Recommending That the House of Representatives Find Peter K. Navarro and Daniel Scavino, Jr., in Contempt of Congress

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I hope this is the last time that we do this. Just last week, we watched members of the January 6th Select Committee criticize the DOJ for not jailing their political opponents fast enough.

Now the committee is trying to refer two more of President Trump's advisers to the DOJ for criminal prosecution. The same DOJ, by the way, that has slandered concerned parents as domestic terrorists; a DOJ overseen by a President who said President Trump should be prosecuted.

So let's be clear, we aren't voting today to rename a post office. So, please, let's be honest with ourselves. A vote to hold Dan Scavino and Peter Navarro in contempt of Congress is a vote to put them in jail for a year. Neither of these men deserve this. The party line isn't a good enough excuse today. Disliking their politics isn't an excuse.

Mr. Scavino has two boys. He is a good dad. He doesn't deserve this. His boys definitely don't deserve this. So before we vote today, I have got to ask, could anyone here explain to those boys why their dad deserves to be behind bars for a year?

Mr. Scavino grew up in a working-class family in New York City. He is a former caddy who worked his way up to the White House through hard work and determination. Mr. Scavino lived the American Dream. Now, thanks to the select committee, he is living an authoritarian nightmare.

The select committee will say that it is Mr. Scavino's fault for refusing to cooperate. That is simply not true. Mr. Scavino asked time and again for the committee to follow the rule of law and provide him with a narrow and specific legislative purpose for the information that they were seeking. He asked, ``How is what you want from me pertinent to your investigation?'' And they refused to explain.

But remember what they said last week. The January 6th Committee must enforce its subpoenas. But contempt is not enforcement; it is punishment. Contempt won't get the committee any information. Only the court can do that. But they don't want to go to the judiciary. They don't want neutral arbitration. They want political punishment.

The select committee has never been interested in factfinding. In fact, Jim Jordan and I were both blocked from sitting on the committee because we promised to fully investigate the security failure at the Capitol. The Democrat leaders don't want that. They claim they blocked us for being too partisan.

Meanwhile, the committee's lead staffer signed his name to a false letter calling the Hunter Biden laptop Russian disinformation. Apparently, lying to undermine democracy is a key qualification for employment of this committee.

If the January 6th Committee gets its way, Congress will have referred four former Trump officials for prosecution in under 6 months, another record for the 117th Congress.

The select committee aims to do two things: silence legitimate questions about the breakdown of security at the Capitol and punish their political opponents. It is that simple.

Dan Scavino is accused of listening to his boss, the former Commander in Chief, who told him to ``invoke all applicable privileges and immunities.'' Today's vote is not about wrongdoing, and it isn't about anybody's character, no matter what they say.

Today's vote is about the character of this House. It is about abusing the seat of our democracy to attack American democracy. The question is, do we live in a country where you can go to jail for working for the wrong politician? Would you want to live in that country? The question is, will you help create that country? Because I think we have had a pretty good thing going for the last 240 years, and that is exactly why I urge all of my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this resolution today. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. BANKS. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Gaetz).

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Mr. BANKS. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from North Dakota (Mr. Armstrong).

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Mr. BANKS. Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Rodney Davis.)

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, 15 months have passed since January 6 of 2021, yet I have seen little evidence over that time to indicate the necessary progress has been made to ensure the Capitol complex is more secure.

And I have seen no evidence that the politicized select committee is serious about identifying or addressing the issues that led to our Capitol being so unprepared on that day, which should be its top priority.

On February 17 of this year, the GAO released a report detailing the lack of security preparedness by Capitol Police leadership and the Capitol Police Board on and in the lead-up to January 6. The rank-and- file men and women who serve Congress as members of the Capitol Police put their lives on the line every day. Yet, the Capitol Police Board, controlled by Speaker Pelosi, failed them. They deserve better.

Instead of working to ensure our Capitol Police officers have the tools and the training they need to prevent another event like January 6 or taking long-overdue steps to reform the Capitol Police Board, the House is once again voting on a contempt resolution because two individuals are not complying with another sham subpoena issued by House Democrats.

I have a newsflash for members of the Select Committee: You do not have limitless power. You cannot demand testimony, documents, or even view the information of your political opponents without their consent or without the law on your side. You have neither.

Specifically, Mr. Scavino and Mr. Navarro are unable to testify on specific topics that are related to their work in the White House, nor can they testify on communications between President Trump and the President's closest advisers, as those communications are protected under President Trump's claim of executive privilege.

As a reminder, the American taxpayer is spending millions of dollars on this select committee. According to The Washington Post, the select committee is on pace to spend $9.3 million by the end of December.

To put that into perspective, that amount exceeds the current budgets for the Committees on the Judiciary; Agriculture; Budget; Ethics; the Committee on House Administration; Rules; Science, Space, and Technology; Small Business; Natural Resources; Homeland Security; Veterans' Affairs; and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

That is right, this select committee is using more taxpayer resources on their partisan investigation than Democrats have devoted to serving veterans, addressing rising prices in inflation, or helping our farmers during a massive supply chain crisis.

This is nothing more than a sham investigation full of misuses of congressional authority, including Speaker Pelosi violating 230 years of precedent by refusing to allow the minority party to select its own committee members, failing to investigate pursuant to a valid legislative purpose, altering evidence to fit a certain narrative, lying to witnesses, falsely accusing witnesses, violating deponents' right to challenge subpoenas, and perhaps above all, refusing to investigate why Speaker Pelosi and the Capitol Police Board left the Capitol so unprotected that day.

I urge my colleagues to oppose the resolution.

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Mr. BANKS. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Jackson).

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Mr. BANKS. Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Jordan).

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Mr. BANKS. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

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Mr. BANKS. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close. I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, it might feel really good today for my opponents on the other side of the aisle. It might feel really good in a vindictive sort of way, to vote to put their political opponents behind bars. That might feel really good for my opponents across the aisle.

But I guarantee you, the history will not look back kindly on those actions in the years to come. I guarantee it. It couldn't be anymore un-American what they want to do today, to vote to put two men behind bars purely because they disagree with their politics and the man that they worked for.

I can't think of a bigger reason for my opponents to vote ``no'' on such an un-American resolution. I urge all of my colleagues to vote ``no'' and do the same.

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Mr. BANKS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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