After the Mar-a-Lago raid, former Vice President Joe Biden has been accused of possessing a large number of so-called "compartmentalized" sensitive documents. That's the highest level of top-secret government documents not only accused, but admitted possession.
00:02:20.660Biden's lawyers, by the way, were with the FBI as they looked for documents in the Wilmington residence of the president.
00:02:27.940The FBI wouldn't allow, you may remember, Trump's attorneys to be present in the president's office space when they were searching and seizing documents.
00:02:40.460Here's former director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, on the difference in circumstance and treatment of President Trump and President Biden by the FBI.
00:02:51.720As the former DNI looking, you know, at the disparity in the treatment between President Biden and former President Trump, I mean, it's remarkable.
00:03:00.560And, you know, you want to talk about dirty little secrets.
00:03:03.360I mean, I think that what we saw was an unprecedented raid of the former president as a way of targeting a political opponent.
00:03:10.940And I think that was intended to lead to an unprecedented prosecution that has now hit a roadblock, if you will, named Joe Biden.
00:03:19.100I don't think that the Biden Department of Justice ever thought they'd be sitting around saying, well, how are we possibly going to prosecute former President Trump for conduct that President Biden has so clearly committed at a level that is so more egregious and with such a greater frequency?
00:03:37.220And I think that's why they're in the mess that they are.
00:03:40.140And I think that's why you see Merrick Garland punting with another special counsel.
00:03:46.500Some Biden supporters are jumping ship, others trying to defend him as best they can.
00:03:52.600Either way, Biden's in a mess and perhaps a mortal mess for his presidency.
00:04:00.540That's why I say I'm a political justice warrior.
00:04:03.180It looks like Biden may be nearing justice.
00:04:06.280Now I'm waiting for them, the FBI SWAT team and investigators, to pull up to the White House to have a little talk with Joe about all those secret documents that he obviously took illegally.
00:04:33.320And that suits this political justice warrior just fine.
00:04:37.660And it feels like the beginning of the justice Joe Biden has eluded for a half century.
00:04:43.800Congressman James Comer's House Oversight Committee has been working for weeks and investigating President Biden's business dealings, dealings with his son, Hunter, and various governments across the globe.
00:04:54.940Congressman Jim Jordan's Judiciary Committee has already begun investigating the Biden document scandal.
00:05:02.660And Congressman Dan Bishop of North Carolina is a member of the Judiciary Committee, one of the group of 20, the conservatives who negotiated important, historic reforms, really, in the 118th Congress.
00:05:28.380I want to say before we go anywhere that, you know, with 20 stepping out like that, it's not an easy thing to do.
00:05:37.160We had people who were known to be conservatives who were attacking us from the inception.
00:05:43.620You were, Lou, though, a voice that said that wouldâyour words were welcome from the beginning, and they provideâI can tell you, when you're under that kind of assault and doing something that difficult, to have stalwart, great, strong voices who know what they're talking about, giving sustenance to the effort, is more appreciated than I can express.
00:06:07.940Well, that's very kind of you, Congressman.
00:06:10.080I have to say, when you talked about what's now become known as the 20, to see for the public, the American public, given all of the ratings on our federal government, the trust in federal government, to see the 20 stalwarts stand up as patriots with courage,
00:06:32.320and to really reform the Congress of the United States and give the people a chance to find their way back to their republic and to save this republic.
00:06:45.760I don't think it's any less important than that, to be straightforward about it, Congressman.
00:06:50.060What you all did givesâfirst of all, it gives Kevin McCarthy a chance to be an outstanding speaker because of the transparency, the accountability, the fact that every congressman and woman is now truly a representative
00:07:08.040and has an opportunity to represent their constituents.
00:07:12.380It is justâit's such a powerful moment, I believe, in American history.
00:07:22.060The worst thing for Kevin McCarthy, for the Republican conference as a whole, for the American people, would have been for us to drift into this majority.
00:07:32.260Kevin, elected speaker from the outset, and some cosmetic things going on that look good, but not really having a clear agreement of exactly what we're going to fight for on behalf of the American people,
00:07:46.920beyond just a list of kind of bullet points of poll-tested language.
00:07:53.740And it was funny, as we went through that week, Lou, with a lot of screaming memes, the media, mainstream media, of course, exploiting it to say,
00:08:38.360And it's about time we see some of it.
00:08:40.440Without question, without question, and I suspectâwell, I know that I'm going to say most Americans had no idea that their representatives didn't vote on every bill,
00:08:54.180didn't even participate in some of the most important legislation, frankly, particularly, for example, the omnibus.
00:09:02.080I mean, $1.7 trillion, and nobody had more than just a quick whistle, and here you go.
00:09:10.440No chance whatsoever to do anything to shape it.
00:09:15.520That is what, as you all have been talking about, has to end, and you have reformed Congress to the point now that there is an opportunity to do great things,
00:09:29.160I mean, the American people, I really, I think, I sense this across the country, that you've given Americans a chance to reevaluate their government and to look at what's possible now.
00:09:45.880And that's a, you know, that's about as much as anyone can ever ask for, to have a chance to do it right.
00:09:54.640And you guys have got it, and you're already underway.
00:09:56.880You're on the Judiciary Committee, Homeland Security.
00:10:01.940You guys aren't just, you know, sort of, you use the word drift in.
00:10:08.620You guys appear to be highly organized and highly motivated and headed and know exactly what direction you want to go in.
00:10:17.460We have achieved an agreement that is multifaceted, that is well-structured, well thought out.
00:10:25.600It has been hammered out with other members of the Republican Conference on behalf of Kevin McCarthy.
00:10:33.380It provides as a poll star in so many ways.
00:10:36.520And, you know, Lou, one of the things that people said in those first, that first day or so, that was sort of the reason for not doing this or the criticism they would say was, well, where does this end?
00:10:57.200But that is, you know, what has become atrophied about our democracy is that everybody wants it to be a show thing.
00:11:08.040It is, you do the same things over and over again.
00:11:12.000You have the trappings of democracy, but everybody knows what the end game is before the first shot is fired.
00:11:18.000And you know that a handful of appropriators and big guys in the back rooms are going to decide everything.
00:11:22.900And somehow people's sense of security sometimes suggests to them that that's preferable to having anything where you may not know the end from the beginning.
00:11:34.900But I submit, again, that it's better to see what you can synthesize when you're fighting out really important ideas.
00:11:43.560And so I, you know, I think it has been an opportunity for people to see things.
00:11:50.160You're right, Lou, one of the main points of this agreement, particularly from my vantage point, was the work.
00:11:55.340And I had the lion's share of the responsibility for negotiating this part.
00:11:59.460Was it was the select subcommittee to take on the weaponization of the federal government against the people that sort of deep state FBI, DOJ intelligence community,
00:12:12.760the way they've kind of metastasized and grown out of control.
00:12:16.340And what we had sort of reverted, reverted to the norm up here.
00:12:20.620And I noted a lot of comments that came across social media about it was, look, there's hardly anybody on the floor, you know.
00:12:27.300And so what we saw was Americans turned to the Congress and they saw us all on the floor of the House for a week working over things that were that were very difficult.
00:12:38.640There's a lot of behind the scenes, but I think you're right, Lou, the people were refreshed by it.
00:12:46.040And I think it produces some expectations that we that we persist going forward.
00:12:55.420It's as though representatives have been beaten down by their own leadership over the course of the last 20 years.
00:13:06.240As if you were, I mean, in some cases, as if you were just simply an ancillary nuisance to the decisions that were being made by Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, John Boehner.
00:14:14.640You know, you said a couple of things there.
00:14:16.180I'd like to comment on, you said, first of all, we are a big deal.
00:14:19.220I don't think of myself as any kind of a big deal, but the fact is 750,000 Americans are represented by me under, in my congressional district.
00:14:29.780And the notion, and, and another thing, uh, you said is, and these fit together that, that, uh, that we've been sort of beaten down by leadership.
00:14:37.560Actually, I think we've been, um, maybe beaten down or weakened by our own, the expectations that have come to pass, the norms that have emerged.
00:14:47.680And I know that this, you know, leadership party leadership in, in, uh, in, uh, parliamentary bodies, not just in the United States, but elsewhere, they commonly do sort of follow a pecking order perhaps.
00:15:00.500But really, if you're getting an institution that is as important as the United States Congress, and you're trying to figure out who should lead one, you know, the majority faction of it, shouldn't that be an open discussion?
00:15:14.060I mean, is there any reason to believe, particularly if it hasn't been performing all that well?
00:15:20.120And I don't think most Americans think Congress is a bowl of cherries.
00:15:23.680I'm not, that it has really been doing, you know, accomplishing the, the task for the American people.
00:15:29.740So is, does it make any sense the way you would pick a leader is just by turning the notch or turning the, the, the, the knob one notch on the existing pecking order.
00:15:40.540Kevin McCarthy had been in place for 14 years in leadership.
00:15:44.060Um, and, and I don't know that that's the way you resolve that, but if, if indeed that is the case, if we're going to proceed that way, then you certainly have to have a serious discussion over what our priorities are going to be and how we're going to accomplish them for the American people in detail and in a serious way.
00:16:01.300So I was really pleased that we, I'm, I honored the 20 that were with us.
00:16:07.340I particularly, uh, expressed my gratitude to the five who went out first in public and said, we're not voting for Kevin McCarthy.
00:16:17.560So they are the ones who showed the most courage.
00:16:20.020And some of those were the guys left on the field at the tail end after we came to a point where we believed what was the wise course of action under the circumstances was to, was to, and we had this agreement that seemed possible.
00:16:33.800We nailed it down and then we changed our votes to McCarthy.
00:16:36.980Those, some of those same courageous, if not all of those courageous five were the last ones hanging on and they had a different view, but without them, it would have not been possible.
00:16:45.880And without the 20, Lou, a lot of people are, are throughout the Republican conference elsewhere.
00:16:51.520Many of our critics out in conservative land are now talking about how great some of the things are that we achieved in this agreement, but not one of them, not one rule change, not one agreement on legislative policy strategy would have been accomplished by this point in time.
00:17:47.380I, and as you say, the final five or six, but, uh, to me, all 20, uh, 21 of you really, uh, uh, made a difference and, and, and an important difference going forward.
00:17:58.100So, uh, I, I just think it's a wonderful moment in American history and it's one that we all ought to treasure.
00:18:03.800Uh, and I do think that, uh, I, I just have such high hopes now.
00:18:08.820I haven't had many high hopes over the last, I'll tell you this, uh, the last few years, but, uh, I've got them now because of what you all did.
00:18:17.160I, I want to turn to your, you're on the Judiciary Committee, Homeland Security, and I'm going to throw this at you.
00:18:24.260I was so thrilled that Dan Crenshaw was not a chairman of your committee, uh, because I see him as a modern day John McCain, uh, who, you know, attacks the right for the benefit of winning the, uh, the, the approval of the left.
00:18:41.360So he can get on television, uh, and to see, uh, Congressman Green step up as chairman.
00:18:47.580I think that just wouldn't have happened again.
00:18:49.920That would not have happened in my opinion without, uh, last week.
00:18:55.640Well, Lou, I think you're, you make a very strong point there that I don't differ.
00:18:59.640Well, of course, you know, as we, uh, undertook this effort, uh, Crenshaw was one of those who went public and, and put it in the, in the nastiest terms.
00:19:09.320He could possibly think of calling us legislative terrorists.
00:19:12.800Uh, I mean, that kind of language, I, if that's constructive, uh, I don't know, uh, and whose ball ball game it would be.
00:19:21.140And to the point you just made, uh, Mark Green's a fine fellow.
00:19:25.300He's going to be a good chairman of Homeland Security.
00:19:27.740I anticipate continuing to serve on that committee under him.
00:19:33.460Um, and, and I, uh, but I think that you're onto something that is pretty significant.
00:19:39.260I think Dan Crenshaw discredited himself with the rhetoric that he used, and I don't think he's the only one.
00:19:45.040I think, uh, Mike Rogers by the, uh, from Alabama, who's the chairman of home of, uh, armed services, uh, and a very important figure in this Congress, you know, threatened that not one person who voted against McCarthy would receive a sitting, would, would be appointed to a standing committee in this Congress.
00:20:01.500And, uh, cause he's on the steering committee and, um, let the threats roll.
00:20:06.460He then, uh, you know, uh, further dishonored himself on the floor at the very tail end.
00:20:12.460If you remember the confrontation between him and Matt Gates, Lauren Boebert and so forth.
00:20:16.720And, um, I think that is a further salutary outcome of the process that we embarked upon.
00:20:24.700You saw people sort of show their true selves and, um, and I do not buy into the notion, the entitlement notion or the, the notion of the few powerful that tell everybody else what to do.
00:21:02.500There's some people up in Congress who, frankly, Lou, I hate to say it, but the majority, um, who are comfortable being told what to do.
00:21:12.140Um, I don't think that's the American people.
00:21:14.300I don't think that's the best ethos in this country.
00:21:17.180And I think we ought to work toward people who have independent minds who come together and do the hard work to agree on the way we're going to change things and put this country on the right path, rather than bring our hands in fear about how, uh, you know, if we do anything out of the ordinary, we'll be turning the floor over to the Democrats or caving in to the Democrats or something like that.
00:21:53.460It's really important to be out in the public.
00:21:56.000Uh, you and I know that the Democrat party is run by Marxist Dems.
00:22:01.540You and I know this, this white house, uh, has been turned over to a puppet president, an impaired puppet president who is managed by Marxist Dems and the Marxist Dems who run the Democrat party and the president of the United States are trying to destroy this country.
00:22:20.380Uh, and to watch Hakeem Jeffries performance, uh, uh, on the installation of the new speaker was an embarrassment, whether he knew it or not, whether his conference knew it or not.
00:22:32.740Could I interject on one thing there, Lou?
00:22:35.660One thing he said in that, that ridiculously long speech where he was supposed to have the grace to introduce Kevin McCarthy as the new speaker.
00:22:45.340One thing he said there was he touted in repeated comments, the unanimity of the Democratic caucus.
00:23:04.120It's not America, but it is Marxist and it is exactly who they are marching to, uh, every possible beat of that Marxist drum, uh, which is to the, which will destroy this Republic if we let it persist.
00:23:19.940And I think, and I think again, going back to your role, that of all of your colleagues in the 20, uh, you made a real difference for the American people.
00:23:29.480And the more that we keep those cameras on you all while you're in that, uh, I, I hope you guys are on the floor all the time.
00:23:37.100And I hope everyone who wants to take six months off, uh, has to work the hardest.
00:23:42.360Uh, this is, this is a, we have a, we have a Republic, as you well know, we are on the precipice.
00:23:49.280We are looking at an, an inflection point in our history in which every, every freedom we have, our constitution is at risk now.
00:23:58.880Uh, and what better time, uh, to serve with all of the energy and fidelity that, uh, that can be mustered by our Congress.
00:24:08.580And I just, uh, I just want to say thanks to all of you, uh, uh, for setting that standard and, uh, and already underway to get that tough work done.
00:24:18.080And I know that you are aware that we always give our guests the, the last word.
00:24:23.040So Congressman, if I may, I'm going to ask you for your concluding thoughts here.
00:24:27.120And again, thanks for being with us today.
00:24:37.880And, uh, and to the point you just made about the Marxist ideas and their, and their approach to government has been a failure for as long as that's been on the face of the earth.
00:24:47.040And they are, they have overtaken the Democratic Party.
00:24:51.720It's produced the most successful civilization in the history of mankind.
00:24:56.040And all we must do is embrace those fundamental ideas, show that we, that those are our values and we will not back down from them and that we're competent and, and we'll be energetic enough to make government work for the American people, not for some special interest.