[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 99 (Thursday, June 9, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H5441-H5444]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     REALITY TV PROGRAMMING TONIGHT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2021, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
(Mr. Perry) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. PERRY. Madam Speaker, reality TV. I think most of us are familiar 
with reality TV. You are going to see some of that tonight. Now, when 
reality TV first started, people watched that, they were enthusiastic 
about it, maybe a little intoxicated at times.
  I don't know how many shows you had to watch. I don't know how many 
iterations you had to watch, Madam Speaker, before you figured out, 
well, this really isn't reality. This isn't even real, right? The drama 
was contrived, the relationships made up. I suppose it was all to make 
you feel better about your own life, watching the crazy, unhinged 
existence of these aberrant things on TV.
  Ladies and gentlemen, you are going to see some more reality TV 
tonight, on this January 6th alleged committee. I call it an alleged 
committee because it is not really a committee. There is no minority. 
There is no minority on the committee. I know because I am in the 
minority. When you have a committee basis, you have the majority, they 
pick their members, and the minority picks their members. But when the 
majority picks members for the minority, they are the majority. It is 
all one side. What you are going to hear is a one-sided tale.
  Madam Speaker, this is not a court of law, but it is kind of like 
trying to be one in front of the public, trying to act like it is a 
court of law for the public to decide. It is a show trial. This is a 
Soviet-style show trial.
  Unfortunately, there are huge things happening in people's lives 
right now. They are paying the highest prices they have ever paid to 
drive back and forth to work or to daycare or to get their kids to 
school or if they can even afford a vacation. If you have got a small 
child, you are worrying every day, am I going to be able to get formula 
to feed my child? Of course, we have got this border crisis, cost of 
living, supply chain, all that stuff, and we are spending millions of 
dollars.
  This should actually be a campaign contribution to my friends on the 
left. The FEC should make them file a report. Millions and millions of 
taxpayer dollars for a show trial, a Soviet-style charade.
  How do we know? We know so many ways. We know in so many ways. Like I 
said, we are going to get one side of a story. The outcome has already 
been determined, Madam Speaker, by the people on this so-called 
committee. They issued subpoenas. But they didn't tell the people they 
issued the subpoenas to; they told the press. Does that sound like how 
things normally go in a court of law where due process is happening?
  But this isn't a court of law. You are just supposed to believe it is 
one. You are also supposed to believe there is due process. But there 
isn't. You are supposed to believe that this is seeking the truth, that 
this is seeking some kind of justice, that this is a fact-finding 
mission for which the legislature will then promulgate laws to make 
sure that mistakes made in the past never happen again.
  Ladies and gentlemen, it couldn't be further from the truth.
  How do I know? How do you know? Because these folks have hired the 
producer from ABC for this prime time show. We could be having this 
alleged hearing right now. I am here right now. My colleagues are here 
right now. Madam Speaker, you are in the chair right now, but this is 
being delayed until prime time with a TV producer, because it is a 
show. That is all it is.
  These are the same folks that if you want to call it evidence, they 
took somebody's text message, and they changed it to say what they 
wanted it to say. If it is evidence, they just tampered with evidence.
  Madam Speaker, this is an abomination. This is an outrage. This is an 
affront to our American Republic and to the order and the rule of law 
and to justice.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Biggs), my 
good friend, for some comments about what is going to happen, what you 
are going to see tonight.
  Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, it is my pleasure to take a few minutes.
  The first point I will talk about, the most fundamental aspect that 
this needs to be contextualized with is that the Democrats have 
basically corrupted every institution in America, not the least of 
which is this institution, not the least of which are the committees 
and the roles of committees.
  The gentleman from Pennsylvania said this is a show trial. He is 
exactly right. This is designed for television. It is not designed to 
find truth. It is not designed to say, let's come up with a legitimate 
legislative purpose, which is what the Supreme Court says you have to 
have if you are going to have a subpoena in the first place. You have 
to have a legitimate purpose. They don't have any.
  So these are the same folks that sit on this committee, that are 
running this committee. Don't forget, they ran the two sham 
impeachments. The last sham impeachment was such a debacle, such an 
embarrassment to our institutions and the Constitution that the Chief 
Justice of the Supreme Court said, I am not going to show up.
  So who do we have and what do we see? Well, they are not going to 
talk about tonight that four witnesses--four witnesses have testified 
under oath that 4 days before January 6, President Trump authorized up 
to 20,000 National Guard troops. Why won't they present that? Because 
it is indicia of what we would call in law the mens rea or culpability, 
your state of mind. And the state of mind said, we have to protect the 
Capitol.

                              {time}  1330

  What that means is there is no intention to incite. There is no 
intention to cause harm. But you are not going to hear about that, even 
though that has been testified to four different times.
  The FBI has indicated pretty clearly that there was no collusion by 
President Trump to incite a riot on January 6. In fact, no collusion by 
President Trump or by any Member of Congress.
  In fact, FBI Director, Christopher Wray, testified in the Committee 
on the Judiciary that he could not call what happened there an 
insurrection. But that is not what you are going to hear from the 
Democrats because they love that term, because they are all about 
hyperbole.
  How about our former colleague, Denver Riggleman, a former Republican 
working for this committee? What did he say? Just the other day, he 
said: ``There is no smoking gun indicating that President Trump planned 
for the U.S. Capitol to be overrun by his supporters.'' But you are not 
going to hear that because this is--as they have accidentally said a 
couple of times--not about finding the truth but about narrative-
building, and distracting the American public from the disaster that 
the Biden administration, Speaker Pelosi and her Democrats in the 
House, Chuck Schumer and his Democrats in the Senate, has perpetrated, 
has foisted upon the American people.
  So you know what the Democrats want? They don't want us talking 
about: It costs me 85, 90 bucks to fill up my car with gas.
  They don't want you talking about that.
  They don't want you talking about: Hey, the size of that pack of 
tortillas that I just bought last week before it came out, they used to 
look like the regular corn tortillas. Now they look like mini 
tortillas. Same price, the same packaging.
  They don't want you talking about that.

[[Page H5442]]

  They don't want you talking about: Hey, kids, we are not going to be 
able to go on vacation this year.
  They don't want you talking about any of that because that is what 
Americans are talking about.
  They don't want you talking about the border. They don't want you 
talking about that.
  When I was down to the border twice last week--two different borders, 
three different sectors--everywhere I walked, there were people coming 
up. You know what these folks told me? They said, ``We love Joe 
Biden.'' In fact, in Mexico he has got a 52 percent approval rating, 
while he is only 32 percent in the United States.
  They want us to not talk about that stuff. They want to distract us. 
But the bad news for them is this: The reason you have to bring in an 
ABC producer is because your show stinks and that committee reeks, and 
no amount of production is going to give Liz Cheney charisma. Sorry to 
say. No amount of it is going to change and take that apart.
  I know that there are others who want to talk about this but I just 
have to ask four or five things, if I can, Mr. Perry.
  Mr. PERRY. Absolutely.
  Mr. BIGGS. Why is Nancy Pelosi off limits? Why isn't she testifying 
before that committee?
  Oh my goodness, we can't ask her what happened. We can't ask her what 
she knew, what she didn't know.
  We can't ask her why she didn't approve and encourage Mayor Bowser to 
accept the authorized and offered 20,000 National Guard troops.
  Why has the committee not released 14,000 hours of video of January 
6? Why is that missing?
  Why has the committee selectively, without appropriate context, 
leaked documents or testimony?
  Why did Adam Schiff come out here and put up a poster and later have 
to admit that, yeah, he had doctored the poster?
  Because they are lying. They altered evidence, as Mr. Perry said.
  I will just close with this: Committee member, Jamie Raskin, he loves 
to say that anybody who questions an electoral outcome of 2020 is 
telling the big lie.
  Of course, he questioned the 2016 election outcome. Was that the big 
lie? Hillary Clinton questioned that.
  Joe Biden has already said the 2022 midterms are going to be 
illegitimate. Why? Because he is going to get his butt kicked, that is 
why.
  I will tell you something. Jamie Raskin selectively edited video he 
used in the second Trump impeachment just a few days before the 
President was going to be vacating the Oval Office. If anyone is 
persisting in telling a big lie, it is members of the J6 Committee.
  That is why they have to bring in a producer. That is why they 
deleted the tweet from their star witness from tonight. And what did he 
say back then? He said the Proud Boys were organizing together.
  How many police were there at 11:22 on the steps of the Capitol? I 
Count 1.
  This is a deliberate act. And he wasn't talking about the people who 
came in. He said someone in authority left the door open and the mob 
walked in. That is their witness tonight. They deleted that text.
  This is an illegitimate committee. You are going to see illegitimacy 
on display meant to deceive the American people. That is what happens 
in former Soviet Union. That is what happens in Venezuela. That is what 
happens whenever tyrants and authoritarians get a little bit of power 
or think they have any.
  Mr. PERRY. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. 
Biggs).
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Nehls).
  Mr. NEHLS. Madam Speaker, Representatives Perry and Biggs speaking 
the truth here today.
  Madam Speaker, listen to these words: ``Sense of desperation and 
disappointment may lead to more of an incentive to become violent. 
Congress itself is the target. There has been a worrisome call for 
protestors to come to these events armed, and there is a possibility 
that protestors may be inclined to become violent. Propensity to 
attract white supremacists, militia members, and others who actively 
promote violence may lead to a significantly dangerous situation for 
law enforcement and the general public alike.''

  These words are taken directly from the intelligence assessment on 
January 3. So why didn't they request the National Guard? Why were the 
Capitol Police so ill-prepared?
  A couple of months ago, I had the opportunity to question then-D.C. 
National Guard Commander, General Walker. Now he is the House Sergeant 
at Arms.
  I asked General Walker, I said, ``General, if the National Guard 
would have been on our Nation's Capitol on January 4 as the 
intelligence called for, would January 6 have ever happened?'' And he 
said no.
  And I agree, General, I agree.
  Capitol Police leadership had the intelligence days and weeks in 
advance and did nothing with it. They let it happen, folks. The Capitol 
Police leadership team failed, and this sham committee continues to 
give them a pass.
  These hearings are clearly not about finding the truth. They are a 
sad attempt to put the blame on Donald Trump. This committee--make no 
mistake--this committee doesn't want to see Donald Trump as the 
Republican nominee in 2024 because they can't beat him.
  Never in the history of Congress has the majority party used their 
power to smear, destroy, and intimidate the minority party ahead of an 
election so brazenly on a public stage. They know they can't win 
elections fairly, so they will use every dirty trick in the book and 
try to cheat their way to a win. But the American people know better. 
They can see through this political theater and their voices will be 
heard at the polls in November of this year and in 2024.
  Mr. PERRY. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas. He is 
absolutely right.
  Look, I don't think it is a mystery that many of us on this side of 
the aisle have no love for the FBI Director. It would be my choice to 
remove him immediately and get somebody effective that would do the job 
and restore the dignity of the FBI. But that having been said, he said 
there was no insurrection. He said there was no collusion.
  And as you already probably know--or maybe you don't--you won't find 
out tonight--the President of the United States at that time ordered 
20,000 troops to be authorized to come to protect the Capitol days in 
advance.
  And as I said the day after, on January 7, I asked: What did the 
Speaker know and when did she know it? But we are not going to find 
that out, Madam Speaker. We are never going to know watching this show 
trial. This is something from a Third World country, where we use the 
instruments of Federal power to prevail upon and against our political 
adversary. That is what is happening right now.
  What did the Speaker know and when did she know it? And what about 
the 20,000 troops that were authorized by the President of the United 
States in advance but never asked for by the Speaker of the House--and 
as a matter of fact, declined by the Mayor of Washington, D.C.
  Madam Speaker, this is not the Mayor's city. This is not the Mayor's 
capital of the United States. This is the American people's capital. 
She has a duty and she failed in that duty. And now this sham 
organization called a committee here, where the Vice President is also 
the ranking member--not chosen by the minority. They just made it up. 
They could have chosen anybody off the street and said, that is who the 
ranking member is. And that is what they did because the verdict is 
already in for them.
  They already know. They already know what the outcome is for them. 
There is no due process here. There is no fairness here. There is no 
other side of the story here. There is just a prosecution where you 
stand there with your mouth taped shut. You can't call any witnesses. 
You can't have your attorney. Then they would like to convict people 
and send them away forever and never be heard from again. And that is 
what this is; the silencing of the American people.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Georgia (Mrs. Greene).
  Mrs. GREENE of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
yielding. I really appreciate him bringing up these very important 
details

[[Page H5443]]

that I highly doubt we will hear anything about from the January 6 
Committee.
  You know, there are some very interesting facts that came out today, 
as a matter of fact. Reporting on the failure of this Chamber, this 
Capitol to be secured.
  And I will tell you something. On January 6, I was a brand new Member 
of Congress.
  Mr. PERRY. How many days had you been here, Representative Greene?
  Mrs. GREENE of Georgia. January 3 was my first day on the job.
  Mr. PERRY. So you had been here three days.
  Mrs. GREENE of Georgia. That is right. Three days.
  And I looked at the Capitol and thought this was the most secure 
building that I could possibly be in, at least in this city, possibly 
in the country, because it is our Nation's Capitol. And tragically, we 
found out that it was not. I was shocked by that.
  What amazes me is the overwhelming amount of evidence that the 
National Guard was requested to be here and it was continuously turned 
down. And the biggest shocker to me is that there were three people 
that turned it down. It was Chuck Schumer in the Senate, Nancy Pelosi 
in the House, and Mayor Muriel Bowser.
  Mr. PERRY. If I could interject for just a moment, who is in charge 
of security here in the House of Representatives?
  Mrs. GREENE of Georgia. The Sergeant at Arms.
  Mr. PERRY. Employed by?
  Mrs. GREENE of Georgia. Nancy Pelosi.
  Mr. PERRY. Right. The Speaker.
  Mrs. GREENE of Georgia. The Speaker of the House is the one in charge 
of the House Sergeant at Arms.
  And the House Sergeant at Arms and the Senate Sergeant at Arms turned 
down the request for the National Guard to keep all of us safe from the 
threats that they knew existed.
  Mr. PERRY. Are we going to find out if they got ordered to do that by 
the Speaker or by the leader in the Senate? Are we going to find that 
out tonight?
  Mrs. GREENE of Georgia. No, we will not hear that from the January 6 
Committee that spent millions of taxpayer dollars supposedly 
investigating January 6. I highly doubt we will hear that. But I want 
you to know that when we take back the majority, these will be the 
investigations that we take on.
  Now, I want you to know some other things that really bother me. As 
we have spoken about the failure and absolutely purposeful refusal to 
protect this Capitol by Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, Chuck 
Schumer, and Mayor Muriel Bowser, these are the failures. They did it 
on purpose.
  There are other things I don't think we will hear about tonight, and 
I remind everyone.
  Number one, we still do not know who the pipe bomber is. Who is the 
person? There are videos everywhere. It is all over the FBI website but 
we don't hear that coming out consistently from the January 6 
Committee.
  You know what else we don't hear enough about? We do not understand 
what is happening to the over 800 people who have been arrested and 
charged for the events on January 6. We don't know what is happening to 
them, and there are dozens of them right here in this city wasting away 
in the D.C. jail, being treated like political prisoners of war.
  And you know what? This is before they have been convicted of 
anything. They are there pretrial. And no one cares about them. No one 
on this January 6 Committee dares to ask a question, what is happening 
to these people and why their due process rights are being so 
flagrantly and horrifically violated, pretrial. Pretrial, they are 
sitting in that jail.
  Do you know they have begged to go to Guantanamo Bay because they 
think terrorists are treated better than they are treated here? But no 
one cares about them.

                              {time}  1345

  These people have been arrested and charged, and they are wasting 
away in jail.
  Do you want to know something else that we are probably not going to 
hear about? What about the fact that there is a man named Ray Epps? Do 
you know who is not in the D.C. jail? Ray Epps. Ray Epps is not in the 
D.C. jail, and I know because I went in the D.C. jail. I did not see 
him there. He also is on video over and over again telling people to go 
in the Capitol.
  Mr. PERRY. I am sure we will hear about Ray Epps this evening.
  Mrs. GREENE of Georgia. I don't think we are going to hear about Ray 
Epps. I don't think so. I don't think he is on the witness list.
  Do you know who else we probably won't hear about? The man on the 
scaffolding, the so-called scaffolding commander that told the crowd, 
told them, sent them, gave them orders to go in the Capitol. Storm the 
Capitol.
  I haven't heard about him being questioned, have you?
  Mr. PERRY. No, I have not.
  Mrs. GREENE of Georgia. No. Do you want to know something else? Here 
is a woman we don't hear anything about, a woman named Rosanne Boyland, 
who was trampled in the tunnel, trampled to death. We never hear 
anything about this woman. She died in the tunnel of this Capitol, and 
I saw the video myself when I was in the D.C. jail, from one of the 
people being held there pretrial, by the way, of her body being drug 
across the floor, and then it was taken somewhere else.
  Do you know what happened when they were dragging her body away? They 
pulled her away from someone that was giving her CPR. She was pulled 
away from lifesaving CPR. Why did that happen? Are we going to hear 
about that from the committee tonight? I doubt it. They don't care 
about Rosanne Boyland.
  Here is my major issue. We are representatives of the people of the 
United States of America, and all I hear from everyone in this body is 
all they care about is themselves. The American people are suffering 
from so many things happening from the decisions of this body, but the 
people in this body and the people in that committee don't care about 
Rosanne Boyland from Georgia, by the way. They don't care about her 
family. They don't care about justice for them. They don't care about 
anything else but, oh, what happened to us on January 6.
  Well, what happened to the American cities in 2020 that were burned 
and looted and destroyed because of BLM violence? Nothing. All that 
money raised on ActBlue for BLM? It went in their pockets. No one paid 
to rebuild those communities. Not at all.
  You know who else we probably won't hear about is Michael Byrd, who 
shot and killed Ashli Babbitt right out there. We don't hear about his 
reckless record of guns, which is all we have talked about all week in 
here. We aren't hearing about that. Why aren't we hearing about that 
record? Why? Why isn't he standing trial? He is not. He just gets to 
get away with it. It is on video; I bet you we won't see this video, 
but I have seen it. It is out there.
  Did you know Ashli Babbitt was trying to stop people from breaking 
in? That is on video. I have watched it over and over. She was trying 
to stop people from breaking in, and then she was shot and killed.
  Yes, a lot happened on January 6. Do you know what else--and the 
American taxpayers pay for this--there are surveillance cameras all 
over this building. If we really want to know the truth about January 
6, it is real easy. All we have to do is release the video footage, and 
everyone can see for themselves what exactly happened. I think the 
American people deserve that while they have to watch and go through 
this big cinematic production tonight and carrying on for weeks and 
weeks and weeks. And the American people pay for it, by the way. The 
American people deserve to see all the video surveillance, not just the 
little cut and pasted pieces that the January 6th Committee is going to 
show tonight.
  Most of all, I want to finish with this: There is something terrible 
happening in this process, and it is called defamation of character. 
The 45th President of the United States' character is being defamed and 
all of his staff and his family and all Republicans. Everyone's 
reputation is being defamed as lies are being told about all of us and 
President Trump just for politics, and it makes me sick. It absolutely 
disgusts me.
  If we are supposed to represent the American people, and we are 
supposed to do a good job and uphold this place

[[Page H5444]]

with honor and keep its reputation good for the people we serve, then 
we should be truthful. But what is about to happen tonight is not going 
to be truthful. It is going to be a political narrative, and it is all 
for politics. It is sickening.
  Mr. PERRY. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her comments. 
Like I said, if you have ever seen reality TV, you know in just a 
couple episodes it is not really reality.

  Now, I don't know how many of these you will go through this evening, 
and we just have a couple of minutes remaining, but I yield to the 
gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Biggs), my good friend, to conclude with 
some of his thoughts before we wrap up here this afternoon.
  Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, as I watch what this January 6th Committee 
has done, as it unfolds, and the constant attack of President Trump, 
here is what I find interesting: It wasn't too very long ago that Chuck 
Schumer stood with a rabble attacking the United States Supreme Court. 
Chuck Schumer said: We are going to come up on you like, Justices 
Kavanaugh and Gorsuch, like a whirlwind. You will know.
  He made threatening comments. And guess what? Last night, there was 
an assassination attempt. A gentleman has been arrested for attempted 
murder of Justice Kavanaugh. Not a peep from the President, not a peep 
from Nancy Pelosi, not a peep from anybody here.
  You had a President who said let's march peacefully up to the 
Capitol. Let's let them know you are here. Let's fight for our rights. 
Somehow, that is incitement.
  That is not incitement, but this committee that is there, they don't 
care about the truth. They don't care about equity. I don't even like 
saying that term, ``equity.'' How about equality before the law? They 
never are concerned with due process or equality before the law. That 
is a political, sham, narrative-building exercise to divert the 
attention of the American people away from the disastrous Biden 
policies.
  Mr. PERRY. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his comments. In 
the remaining 40 seconds I have, I will close by saying every day 
Americans wake up and they think it can't get any worse, yet somehow 
every day there is something new that actually makes it worse. Tonight 
is going to be no different. We are going to push the envelope to 
places we have never gone, a show trial right here in the Halls of 
Congress as a Supreme Court Justice is under threat.
  This is literally like a Third World country, and we have leaders in 
this government calling for Justice Kavanaugh--``You have released the 
whirlwind.'' That is what was said. Do not let this stand.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________