[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.
____________________