This is an hour. Morning, thank you for that wonderful introduction. Im coauthor of the politico playbook. Sherman, who we write our playbook every morning. For joining us here in austin. To have a great discussion. For those who may not know its the top rated newsletter. Through the noise every day and tell you what you really need to know, whats happening politics. World in its a combination of walter girl. Ite and gossip you can text pb to 66866 if you it. To sign up for his morning were joined here by members of the House Freedom caucus. A specialke to extend invitation to open congress and to our sponsor, pfizer, for politico tent here today. Now im going to introduce our guest. Thank you for the applause. Im going to go down the line. If they dont like a question that means they cant attack us, nd you notice they are on the righthand side of the stage. From the right, jim jordan from ohio, mark meadows from north carolina, who was the House Freedom caucus chairman. Still is. Still is. Two more days. Two more days. Speaks for the Freedom Caucus and chip roy, who you heard, this is his district. Freedom caucus. Nd hes a cardcarrying member of the Freedom Caucus. Card . S a we have a visa card. Passport. E a my first time in austin. I appreciate yall turning on me. Air conditioner for we wrote a book earlier this year about congress in which mr. Escaped because he wasnt in congress yet but mr. Meadows and many jordan were in the book and went through some interview transcripts. That were not in the book, but in january 2018 i was with mr. Jordan and he said, i think our base will keep us in power because if they they will impeach the president. The person that everyone here and he actually suggested in a meeting with both election season message for your party should be keep us in power or the impeached. Ill get and mr. Meadows, you told us in in mber of 2017, if were the minority, were toast. The president is going to be impeached. So, here we are. Youre in the minority. In the minority. The president is being impeached. So lets start, because obviously, we wrote this transcript, these questions last night and since last night, i mean, more stuff has come out. Im curious if you could tell the president in what ou guys have seen so far, has the president done anything wrong . Read the transcript. Read the transcript. Think its clear, remember, heres the democrats case. The bureaucrat didnt like president , doesnt like the president. We dont know that he doesnt like the president. Inspector general says an indicia of arguable political bias, thats for this guy ak hates trump. Weve seen that kind of language before. It was actually in the description of the peter strzok messages so if you think peter is a fan of the president hen perhaps you cant make the conclusion but weve seen this play before. Bureaucrat, doesnt like the president. Files a complaint about a telephone call. He wasnt on the telephone call. Another bureaucrat told him the call. The white house says something thats never been done before, they released the transcript. Read the transcript, this is nothing there. The democrats say never mind were going the impeach because care about k they the facts and the truth because pelosi did, nancy wouldnt have done the press conference the day before the transcript came out and said impeach. Ing to they would have waited for evidence and then when they got wasnt there. It our prediction back then they are going to do this regardless regardless of facts in my judgment. Help, digging or up dirt on a domestic political roy, is that right or wrong . When i looked through this first just say, im very glad that this is occurring in that i represent. The District Line is literally that street. Street, were literally at the north end of the district glad they nut on and allows a variety of opinion, its the fifth year in a row ive participated. Many of you know, i recognize your faces in the crowd, some gree with me and some that dont. Thats good. And you can see the wind kicks you start talking. Hope he keeps talking. I so many of you know that served as the First Assistant attorney general of texas. I was an assistant United States attorney. I view all of this through the lens, a pros could you torial lens, so ive not been out there much yet on this subject. Think, because its not my nature. I want to look at the facts. I want to see whats there. I dont have the luxury i had go do was a prosecutor to the investigation myself and go work with law enforcement, local atf, Different Cases that i worked on and look at the facts, and talk to, in at what we have in terms of allegations in the which we all y, recognize that the document is hearsay. What have we got . Go find people who have a direct argument. Okay, i saw this, and then find and talk to es those witnesses so you can get beyond hearsay. We saw that the president and not complied, he offered and put forth the transcript so we could look at transcript. So now weve looked at the transcripts and i think one of that, to s here is alluding to, eading out there ething based on hearsay and making a decision to go full steam ahead impeachment inquiry rather than weve got an oversight tomittee which im delighted serve on. As many of you know ive broken with my party andhe president several times but noteworthy on seeking information via subpoena the child separation policy. Here are other situations and i view this through the lens objectively. Ive got to look at the facts. So im waiting to see whats presented to the Oversight Committee or any other committee. Its going through intel, and then i can make a value judgment based on the me. S in front of i think we ought to recognize hats going on here from a political context as well and what the speaker is doing moving before weren this seeing the facts as you go through an investigation as you in a prosecutorial setting. All three of us are on the Oversight Committee. Probably deal with more whistleblower complaints than anyone in congress. Two things. Two things matter most when you try to determine if its credible. They have first hand knowledge, and second, bias. Concerns on al has both of those accounts. They had no first hand knowledge, and we know they had bias. Ical i think that factors into how we evaluate this thing and the idea that the speaker of the United States house of representatives, day before she sees any the nce, before she sees firsthand account, i. E. , the saying pt, is already they are moving towards impeachment if he hasnt done anything in your estimation, why do you think the president felt the need to hide this communication, to handle it in the way that have done dents before . So. Go ahead. The senate did a report in five months of the trump administration. There were more leaks about Foreign Policy, more state leaks than in any other administration. I trump has bad people, guess. No. Saying that im just saying, there was a guy who worked at the f. B. I. Who ran the investigation, ran the Russian Investigation and said dont worry, lisa, well stop him. Should lose a hundred million to zero. Thats a little bit biased and said he ctor general shouldnt be leading investigation. Yeah, i think they should be the ng everything on server. Youve got that many leaks happening when youre trying to onduct Foreign Policy and do the business of commanding in think f the country, i they should put them all in that lexsor. There was debate back and forth if they should release the transcripts. Past, weve the asked for transcripts before and generally they dont get thats an nprecedented really action on any executive, whether its president barack obama or george this, releasing transcripts like this, has a leaders, ffect on where they cant have these conversations. Foreign Foreign Policy, Affairs Committee for six years so i get real concerned when we do that. Time, i think this is the only document, an ive een a lot of documents, thousands of pages, as you both know, its the only document i have ever seen that actually came to me unredacted. Ormally it has lots of redactions, angela merkel, you know, there was some stuff in we actually for the first time, the American People, are getting to judge for themselves. I want to just digress a second because i didnt say what all of these folks need to know. Good nd anna are real reporters. Now, what real good reporters jim and they dont let i off the hook when they see things. Politico, ssue, with i get up every morning and i well, i read a twitter feed first and then i second. Itico and so, to find out what were going to be talking about during the day. So, listen, you guys Cover Congress more than anybody and talking that there are points that both sides run to mmediately, and when you look at this, the one thing that i think is key, everybody starts biden being joe the political rival of the president. Honestly, i think hes the jeb bush on the democrat party. Hes the frontrunner like jeb bush was in the previous but political rivals are 1 other democrats some of which are here at this particular so when you week look at the damage that might be done because of a ukraine nexus, i can tell you, its not just of biden, its a number other things, when you start to look at what happened in the relates to the 2016 elections, i think that thats potentially more damaging to whoever the democrat nominee may be. Can i ask what youre talking about . Sure. Convoluted to the fact in his estimation the server i mean, jim and actually probably read so many documents, and i wont get tell he wes, but i can about may of about 2016, the time that President Trump is ted cruz drops out of indiana. May 3. So might know that. So and most of the folks here rom texas know that, so as we look at may of 2016, there was behalf of action on the dnc, the Hillary Clinton a back andn terms of forth between ukraine looking information on Paul Manaforte. The crowd strike is one part of it. But if you dgers, look at the nexus of that investigation, it was really all about can we find dirt on Paul Manaforte and that started in may 2016. So thats some of the damaging stuff that could come ut that is probably more problematic than even the hunter biden aspect. He clearly from the transcript it shows that he was interested in Hunter Biden Joe connection. I dont deny that and actually, i want that. Thatnk most americans want unless they are Joe Biden Joe biden is their nominee. If thats their pick they dont that but if youre for Elizabeth Warren you want it to come out, i promise you. All of you this. Years sident spent two saying he never asked for any Foreign Government to help out in any way. Hes asking here, for a Foreign Government to help him dig up political rival s. There anything wrong with that, there substance is anything wrong with that . Well, what i think he was cooperation, ut a and when you look much of this Rudy Giuliani side of was all about looking at a a ense, trying to get rid of narrative where he knew, it was not accurate from the standpoint f the russian collusion narrative, and so when you look what he was asking for, hes certainly asking for cooperation. Now, from a proper investigation standpoint, im all about releasing transcripts. Why dont we release the bidens pts of joe conversation and the notes. I mean, if were going to be transparent, let the american judge for themselves. They are a good arbiter of truth ad i think that that would be good day for everybody. Asked to get to the bottom of what happened in 2016, with election interference. Thats where the portion of the transcript talks about the favor. Find out the things ark was talking about just a few minutes ago. Then zelensky brings up giuliani issue and thetion president says, oh, by the way, there is this biden issue as well. I dont think there is anything wrong with that. As americans they dont see anything wrong with that but had the hink, wow, you Vice President s son get a job 50,000 a month. Of hat beats being a member congress. Exactly. Only people who write books money. Hat kind of so he gets 50,000 a month, most mericans say, 50,000 a month, and the company that paid him is under investigation and his dad who happens to have a pretty in our t position government says either, says to Ukrainian Government file into the prosecutor i think ost americans think thats probably now how its supposed to work. Since this isure, entire rt of this, the International Community wanted this prosecutor fired, e. U. , the all of the big major world powers were pushing for this prosecutor to get it biden went in there and said get rid of this guy alone. The entire international and many members of your party were pushing. Had a son making 50,000 others in the International Community were threatening to hold back aid to my understanding, it was the resident of the United States doing that. Thats a pretty interesting fact pattern that i think the folks privilege of representing in westcentral and northcentral ohio many of them 50,000 in a year they may look at that and think, right esnt seem quite but somehow, the Mainstream Press and the democrats oh, problem, kind of think it is. One of the things that me, im a freshman, right, so ive had eight months this. Eight months of hell. Extent to which were in this tribalistic state, right . Cant be overstated. People here in this audience that i know that are center leaning democrats, center thatng republicans, people i know in here, they are looking you know what on earth . Y concern here is, i have said this campaigning, ive said it since ive been a member, president always say things or way i would do it, that goes without question. Goes without saying. For everybody. These guys, too. Ut at the end of the day, my concern here is that if, right now if we knew the fact pattern same with a he house, t in the white republicans if the fact pattern were the same for hunter,an joe biden and then democrats would be calling for their head. Probably. Reality of what were dealing with in d. C. And hat im trying to do, is navigate, as a freshman, what is a high crime and misdemeanor . Everybody in of this room what a high crime and would get 50 , i different answers. There is no definition in the constitution. E have an election every four years. When i go through the district, this is not a deflection, when i go through the district, where i than the fewer votes guy against me. Whether its in san antonio, what i hear about is a lthcare, school issues, border where weve got 1500 to 2,000 people coming across the today, when the, 1,500rs are down, today, people to 2,000 people will cross our southern border. T cartels will maintain operations inside our border. Secretary johnson was a part of administration that was trying to work to stop the problem. Cages. Bout the kids in we had chain link fences that were put up under secretary president under obama. We had to deal with a real crisis. These issues out that i know everybody i talk to here cares about. Is that y concern here were going down this road for clearly heightened political purposes. Its not to say that we shouldnt on oversight or if judiciary or l or whoever takes jurisdiction of this stuff, its not to say we the facts and at defend the constitution and rule of law and make sure that all he rules are followed, but were going this is all barreling towards something where if i ask all of the democrats who are ultimately to vote for impeachment which we all recognize is very likely to occur, what is their of a high crime and misdemeanor, its going to ildly vary, and that standard is not going to be something thats set. I just wish we were having a conversation about what do we the standard, or are we asically turn impeachment into a recall election because if thats where were headed as a ountry, this will continue to hyten and get to place where ere not actually dealing with 100 Million Dollars of debt per hour so the hour were sitting ere, another hundred Million Dollars of debt. When are we going to address problem . Its going to hang around the necks of our children and grandchildren. To know. At i want the question weve been talking about is what is your right . Is it to defend the president . Do . That what you have to you sit back and let it play out because its going the play out what. Tter its not our role to defend theent. People here will see do. As what we yet i can tell you, when we look at the documents, ill go in ve probably signed more bipartisan letters of inquiry than this administration any other republican member because oversight and transparency is a good thing. Medicine for everybody regardless of the administration. Said, i think what happens is where everything gets 30 second sound bites, and so, you know, weve got cameras out here right now. For is thate hoping jim jordan or mark meadows makes a sound bite that can go viral on msnbc or cnn, and, so o ahead, make news, but heres where you have to jim and i probably looked at so many as it relates to this whole russia investigation thats been going on. Adam schiff sat there saying, listen, weve got evidence, its coming, its looking at a set of facts that we know does not those allegations, and so youve got to be real this business, just like, you bringing back what i told you a long time ago saying, be toast because were going to be impeached. You hadnt kept those notes. I have them all. You have them all but what not make o do is allegations that you cant back up by the facts. But where des do it we have to really get with this truth, ave to seek the and the truth on all of this is improper was motivations within the bureaucracy in washington, d. C. Be good to purge for both sides. Let me ask you this question. Someone who has bias could still witness something that they find troubling and report it, and if problematic. Ts so on the substance this person has ying, and the i. G. Backed it up and found it credible, meaning the i. G. Has has an investigation and said, yeah, i found the same have, i think this is credible. On the political motivation i. G. Said was the question of political motivation outcome for e the the facts of this situation. Somebody who has trustworthy be a person, whether they like trump or not this guy didnt witness anything, thats the problem. By definition actually actually, i think a whistleblower. Theatrics apparently. This, one oflook at the things that is troubling to me is, little tiny things really me. T to bug if you look at the form, the why was it r form, changed to say, because typically whistleblowers are upposed to be first hand knowledge of what happened. During the course of your business. Form now know that the that the ic actually put forth, whistleblower form was revised. It row advised . And it was revised to take out thatirst hand knowledge so the complaint could move forward. When did that happen . A rabbitou can go down trail. The truth is, what jim is talking about. Deeper you can get and there, t a guest out would you like to come up . An actually help you youre on the hotseat. Questionscome and ask if we could. With hink where we run ost of this is that its critical that what is observed and i ed up by facts, think right now, because we jumped into this impeachment of , there are a whole lot people talking about facts on both sides where there arent facts. Out let the facts weigh and hopefully thats what proper oversight. Actually well get to hear from Ukrainian Ambassador that got fired, that was part of this whistleblower complaint. Just this week. Jim andly have to go back to d. C. Because adam schiff track to get this done. [applause] there is somebody who has not mind. P their people testifying, what is the giuliani doing, president s personal lawyer, onducting diplomacy on behalf of the president . Its unusual by any estimation. Guys would be all over that. If he did ill get to that. I want to go back to where i was earlier. To get to the truth. Our job is to get to the truth. Well answer the question. You. Promise our job is to get to the truth, and yes, about defending the president , heck, yeah, im defend the president when hes getting a raw deal and i think thats happened from day one. Emember, when this congress started, new congresswoman tlaib aid before she was even sworn in or the day shes sworn in says shes going to impeach the guy. She said it a little differently they have been on this quest impeach the president and i do disagree with little bit with earlier. Said i think its different. We disagreed on president obama i was on thehings, ben gazi committee, the message they sent to the American People was so wrong. Did at the irs when they targeted conservative people was so wrong. Once, never once called for the impeachment of president obama but we did hard kind of year , sight youre supposed to do. These folks on the democrat side have already said they are going impeach without yet we had the president re was falsely accused of coordinating with russian that election. He jim comey did a 10month and, guess what, when we asked him, after 10 months didnt have a thing. Wo years more of robert mueller, after two years muellered to us, we dont have anything. Doesnt matter. Just keep going. They are going to go after this president regardless of truth or so our job is truth and factened thats what were going on and when i think thats the focus of the investigation you Better Believe to defend the position. Rudy giulianis position you actually its ours to defend the president , its actually giulianis job to do hes getting paid shuttles diplomacy in a country. Suggesting giuliani is shuttling diplomacy, what when youre looking to defend the president , whether or anybody else, they are paid to defend the evidence. Youve got to go where the that ce is and part of evidence is in the ukraine. Im here to tell you a lot of evidence is in ukraine, if you look at some of the documents that have been passed back and forth. Job. s his is it his job to prosecute joe biden . It is not his job. A. G. s job, whennational community, so it comes to that, that would be more appropriate for the f. B. I. , a. A. G. Or others that are there. Its our job to be the counterbalance in terms of what weve seen and read and to be to articulate the documents seen. Eve let me ask one more question on this topic, on the substance, appreciateguys dont the leaks and you dont appreciate the people that the are giving s hired things to the press. But the Washington Post this the president d with two russian officials, he said, hes not really worried about america nce because does it all over the world. Yeah, h. R. Mcmasters, who ctually was fired by this president has already come out and said that thats not accurate. No, no, no. The conversation was was appropriate. Episode dnt say that you look at reporting, present company excluded. Thank you. And, listen, ive got lots of friends who i dont necessarily to read what they write, expect he same time i their journalistic integrity. You guys get to compete with bloggers, all they are doing is stuff, they are trying to get clicks and youve got a journalistic standard that you have to go to. We do know over the last week. Is that there was supposedly eight mentions of bide unanimous transcript that didnt happen. Quid pro supposedly quo that didnt happen. There were supposedly promises that was all of reported by what you would say periodicals, onal whether bit the New York Times r the Washington Post, and all of that was false. We all me skeptical when start to see people with third hand knowledge reporting on a source, i can tell you, that this president , and normally comment on my conversation with the president , but this president consist at every time each and ive talked to him, has one motivation and thats about and he and America First continues to do that, and i can some hillary ave voters here. It matters and i do want to be clear, in reference o something jim was referencing, when i talk about he travelism that causes the time that we spend on these things thats not to say i dont hink i make a value judgment about the nature of the political fights that you were referring to. For uld sit here and talk an hour about libya, we could sit here and talk about a lot of that were very troubling in the previous administration. Very troubling but at some right, you have to make a decision, you look at something troubling, whatever that might be what are we going to do relates to the country . What are we going to spend our time focusing on . My observation is, whether you or disagree and there will be a lot of disagreement, my now, the on is right motivations behind trying to drive down these various paths singular motivation of taking the president down. And its a purposeful motivation some point you have to decide, look, were going to have an election in 13 months, one three years ago. What are we doing over the next ear for the future of the country . For those who have a vehement and vial disdain for the we want him gone no matter what, okay, go seek that. Your kids hat do for or grandkids . What im trying to say is literally as we speak were future. Ng their literally as we speak were allowing our boarders to be broken. As we speak, healthcare prices continue to escalate without any discussion across different opinions about the subject, and those issues are not being address. And its, i think its bad for that alth of the republic were in this state. Lets dial down a little bit on that. Mentioned a couple of times the debt and the deficit. That was the religion of the party cans and the tea and the Freedom Caucus and truly, in trumps republican era, he says he doesnt care that. Can you explain that shift. An answer. Go ahead. My answern to this, its a reality. This in response to the 1. 4 trillion which was 2010, created on the back of the timulus program and so forth, the response to that was, try to check that. G in are you h any okay, maam . That did not touch mandatory spending, right . It touch . Discretion their spending with across the board cuts that dod. Ked very hard. So dot was taking it on the chin getting significant cuts for about four years and we saw the negative impact on that. Ask any of our men and women in uniform, about readiness. Did the president want to do . Restore that. My disagreement and i voted believe my , i friends did here as well, cap increases in july, voted against them. 140 republicans who voted against really what the president wanted on that front. Right vote was the because i think we ought to have a discussion about spending and iguring out how to get it to balance. Instead of blowing the caps. When were talking about a undred Million Dollars of debt per hour thats before the 320 billion increase in caps and for are invariably going to raise, oh, the Corporate Tax talk ses, okay, lets about that. What revenue ut losses occurred from those tax cuts in 2017. The debt ll, what was before december 2017 . Massive and growing. Why . Math, what you do the were looking at, and you say of income, and about one something trillion, 1. 1 trillion of 700 security and about billion in medicare and 400 billion in interest, is anybody adding that up . Youre to zero. Are, and i e you havent even talked about the c. I. A. , department of justice, he f. B. I. , the department of health, the department of labor, department of education, i about food talked stamps, havent talked about farms. Like thats the reality of our situation. You can tax the ever living crud out of corporations or whatever define as wealthy, youre not going to close that gap. A conversation with a democratic colleague, who i wont mention the name right now because i dont want that person to have to respond to what im about to say but we had a great conversation on the there are rolling our sleeves up to figure out how to tackle that problem and should we talk about hether a tax increase could be on the table as part of permanent tax rates so people can invest capital and we can have Economic Growth. The model and put it in a spreadsheet, or people with it in the dget, put spreadsheet. Youve got to have four, five, 6 Percent Economic Growth and hold spending in check as it is now. If you want to have a prayer of 22 trillion the of debt. If you count out the 22 trillion now, one mississippi, it would take you 700,000 years. 22 trillion s. It. Ve got to address is don trump a small conservative . Yeah. Its sort of tough right now pelosi running the house. A government like she has in this latest the democrats and the president. Understand. I understand. And the president talked about, in the second term he does just described, this is a huge problem and we all know it problem is l our every member of the freedom voted against the deal and for the first two years administration. Of course, you know, the isagreements we had with speaker ryan and boehner. A book about ote that. In. O let me jump there are two groups of people that love to spend more money in washington, d. C. Democrats and republicans, and he real problem with that is that when you go and youre poll g about debt, if you that, more people they are worried about jobs, they are healthcare, t immigration, they are worried about a lot of things but they arent worried about debt people think of debt in the way they have debt on their home. 30year nk, i have a mortgage, ill pay it off over time. Pay this off over time. In this administration, no one the ushed back hard we are president of the United States on spending ive been in the with him, mr. President , this is not a win, and yet, of e are others on our side the aisle, they are saying, oh, this is a win. We just need to go ahead and to together and we need wish it e money and i werent that way. But thats the way it is. Make it,ere we have to we have to make it matter for aisle, sidesh side until its the most important thing congress will continue to money until we bankrupt our country. When i spent ive spent a times visiting with military leaders in this district, weve got fort sam i spent n san antonio, the day at Fort Sam Houston talking about this kind of stuff. To which the impact 2013, 2014, 2015, real, for a military, where less than 1 of the population is going out and defending the United States and they are feeling the mpact of that, thats what is motivating the president. I can tell from you private conversations, whats motivating him is making sure the men and in uniform have the tools to do what hes asking them to do. Begrudge that at all but die begrudge a town, a swamp, as you said,sumed, democrats and republicans thinking they have a blank check and we end up with 22 trillion and counting, rack up a Million Dollars of debt per hour. As a republican who believes in a Strong Military we need to one the money were spending the military, spend it more in chips district and across the at d and reduce the people about 200,000 people. That would be small government do. Thats what we need to by the way, your cousin just ame in probably one of the smartest guys in healthcare. Actually, i will say this. Had a number of conversations on, not only on modifyare but on how you and make sure we do two things. Conditions andng bring down premiums. Thats the primary goal for me going to see some of his handiwork on a prescription to plan, if youre going make news here today. I do believe within weeks, we will have a Prescription Drug that ultimately will be based a whole lot on some of his input. With democrats and republicans coming together, where we lower Prescription Drug rices, our goal is to lower them by 30 in the next fiscal which is a hefty lift, weve got to do it. On that note, since you up, the president told us when we interviewed him for our book, subsequently a illion times, hes not interested in working with democrats while they are impeaching him. Investigating him. Impeaching him. Investigating him. Do you anticipate that hes do things to go ahead. T does i mean, when the democrats endeavor, used on one getting rid of the president that the American People deal withts tough to the Prescription Drug plan that would help families, would help people, would bring down the Prescription Drugs. Its tough to address the board issue. This state knows more about it any state in the country, its tough to do those focus when off singular that started before anyone saw any of the facts. Bothers all ofha us. Shift gears a little bit. Of the t two years Freedom Caucus, we described them as some of the most powerful people in washington. Your power came from and how youre exerting power now that youre in the minority its a different game. Ill let the chairman go chairman and the newest member will go after that. Listen, when we started the Freedom Caucus, it came out of actually a vote where jim jordan voted one way and i voted another. To id listen, if im going lose, i am going to lose in an organized fashion. It was also looking at coalitions. If youre going to form coalitions, how do you do that . Nd when we had the majority, the power was, you couldnt get to 218 without coming through 40 people that we had, and actually, there are 20 to 25 that r we have influence with that are not part of the caucus, that dom caucus he bri jacket so its that 60 to 65. Knew if it was a republican only bill there was no way and ut our additions without our input, that it was going to get to 218. Ow, thats hard, when you go against the president of the United States, which jim and i, ou know, were one of three members of congress that have actually been tweeted at in a by the fashion resident of the United States, it is not fun. My phone blew up the day he crazy, but me, going being ableeverage of to do that. The second part is having the fortitude to do that and now weve got to do is look at coalition. m over im working with Elijah Cummings on Prescription Drug prices. Im over in the Senate Working with senators. To wake them up from their naps in order to do that but they are over in the senate there working and ctually, what they want is something that, as a conservative, if they vote for, that they dont get beat up back home. So we essentially now provide says, ight mooring that okay, were giving, weve made a compromise but were voting for it gives a little bit of cover for some that may be in a tougher district. Think you guys, im curious, you won you lost majority, why did you lose the majority . There are two things that caucus. E freedom one, doing what you told the voters you were going to do when gave you the privilege to sgoefsh. N the context of an election, you say certain things, they say, all right, they give you a majority, go do what you said. Happens in ly washington is people will say one thing at election time, get come up with and million reasons why they cant do what they said they were going to do and more importantly, what they were to do. Is, this is a g reason why we picked that name for the caucus. Think freedom is under attack today from all kinds you look at what Big Government is doing. Ou look at whats happening on College Campus that is your tax dollars pay for. If youre a conservative and youve got to go to a safe space if you want to talk. Zones. Are free speech there is a reason we picked the word freedom. What we find is people all over resonate to individuals who are willing to said, he swamp, as chip do what they said, and stand up for freedom. Thats what drives it. Tactical way we do that is what mark said. Majority, its pretty simple. Youve got a wlk of votes and they n stop things unless move things in a direction for which we were campaigned on and elected to do. Just a matter of speaking things. T those advocacy with the administration. If there is anyone who understands the trump voter, it is our district. North the president carolina is advocacy with the a. Y district more than any other district. It was the west and the east of north carolina. And so i understand those people out, which a lot of them were democrats who actually republican, some of them for the first time. Nd so its articulating that, and letting him know what they think. As a freshman when observe i campaigned would, ive known these guys and during my time working ith cruz, and before the Freedom Caucus existed, there were still a lot of people working together that ultimately caucus. He freedom i knew it as the entity, and reason,ed freedom for a the entity thats most focused on taking on the swamp, before a defined thing by the president. In his campaign. This is an entity that existed specifically to do that. So challenge the status quo, to in lenge the order washington. When i was on the floor in june we nding votes, because werent getting the supplemental, the president asked for it. Youre talking about, mr. Roy, give a little bit of context. For ading up to, in june, five months, we had been saying there was a crisis at our border. Okay . Secretary will acknowledge there was a crisis at our border. Youre putting him on the hotspot. I believe he will because he said so. There is a crisis at our board was. We kept saying there there were literally thousands of people coming across the border with no place to put them so this is a very real situation. What do you do with the kids . How do you get the kids make sure they arent harmed . How do you get them to hss to get them cared for . How do you deal with people coming across the board and you dont know if they are a child parent. Ticular you talk to a child and they spent the night before in a park and they will tell you they were paying off the cartels to come across the river and you talk about the women and the children that are abused on the journey, 54 people on a stash house in for ransom g held the videos that you see, men beaten up re getting and that video is getting sent out for a ransom. A daily going on, on basis. The cartels are at war right state. Level four this is the state of our border. Youve got bipartisan agreement five months, my colleagues would go to the floor and the house and they would say crisis, its a manufactured crisis, you get to june and what happens, we have a situation where the president asking for 4 billion. Why . So we could have beds, so you out of ve the kids facilities. We needed it. We had nowhere to put them. We just said, look, we need to have action. What did i want . Ice, id more funding for wanted to fix the Border Patrol and the various asylum rules crisis a lot of the hich, bit way, Obama Administration set up the same requests, the catch and release roblem so we went to the floor of the house and objected to unanimous consent in voice vote request during an prorations a limited number of tools that we have in the house and youre a minority, i to all of those, and a few of my colleagues joined. Votes one night into 3 00 or 4 00 in the morning range. Let me tell you, there was a lot bipartisan hate directed towards me for interrupting dinners, interrupting their and frankly going to bed, and im saying, look, we vote on these amend president s, but what happened. Staff comes to who, me . Mark, and others to say, what do pain . Ed to do to end the our members are getting restless. Give us a vote. Give us a vote on the supplemental. You know what . I told them, im going to vote against the supplemental because it doesnt have funding for ice if you dont have funding for ice you have nowhere else to move people from the detention to mcallen but we got 4 billion to move the kids into the facilities, and we a vote and it passed overwhelmingly but it took us fighting to do it. The Freedom Caucus exist to challenge the order in the swamp in washington. Hats why im proud to be a part of it and well continue to do so. You only have a couple of minutes left. To some questions about politics in the future. How do you see the 2020 election playing out right now . Do you that i republicans are going to have a shot at gaming house . E majority in the yes. I think President Trump is going to win. I think potentially he wins big. Our state is traditionally has been viewed as ohio the battleground state, the of the entire country because weve got big cities, agriculture, weve got a mix but the president won 1 2. State by 8 if the election were today he would win by more than that. Wins, if he president he wins big we can take back the house. What is the message in 2020 . Think the message sticker message has to be continue with the economy, continue to create jobs. I guess they go keep america great. Thats the Bumper Sticker but what im saying is, actually, jobs, continue w to make sure that we remember but orgotten man and woman in terms of winning the majority, it runs through orange county, california. Dont take back three or four seats in california, there win it, and so, we will not know whether weve back the house unless you have polling that would suggest that were going to take four california, and so, that. L start to see mr. Roy, youre being llenged what . Is he the champ . No. I tell you why. Ook, there will be some disagreement, i believe that there is some significant amount of i would ration exuberance moving to e who are texas and shifting plates, if ou will in terms of the electorate. When i go around 21, and ive lot, im spending all my time here, traveling the district, and the response that get, do you know how many people come up to move who have moved here saying god bless you, im seeking because refuge from some other place . It happens every single day. Ts happened three times walking up the street. It happened in san antonio. In austin, texas, people have moved here from oregon, california, new york, are seekingaces who refuge from high tax, high regulation jurisdiction, to come to a place where you get a jobs a day being reated, and i view this election of 2020 as doing what jim said, doing what we said we would do. Forward with an agenda to reset where we think e want to go, and working towards doing that. I ran on making sure we have responsibility. Ill keep beating that. 140 republicans did that. Democrats werent there. Securing the board. What happened in july 2018 . There was a bill on the floor of had security, that had measures in place to fix immigration, which would ave dealt with some of these asylum problems that would have solved it, and it had status. Two different bills, one was four million to five million, daya. Ad status for how Many Democrats voted for those bills . Zero. I think we go out and we make a s case that were for common sense border security, common sense immigration, fiscal responsibility, making sure we strong Economic Growth because you cant solve our problems if we dont have three, growth and a mic Healthcare Plan that will actually benefit our people by ensuring ices down, that everybody is able to get the care that they need and we can do that with the plans were talking about. Last question . Three minutes left. One in the audience. Do one and then well ick it open to one question, i guess, i dont know how much tim time. Im not going to choose. Question before the audience, is this the good . Dents party for the president s party forever . You know . Point, yeah, i think that it will. Would just say like, its no accident that the Freedom Caucus at thet kale together same time there was this feeling in the country, were ick of how that town operates and we want something different. Its no accident that they coincided in the timing of it all. I would say, a nontraditional populist conservative movement. I were a y, if democrat what would scare me to working that, hard Union Democrat voter that, in places, elt and other they are shifting. They are shifting in big ways, is, as youre seeing be shifts, it will forever a change, and donald trump point, before the election last fall, 500 republicans at this thing, i think there were 500 republicans in youngstown, ohio that. Dynamic is definitely happening for us. s good ill say one other thing on that front. He idea that i think is pervasive among democrats is that, well, you know, were hispanic g to win the vote, republicans will never win the hispanic vote and they view as a monolithic challenge. I disagree. The contributions that i see from small dollar contributions in texas and around the country, from hispanic population and hispanic citizens, when i talk to friends of mine in the Border Patrol and people who are watching whats board, the t the assault, the victory yol, anger, hatred, its people off, its turning the hispanic population off, a hispanic population who believes the rule of law matters and should you have security thats better for migrants and better for the one more question. Why dont you get to the question. A stop me when we get to constitutional topic you are unwilling to defend with your oath of office for the common good of all americans. Freedom of religion for all, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of opposition government to redirect grievances, freedom from reasonable you are going to go down them all . No. Due process for all persons in the u. S. All persons in the u. S. Freedom from excess bale, cruel and unusual punishment. Freedoms reserved from the state. Vote. Ms for citizens to freedoms from the president serving more than two terms. Freedom for the house and senate to vote on the bills presented before them. Commerce with foreign nations by congress. That is a little topic. I w i will stop you, thats where we disagree. Your point is are we not defending the constitution. You are not defending it. I am defending the constitution. As a son who was a constitutional lawyer who went to school as a conservative to be a constitutional lawyer, i raised my hand to defend the constitution each and every day. Comparison tos in our military men and women who put their lives on the line each and every day. They will continue getting my support, as is this president. Hearing. O the you can google it. It was the other day. Im an expert. Thank you so much, we appreciate it. Sunday at 9 00 eastern on afterwards, in his book the years that matter most, paul tough talks about the challenges and costs of a college education. Hes interviewed by sarah grab. Ck also founding director of the hope center for college, community, and justice. We are debating on whether a 12th grade education is enough. It is not enough. All of the signs from the economy and the labor market are it is not enough. Unlike our predecessors, who are able to respond to those basic economic signs of educating young people, we are fighting about it and turning it into questions of identity and politics, partisanship. Clearly, there is a sign that our young people need our support, help, more education, more skills in order to survive in the current economy. Atwatch afterwards sunday 9 00 p. M. Eastern on book tv on cspan2. Now, more from the Texas Tribune festival in austin. A discussion on the state of american politics today. We begin with a conversation with democratic president ial candidate governor Steve Bullock of montana. This is one hour 15 minutes. [applause] lets get the show started. I think youre clapping for the
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