At a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) spoke about a contempt of congress resolution for Presiden Biden's ghostwriter.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Now yield to the ranking member for an opening statement. Mr. Chairman, we have
00:06an important oversight role in this committee. We oversee the Department of
00:10Justice, federal courts, federal antitrust policy, civil rights issues,
00:14federal law enforcement, and so much more. But we're not here today because of any
00:19of these legitimate areas for oversight. We're here today because after spending
00:2520 million dollars chasing dozens of conspiracy theories, MAGA Republicans
00:29have come up with nothing. In fact, the Republicans' stunning failure was made
00:34painfully obvious just yesterday when the Supreme Court ruled that the
00:37conspiracy theory underlying their signature investigation into social
00:41media companies was quote, clearly erroneous. We're here today because there's
00:46a presidential debate tonight and MAGA Republicans have decided the best way
00:51they can help President Trump is by bullying and intimidating a private
00:54citizen to obtain information about his highly sensitive and deeply personal
00:59conversations with President Biden. We're here today because Republicans are, in a
01:04word, desperate. This contempt resolution against Mrs. Zwanitzer is an abuse of
01:09the committee's oversight authority, pure and simple. Decorum and collegiality
01:14that clearly departed this chamber in favor of MAGA extremism when this
01:18committee harasses a private citizen to intimidate him into giving the chairman
01:23whatever he wants in his quest to find something damaging to use against
01:27President Biden. Earlier this week we received a letter that White House
01:31counsel Ed Siskel sent to Mrs. Zwanitzer's attorney in which the White
01:35House said quote, the committee subpoena seeks broad swaths of personal
01:39information that President Biden provided to your client in confidence as
01:43part of the process for writing his memoirs. The vast majority of this
01:47information is private. The committee subpoena is therefore a congressional
01:51subpoena for the President's information which unavoidably pits the political
01:55branches against one another. Unfortunately the committee has thrust
01:59your client into the middle of this inter-branch conflict. The letter
02:04continues quote, your client is not authorized to provide any of the
02:08President's information until it has been reviewed for executive branch
02:12confidentiality concerns and a resolution of these constitutional issues between
02:16the two branches has been reached close quote. Mr. Siskel also wrote to the
02:21chairman directly advising him that quote, the executive branch is ready
02:26and willing to engage in good faith with the committee in response to his
02:29purported interest in this matter. In other words the committee's fight is not
02:33with Mr. Zwanitzer. It's with the executive branch and that's who it
02:37should be negotiating with and according to Mr. Siskel's letter to the chairman
02:41Republicans have not engaged in negotiations with the White House at all.
02:45But we're not here today to engage in good faith negotiations. We're here today
02:50because the majority is instead chosen to bully and intimidate a private citizen
02:54because they think they can break him before they break the executive branch.
02:59They desperately want the audio recordings of Mrs. Zwanitzer's dozens of
03:03hours of private interviews with President Biden conducted when they work
03:07together on Promise Me Dad, a memoir detailing President Biden's loss of his
03:11son when he was vice president. I would like to read some of the entries from
03:16this book so that as we move forward with this ridiculous contempt
03:19proceeding today we can all keep in mind what kind of information and recorded
03:23conversations Republicans want to acquire and weaponize against President
03:27Biden. In his book the president recalls telling his dying son quote, I will never
03:34stop doing everything I can to keep you alive, to keep you
03:38with us. It's okay if you go now, it's okay if you don't fight anymore, it's
03:43okay to go to sleep. He recalls his son telling him you've got to promise me dad
03:49that no matter what happens you're going to be alright. Give me your word dad
03:53you're going to be alright. President Biden recalls making an entry in his
03:58diary after his son's diagnosis writing quote, no Thanksgiving would ever quite
04:03be quite the same. I pulled out my diary and started to write. I did have one big
04:08item for my own Christmas list that year but I was keeping it to myself. Naval
04:14Observatory November 30th 2014 730 p.m. just home from Nantucket. I pray we have
04:20another year together in 2015. Oh, oh, oh, oh. He recalled making another
04:27entry as Air Force two took off I felt compelled to open up my diary and write
04:33March 29th leaving MD Anderson with hope with hope.
04:37Bo is an amazing man as is Hunter. He is staying with Bo until the next
04:43procedure. I'll be coming back. I paused. What else was there to say? I was afraid
04:50if I really opened up I would give in to a lurking despair and I could not allow
04:54that to happen. I could not allow Bo or anyone else to see that ever. I set aside
05:01the diary until the flight was nearly over and picked it up again to add one
05:05line. Just landed 607. I feel so goddamn lonely. He also recalls watching his son
05:13with it before his eyes. My eye was drawn to Bo as we talked. It wasn't yet late in
05:19the evening but it was already tiring. He was so gaunt and his face seemed drained
05:24of color. I could see the outlines of the leg brace through his pants. Bo had been
05:29losing recall of more and more proper nouns lately and he seemed less willing
05:33to fight through it. Ashley, Bo's sister, had told me that Bo is no longer
05:38inviting her into the room for his speech therapy because his decline really
05:42bothered him. Bo said almost nothing that chilly February night in Washington. He
05:47would whisper something to his brother instead and Hunter would speak for him.
05:52Unquote. I think most parents would agree watching a child suffer and die is the
05:58worst possible torment you could imagine. And that tragedy, that heart
06:03rending, that heart-wrenching, gut-churning agony that President Biden
06:07endured is what Republicans want to use against him. Their desperation knows no
06:12bounds. And don't let them pretend here that they have compassion for President
06:16Biden's loss or that this request has anything to do with oversight. If this
06:21committee really wanted to conduct oversight, they would work in good faith
06:25with the DOJ and the White House, not employ intimidation tactics and punitive
06:30subpoenas against the private citizen. They don't want to conduct legitimate
06:34oversight. They want to get those audio files to help MAGA Republicans this
06:39election cycle. Mark my words, if Republicans get these files, their
06:44priority will be getting altered and context-free audio clips into Republican
06:49campaign ads, not doing the real work of the American people. This is about
06:55digging for embarrassing audio of President Biden when he was in a
06:58vulnerable state discussing the death of his son. This is about their political
07:03game. Oversight Chairman James Comer said so himself in an email. He said if he
07:10gets the tapes, he will release them for the purpose of demonstrating quote Biden's
07:14mental state to convince quote swing voters. What more evidence do you need?
07:19And in case I have to explain this, demanding material to bolster your
07:23political campaigns does not constitute the kind of legitimate legislative
07:28purpose that makes a subpoena enforceable in court. Despite Republicans'
07:33desperate attempts to feign a substantive need for these files, one
07:37simply does not exist. Today's markup is about making the chosen Republican
07:41leader Donald Trump happy by hunting down any possible vulnerabilities of
07:46President Biden. And to achieve that goal, this committee is willing to put a
07:51target on the back of an American citizen, a private American citizen who
07:56has already been cleared of wrongdoing in this very matter. Frankly, this is
08:00frightening. Trump is weaponizing this MAGA Republican-led committee to get
08:05information on his opponent President Biden at any cost, even if it means
08:11publicly flogging an American citizen trying to live a private life. And I have
08:15to wonder, is this just the beginning? Is this what we have to look forward to? If
08:21Trump gets a second term, is this the playbook? Anyone, public official or
08:26private citizen who doesn't give Trump what he wants, will have the weight of
08:30the government hammered down on them? Anyone who questions Trump's
08:34authority will have his name fed to Trump's ravenous far-right supporters who
08:39instill fear and submission. Anyone who asserts their constitutional rights to
08:43get in the way of a Republican agenda will be held in contempt by Trump's
08:47enablers in Congress. That is not an America I want to live in. That is not
08:52the American democracy I have devoted my career to fighting for. And I know this
08:57is not the country the American people want. Every American should sit up in
09:02fear watching this public attack on a private citizen. If he isn't safe
09:07from this kind of government abuse, what makes you think you are? I urge members
09:13to oppose this dangerous resolution and I yield back.