Swalwell Asks Matt Taibbi About Whether Government Removing Press Credentials Constitutes Censorship — Transcript

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1. 0:00from California recognized for 5 minutes
2. 0:02for the last 3 years uh Donald Trump
3. 0:05campaigned on lowering your costs do
4. 0:08they feel lower does anything about this
5. 0:10hearing get us to lower costs you were
6. 0:14promised cheap eggs and today you're
7. 0:17getting cheap shots and there's probably
8. 0:20no better natural remedy for insomnia
9. 0:24than a congressional hearing on
10. 0:26anti-censorship
11. 0:27but Mr taibe you're here and would you
12. 0:31agree that censorship is a suppression
13. 0:33of ideas words images and something that
14. 0:36can be conducted by the government yeah
15. 0:40it can also not be by the government but
16. 0:42yes and you would then agree that it's
17. 0:45censorship for any government Democratic
18. 0:47or authoritarian run by a democrat or a
19. 0:49republican to Bar the Press from
20. 0:52covering the government when the Press
21. 0:53reports something the government doesn't
22. 0:55like bar in what
23. 0:57way take away their credentials
24. 1:00take away their access so uh as a long
25. 1:03time I I started my career as an
26. 1:05independent journalist journalists who
27. 1:06whine about not being credentialed um
28. 1:09should recognize that being on the
29. 1:11outside is part of what being in the
30. 1:12Press is I'm not terribly sympathetic to
31. 1:14people who complain about that issue so
32. 1:16if you if you report something that that
33. 1:18a government doesn't like and they take
34. 1:20away access that others have that's not
35. 1:22censorship you can still cover it that's
36. 1:23not censorship okay and banning books is
37. 1:27that censorship Banning books is is
38. 1:30censorship y so this topic is more
39. 1:33complicated than the hearing title would
40. 1:36suggest and I would argue the difference
41. 1:39between a democratic approach and
42. 1:42Democratic activists on this issue and
43. 1:45Republicans is that as Democrats seek to
44. 1:49attack Miss and disinformation it's
45. 1:51because their perception of information
46. 1:54is that it is a means to the truth and
47. 1:57for many Republicans they believe that
48. 2:01information is a means to power and so
49. 2:05they are primarily concerned with using
50. 2:07information whether it's disinformation
51. 2:09or misinformation as long as it gets
52. 2:11them to power they're okay with it and
53. 2:14it's difficult to try and litigate what
54. 2:17do you do with Miss and
55. 2:19disinformation and I will be honest with
56. 2:22you sometimes Democratic voices object
57. 2:26too much to miss and
58. 2:28disinformation a lawyer once told me
59. 2:30when I was a young prosecutor that I was
60. 2:31jumping out of my seat too much
61. 2:33objecting to conduct by the defense
62. 2:35attorney and while I was probably
63. 2:38legally right it was just annoying the
64. 2:40jury and that I should pick my battles
65. 2:43so I get frustrated too sometimes when
66. 2:46it feels like the penalty flag is being
67. 2:47thrown too
68. 2:49often however there is a difference
69. 2:52though
70. 2:54between censoring somebody because you
71. 2:57disagree with
72. 2:58them I'll credit chairman
73. 3:01Jordan he and I have had some spirited
74. 3:04debates in this hearing
75. 3:06room sometimes they've gotten quite
76. 3:09personal by both of
77. 3:11us and sometimes when I land a
78. 3:15point he gets
79. 3:17upset his staff gets upset but he takes
80. 3:20it like a man and he'll make his point
81. 3:24right back at me and I take it like a
82. 3:26man you know who doesn't take it like a
83. 3:28man
84. 3:30Donald Trump because he's not a man he's
85. 3:33a child he's a small child and he views
86. 3:38censorship as a mean to get rid of
87. 3:41people who disagree with him he wants to
88. 3:44get rid of Judges who disagree with him
89. 3:47he said that as recently as yesterday
90. 3:49speaker Johnson is backing him up by
91. 3:52suggesting that judges should just pause
92. 3:55in interpreting his violations of the
93. 3:58Constitution
94. 4:00Trump goes after his perceived political
95. 4:02opponents I know when I was a part of
96. 4:05the Russia investigation he his doj
97. 4:08subpoenaed my emails and my cell phone
98. 4:12records he's a petty punitive child and
99. 4:15I can recognize a toddler because I'm a
100. 4:18parent of three of them and I recognize
101. 4:21the same behavior and yes sensorship is
102. 4:24occurring but it's
103. 4:26self-censorship and it's by you all
104. 4:29because I hear you in our private
105. 4:31conversations when you agree that Trump
106. 4:34is a child I hear the people you tell
107. 4:37that Trump is a child whether it's
108. 4:38lobbyists or reporters but you shrink in
109. 4:42this room and you shrink in the chamber
110. 4:44and you self censor yourselves from
111. 4:47speaking out because you're
112. 4:49afraid and he's laughing at you that you
113. 4:52take him so seriously because he's
114. 4:55unserious he's laughing that you think
115. 4:57he is so powerful because he's weak he's
116. 5:00laughing that you
117. 5:01think he is so big because he's quite
118. 5:05small so we need you we need your voices
119. 5:08right now it can't just be this side
120. 5:10we're all in to speak up and we need you
121. 5:12to speak up too otherwise we are all out
122. 5:16of freedom and I yield back gentlemen's
123. 5:18time has expired gentlemen