terms, two years,

and since they have to come up for reelection so often,

they must constantly be responsive to the wishes of the voters.

The American people are very proud of their government,

for it is a republic.

This means a form of Democratic government

where the people are the rulers of their li...

It's day eight of the government shutdown

and neither side is willing to budge.

The discussion has broken down and we do expect this to go on for a while.

We are in uh, what used to be a work closet

for the former congressman that had this office.

Of the 435 members of Congress,

more than a hundred actually live in the building.

For some people, it's an economic decision.

For me, frankly, it's just that I like being at work

and it gives me the maximum opportunity to get the most out of every day.

Gotta get the make-up on, first thing in the morning.

We got a lot of hits.

We usually do our TV in the morning from here in the Capitol

and there's no Fox News make-up lady

so, you gotta contour the sides.

I got my uh, weight-loss chart here.

My mother joked the camera added ten pounds so I needed to drop a few.

Alright, this is the critical choice of the day here. The tie selection.

Gotta figure out what shoes go with purple and pewter.

These are Ivanka's favorite. She told me she liked my shoes.

Wore 'em to the White House.

When a congressional seat came open,

I had really started to think about what this country would be like

in a Donald Trump presidency

and I knew it would not be like anything we'd experienced before

with any other type of Republican or Democrat.

I thought, this guy's got some rough edges.

He is very uncharacteristic as a politician.

But I felt like, he was exactly the type of person

that could bring the fight to a town that badly needed it,

that could be a change agent.

And if I could be there, and be of assistance,

then I could contribute to that change in a positive way.

Nine percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing.

That's the lowest in our history.

All you see is gridlock. No one can agree on anything.

Congress is less popular than a colonoscopy.

The American people know that Congress is broken. And it is broken.

I believe the voting system is corrupt. I believe the politicians are corrupt.

I believe that Congress is corrupt.

Each and every piece of legislation virtually has its own price tag on it.

Giant corporations have bought off our government.

The American political system has become totally corrupted

and the foundations of American democracy are being undermined.

The unholy alliance of lobbyists and donors and special interests

is bleeding our country dry.

Trump is different

because he doesn't have to answer to any donors, any lobbyists.

It's time to drain the swamp in Washington D.C!

We are going to drain the swamp.

It's time to drain the swamp of corruption.

We're gonna drain the swamp of Washington.

We're gonna have fun doing it. We're all doing it together.

Drain the swamp! Drain the swamp!

You ask whether if it's ever possible to drain the swamp,

as President Trump loves to say, we'll see.

THE SWAMP

WINTER 2019 OPENING OF THE 116TH CONGRESS

Thanks to you, tomorrow will be a new day in America.

Democrats rode a blue wave to the majority,

setting up what should be a contentious atmosphere in Washington

in 2019 and beyond.

Fellow citizens and friends, let us lead together to show the people

that we are truly their voice and their vote.

In that spirit, I extend my hand of friendship

to every member of this body.

And to the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi,

I extend to you this gavel. Thank you everybody.

There is an essence of this place

that doesn't change no matter who wins the elections, Republicans, Democrats,

and the majority party is simply the party that is first in line

to be the servant to the special interest over awards.

I think that machinery, that infrastructure, that's the swamp.

A member of Congress cannot ask another member of Congress for money

in this building.

We are in the Longworth Office Building

or the Cannon Office Building or anywhere else,

except the floor of the House of Representatives.

So like, when we were on the floor today,

I had a more senior member come to me

and they gave me my assessment card.

And so your assessment card lets you know

how much money you owe the party bosses.

It says my name, the honorable Matt Gaetz,

that my spring dinner assessment is $55,000.

This is a call to wealthy people

who by virtue of commitment or their special interest,

would like to give me $55,000 to come have dinner with me and my colleagues.

Now, like, I find myself to be a very pleasant dinner guest

but I cannot imagine anyone willing to pay $55,000 to have dinner with me.

This is my name-sake, Matt Gaetz the First.

He built railroads in North Dakota

and this is my grandfather, Jerry Gaetz,

he was a state senator and ran for lieutenant governor,

gave the speech to be nominated

and as soon as he walked off the stage, had a heart attack and died.

My father served as a state senator

so I am the fourth generation of Gaetz to be in public life.

I keep this picture of a bill signing with President Trump

mostly because I have no idea why I was there.

This is a bill that I had almost no role in crafting.

I think I voted for it,

but uh, sometimes the President just likes to be around some of his buddies.

You ever watch this guy on television? It's like a machine. He's great.

Matt Gaetz.

Great guy.

I think the President is doing all that he can

to change the ways of Washington

and it'd be a hell of a note if we'd have his back in Congress

every once in a while.

One hour from now, President Trump's former lawyer,

his confidant, his fixer will unleash a point-by-point take down

like none seen against the sitting President of the United States.

Cohen made millions of dollars

by promising access to his client, the President.

Florida Congressman, Matt Gaetz, a staunch defender of President Trump

took to Twitter yesterday evening.

Hey, Michaek Cohen,

do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends?

Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat.

I wonder if she'll remain faithful when you're in prison.

She's about to learn a lot...

All the replies and comments on Twitter was like,

that's witness intimidation. That's witness tampering.

You're going to go to jail.

Were you trying to intimidate him with those tweets?

Listen, I didn't want to intimidate Cohen, I want Cohen here.

It's not intimidation and it's entirely appropriate to provide context

for people who have a history of lying and likely a future of lying.

There were some who thought it was threatening

and that is absolutely not my intent and so I deleted it for that purpose.

Why did you come down to the hearing today.

Cuz I'm a member of Congress.

Some people thought it was inappropriate for you to be there

considering your tweet, what do you have to say about that?

- Nothing. - Thank you.

I believe that right now, with the start of the Cohen hearing,

we're in the first quarter of the impeachment.

I think that Democrats are certain to impeach the President

and while it's terrible

that we're going to go through this impeachment process,

that will not result in a conviction,

at least the forgotten men and women in this country

will have every reason to show up in 2020 and re-elect the President.

I think that's going to be the ultimate result.

This conversation with Mr. Trump-

I didn't ask whether you were a good fixer,

I asked whether you were a good lawyer.

Sometimes you have to know both together.

Massie said he was going to yield me some of his time

if I'd been a unanimous consent to participate.

I'm kinda glad he didn't. His questions are very good.

Good job, you said you were a good lawyer, right?

Is that being a good lawyer? Not even consider whether it's legal or not?

What do you think that what we've seen now

does to the Democrats obvious desire to engage an impeachment?

I think if this was the foundation it's shifting on him already.

It's very unstable. He admitted to being a scumbag lawyer.

- Those are two different things. - I'm sorry.

- They're not blended. - I'm not a lawyer, he is.

I'm an engineer at heart and by training.

Growing up I liked taking things apart and putting them back together

so I went to M.I.T. to get an electrical engineering degree

and I hung around and got a mechanical engineering degree

and started my own company.

When you hold the phantom in your hand,

you can actually feel the shape that's on the computer screen.

I invented a virtual reality device

that lets you touch and feel three dimensional objects.

So, I started out in the virtual reality industry

and then after ten years I sold my ownership

and then moved back to Kentucky and got back to reality on the farm.

But then I ran for Congress and entered virtual reality again.

I'm kind of a Libertarian but I prefer the label Constitutional Conservative.

I think we should get back to Constitution

and put government within the bounds that the Founding Fathers put on it.

After three months now of bucking the system,

fresh for Republican Thomas Massie,

has already earned a nickname on Capitol Hill, "Mr. No".

Up here, they've called me Mr. No.

If you heard that nickname you'd think I vote no all the time.

But I looked this up, I only vote no like 25% percent of the time.

25% dissention with your party is a heretic in Washington D.C.

and if people are going to drain the swamp,

like the President wants to do,

they need better information about how this place is broken

and that's my mission in Congress.

So, my friend Justin Amash, he's a Congressman from Michigan,

got me this for my birthday

because we both kind of look at the Capitol as the Death Star.

I mean, if you come up here to visit, there's scaffolding on it all the time,

it looks like it's being worked on. But it's fully functional

and it can destroy happiness and life anywhere on the globe.

What I'm doing up here is looking for the one weakness in the Death Star.

But sometimes I end up in the trash compactor.

Who's Darth Vader?

Well, Darth Vader was Paul Ryan but now its Nancy Pelosi.

So this one is reserved for members of Congress.

Not many of us have the heart to kick somebody off who's not a member.

Virginia Fox is notorious for kicking people off

but she won't just kick the staffers off the elevator,

she asks them who they work for cuz she tells on them too.

Hey Virginia, I was just telling them you keep our elevator for members only.

I do my best.

It's so exhausting to run in place

and to get nothing done, that's the frustrating thing to me.

The most frustrating thing to me is the fact that we know what's wrong.

Every year, we don't pass a budget on time,

we wait until the day before Christmas and everybody wants to get out of town

and everybody votes for this ridiculous spending bill that nobody's read

and then we pretend that we're fiscal conservatives

and the hypocrisy of pretending that we care about spending

and we is the general we that we care about spending.

- Please use the general we cuz... - That's not you and I.

I don't like to think we're doing any of that.

My name is Ken Buck

and I was a founding member of the Freedom Caucus in the House

which is the conservative group that was formed in 2015.

Freedom Caucus has always been the loyal opposition

within the Republican party

so I don't expect members of the Freedom Caucus

to get leadership positions, that's not our role.

Our role is to try to be the conscious of the party.

I had stage four Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma

and my sense of purpose is different after cancer than before,

so, I feel like whether I get re-elected or not, I'm here to do the right thing.

And the right thing to me is to expose what goes on in Congress

and make sure the American public knows about it.

For many of the members of Congress, it's a job they don't want to give up,

so their reelection is more important than the actual problem solving

that needs to go in D.C.

I wrote "Drain the Swamp" during my first term in Congress

because we were told by leadership right from the beginning,

here are all the goodies that you can enjoy

if you play the game the way we want you to play the game.

And the game is agreeing with leadership,

agreeing with the special-interest groups on how to vote

and how to govern. I'm not one of those people that's very agreeable.

The problem with the Republican party now is

we have such a fresh history of violating the Constitution,

of violating fiscal responsibility, of violating personal accountability

that we don't have a high ground to stand and say,

you guys are doing the wrong thing.

HARVARD LAW SCHOOL

I spent many years trying to push policy

that would make the regulation of culture more sensible

and the regulation of the internet more effective.

And while in the courts we made progress,

Congress was constantly resisting.

And a certain point a friend of mine basically said to me,

so, why do you think you're ever going to make any progress?

So long as we have this deep corruption in our government?

I realized he was exactly right,

so literally that night I promised him I would give up my old career

and take up a new career and that was about a dozen years ago.

Before we were Republicans, before we were Democrats, we were citizens first.

We need citizen soldiers fighting for a democracy that is beyond party,

that is above party, that is focused on citizens first.

The Constitution in Article I sets up Congress.

The framers gave the pride of place

to the most important Democratic institution within our republic.

Madison describes Congress as being a body that would be quote,

"dependent on the people alone".

And I think the most important man in the history of Congress

after Madison is Newt Gingrich.

And I think Newt Gingrich destroyed Congress.

Newt was a very ambitious history professor

who came to Congress

and was keen to turn the Republicans into a kind of militant opposition

and then he won control of the House for the Republicans

for the first time in forty years in the 1994 election.

And staring in 1995, he began to change the institution fundamentally.

On the first day of the 104th Congress, the new Republican majority

will immediately pass the following major reforms.

One of the ways he changed the institution

was to basically begin the process of shifting congresspeople

over to the life as fundraisers.

He told them, don't move your families to Washington,

we'll work three days a week.

The rest of the time, you know, he said you could be going home

but what happens is the rest of the time they're out there raising money.

It becomes the perpetual campaign

which dramatically increases the amount of money

that both sides are bringing into the process.

He has changed the culture, changed the agenda,

changed the language and changed the dialogue.

Gingrich's change in the structure of power in the House

was all about assuring that the Speaker could direct everything.

The Democrats followed. It's not like it's different on the Democrat's side.

The Speaker controls the schedule, what bills go to the floor,

what comes out of committee, who the members are of the committee.

I think a lot of people would be surprised to find out

that members of Congress are expected to pay their party

for their committee assignments.

And this is like two hundred thousand, five hundred thousand dollars,

every election cycle just to get a certain committee seat.

Now, where are you going to get that money?

You're not going to go back home

and have a fundraiser in somebody's living room, that just doesn't work.

The people that fund your purchase of the committee seat

are the people who have an interest in the work product of that committee,

ie., the lobbyists.

Every committee in the Congress has a letter grade associated with it.

A, B, or C. That letter grade is solely latched to that committee's ability

to generation campaign cash for its matters.

If you're on the Ways and Means committee

and you have jurisdiction over the entire tax code,

there is no lobbyist in this town that would not swim across the Potomac

to deliver you a $5000 back check.

But if you're on the Veterans Affairs Committee which is really important,

you just don't have the same bevy of special interests

thirsting for your attention with donations.

Under Newt Gingrich,

committee chairmanships were increasingly assigned

to people who raised money. And if you didn't raise that money,

the Democrats did this, Nancy Pelosi did this,

you kicked somebody off the chairmanship.

So, this is all about changing what was supposed to be

a really critical institutional role played by a chairman,

somebody who knows something about the field,

into just the most effective fundraiser in that field.

So, there's a price tag assigned to every committee

but there's also a price tag assigned to being the Speaker.

So, the Speaker up here is expected to raise $80,000,000 every election cycle

and dole that out.

The Speaker and the minority leader control

distribution of funds to members

so, it's the rank and file that chooses the leadership

but people misunderstand that somehow we're choosing people,

you know, that we think are the best at articulating our positions.

That's not true. It's who can raise the money

and the Special Interests groups control the money.

The hierarchy of power in Washington D.C. is Special Interest groups,

Leadership, Rank & File members.

That system is a system that makes members of Congress so sensitive

to what the lobbyists want

that it's hard for them to see above the water

and recognize what the public needs.

And that dynamic is the corruption that I think of as the swamp.

The Special Interests don't really want anything to get done in this town

because if we actually started working together on some stuff,

things would change. And if things change,

people who are getting rich off the current system

would not be getting rich off that system.

That's why I think that the greatest challenge we face

is not Republicans verses Democrats,

it's reformers against those that want to maintain the status quo.

And we got Republicans and Democrats in both groups.

My view is we need a more progressive vision for America

but a vision is insufficient if you don't get things done.

And I do think that there is an appetite

among the newer generation of members of Congress

to build broad coalitions

and we always have to listen to criticism from the other side

and understand that their representing a particular constituency in America

and a particular perspective.

We would be sort of an odd-couple, politically,

I am a tea-party Republican from Florida,

Ro served in the Obama administration and represents Silicon Valley,

but folks like Ro,

even who maybe don't hold my ideology or my view on every subject,

understand that this place has to change

if we want to do right by the American people.

We came here to work for the people who sent us here,

not for the leadership,

not for committee chairs and not certainly for the lobbyists.

Alright, so, some reforms that would surprise people we would agree on.

Would you vote for term limits?

I would! I'm one of two Democrats or so-

See, I would vote for term limits.

Would you vote for nonpartisan redistricting commissions?

- I would. I think that'd be great. - I would vote for that.

Would you vote for a lifetime ban on lobbying for members of Congress?

I would. I think there should be a no revolving door.

And would you ban lobbyists from giving money to members of Congress?

I would and I don't take lobbyist's money

and I think we should ban the lobbyists from doing that.

See, that's the drain the swamp agenda, Khanna Gaetz,

we could run on that and unite 80% of the country.

SPRING 2019

- How are you doing? - Hi I'm Diana Ohlbaum with FCNL.

Oh okay. Nice to meet you, Diana.

Thank you so much for your vote on this and your support.

Yeah, well.

I think you might be surprised how many Conservatives

are just done with war.

Right now as I'm serving in Congress this is one of my top issues,

is to reclaim the constitutional power of Congress

to declare war back from the Executive Branch.

California Democratic congresswoman, Barbara Lee

and Kentucky Republican congressman, Thomas Massie,

want to repeal the 2001 authorization for the use of military force.

After 911, there was so much appetite for doing something,

that it was almost political suicide if you decided not to vote for an AUMF

that was responsive to the terrorist attacks.

We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts

and those who harbor them.

As we act let us not become the evil that we deplore.

Barbara Lee was the lone vote against the AUMF

and she did prove that you could stand on principle

and eventually be right and still survive politically.

A lot of the people who went against the grain did not survive politically.

Our constituents sent us to Congress to make the hard decisions.

We owe it to the American people to take these tough votes

and repeal the 2001 authorization.

Bush invoked the bill for potential actions in over 11 different countries,

his successor added nine more including places that had no tie to 911.

Now, the overreach here began with Bush

but the Pentagon and presidents in both parties

tend to hold on to major powers not just give them up.

Our founding fathers wanted to make sure

that a decision that was as significant

as sending Americans overseas to fight and lose their lives

would only be made with a vote in the people's House and in the Senate.

So I think it's really important that we respect that,

I think it was the right move in the Constitution

and we've gotten away from that.

There's a reason that our founders gave Congress

the power over war and peace,

because we have to go and answer to our constituents.

And I'll tell you something,

there's not a single American who wouldn't want the violence to end

and allow food and medicine to get to those kids

who are going to face death if we do nothing.

I built a coalition in the house to try to end support for the war in Yemen

and we passed a War Powers Resolution

and there were sixteen Republicans who helped with that effort.

That was something where we had a number of Freedom Caucus members

and a number of progressive caucus members working together to pass that.

When it comes to war powers, those two groups can work together.

This is not a partisan issue and that's why I am here today.

There are only about 70 members of Congress out of the 435

that are serving today who are actually here for the original AUMF vote.

And I can tell you, those 70 who voted for it

never imagined, except perhaps Barbara Lee imagined, that this would be used

to justify all of the wars that have gone on since then

and all the military engagements

and possible future engagements from here on out.

I represent the district

that's got the highest concentration of active duty military in the country.

But I am no cheerleader for war.

With that, I'd just like to welcome to the stage Congressman Matt Gaetz.

Thank you. Oh, thank you guys.

I've seen my whole life living in my district

what the impacts of war really are for families.

Parenting disrupted, marriages destroyed,

drug abuse, domestic abuse, veteran suicide,

caskets draped in flags.

As I travel home to North Florida this week

I will meet with commanding officers,

they will brief me on the missions and preparations undertaken.

And if called to combat,

my neighbors will go first and they'll fight the hardest.

Now I'm at a place with the President where we speak very regularly.

And so if I can be a good advisor, supporter, influencer

to President Trump, that will give me a chance to impact the world,

by contributing to the most valuable real estate that exists in Washington,

and that's between the President's ears.

We're here in Seaside, this is where my family has spent our-

really most of our family time, most of my life.

This little gazebo up here, critical spot in the life of Matt Gaetz.

It's the sight of my first kiss, right here.

I'd tell you who but it would probably be very embarrassing for them.

So this is the Truman House,

and in the mid 90's one day some producer just shows up in a golf cart

and tells my mother that they want to make a movie in this house

starring Jim Carrey.

- Good morning. - Morning.

Good morning.

Oh, and in case I don't see ya,

good afternoon, good evening and goodnight.

He made a few other movies and then ended up painting a portrait of me

and so, it wasn't the most flattering

but nonetheless it was pretty cool to see it come full circle.

So this is the house I grew up in

and this was my bedroom during my formative years.

And voila, love America.

Hey everyone, this is congressman Matt Gaetz,

I'm out on Navarre Beach now,

but today is our Won't Back Down, Town Hall tour.

Good to see you guys!

I am proud of the fact that I have been a leading member of the Congress

to expose the 22 month witch hunt, lie, unfair investigation of our President.

What will it take to reinitiate going after Hillary Clinton

for obstruction of justice and Benghazi?

We gotta call on more people from the bar area.

They've got it going on.

I'm concerned about our young kids in elementary school

that do not know the Pledge of Allegiance.

And then when you go to a football game and they're in high school,

nobody sings a word. Everybody just stands there like a dummy.

You wanna sing a few ba- you want to sing a few bars for us?

My district is one of the most conservative districts in the country,

but one of the little pockets of liberalism

that we have is in downtown Pensacola,

it's the most urban area of my district

and so I guess it would be easy for me to only go

to the places where everyone's a Matt Gaetz cheerleader

but I have an obligation to serve

and appear before people who don't agree with me.

Love, not hate, makes America great!

Love, not hate, makes America great!

Love, not hate, makes America great!

Love, not hate, makes America great!

Thank you all for coming. Appreciate seeing you here.

Love, not hate, makes America great!

Thank you all for coming.

Hey, good to see you all. Thanks for coming.

- Thanks for coming. - Oh I'm honored, I'm honored.

Halleluiah!

Hey, it's good to see you!

I am concerned for our government.

If there could ever be a take-over or a coop,

it really bothers me that this could happen.

When I first started to uncover this troubling evidence of people

who didn't view their obligations as conducting investigations,

but instead thought that their role was to remove

the duly elected president of the United States.

I came out and said that is what a coup is.

That is what treason looks like

and that is what we're going to find out with Attorney General Barr

who is gonna turn the tables

on the people who are trying to destroy our country.

That's a lie! Speak the truth!

Boo!

Hey, hey, ho, ho, baby Gaetz has got to go!

Hey, hey, ho, ho, baby Gaetz has got to go!

Hey, thank you!

Who threw that?

Who threw that? Get them.

Thank you all so much for coming. I'm grateful you're here. Thank you!

You're embarrassing us.

Matt Gaetz got milkshaked in Pensacola

When that went viral on social media,

we started seeing increasingly violent responses to it

and it led to people saying we're going to throw urine on you

and then it led to a death threat.

I'll play it for you.

Hey, Gaetz, you pathetic piece of shit,

you know that I could blow your fucking head clean off your shoulders

from over a mile away. You got your head so far up Trump's ass

I can still take it off your shoulders.

I'm coming after you. And your family, Gaetz.

...this Congress. We're on record

for ten thousand threats against members of Congress

and I condemn them whether they're against Republicans, Democrats,

liberals, conservatives.

You know, this is just no way to operate within our country.

Congress operates inside of a media environment

that itself profits from the politics of hate.

Everybody profits from the politics of hate.

The liars in the Democratic party, you can never trust these people. Ever.

The Republican party is now fully and totally responsible

for these racist, divisive, un-American ideas.

Do you want people here on merit or not?

Do you want people to come here to speak English or not?

This is not just a group of desperate migrants.

We have people who were criminals, thugs,

special interest aliens, Jihadists.

You brought to the State of the Union, or you gave a ticket

to somebody who is a fairly notorious racist and Holocaust denier.

Look, he's a controversial figure,

there are plenty of controversial folks at the State of the Union.

The way that you're able to elevate your profile, in Washington,

is to drive conflict, because conflict is interesting.

And I think that the really powerful people in this town

are the ones that can go on television and make an argument.

And that's power that the leadership can never take away from you.

- We're still on for Cuomo tonight? - Correct.

- In person? - Right.

The right says that all the time.

The Democrats must be so happy there was another mass shooting.

- I see it all the time, Matt- - Wow! I have never hear-

You spend all this time on fake news CNN and nobody watches you

and I'm like you're wasting your time.

Oh man! It is a waste..

You look at the partisan spin of cable television,

Fox News and MSNBC and CNN.

Up until 2001, they're basically the same.

And then beginning in 2002, 2003, they start splitting dramatically

so they are deeply partisan.

And that bleeds into Congress.

When you rally your base against the other side

you gotta make sure they think that the other side is the devil.

And if you don't call the other side the devil,

then they're not going to be interested in supporting you.

What you see from the radical left today

is an attack on the democracy of our country itself.

The radical left just wants to deplatform, demonize, destroy...

We have Democrats who have no interest in legislating.

It is all about continuing on the next witch hunt on a new broomstick.

I don't think of a television clip about how it's going to play on TV,

I think about a clip that's on Twitter or YouTube

and how do you create an exciting or viral moment

that people are eager to share and that might offer some new insight.

On social media, everything that increases engagement,

increases the opportunity to sell ads

and people are more engaged, more polarized the environment becomes.

And that bleeds into Congress too.

81 ST CONGRESS 1945 - 1951

If you look at the number of bills that it has passed in a cross-partisan way,

it's gone in the 1970's from a very significant cross-partisan institution

to an institution now that just literally cannot do anything

in cross-partisan way.

You know, compromise since Ronald Regan,

has had this framing of weakness or duplicity.

So, if you compromise as member of Congress

it's like you're lying to your base.

And that's the dynamic that Newt Gingrich encouraged.

He knows that the way you raise money

is to trigger the hatred of the other side in your favor.

Politics of hate is the most productive technique for fundraising we have.

I am sickened by how unpatriotically they undermine

the Constitution of the United States.

We are here today because the Republicans in the house

are paralyzed with hatred of President Clinton

and until the Republicans free themselves of this hatred,

our country will suffer.

But of course, an institution like Congress

is supposed to find a common ground for the nation as a whole.

And if you're not willing to find a solution that could represent America,

then you're not doing your work as a representative.

And if we get nothing done, I tell you, the status quo

will really love that because they benefit from nothing getting done.

We're kinda slumming it here, going to Longworth, you know,

the senior members are in Rayburn.

Matt's still stuck over here but with the kind of TV time he gets,

he'll have an office in the Capitol soon.

I've seen the way you've been an independent member here.

I'm starting to get a sense that when you don't always adhere

to the kind of the establishment leadership viewpoint on things,

that you see an impact in your fundraising.

I raised a couple hundred thousand dollars here in Washington D.C.

in my first term.

But after they found out I wasn't here to go along to get along,

it went almost to zero.

In fact, there was a six month period

where they ranked me number 437 in the house for fundraising.

I thought there were only 435 members.

There are only 435 voting members.

But Guam and Puerto Rico, their delegates raised more-

They don't have a vote!

They don't have a vote and they raised more money than me

in that six month period. But what do you got there?

Like is this your fundraising plan? Your campaign?

Here's this meeting I recently had and I somewhat resented it.

I'm new with these guys and they say Gaetz, you know, you're on TV,

people know who you are in your state

and we really think you can run for higher office

but you don't raise enough money.

And so, they write me this plan and it's just like,

it's basically how to whore yourself out for money.

And when I say like, who's going to do this?

Who wants to give me a hundred thousand dollars?

They basically say well...

The next question is, what committees are you on?

How can you use your congressional pin

to go and help a lobbyist as your primary objective?

It's demoralizing

and folks like AOC, Bernie Sanders have proven that you don't need that.

This is my congressional pin

and you'll see a lot of people around here wearing them.

I started to call this pin Precious.

If you've ever seen Lord of the Rings or Hobbit...

My Precious.

Precious?

And the reason I call it Precious is, it affects how you think.

You can come here as a hobbit and put this thing on

and become Gollum in very short order.

My Precious!

Just like Precious made the hobbit invisible,

you walk past the metal detectors here, you don't go through them,

you walk around them if you wear this.

The police do what you tell them to do if you're wearing Precious.

The tourists figure out what Precious is.

And if you're wearing Precious they know that you must be Precious.

And so, because people behave differently around you,

it gives you a feeling of power,

an uncomfortable feeling for me

and so I try not to wear it any more than I have to

because I think eventually it will turn me from a hobbit into a Gollum

and I see that happen up here.

So here's two briefing sheets.

This morning, it was reported that Iran shot down one of our drones.

- There's an in-depth Fox News Article- - Call Charlie. Just call Charlie.

Hey man, it's Luke.

I got the boss here, let me put you on speaker for this part.

- Charlie. - Yes sir.

Tell me what you know.

They've confirmed that one of our drones was shot down over the evening

by the Iranians.

This one was a high-altitude flying MQ9 from what I am tracking,

one of the threads.

And they- they were able to hit it affectively at high altitude, which is-

- An MQ9? - I think ever done that once before.

Jesus. Alright, thanks Charlie.

The Pentagon is deploying an additional 1000 troops to the region

as a deterrent against what the Trump administration calls

increased Iranian aggression.

Do you believe right now that you have the authority

to strike Iran without Congress?

I do like keeping them abreast but I don't have to do it illegally.

I have not seen intel that would justify utilizing

the 2001 Global War on Terror Authorization Used Military Force

against Iran.

So, I'm proud to work with Ro Khanna and other folks on the political left

to try to achieve a bipartisan consensus,

because if my constituents have to have the courage and bravery

to go and fight these wars and die in these wars,

than politicians in Washington need the courage to actually vote on them

and decide what's worthy of spilling American blood and what isn't.

We're at risk of a serious escalation that could spiral out of control.

Congress has to be the check and that's why I've been working with Matt Gaetz

to have an amendment that we're going to introduce tomorrow

and the amendment is going to make it very clear.

The President can't take into any action in declaring war in Iran

without congressional authorization and we will defund any such activity.

- Jillian? - I'm here.

- I knew this would happen. - I had this-

I said three times, we will get down here and we will not have a person here.

I specifically want to reference information

that we've received in a classified setting

and so for us to discuss that, there are rooms

tucked throughout the basements and tunnels of the Capitol complex

that are available for a more secure discussion or brief.

- Sir, are all your electronics- - You can take the key of one of those.

Thanks.

- No Apple Watch, Ro? - I mean...

What kind of Silicon Valley congressman are you?

You know.

So, have you done this with a lot of your legislation,

file it directly in the Hopper?

No.

We are going to submit our joint amendment to the Hopper,

which is how you submit an amendment or a bill to the House floor

to get it for a vote.

We're coming together with this unique coalition in Constitutional prerogative

to prevent war, so,

I actually think this is a great example of Congress actually working.

Trump just came out with a statement while you guys were talking about Iran.

Oh, what did he say?

Any attack by Iran on anything American

will be met with great and overwhelming force,

in some areas overwhelming will mean obliteration.

No more John Kerry and Obama.

We better hurry.

I was just checking, are pigs flying?

Democrats and Republicans have apparently found something to agree on

or at least these next two gentlemen have.

Recent reporting that was in The Hill I believe

showed that by a margin of two to one,

Americans favor diplomacy and negotiation over war.

President Trump says the military was cocked and loaded

to carry out airstrikes against Iran overnight

when he suddenly decided not to do it.

I'm not looking for war.

And if there is, it'll be obliteration like you've never seen before.

Tonight, senior administration officials say

all options are still on the table.

As long as the President is engaging in wars we don't have to vote on a war.

And if some American soldier, a marine airman dies,

we don't have to accept the blame for that, we can point a finger.

So, all the tough decisions are pushed off to the Executive Branch

and power has shifted as a result.

The military industrial complex,

they got a lot of money to make one we're at war.

They're up here donating to congressman,

and so that's a force that keeps war going.

And unfortunately, I served with some real cowards.

They would rather not ever have to take that vote.

WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER

The biggest thing I found in Washington is just this total risk-aversion.

I mean, people, they don't want to rock the boat.

And people who are in power have a stake in preserving that power.

SUMMER 2019

How many media appearances today? Including Facebook Lives?

- Four? Five? - Four.

Charles, it's like we're goingthrough Groundhog Day each and every week

in the House Judiciary Committee.

We're going over the same facts that were in the Mueller report

and it doesn't seem to be moving the fact that sixty percent of the country

doesn't want to see impeachment go forward.

There was no collusion with Russia.

There was no obstruction and none whatsoever.

On the collusion conspiracy issue, the President is right,

the Mueller report does not establish any such wrongdoing.

But on the issue of obstruction,

Mueller does not agree with the President.

Responsibility now falls to Congress

to hold the President accountable for his actions.

This has nothing to do with the volume one or volume two of the Mueller report.

Gentleman will suspend.

Chairman Nadler and the Democrats on the judiciary committee

are dying to impeach Donald Trump.

They would have impeached him yesterday if they could.

But Nancy Pelosi knows that impeachment is like poisonous candy.

You know, you can look at the candy, you can want the candy,

but if you eat the candy you're gonna die.

She doesn't want Democrats in swing districts

having to take a tough vote on impeachment.

That's a really ugly vote.

It's my view that the Mueller report was the dispositive word on collusion

and that we all ought to move on as a country.

But if Democrats really want to probe these issues,

why are we eating around the edges?

Why don't they just call Robert Mueller?

The former special counsel is about to make back-to-back appearances

before the House Judiciary and the Intelligence Committees.

I don't think I slept very much last night.

This is kind of our version of the Super Bowl, getting ready

for an opportunity to display the work of our office over the last two years

in a very condensed, high-intensity setting.

Alright. Off to see the wizard.

For the last couple of weekends I have spent a lot of time on the phone

with my colleagues, Jim Jordan, John Ratcliffe.

We have had a number of mock sessions

where I'll pretend it's my five minutes

and ask one of my colleagues as if they're Mueller the questions I have

and then they'll turn around and ask those questions of me.

Who's the one member of the Judiciary Committee

who has refused to show up to a single prep session,

a single practice, a single mood court? Ken Buck.

Ken Buck, a gamer, doesn't want to leave any on the practice field.

What we're doing is, we're laying forward

that there are ten separate fact patterns covered in the Mueller report

and in many of those, Mueller could have reached a prosecutorial decision

which he did not do

even though the regulations require him to make that decision.

This is really a critical test for Democrats

who are looking to impeach this president,

this may be their final moment to lay out for the American public

why that is something that should be on the table.

Now, when it comes to Republicans,

they are going to focus on the origins of the Mueller investigation.

I think there were a lot of facts regarding the interaction

of people who didn't like the President and the Russians.

- Who do mean, specifically? - Well, you'll see in just a moment.

Do you have any basis as you sit here today,

to believe that Steele was lying?

As I said before and I'll say again,

it's not my purview others are investigating what you-

So it's not your purview to look into whether or not Steele's lying,

it's not your purview to look

into whether or not anti-Trump Russians are lying to Steele,

here's what I'm kind of noticing, Director Mueller,

when people associated with Trump lied, you threw the book at him.

When Christopher Steele lied, nothing.

Maybe the reason why there are these discrepancies in what you focused on

is because the team is so biased-

- Time of the gentleman has expired. - ...pledge to stop Trump.

Mr. Jeffries of New York is recognized.

I guess he didn't get to the closing.

- Alright. We'll start pulling it. - Yeah.

Alright, we're starting to pull the critical mention.

Try to search for that Florida key word that I found

and then you should be able to copy and paste the transcript portion.

This is a huge moment. Now, I just don't think in Congress though,

I think this is in the country as well

because this kind of can dictate where we go next.

Was there sufficient evidence to convict President Trump or anyone else

with obstruction of justice?

In Office of Legal Counsel,

indicates that we cannot indict a sitting president.

Could you charge the President with a crime after he left office.

- Yes. - You believe that he committed-

You could charge the President of the US with obstruction of justice

after he left office.

Yes.

The liberals will use the answers that Mueller gave on his report

and they will allege that the President committed obstruction

and it's an impeachable offense.

The Republicans will talk about how unfair this investigation was,

that the people that were involved in the investigation were bias.

So, I think both sides have take-aways

and depending on which news organization you listen to,

you're gonna hear that take-away.

I think the people that were pro-impeachment before

are still pro-impeachment,

the people that were anti-impeachment are still anti-impeachment

and most of the country just doesn't care.

This is absolutely not the day that Democrats had wanted it to be.

The Democrats in the committee dais,

look like they had been held at a funeral for too long.

The President, by the way, we know is watching this,

he's been doing so we're told from inside the residence,

not in the West Wing of the White House here.

At the tone, please record your message.

Hey Mr. President, it's your favorite congressman, Matt Gaetz,

great day to be an American.

Give me a ring at your convenience.

I'll call him at the office...

- Mr. President. - Great job. I'm proud of you.

I think we won the day, sir.

Well, it's not over yet. He's still going up there.

But, boy, he's uh...He's shot. He's shot. That's incredible.

You were great today. You and Ratcliffe and a lot of them.

He was great. Is he a friend of yours?

- Yeah, he is. - He was great.

- No, I think we- - You were great. Johnson was great.

- Nobody was not great. - Well, I think the-

-biggest mistake was Nadler.

Bringing this guy in, this was a train wreck for them.

I will guarantee you that when they are polling,

you know, ten days, two weeks from now,

that the Democrats will have gained zero momentum

in their push for impeachment.

Would you tell the guys, your message should be:

"This whole witch hunt must be stopped now!"

"This whole impeachment nonsense must be stopped now."

- Blah, blah, blah. Y'know what I mean? - We'll tell them, sir.

- Okay, Matt. - Well hey, thank you.

- Handsome, so that's always good. - Melania said I was handsome?

You keep telling me that but she never confirms it.

That's always good. Just to say it. So long, Matt.

Take care.

He's very happy.

I haven't read the whole Mueller report, I probably only read about 20% of it

but I read enough of it to decide that it didn't matter.

It's a weapon of mass distraction.

I don't think this is going to change anything here, really.

We have wasted a lot of time

but that's what Congress sort of does on its own, it wastes time.

We're at a very important location,

that defines the edge of where the congress does official business

and where congress switches into fundraising mode.

I can't ask anybody for money on federal property

so, when you want a new committee assignment,

let's say you're tired of being stuck on the Ethics committee,

and you want on the powerful Ways and Means committee,

the first thing the Speaker is gonna tell you is,

they're going to get out the fundraising numbers and say

you're not doing enough work across the street.

So when you hear that code sentence, we all know what it means.

Come down here, cross the street, get a list of rich people

and start begging for money,

not for yourself, not for your re-election, but for the party.

We've just concluded our monthly meeting.

I got the somewhat unfortunate news that I a $124,500 left

that I owe to pay the party for my dues

and a lot of times they're telling you,

hey, if you're on this committee

these are the lobbying groups that you need to go see

or these are the lobbying firms that are most likely to give to your campaigns.

We're taking just a candid look at where you've told me we are,

we will be out of money in a few months.

- We'll be- we'll be broke? - Yes.

If you make me do the typical Washington thing

where I have to go and sit with lobbyists and pack fundraisers,

I will quit.

I really think that we need to hire a fundraiser.

Is there any projection

in which if we grow that renewable small dollar donor base...

People who give me fifty bucks from you know-

The whole point is to one day not need to hire a fundraiser at all,

the whole point is to get there

but it just takes time because you need to get that database.

And at our current operational spending we'll be broke in a few months.

- Right. Exactly. - Great talk.

Well here we are across the street at the NRCC.

I'm sort of persona non grata in this building.

They don't want me in there

because I haven't been doing my work in there for the past six years.

If you go in there you're going to see congressmen sitting in cubicles

going down lists of people who have donated to Republicans before.

In many cases, cold-calling them. Basically, glorified telemarketers.

And the same exact thing goes on at the D triple C as goes on here at the NRCC.

I'm not gonna lie to you, I crossed the street myself.

Like, my campaign doesn't run on fairy dust.

So even though i don't spend there,

there's another building right next to us

where I do spend a lot of time wining and dining.

The difference is, I don't pay the extortion that my party asks of me.

There is somebody doing their work across the street.

His district borders mine.

I think the topography here shaped my thinking about government.

We're organized in hollers.

Like, there's a holler, there's a holler, this is a main holler.

And as long as you're minding your own business in your holler,

you don't go in your neighbor's holler and tell him what to do.

Hey!

Hey cows!

It's not very libertarian of somebody to throw their trash on my field.

And they were having a Budweiser here.

I'm definitely the greenest member of Congress.

I put that on my Twitter profile,

nobody will even challenge me on that point.

Everything in my house runs off solar power. We're off the grid.

My whole house right now is running off of 7104 little batteries

out of a wrecked Tesla model S.

I hate pollution. Okay, led, mercury, sulfur dioxide.

All the things that we can prove are bad, I'm against.

One of the things that I disagree on though, is carbon dioxide.

One of the best things that can happen for the life on this farm is to flourish

is that CO2 goes up.

People forget that.

They forget CO2 is a plant food and we're now calling it a pollutant.

You don't think that climate is an existential threat to human beings?

I absolutely don't think that CO2 man-made or man produced CO2

is an existential threat to us.

And even if we thought CO2 was not good for the planet,

it's probably not the best place to spend your money

or to spend other people's money that you're taxing them on.

Where's the cost benefit?

When you say to the people who might say,

oh well you're from Kentucky,

or you're just protecting the coal miners.

So, it's true, I'm from Kentucky,

but there's not a single operating coal mine in my Congressional District.

Do I have a parochial interest because of coal fired electricity generation?

Yes, I do.

But we look to the government to solve every problem and I think that's wrong.

In 2010, the Koch Brothers signaled

that any Republican who acknowledge climate change would be taken out.

They'd be primaried.

And what that demonstrates is the extraordinary power

of the threat value of money.

The iceberg effect is we see a tiny bit of the contributions on the surface,

but below the water

there's an extraordinary amount of threatened contributions

that have the effect of disciplining members of Congress

and that's what's happening with climate change.

But whether or not the Republicans are more extreme,

the Democrats are also extremely sensitive

and constrained by the way they need to raise money.

Senate Democrats have a supermajority of 60.

The Republicans will be powerless to stop them.

The Democrats couldn't bring climate change legislation

when they had a supermajority in the House and in the Senate

because they knew the cost from the carbon industries

jumping in and defeating Democrats would be too great.

And what we need is an opportunity for Congressman

to decide what to do on the basis of what they think is right

independent of this anxiety that these tiny numbers of very powerful funders

will make it so that their decision is too costly for them or their party.

Chipping away at your rights, chipping away at your freedom,

and now they're attacking our Second Amendment rights,

chipping away at your future. But you can stop them. Right now,

on November 2nd, vote Ken Buck.

He defends our Second Amendment rights.

The NRA political victory fund

is responsible for the content of this advertising.

Sure, I ran for the Senate in 2010

and the NRA spent a lot of money in that campaign.

The truth is that, I've never received more than one or two percent

of my total campaign contributions from the NRA.

I'm not influenced by anybody in the gun area.

I am a firm believer in our 2nd Amendment Rights

and that's why I vote the way I do.

I was a District Attorney for 10 years and it's the best job I've had.

As a District Attorney you really get the 30,000 foot view of crime

in a community

and what can you do to solve that crime

and to change the way a community looks at crime.

You want to shoot bad guys or you want to shoot targets or

- Bad guys. - Chief of staff? What do you say?

Do you have any terrorists?

Do we have any Osama's left?

That guy looks great. The third from the bottom there looks great.

I think candidates, elected officials, and political parties all react

to a narrative created by special interest groups.

That narrative is often single issue, and the narrative is often extreme.

The only way we can save our country and our freedom

is to fight this violence of lies with a clenched fist of truth.

I'm the National Rifle Association of America

and I'm a freedom's safest place.

Boom! That's what I'm talking about.

And if you don't conform to that narrative, you lose support financially,

you lose support of a certain group of voters

who say I'm not going to vote for that candidate,

I want this person who is the most extreme,

the person who's going to throw out the most red meat.

So yes, I think that part of the problem with nuancing

is that people expect to hear red meat, or they consider it a weakness.

Panic in El Paso this morning when a day of shopping turned into horror

with an active shooter on the loose.

Law enforcement officials in Texas say they believe the attack was motivated

by anti-immigrant hatred. The weapon used in today's shooting

was an AK47, semi-automatic assault style rifle.

You know, I'm a proud lifetime member of the NRA, I'm a gun owner.

America has nothing to fear from law abiding gun owners.

Right now, here in studio,

congressman Matt Gaetz, from the great state of Florida.

It is a tough time for our country in these instances of great casualty.

President Trump was right when he said

that it is not the gun that pulls the trigger.

It is this hate-filled motivation that we've got to get to the bottom of.

Thank you guys for having us on. Yeah, thanks again, Todd.

Alright, best of luck to you.

- Hi there, I'm Matt Gaetz. - Marlene, Marlene June.

- Nice to meet you, where are you from? - Redbank, New Jersey.

- Oh, wonderful. - Happy to see you, meet you.

- Nice to see you as well. - I want to be thin, sexy, happy.

- Republican. - I want to be all those things too.

We'll use the soft lens.

Nah, thank you guys. Ah I appreciate you, have a great day.

Or are you just going to do the same thing and sit on your hands?

Do something! Stop letting people die all the time

from these white supremacist terrorists!

If you're angry and passionate about the fact

that we can't get the basic, common sense, gun safety measures in place,

then be angry about the fact that the gun lobby and the NRA

have been spending millions of dollars up here.

To advance their agenda. That's just connecting the dots.

You care about tax policy, health care, the environment,

you gotta care where the money is coming from

and members of the public, voters out there,

they're starting to connect these dots.

Somewhere in America there is a family in their living room

hearing another report about how billionaires and super PACs

and insiders are running Washington and calling the shots

on what happens in their lives.

And they are asking themselves, do we matter anymore?

HR1 says to that family

and millions of families across the country who feel the same way,

we get it. We hear you. We want to change this place.

Nancy Pelosi was convinced by John Sarbanes

to make HR1 the first thing that Congress took on after 2018

and HR1 was the most important reform legislation

that Congress has considered since the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The reforms we proposed: fixing partisan gerrymandering,

making it easier for people to vote, boosting election security,

more disclosure on where dark money is coming,

public financing to power campaigns in this country

so we don't have to go hat in hand to lobbyists and big money donors.

Every single one of those polls at 75, 80, 85% of public.

So, there's a lot of Republicans that support these reforms.

It's just a matter of getting their representatives in Washington

to pay more attention to that and deliver on that.

House Democrats pass sweeping anti-corruption

and voting rights legislation.

234 to 193 on party lines.

There are these messaging bills like HR1,

where the party in power in the House

never really intended for them to pass the Senate.

They're just trying to send a message.

VOTE HERE TODAY

It was a Democrat bill that's focused on getting folks

that had low turnout to turn out to vote

because they believe that if they can turn out those voters

they would win more elections.

I voted against HR1 because I do not support public financing of campaigns.

It is taking money away from taxpayers

to fund efforts that annoy the shit out of taxpayers.

If you are not willing to take on the role of money

in the election of members to Congress, you're not a serious reformer.

Like, you can call yourself a reformer but you're not changing anything

if you don't change the core dynamic of incentives

for electing people into Congress.

A party line vote, Republicans have been killing it noting it would use,

taxpayer dollars to help fund political campaigns.

Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, says it's dead on arrival in the Senate.

A power grab. It's smelling more and more like exactly what it is.

Mitch McConnell called HR1 a Democratic power grab.

And it is, in a small D Democratic sense

because the existing system that we have right now

disables incredibly important swaths of Americans

from being able to participate equally in our political system.

HR1 restores the people's faith

that government works for the people's interests, not the special interest.

I've been critical of Nancy Pelosi. I think in many ways,

she practiced exactly the kind of corruption that I care about addressing.

I don't think she was ever personally corrupt.

But she was one of the biggest fundraisers in Congress.

But I know that many in that Democratic caucus

did not want to vote in favor of HR1

and she basically made it a requirement.

The hardest thing in the world to do would be to get these reforms passed.

Even if Democrats end up getting the opportunity to do it

across the Capitol and in The White House

because it's human nature to feel like if you're in control,

order has been restored and maybe you don't have to go do

all those dramatic things that you talked about.

But the power of this message as it's been used,

this fighting corruption, fixing democracy,

draining the swamp, whatever you want to call it,

the electoral power of that is a validation

that the public across the spectrum wants to see these changes.

The special interests, Wall Street, the career politicians,

the system is rigged and I've been saying it for a long time.

The Super PACs are a scam. They have total control over the candidate.

These interests have rigged our political and economic system

for their exclusive benefit.

But with your help we're going to beat the system.

We're going to unrig the system.

Congratulations, Mr. President.

You said that lobbyists own politicians because they give them money.

You admitted you used to do it yourself

but your own transition team is filled with lobbyist.

Everybody's a lobbyist down there. That's what they are.

- They're lobbyist on Special Interest. - On your own transition team-

We're trying to clean up Washington. Look-

- How can you clean- - Everything down there-

There are no people, they're all people that work-

That's the problem with the system.

What has President Trump done to drain the swamp?

President Trump's most, I think, antiseptic impact on the swamp

has come through a mentality that the professional class around here

is not in charge anymore.

But, when you're talking about draining the swamp,

I thought he was talking about getting rid of the lobbyists

and Special Interest hold on the staff.

With President Trump in office,

the lobbyists and Special Interests have never been less empowered.

President Trump said that he would drain the swamp

taking power away from Washington lobbyists and Special Interest.

Now, more of them have seats at his table in his cabinet.

In total, more than 300 lobbyists now work in the Trump administration,

many overseeing the industries they used to lobby for.

They've essentially sold out government agencies

and the White House to industry.

Wallstreet loves Donald Trump.

Big money contributions from friendly donors are paying off for them.

Large political contributors buy access through President Trump

using political contributions to Trump's Super PAC.

Trump's businesses are making a killing

from political groups and federal agencies.

President Trump's landmark Washington D.C. hotel,

it's been a hot spot for lobbyists

who want to gain favor with the Trump administration.

But if you look at drain the swamp, I am draining the swamp.

Thank you very much.

So, what are you hearing? About our amendment?

That it's still a little bit uphill but uh, they're pushing it.

- What are you hearing on your side? - Same thing.

I'm hearing that there are definitely some members of the war lobby

who are singularly focused on insuring that our work product's not included.

The Khanna Gaetz Amendment passed in the House of Representatives.

The yaes are 251 and the nays are 170. The amendment is adopted.

We got every Democrat vote, and we got 27 Republicans to vote for it

so it is in the house version of the NDAA

and when it was voted on in the Senate, we got 50 votes,

and there were fewer than 50 votes against it.

In the crazy rules of the United States Senate,

even when you get the most votes, you can still lose

if you have not reached a sixty vote threshold.

And w'ere making the case

that because of the broad bipartisan support of Khanna Gaetz in the House,

and because more people voted for it than against it in the Senate,

it should absolutely be presented to the President for his signature.

Where has McConnell traditionally been on these war powers issues?

I think the- the best guess of where he's going to be on this issue is

where the President wants him to be on this issue.

And the President sees this

as an important part of his rebuilding the military

and he's not he's not going to send the message to Mitch McConnell

to work with us on this.

This destructive cycle of intervention and chaos must finally, folks,

come to an end. Come to an end.

We need to ask those who voted for the war

how can you give the President a blank check

and then act surprised when he cashes it?

We keep trying to elect presidents to end wars.

It's no coincidence that Trump became president in the Republican field.

He said that the war in Iraq was a blunder in the Republican primary.

The war in Iraq was a big fat mistake.

And yet we've been too slow to roll back these wars.

And I think we need a Congress willing to stand up to a president

regardless of party.

It would be a very solid brick in the wall

in reestablishing our congressional war powers

if something like Ro Khanna's amendment

could get placed in the National Defense Authorization Act

but it always feels like Charlie Brown and Lucy,

we get ready to kick the football and Lucy pulls it away.

FALL 2019

This is an ABC News special report.

Good afternoon, we're coming on the air right now

with major breaking news from Capitol Hill.

The House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has made that dramatic shift

to decide to open a formal impeachment inquiry of President Trump.

It comes in the wake of President Trump's confirmation

that he withheld military aid from Ukraine

about a week before a July 25th phone call with Ukrainian president,

where he was reported to have encouraged Ukrainian president

to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter

who had business interest in the Ukraine.

Zelensky was interested in javelin antitank missiles

to defend himself from Russian backed rebels.

Mr. Trump replied, I would like you do to us a favor though.

What you just described is a quid pro quo.

We do that all the time. Get over it.

The fact that Trump called Zelensky the day after Mueller testified

tells you everything you need to know about the hubris of this President.

He's very happy.

The President of the United States used taxpayer dollars to shake down

the leader of another country for his own political gain.

Why are Nancy Pelosi and today's House Democrats

not giving President Trump the same due process rights

that Newt Gingrich and Republicans gave to Bill Clinton

during his impeachment process?

Instead what you see are secret hearings, secret depositions,

and then selective leaks to try to fit a pre-determined narrative.

What we see in this impeachment is a kangaroo court

and Chairman Shift is acting like a malicious Captain Kangaroo.

Chairman Shift is acting like a malicious Captain Kangaroo.

Trump's being railroaded by the terrifying Thomas the Tank engine.

This whole thing is a load of Howdy Duty

and is brought to you by the letters F and U.

A lot of younger Republicans who've just been elected

come to me asking for advice about how to grow their profile

and become more proficient in media and online

and I tell them, out the outset,

you make yourself a target when you live like I live.

I mean, if you want to really get in the fight,

there's going to be some return fire

and most of the time when I let folks know that that's the case

they're not interested in anymore advice about how to do it.

I uh, don't go out to eat much because in this town, you know,

if you go out to eat it's always the opportunity for someone

with an iPhone and an axe to grind

to come up and try to have their viral moment at your expense

so, most nights it's not any fancy restaurant.

It's Uber Eats and I'm feeling lamb chops tonight.

Thanks I appreciate it.

This Ukraine stuff, is not impeachable conduct

but it is a different dynamic to litigate for us as members of Congress

than the Russian probe,

because so many of us were involved in the president's campaign.

Gotta watch a little CNN, opposition research.

In 2016 I was speaking at Trump rallies all over the country.

I was communicating with people

who were running the President's campaign in various states

and so I had an insight that this was not someone who was engaged

in some vast criminal conspiracy with the Russian Federation

to negatively impact the US election.

But this ain't Russia.

- Hello? - Hey Mr. President it's Matt Gaetz.

I don't need anything sir just calling to tell you,

you did a great job today. Don't let these people get you down.

We're going to keep fighting for you with all we got.

They're crazy. You're doing fantastic.

Well, thank you.

I got some things because I tell you, you're really a talent.

There aren't many. You're tough and smart and you have the look.

The look is always nice, right?

A little bit. You got the whole deal. But I appreciate it very much, Matt.

- Alright. - I have been watching.

And you got some good people with you too. Some great fighters, I love it.

Hey, Matt, I had a phone call with the president of Ukraine.

It was perfect. I have a friend of mine, who's one of the best guys.

He reads it and he says, "this is like a perfect call."

Yeah. Well, wait till you see what we got for tomorrow.

Well, I'm glad we had stenographers.

These are all certified stenographers too.

I'm glad they put it down,

because otherwise It would be my word against some crazy whistleblower.

I couldn't believe what I put out there.

You know, and I don't like doing that, Matt.

Because, you know, you're talking to heads of foreign countries,

you're afraid to talk...call you.

Well, and Zelensky was shit talking Macron and Merkel.

Oh yeah.

About how they don't do anything and it's the United States,

it's your movement to drain the swamp that inspired Ukraine to better days.

Yeah, well, I tell you what, look,

we get along with all of them, though, Matt, honestly.

But the hardest one is this nutty group of Democrats. They're crazy!

And Nancy Pelosi is stone-cold nuts.

But I appreciate it, Matt. And I'll see you.

I'll be around if you need me, alright? I will not forget...

Thank you. You're the best, Mr. President.

- Say hello to everybody. - Will do.

- Don't be afraid, will win it. - We will, see you.

Thank you, Matt.

Our central point is that regardless of how people feel about the President,

this is no way to run a railroad, you know,

that we should not be hiding things from the American people

and from members of Congress.

So those who want to save peace say that to kind of keep on that message

and then after we're done, we roll back there.

It's another moment in history, actually.

10 years from now you'll be able to say we went down there,

we demanded it.

And we're not allowed in.

- Yeah, we weren't allowed in. - Let's do it.

I'm gathered here with dozens of my congressional colleagues

in the basement of the Capitol

because if behind those doors they intend to overturn the result

of an American Presidential Election, we want to know what's going on.

And so, we're going to try to in there on behalf of the millions of Americans

that we represent that want to see this Congress working for them

and not obsessed with attacking a president

that we believe has not done anything to deserve impeachment.

We're going to go and see if we can get inside, so...

Let's uh, let's see if we can get it.

Congressional Republicans stormed this closed door deposition in a secure room

and disrupted the testimony of Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary.

Do it in front of everybody!

We just want to see what you're doing. Why are you hiding things from us?

Why are you leaking things selectively?

There's three doors to get into the actual SCIF,

into the actual intel committee.

So, after the press conference they all went to the second door

which is where the police officer actually is and he won't let anyone in.

But then they started chanting let us in over and over again

and then they kind of bum rushed the door

to where all the members all just kind of went past the police officer

and they weren't obviously going to arrest them.

It isn't over yet.

Those Republicans are still in that secure room refusing to leave.

One Democratic congressman tells CNN that snacks were brought in

and they are now eating pizza.

We're happy that everything turned out favorably and-

- Making news all over the place. - Hey man.

I talked to Smith and you know, I mean, news looks bad.

- Does it? - Yeah, I mean.

I don't know if they're like getting ready to give up fighting or what.

- But doesn't look good. - Yeah, I haven't-

He keeps telling me that they're still figh-pushing so...

Maybe he's just trying to encourage me. See you, Ro.

Well it was a scene not in the United States Congress but at a fraternity,

I mean you had about twenty Republicans come in, they were yelling,

they brought in their phones into the SCIF which is against the law

and they started ordering pizza

and there were pizza boxes strewn all over the SCIF,

I mean they didn't even clean up. It was really just an embarrassment.

And by the way, Republicans are in that room,

they get to ask questions, they get equal time as the Democrats.

So, it's the height of hypocrisy for Republicans to complain.

Shame.

What an asshole.

Hey man, you just single handedly led a group to shut down

this entire impeachment investigation. What were you thinking, man?

We were uh, like, you know, 300 standing in the breach

to try to stop the radical left from starm- storming over our democracy.

Did the President tell you guys to do this or you did this on your own?

No, I haven't chatted with the President about it

though I suspect he has a view he might want to share after today.

The President tweeted this:

Thank you to House Republicans for being tough, smart

and understanding in detail the greatest Witch Hunt in American History.

You know when you read Madison's Federalist 51,

his theory of separation of powers was very simple.

He said, politicians are ambitious

and ambition will counteract ambition.

You don't really have to worry about the President being too powerful

because there will be ambitious people in Congress

that will want to have their own power

and they'll make sure that they put a check on the presidency.

Madison didn't count on partisanship. He didn't anticipate

that people would be less loyal to the institution they serve in

and more loyal to their party.

And what you've seen now is a total abdication by Republicans

of willingness to hold the president accountable.

STORM THE SCIF

I didn't run as someone to unify Washington.

I ran to change Washington and I do believe

that there is a consensus in the country that that is necessary.

Do you think you exacerbate partisanship?

You know, I am sure that there are days when I advance partisanship.

I think there are days when I advance bipartisanship.

I don't think you sort of choose one style or the other.

I think you can be partisan, bipartisan fluid.

Today the House takes the next steps forward

as we establish the procedures for open hearings

conducted by the House Intelligence Committee

so that the public can see the facts for themselves.

You have endured an orchestrated character assassinated

that was laced with enormous campaign contributions

to the President's election campaign.

Honestly, I did not sleep last night. So frustrated

that I am not able to participate in these hearings as a questioner.

If we were doing this with all cards faced up as fair process,

this would actually being going on in the House Judiciary Committee

where I serve, but because we kicked the Democrats ass on Mueller

they've moved to the Intelligence Committee.

You confirmed to President Trump that you were in Ukraine at the time

and that President Zelensky, quote, "loves your ass" unquote.

Do you recall saying that?

Yeah, it sounds like something I would say.

Can you get a number from Jonathan

how many people have completed our impeachment poll?

Yeah. I'll get that for us.

Has the impeachment been a fund raising boom for both sides?

Absolutely. But I have resisted the temptation

to raise any money off of impeachment.

I haven't even sent out a fundraising letter since the impeachments started.

So around 3:40 head down to the HVC.

- What's the meeting in HVC? - Um, it's on impeachment.

- Okay. - Impeachment, impeachment.

Then 4:30 we're planning on vote times. That'll run till about 5:30.

- There are no committee hearings? - Not a single one.

- Okay. Makes it easy. - Yeah.

I'll just take some more phone calls then.

Let's do it.

Yes, hello?

Hi this is Thomas Massie. Who am I talking to?

This is like Russian roulette,

I don't know if they are happy or angry or undecided.

I'm just taking their calls straight up.

Hi this is congressman Ken Buck's office.

- Is this Congressman Ken Buck? - This is Congressman Ken Buck.

I am one of your constituents.

I am appalled at your position on the impeachment hearing.

I am absolutely appalled that you don't understand the rule of law

or how these things work.

Tell me why you'd believe I don't understand the rule of law.

I'd like to see a really strong Republican Party.

You know, one that can do good for the country

instead of this kind of stalemate,

because of Democrats, because of Trump,

because of the Republicans themselves.

I would like to see a representative of the state of Colorado

actually sit back, wait to judge all the information,

and then draw a conclusion,

because that is in fact the job that we hired you for.

Here's what you have from me,

you have my commitment to keep an open mind.

I'm going to watch as much of this hearing as I can today

while I'm taking phone calls.

The school shooting in Saugus today. That's my alma mater.

I went to school there 30 years ago and it obviously hits home pretty tough.

I'm sorry.

And I'm really hoping that we can get some kind of meaningful action from you

regarding gun control.

I don't really care, we hired you guys.

We elected all of them to do a job. So, do your job and get over yourself.

OK well I'm trying not to interrupt you

but I do have other people that I need to take calls from.

I encourage you to call out the President

when his statements are un-unifying.

And I realize you will face pressure from many voters,

but we must speak the truth, and I encourage you to do that

because I have yet to see that from your office.

I appreciate your feedback very much.

I appreciate you taking the time. I absolutely do.

- That's great take care. - Take care. Buh-bye.

I've had enough.

I have to tell you, I think that this place has drained me

of a certain amount of life.

After having been here for five years, I have no illusion

that what I say anybody cares about.

I have thought about leaving

and I don't know whether this is my last term

or whether I'll run for one more term.

I do know that a lot of the folks at home will not understand

the long-term implications of what's happening here in D.C.

Throughout the White House right now, they're going to do and omni

that apparently is going to bust the budget caps. I just heard.

This President has presented budgets that are huge.

Typically the freedom caucus would be leading the charge to criticize

an Executive Branch proposal that costs that much money.

Now, that's just not the case. And it's not the case

because when Freedom Caucus members look at their political base,

they realize that so much of their base are Trump lovers

where nothing this president does can possibly be wrong

that they can't criticize the President.

So we did 40k for October. 40k.

- Net? - Yes, netted.

And then for November right now, we are already at 15, netted.

- Netted. - Yeah, 15,000.

So, what do you think we'll net then, this month?

- I think we're going to get around 40. - That's amazing.

So, when we met last on fundraising,

you said we were functionally bankrupt

and now what has saved us has been impeachment?

Yeah, so all of it is mostly small dollar

but everyone's doing well off of it. It's not just our office.

Some lobbyists have randomly texted me

that they've donated or given money.

Has there been any revenue from the Special Interest community?

I'd like about $3000. Not much.

- As is usual, then. - Yeah.

But, you know, I mean, if we were to make some announcement

that like we have converted to this new faith

that is absent any lobbyist or PAC money.

And once you cross the Rubicon, you can't go back.

Well that's my only concern with it. What I don't want you to do

is shoot yourself in the foot for a later time in 20 years from now

when you want to run for something that's bigger, you know?

I assure you I will not be running for anything in 20 years.

Never say never.

Before January there were seven members of Congress

who were corporate PAC free.

And today is 60. Six zero.

So, in one election, we've brought in a whole new cohort of members

that are saying, we want to do something different here,

so we have a proposal in HR1 to create a small donor matching system.

This is something Larry Lessig has worked on with me.

If voters give $50 or $25,

a six to one match comes in behind that from the government.

Under small donations when they go to candidates to say,

you know what, I'm not gonna take the big money,

I'm not going to take the PAC money

and I'm going to step into a system

where it's the average citizen who's the most important person to me.

I'm not a career politician.

Party leaders don't control me and they never will.

Corporations do not fund my campaign.

Katie Hill was a new member of Congress, a freshman.

She ran a very different kind of upstart campaign

without corporate PAC money

and she was on the Armed Services committee with me.

And then suddenly Katie Hill was victimized by a husband

who had pictures of her, where she wasn't wearing any clothes

or doing other weird stuff and he leaked them.

And she had to resign from Congress as a result.

You said about the situation this is absurd.

Who among us would look perfect if every ex leaked every photo/text?

I don't think these issues should be partisan in nature.

I think that if someone is trying to destroy one of your co-workers,

you should sympathize with the fact

that the only reason that this information is in the public square

is because someone is committing the crime o revenge porn.

So I sent out a tweet defending President Trump and Katie Hill

in the same tweet, so, Katie just uh, saw the tweet and texted me,

thanks for the shout out though I defs disagree with you on Trump.

To which I replied, it's okay he disagrees with me about you too.

She wrote back, LOL you're a true bridge builder.

Do you think that the way that money is raised here,

the way the lobbyists and PACs operate hurts us or helps us?

Like, what's the play if you're a young person

and you're trying to make it in D.C?

Cuz I'm not sure I figured it out from the fundraising side of things.

Well a lot of my fundraising was literally in a backlash to Trump so,

we're coming from very different places.

Yeah but you weren't raising money from lobbyists.

No, that's my point, is that like I came...

I was able to raise money from individuals.

I didn't take a dime of corporate money.

There are more Democrats that are not taking corporate PAC money

than ever have been.

How many are there now?

I think the last I heard there were like over 65 or something like that.

I think the only- I think there are not many Republicans who don't do it.

- Right. Are you- do you not? Kinda? - I'm thinking about it.

I think you'd be the first on the Republican side. I'm pretty sure.

The first thing that we have to do to change things

is to get money out of politics

and so that's why I feel strongly about other parts of HR1 as well,

including the way the districts are drawn.

I think gerrymandering needs to be gone.

- I agree. - Do you?

- Yes. - Well then why are you not for HR1?

I don't like taking money from the taxpayers to fund political campaigns

because I think that that's like welfare for politicians.

The reason that I'm for this and again,

even if a few years ago I would have been differently,

and by the way, I'm a fucking good fundraiser so like,

I don't need public financing.

It's not for me, it's for people who couldn't have access to that.

And you're talking about people from like North Dakota.

If you're not willing to take oil money from North Dakota,

how are you gonna have a chance?

I came from a political family, I had advantages other people didn't have

but I do think that like,

if you just say everybody gets the same amount of cash, it does shave off

But it's not about everybody gets the same amount of cash

because you have to raise a certain amount on your own

and then it's matched. And it's like 1 to 5.

- That's a fair clarification. - So, you know.

I think you have to show a certain amount of grit

and I was able to jump in at the right moment

because women particularly where mobilized around the fact

that fucking Trump had become president

and I was the like antidote.

I was the thing that they saw that like, could help protect our country

from the guy you're pals with. But um-

He's so great. I'll never love another president again.

You told me that. I remember you telling me that like,

one of the first times I talked to you as we were going to get on the elevator

and I'm like, is this real? Like, do you really believe this?

- I do. - But, um, whatever-

No, I defend flawed people, that's sort of my thing around here.

I mean, that's fine. I defend flawed people too.

I just feel like I'd have to defend our Constitution, but, um...

- Can I get a picture for the camera? - Oh sure, happy to.

- I met you at the party. - Yeah that was a great party!

All right here I got the selfie on.

Do we get some light?

We'll see what we get a little Trump light in our background.

- Sounds good to me. - Alright there you go, thank you.

- Good seeing you again. - Keep up the great work.

We need some more fighters. Nice seeing you.

Nice seeing you.

Hey good to see you my man. Thanks for welcoming us again.

Alright man.

You are awesome.

Thank you for what you're doing every day. You fight our fight.

You're giving it to them in those hearings.

This is only the 4th time that the House Judiciary

has begun considering articles of impeachment.

There's my man. Cheers.

Chris Cuomo, he's one of the great adversaries I have.

TRUMP IS NOT ABOVE THE LAW. IMPEACHE IS YOUR DUTY.

I watched you every night on Fox, I thought you were the bomb.

- Oh, thanks for saying that. - Literally, the bomb.

Today we begin consideration of two articles of impeachment

against President Donald J Trump.

The first article charges

that the President used the powers of his public office

to demand that a foreign government attack his political rivals.

The second article charges that the President obstructed

the congressional investigation into his conduct.

How will history judge this impeachment?

I believe the American people

will remember this impeachment effort unkindly.

Instead remembering that Democrats have been resisting

and looking for an excuse to impeach this President

since the day he was elected.

I hope you've had your fun.

Say goodbye to your majority status

and please join us in January of 2021

when President Trump is inaugurated again. I yield back.

Gentleman yields back. Mr. Gaetz.

House Democrats aren't clarifying that no one's above the law,

they're just clarifying none of them are above partisanship and politics.

The only relevant quid pro quo is the American people's decision

to send President Trump to the White House

in exchange for Trump's commitment to support our workers,

restore our economy, defend our troops and drain the swamp.

We are going to Washington D.C.

and we are going to do what?

Drain the swamp.

What conversations have you had with Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman?

I don't know those gentlemen.

Fruman and Parnas are charged with making $325,000

in illegal straw donation to a Trump Super PAC.

After making these political contributions,

they were setting up meetings

in order to push for the removal of Ambassador Yovanovitch.

Ukrainians who prefer to play by the old corrupt rules

sought to remove me.

- We gotta get rid of the ambassador. - Get her out tomorrow. I don't care.

Her removal allowed someone else to step in, a Trump donor

and EU Ambassador who urged the Ukrainians

to look into the President's campaign rival.

Was there a quid pro quo? The answer is yes.

The hotel mogul donated a million dollars

to President Trump's inaugural committee

which helped him secure his diplomatic post.

It's astonishing to think that we went into the 2016 elections

with Donald Trump appearing to be the anti-corruption crusader

because he had called out Super PACs,

he had said politicians were all owned by the Special Interests.

But what's so tragic about Donald Trump is there was an opportunity for him

to change the status quo, but he was never interested in doing it.

Drain the swamp!

Drain the swamp!

You know, when I first heard that term I hated it,

I said uh, that's so hokey.

I said oh, that's so hokey.

But I said look, let's give it a shot. I tried it, the place went crazy.

The place went crazy, I said whoa. Watch this, then I said it again.

The place went crazy. Then I started saying it like I meant it, right?

We will face this illegitimate impeachment with our heads high,

our facts straight and our commitment to our transformational president

deeply intensified. We'll see you on the field in 2020.

It's not clear it's possible

to get us beyond that blinder of hyper-partisanship today.

There are real differences we have to work out.

But Donald Trump is a short-term problem.

Whether he gets reelected or not he will be gone.

And I am so absolutely convinced

that we have broken the core institution of our democracy.

And at a certain point winning an elections in a broken system

doesn't get you anything.

It might get you a victory on election night,

but it doesn't give you the capacity to govern it.

And if we can't rise above the partisan difference,

country over party

for the single purpose of fixing the institution of Congress,

then our government will just continue to fail.

We're looking at 3488 pages of the National Defense Authorization Act

for the Fiscal year 2020.

They introduced it at 10 pm the night before we had to vote on it.

The leadership assures you that you do not have to read this bill.

Nancy Pelosi and Kevin McCarthy each have their own summary of this bill

which is only two pages long.

One page, front and back,

and it says oh, there's a pay-raise in here for the military.

The efforts that I've taken with Barbara Lee

on the other side of the isle to curb the wars that we're in,

none of that made into this NDAA.

But the NDA has never failed.

It's one of those trains that when it leaves the station,

it's going to its destination

and so the vast majority of the money in this bill

goes to the military industrial complex, not the soldiers,

but because they've got a pay raise for soldiers in this 3488 page bill,

a lot of people don't need to read any further.

Like, man, I can't vote against that.

We've just stepped off the floor

where the National Defense Authorization Act passed

and pretty bittersweet for me.

You know, I'm glad to see our troops get a raise,

I'm glad to see a lot of things for our military families in that bill

but it is deeply saddening that Khanna Gaetz was left out

despite having the support of the people,

the support of the House of Representatives

and more votes for it than against it in the Senate.

The bipartisan amendment to stop the war in Iran

stripped by the White House.

At some time we can't just rhetorically give standing ovations

when the President says we're going to end endless wars

and continue to vote to fund them.

I voted no, the defense budget was too high in my view

and the fact that they had stripped the Iran amendment

and they had stripped Yemen amendment uh, I couldn't vote for it.

Now, I understand it was a tough vote for people

because they did have increase for the troops

and they did have increase in terms of parental leave for federal employees,

but the fact is we shouldn't be having these kinds of votes.

We should have clean votes on these issues

as opposed to what they do

which is force you to cast a tough vote

because they lump in pay increases for the troops

with not stopping the war in Iran.

I thought there was more good than bad in the bill

and so I voted for it but I also can understand

why someone would take a different position

because there's just so much more that should have occurred here

to reflect the overwhelming will of the people in this country.

You know, anytime you see the votes line up with the people

and yet the outcome doesn't happen it is a reflection of a broken system.

- Are you Congressman Gaetz? - Yeah.

You have got to be kidding me with this defense of Trump.

- The guy used tax- payer money- - I'm not kidding at all, man.

- Don't listen to him. - Wait a second, I'm an attorney.

- I'm a smart guy. - Don't listen to him.

- The American people are with you. - We need more people like you...

The American people are with you, sir.

What about Joe Biden?

Answer the question!

I think what frustrates people today is

it seems we are unable to find a sense of what can we do together.

But at our best, our country has risen to the challenge

of finding common purpose or the common good.

We've done it when we have defeated tyranny in World War II.

When we helped establish the International Order.

We've done it in building the Interstate highways,

winning the Cold War,

inventing the internet, sending a man to the moon.

Our country has done extraordinary things

and most of those extraordinary achievements have been bipartisan.

So the idea that we can't rise to the occasion again

defies American history.

I don't know how to say this as strongly as I feel it,

because you know,

I'm a sappy patriot

who deeply loves the traditions of our country,

not that there aren't things to criticize

and I spend most of my time finding how to criticize them

but, the dream, the ideals of this republic,

are things we all should be proud of

and we have to find a way to convince people to fix it.

Because it's not as if there aren't hard problems in the future

we need to solve.

Everybody is so obsessed in deciding what we should do

as if we can do something.

Everybody's arguing about you know should we have single payer healthcare,

or climate change legislation?

As if that's possible to get those things done.

None of these issues can be addressed sensibly

until we address the deep corruption inside of our government.

They are our people in our country and I understand it, I relate to it,

who are so angry at Washington

that just the simple act of handing someone a baseball bat

and saying go up there and shake things up

gives them a certain amount of satisfaction. I understand that.

And what we're trying to do with our reforms

is say these can be as consequential as any baseball bat could ever be

because instead of tearing your democracy down to satisfy your anger,

we're going to build it up

and we're going to put you right back in the middle of it.

There's no incentive for leadership to reduce its own power

by reforming Congress.

But Congress will react when the people stand up and demand action.

The force that runs everything is the Electorate.

Everybody up here can lose an election.

It doesn't matter at all how powerful you are

so, the final arbiters of who holds power here

are still the voters back home.

YOUR VOTE IS THE ONLY ANTIDOTE

So many of the challenges that are impacting our country

aren't going to impact Republicans and Democrats differently.

It's going to impact us all the same.

And so I think the thing we can do to drain the swamp the most

would be just achieve some common understanding

that on a lot of this stuff we are in the same rowboat.

And if we're rowing different directions the whole time,

we're just gonna spin on the top of the water.

In 230 years since the U.S House of Representatives began its work,

only twice has it launched the debate we will witness today.

Democrats will bring to the full House

two articles of impeachment against President Trump.

Country over party, come on, where's your soul?

Right here.

Matt Gaetz, save our country.

You could be a hero, dude. You could be a hero.

You could stand up for our country. The Constitution, dude.

- Go back to Russia. - My Goodness!

You are not bad. You can do it, I believe in you.

Go, truth! Truth!

On December 18, 2019, The U.S. House of Representatives

voted to impeach President Trump.

Article One is adopted.

No Republicans voted in favor of either article of impeachment.

I'm coordinating with White House Council.

There will be no difference between the President's position and our position.

We all know how it's going to end.

There's no chance the president's going to be removed from office.

Two weeks later, President Trump ordered the killing

of Iranian Major General Osama Soleimani,

escalating tensions between America and Iran.

The President should not have taken an offensive action against Iran

without coming to Congress

and this could get us into another Middle East war

where American lives are at risk and trillions dollars are wasted.

On January 9, 2020, the House passed a bill reasserting

its Constitutional war powers regarding Iran.

Matt Gaetz and Thomas Massie were 2 of only 3 Republicans to vote in favor.

An hour before I went to vote on that I got a call from the president

and he wanted me to vote with the party or I was gonna get a primary challenge

and sure enough within 12 hours of voting

the way that I felt I should vote, I got a primary opponent.

And now, the next 90 days of my life are going to be a sort of hell

where I have to go do what I hate to do,

which is get on the phone, grovel, raise money and try to beat this guy.

And I can trace it all back to that one vote.

- Do you regret your vote? - I don't regret that vote at all.

I told the President, if the worst thing that happens to me for this vote

is I have to go back to my farm and live out my days, I'm okay with that!

Ken Buck voted with his party against the Iran war powers resolution.

He has decided to run for reelection.

Taking on President Trump it is unwise.

And President Trump has no problem doing a touchdown dance

every time a Republicans critic loses

and so he reinforces the idea that it is a bad idea to take him on.

On February 27, 2020, Matt Gaetz announced

he would swear off all federal PAC money

becoming the first Republican congressman to do so.

I will never again accept a donation

from a federal political action committee. Not one red cent.

The American people are my one and only Special Interest.

- How do you feel? - I feel great man!

I feel relieved, feel like a tremendous weight has been lifted.

Don't know what it's gonna mean

but I tell you it's one of my best days in Congress.

A few weeks after Gaetz's speech,

the COVID-19 pandemic paralyzed the United States.

To bail out the economy, Congress approved

the largest stimulus spending bill in American history.

Tucked into the legislation

were hundreds of billions of dollars in giveaways secured by lobbyists

for corporations and special interests.