UH OH… Everyone Is Getting Questioned

Joining us today on IHIP News is the most important Democratic Congressman, in my opinion, the author of the tweet heard round the world after the blue NAMI, where he said lawyer up directly to MAGA. Congressman Garcia, how are you today? I'm doing good. Just in the fight and are ready to get these investigations going. All right, so the current oversight committee that will be outgoing before you come in and share it, had a tweet about the Epstein investigation and your oversight committee responded to it very quickly, pop this up. You didn't hold a single public hearing. You didn't say anything when the DOJ withheld 2.5 million missing files. You didn't bring in Todd Blanch. After saying you would, we will not allow the president and his allies to dismiss this investigation. We're just getting started. What can we expect from you when you take power? Will you have all of these survivors on camera in Congress telling their stories? Absolutely. First is our investigation will be survivor center. We're going to ensure that the center of our investigation is the survivors, it's their stories, it's the just the horrific things that they have had to go through, the way they have been re-traumatized by Trump's DOJ and Todd Blanch and Pambondi. The Republicans have put out this report basically closing the Epstein investigation. They're basically done, which is a complete joke and quite frankly, so shameful. They haven't held one single public hearing to address the investigation 2.5 million documents are still being withheld by Todd Blanch and the DOJ. They had witnesses that did not put under oath. I mean, they've created it a farce. Their whole job was to protect Donald Trump. No answers on Galein Maxwell and why she was transferred. No answers on why Vice President Vance is having these meetings in the situation room with Susie Wiles and others. So our work on Epstein is just getting started with an enormous amount to do. And the first thing that you're going to see is public hearings where the media and the press, the public most importantly, will be open to. And those will start quite quickly in the new Congress. All right. Pambondi repeatedly said that Blanch was responsible for overseeing the entire release of the Epstein files. Are you going to put him under oath and ask him about that, ask him what he's been doing with the files, and what happened in his meeting with Galein Maxwell and why exactly and what he maybe possibly could have promised her to move her to the cream puff prison? Absolutely. And it's funny because James Comer, the current chairman, has been talking for months. The Todd Blanch is going to come in. He's going to address the committee. Well, we're still waiting. He's never going to work committee. That was obviously either a lie or Todd Blanch is now too scared to come in. It's quite cowardly from not to address our committee. And he's been the guy in charge of this entire White House cover up from day one. And he's refusing to come in and testify. And so we're absolutely going to have Todd Blanch come in and testify in front of our committee. And it's not just going to be Blanch. It's all the Epstein associates that are in his universe. It's folks that are out there right now that are walking free as they've been engaged in the abuse, the rape and trafficking of girls and children, many of them at the time. And so this is an investigation that we should all be fired up. We should be angry. We should be angry that these survivors have had to experience all this and continue to have to live their lives with no justice. And so there is no moving on in this moment for this investigation as the Republicans want to do. We will get justice. We're not going to rest until we get justice for the survivors. Not to mention the gaslighting that these victims have to face by the president of the United States when he says it is a hoax. And Todd Blanch is threatening now. The attorney general of the United States of America is threatening to investigate Democrats who promise to hold the administration accountable. Do you see this as a threat and how do you intend to deal with this? Well, it is a threat. There's no question. I'm not new to this. You're an a half ago Donald Trump and his DOJ sent me a letter that they were in opening an investigation on me because I was critical of Elon Musk if you believe that. And so I put that word in the garbage word need to go. But at the end of the day, this is a moment for Democrats. We have to have the courage to stand up to this authoritarian government. We have to have the courage to take on Donald Trump and know that he is going to use every tool at his disposal. In this case, the DOJ, the Department of Justice, the FBI, God knows what else. His billionaire friends and buddies and donors to go after us to intimidate us. But we're not going to be, I mean, I'm certainly not going to be intimidated. We're not going to be intimidated. Yes, they're going to throw everything we have at us. They're going to try to destroy our character. They're going to try to demean us and try to, uh, quite frankly, send out their, their, you know, MAGA universe to come after us. But we are going to stand strong because we have the people behind us. And more importantly, this is a moment in this country where if you're not willing to put yourself in, in, in, in the way of danger, if you're not willing to kind of put yourself, um, and know that there is real risks. This isn't the right job for you. This is not like being in Congress at any other moment in history. And I, I think I, I tell my colleagues this all the time. We are, we are what's standing right now in between a complete takeover by authoritarian dictators and oligarchs that are trying to raid the treasury, raid the American taxpayer, destroy the world order. And we just so happen to be the ones in Congress at this moment. As if we're not all fucking in, yeah, then, then, then, uh, what the hell are we doing? That's right. All right. So, you know, I think that Trump has used the DOJ, um, to shake people down kind of like a mafia boss does. He's sort of tried to do to you. Like I'm going to open up an investigation to you and he wanted to scare you so he could ultimately shake you down. And I think this is a tactic, um, a lot of people have estimated he learned this from his mentor, the late Roy Cone. But his family is also in on this grip. I'm talking about Don and Eric. Don and Eric, uh, have some friends that own a, uh, airport spa company. And they got a $40 million contract government contract for the spa company to test for Ebola. It's just, everything is just a grift in a shake down. So which Trump family member is getting subpoenaed first? Well, look, we actually want to talk to all of them. And what that report, um, is stunning. And it's crazy. Also, there's, there's, of course, are the reporting that has been clear that not only it had been in that case, but that Don, Don, Don, Jr. especially sitting on boards, they're getting contracts from the federal government out of the pen to gone. And so the idea that you are, that any, any child or family member of the president can even get government contracts is crazy. It's crazy. And one thing that's important is, look, Don, Jr. Sterling, Eric, Jared Kushner, I mean, give me a break. You're getting two billion from the Saudis and all across all these governments across the Middle East for, uh, your expertise and to invest. I mean, they're just dumping money into the Kushners so that they can curry favor with, with the Trumps. And, and, and Jared somehow is appointed, uh, by, by Don Jr. to bring peace, uh, to the Middle East and, and be this envoy. This is the, the same person, Jared Kushner, who is invested by the way, uh, the investment companies and firms are also invested with the Israeli military. And so, uh, his investments are, and connected to as far as it relates to weapons within, within the, within the military yet he's supposed to be bringing peace, uh, towards, uh, to Gaza and with creating the Gaza, the, the, the, the plan for Gaza's future. Give me a break. This is corruption. It's cruel. It's inhumane. And all of these Trump family members, uh, have to be asked the tough questions that they need to be in front of our committees in the Congress, uh, for there to be real accountability. Okay. So what happens? Let's say you send out these subpoenas, Toglant. You send it out to Don Jr. You send one out to Jared Kushner. And they take him, rip him up, throw him in the trash and don't show up. What next? So a couple of things. I think one is we're, we obviously are going to be focused on, uh, getting these folks to testify and we'll use every tool in our disposal. And I, I, I share with folks is Congress has the power, uh, in the majority to go to the courts. We also have the power to file, to file content charges, both criminal charges and civil charges. And people who often respond and say, well, criminal, criminal referral charges at the Congress puts in place, those go to the DOJ. What's going to happen then? Well, they, well, they can't stop also civil contempt and civil contempt goes to the courts. And so we will use every tool at our disposal to get answers and to get to the truth. And what the, the Trump family needs to understand, the Trump crime family, as I like to call them, is that they're not going to be in the White House forever. The time is a ticket as it relates to their power and their influence. And we should demand. And one thing I'm, I'm going to be very involved in, I know, you and others will be as well. We will demand that whoever our next presidential nominee is when we're having those debates, would they need to be asked the question clearly? Will you have an attorney general that is Willie on day one to prosecute these crimes? He's going to take on the crimes that an attorney general should be taking on because quite frankly, the decision to bring on Merritt Garland was maybe the worst disaster that was done in the last administration. So, no, we need a demand that an nominee has a bulldog as an attorney general and if he's willing to go after all these crimes, the second part of that Jennifer, I think this is important, is I'm working with states attorneys general and what the federal government might have some issues. The states don't have those same challenges and so we're going to depend on incredible A.J.'s like attorney general James New York or like attorney general Vonta in California or many others that are engaged in some of this corruption work and and we are all talking I was just on the phone with an attorney general yesterday and there's some coordination happening that's growing every day because I think their work is going to be very important in these next two years. It's it's essential and I echo what you say about Merritt Garland and I've made that a verb now the incoming democratic class these next two years cannot Merritt Garland this thing because we'll incubate something far far worse but there's been reporting that Steven Miller is very concerned about the powers of the presidential pardon because it doesn't extend to state courts and so as you are working with state A.J.'s that makes me think of Elon Musk. You know everybody's going to Trump likes to talk about I'm so popular you know nobody would talk to me in Trump 1.0 now they all kiss my ass. Now they're going to be kissing his ass for pardons and we can only assume that Elon Musk will really be kissing his ass for a pardon even though Elon himself said you want to know why Trump won't release the Epstein files because he's in them he's I mean Elon said that on his own social media site but he poured half a billion dollars into the election is investigating the influence billionaires have over our government going to be a priority and will you coordinate with state attorneys general on that regard. Absolutely I mean I think first are new attorneys generals that we have across the country we just elected are going to be involved engages work as are some that have been well established in key states for us and we look you know what's happening what happened in Texas with our new governor there and our new attorney general there there's an enormous amount of work to do there on you that of money that won single billionaire Elon Musk spend on this elections is insane and I think that we have to be aggressive in taking on these issues I have a bill with with Senator Van Holland that we actually are introducing we're right now that would essentially limit the ability of those that are getting federal contracts in the government to then make political donations in campaigns it's actually a loophole right now in the law and it is constitutional so we could pass a law today to essentially cut off the funding of anyone that is getting government contracts from the federal government in making political donations and I think that's me as a kind of common sense reforms that we need to see in our government. All right final question um what is your message to your democratic colleagues that may feel like investigating Trump and his administration will distract from affordability. I mean look what I would say I've said two things one is what happened Tuesday is people voted and it's clear for two reasons one because you're looking at the costs of the groceries at the supermarket right we're getting gas no question and because they're also mad as hell at the corruption they're mad at that their neighbors are getting picked up by ice and kidnap they're mad at they're seeing the trumps make billions of dollars while they are struggling to buy groceries they are mad that all of this corruption is happening across the country and that people are being enriched but insider information by stop trading so people those are the reasons why folks voted and so I try to connect the issue of accountability to affordability because they're late and so there is there is not one without the other if we really want to make life in this country more affordable then we got to take on the folks that are giving themselves big tax cuts they're taking and stealing everybody's wealth giving it to themselves in the billionaire donors we got to take on the people that are building oil pipelines in Venezuela so that the oil companies that are raising your gas prices while you're struggling who are making record profits that we take on that corruption that we take on the corruption of the tariffs that Donald Trump who's handing out these bonus you know bonus checks of folks and tariff relief to whoever he thinks deserves one but that is costing the American public enormously at the end of the day and so accountability we get accountability when we get justice we're going to actually lower prices that's for me the message congressman thank you so much we are cheering you on I cannot wait for you to return to chair that committee and we finally have an honest decent person that advocates for the survivors of this criminal sex ring that the president has listed in multiple times and for every American I mean this is so well-earned and it's such a historical moment that you're living in and I think you're the man of it thank you so much thank you we're excited to do the work.