'So You're Not In Charge?!': Josh Hawley Goes Absolutely Nuclear On Deb Haaland Over 'Corruption'

7 months ago

At today's Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) questioned Interior Secretary Deb Haaland about an environmentalist group.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Secretary Holland, do you know the group called the Wilderness

00:07Society?

00:08I have heard of it, yes.

00:11And what, to your knowledge, what is this group?

00:16It sounds like the name is explanatory.

00:19Well it's, let me help you a little bit. It's a left-wing environmentalist pressure group.

00:24Do you know who funds them?

00:26I do not.

00:27Well I can help you with that too. It's funded in large part by a foreign billionaire, Hans

00:31Jorg Weiss, who has routed his money through all manner of dark money groups, including

00:38the Arabella Network. Hans Jorg Weiss was investigated by the FEC for illegal campaign

00:44contributions because he's not a United States citizen. He sits on the governing council

00:49of this dark money environmentalist group. Has anybody in leadership at your department

00:53met with them, the Wilderness Society?

00:56Senator, I do not know this individual.

01:01Has anybody in leadership at your department met with the Wilderness Society?

01:06Well I'm sure we've met with a lot of groups and organizations in the work that we do when

01:12we're discussing the environment.

01:14So does that mean you don't know or you're not going to answer my question?

01:16I don't have a full list of who, of everyone that everyone has met with.

01:20Well I can help you with that as well. The answer is yes, your leadership has met with

01:28the Wilderness Society. They met with the Wilderness Society when that group was a plaintiff

01:34suing the Department of the Interior with an adverse lawsuit against you, and they met

01:39with them off the books. I've got the emails. In July of 2021, after you had come to office,

01:48members of the Wilderness Society, when they're suing the department, write to your top deputy

01:54and ask for a meeting and keep it off of his calendar. Here it is, July 14, 2021. Can we

02:00set up a meeting with these folks? July 19, 2021, they propose how they might calibrate

02:06this so it doesn't look like they're violating any of the rules of the court, and remarkably

02:10it stays completely off of everybody's calendars. We only know about it because FOIA requests

02:17were filed, and then after they have these off-the-books meetings, their request is

02:24to cancel the mineral leasing rights in Minnesota in the Superior National Forest. This is a

02:29critical minerals mine. The society wants the mine shut down after they meet off the

02:36books with your leadership. You do it. A few months later, you do it. You cancel the leases

02:42and then you withdraw 225,000 acres of critical mining from production and leasing shortly

02:50after that. Is it common practice at your department to meet with dark money groups

02:57off the books and conceal it from the public? Senator, thank you for the question. Of course,

03:03I can't answer to, if you're referring to our former deputy secretary, he's no longer

03:08at the department. Who worked for you? He worked for the president. He was appointed

03:13by the president. He's your deputy secretary. Are you the secretary of the Department of

03:17Interior? I thought that's why you were here. Are you the secretary? Don't look at her,

03:20look at me. Yes. Are you the secretary? I am. Do these people who are sitting here today

03:24answering most of your questions, do they work for you? They work for me. Do they report

03:28for you? You're not in charge? They work with me. They work with you, so you're not in charge

03:32of the department. Oh my gosh, I thought you were in charge. I thought that's why you were

03:36here. We work as a team. Oh, okay. So who's in charge then? I provide the vision. I provide

03:43the overall direction and- But you're not in charge? ... our mission. Do you take responsibility

03:48for what happens at the Department of the Interior? I take responsibility. Do you take

03:51full responsibility for what happens at the Department of the Interior? Good. Then why

03:55are your leadership meeting with dark money groups and concealing it from the public?

04:00Why are they doing it off the books? How many times has this happened? Senator, this is

04:04the first I'm hearing of this. My deputy secretary is no longer there, and I can't

04:12answer to what he did when he was there. What did they get out of it, do you suppose? What

04:17do you suppose Hans-Jorg Weiss got out of you canceling the leases after they asked

04:22you to? I don't know who this individual- In and off the books we're reading. I don't

04:24know who this individual- Oh, sure. I mean, you don't know. You're not in charge. You're

04:29not responsible. We have a corruption problem in this government, Madam Secretary, and frankly,

04:33we have a corruption problem in your department. We've got foreign- We certainly do. We have

04:38foreign billionaires who are funding dark money groups coming to meet with your leadership,

04:44concealing it from the public, while they are filing lawsuits adverse to the department,

04:50doing it without the court's knowledge, doing it, you say, without your knowledge, and then

04:54getting exactly what they want. Now, I don't know how much money he made off of it. I'm

04:57sure it was a lot. I know how he made his money. He made his money by poisoning people.

05:04Hans-Jorg Weiss, here's what his company did. In 2009, Synthes USA, with Weiss at its head,

05:10was charged by Philadelphia's U.S. attorney with running an illegal clinical trial on

05:14humans. They injected them with a cement that turns to bone inside the human skeleton. That's

05:19the guy who's funding this group, who's pressuring your department, and you're meeting with them

05:24off the books and giving them exactly what they want. I did not meet with him. You're

05:29implying that I met with him. I'm just trying to figure out who's in charge of the Interior

05:33Department. You said it isn't you. It sounds to me like it's the billionaires. It sounds to me

05:37like it's the dark money billionaires who are calling the shots at the Department of the

05:41Interior. All I have to say to you, Madam Secretary, is that is a travesty. It is a

05:46travesty. The American people should be in charge, not the foreign billionaires. The

05:51fact that you've let them run rampant is outrageous. It's outrageous. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

'So You're Not In Charge?!': Josh Hawley Goes Absolutely Nuclear On Deb Haaland Over 'Corruption'

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