'What Goes Around Comes Around': Dan Goldman Fires Warning At Republicans Over Garland Contempt Vote

6 months ago

During debate on the House floor, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) decried House Republicans' efforts to hold AG Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress for not releasing audio recordings of President Biden's interviews with Special Counsel Robert Hur.

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Transcript

00:00Gentleman from New York is now recognized. Thank you, Madam Speaker, and thank you to the distinguished gentlelady from

00:06Pennsylvania for yielding the time. I rise today with a warning for my colleagues on the other side of the aisle.

00:13You are setting a very dangerous precedent by

00:18trying to hold an Attorney General who has provided all of the substance requested in a subpoena in

00:27contempt.

00:28And let's be very clear,

00:31this precedent that you are setting is one that your own former president and

00:37cabinet secretaries

00:39repeatedly violated in the last

00:42administration. In

00:442019, the former president famously said that he would defy all

00:50congressional subpoenas, and then he did just that during the impeachment inquiry.

00:56The State Department refused to turn over a single document.

01:01Under your precedent here, with Attorney General Merrick Garland, who has provided

01:08everything that you have asked for,

01:11except for the audio recording of an interview with President Biden and the Special Counsel,

01:18you are moving into dangerous territory.

01:23There is no legitimate legislative purpose

01:26to require the Attorney General, the Department of Justice, to turn over the audio recording of an interview

01:35of which they have already turned over the transcript. Now, I hear my colleagues on the other side of the aisle

01:44use

01:45explanations such as demeanor evidence and character evidence.

01:51That's all well and good if you were considering whether or not to prosecute

01:57President Biden, but that's not the job of Congress. There's no legitimate legislative purpose in

02:04figuring out, quote, demeanor evidence as to whether or not President Biden, how he sounded when you have

02:12the information. And

02:14it is particularly galling

02:16that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are going to try to hold the Attorney General in contempt

02:22for this narrow, narrow issue when he has

02:27substantially complied with the subpoena, when five of

02:32my Republican colleagues completely defied

02:36lawful

02:38congressional subpoenas last time, including the chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

02:44You are setting a dangerous precedent, and you, my friends on the other side of the aisle, ought to think twice

02:52because what goes around comes around. And I yield back.

'What Goes Around Comes Around': Dan Goldman Fires Warning At Republicans Over Garland Contempt Vote

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