The House Committee on the Judiciary Authorization and Oversight Plan for the 118th Congress met on Tuesday. The work being done today includes agreeing to the general plans this committee and its sub-committees will pursue as an oversight body of this Congress. It is being chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan, who is best remembered for allegedly staying silent and/or ignoring the pleas of numerous young men who claimed to have been sexually assaulted by Jordan’s fellow athletic staff when he was an assistant coach for the wrestling team at Ohio State University.
The GOP’s thin control of the House means that the new committees will be angled to promote the policy-free fearmongering they rely on in lieu of doing their jobs. As such, today’s House Committee on the Judiciary consisted of Republicans saying that Democratic representatives didn’t want to investigate immigrant street gangs or whether or not the FBI concocted the Jan. 6 insurrection, while the Democratic representatives on the committee pushed back by pointing out how reality is in stark opposition to everything the Republican Party mythologizes.
Rep. Eric Swalwell has no love lost for the House conservatives who have achieved a level of hypocrisy in their anti-democracy stances that is almost hard to believe at times. When Swalwell was given his five minutes to speak, he began by talking about the bad faith exhibited by the Republican Party, and then he took his final two minutes to break down the fundamental difference between what Democratic officials use committees for and what Republicans use committees for. And he also showed how real-life, dangerous narcissists like Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida can be when allowed to run amok.
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Swalwell led with a very simple statement of the facts: “I'm sorry if we don't just rubber stamp this oversight plan, but there's a trust deficit here. And it's not a reflex. It's a response. There's a trust deficit here.” He then provided a very real example of what he means.
“One of the very first committees, the very first committee hearing of this Congress, Mr. Gaetz, after we all agreed on what the committee's plan was going to be, it was going to be voice vote—and everyone agreed. Mr. Gaetz wanted to offer an amendment to say the Pledge of Allegiance. That's great. Every single person on our side supported that.” But, as Swalwell explained, Republicans don’t really care about the Pledge of Allegiance: They care about attacking their Democratic colleagues, and so saying the Pledge of Allegiance wasn’t dangerous enough for Gaetz—especially after the Democratic representatives on the committee called his bluff.
“I don't think he really genuinely cares about saying the Pledge of Allegiance, but he wanted to do it again to own the Libs and to see if we would vote against it. We didn't. But who did he bring in here to say it? The Pledge of Allegiance? Who did he parade in here? In a uniform? Somebody that he met at a gun club, he said locally. Okay.” Of course, knowing Matt Gaetz and his history of bad decision-making and dubious friendships, Democratic officials were leery. “Mr. Cicilline (D-RI), you had the crazy idea that maybe we should vet the people who come in here, make sure they're not insurrectionists. Mr. McClintock (R-CA), I am not kidding you, Mr. McClintock said, ‘Well, it's not like we're going to invite somebody who committed murder.’ No, he literally said that. ‘It's not like we're going to invite somebody who committed murder.’
“Okay. Well, who did Mr. Gaetz bring? He brought Corey Beekman. Corey Beekman in 2019, was in a standoff with the Michigan police after he was arrested and charged with murder, assault with intent to commit murder and two counts of felony firearm possession.” This is all true. The case has not led to Beekman seeing any jail time, as the woman who was shot has refused to testify as to what happened that day. You can read about the case and it is disturbing, to say the least.
Swalwell then points out how the victims’ families had to watch this and how disappointed they were at the cruel incompetence of Gaetz’s political theater. “That's why there's a trust deficit here. You'd pull off a public stunt to try and own the libs, and what you did was you brought in the guy who allegedly shot two people and killed one of them. That's where the trust deficit is.”
Swalwell finishes by dropping an s-bomb and daring the Republican Party to try and do their jobs for the American people. “So you can play your games, conduct your stunts. We're here to get shit done. I yield back.”
If you would like to watch it all, including the fact that Rep. Jim Jordan is the chairperson for the committee, you can subject yourself to it below.
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