During a House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-MD) went back and forth with Rep. Ben Cline (R-VA) after he accused Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee of personally attacking government officials.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Bill, to the gentleman from California.
00:02 Oh, okay, the gentleman from Maryland
00:05 for five minutes, Mr. Ivey.
00:06 >> Just so I'm clear on that conversation,
00:10 is this about juveniles?
00:11 >> Yes.
00:11 >> Okay. I mean, I had thought
00:15 that juvenile information was protected
00:19 and not made publicly available, but we'll set
00:22 that to the side for the moment.
00:23 And I appreciate the fact that you're offering
00:26 to have the communications ongoing.
00:29 I just -- I wanted to go to the CISA discussion that's come up,
00:35 because again, in Homeland Security,
00:37 we've spent a lot of time on this issue.
00:40 This committee has as well.
00:41 I think, for example, they did a deposition
00:44 of Ms. Nina Jankiewicz, a like four-hour deposition here
00:49 and others on these issues.
00:52 But I wanted to ask -- actually, I don't want to ask.
00:56 I'm going to say this.
00:58 You know, the CISA mission with respect
01:00 to protecting elections from challenges that we've seen,
01:05 and we've discussed this at Homeland Security,
01:08 and this is I think publicly available information.
01:11 But the United States in 2024 is facing clear efforts by China,
01:17 Russia, Iran, and other groups and countries
01:21 to interfere in our elections.
01:23 And one of the things that CISA I think is trying
01:26 to do is to find ways to protect the election integrity,
01:30 whether it's at the state level or the federal level as well.
01:35 And part of the way that they do that is to work
01:38 with state legislatures, state secretaries of state,
01:42 and also in some instances, social media platforms.
01:45 So the hearing we did, we've done several of these
01:48 in Homeland Security, and maybe some of these are some
01:51 of the thousands of documents that you produce,
01:53 but I've seen them already as well as part of those hearings.
01:56 Those are communications between frequently, on occasion,
02:00 it's somebody in the federal government, but frequently,
02:02 it's between people on the social media platforms,
02:06 Microsoft or whoever.
02:08 In many instances, there are state secretaries of state
02:10 or state officials who have a question about, you know,
02:15 misinformation or false information.
02:17 For example, Poll X is closed right now
02:20 when actually it isn't, and they want to make sure
02:22 that that misinformation is taken down
02:25 so that the electoral process isn't undermined and people
02:28 who have the right to vote don't have that taken away from them
02:32 by this kind of election interference effort.
02:34 And I actually saw Republican efforts to,
02:38 when they identified misinformation with respect
02:42 to polls, I think one of the instances they had,
02:44 and I had an email about this and made it part of the record
02:47 in Homeland Security, they called the social media platform
02:52 themselves and said, you know, correct that information
02:55 and take it down so people, you know,
02:57 voters don't get the wrong information.
02:59 So what I saw of it was that it was bipartisan,
03:02 at least on the ground.
03:03 It's morphed into something different here in Congress,
03:07 at least with respect to the House Republican leadership
03:11 and some of the ways they've tried to approach this
03:13 and turn it into something where it's, you know,
03:16 an election, an effort to steal the elections
03:19 or something along those lines.
03:20 And I might have been in the committee next door
03:23 where they, you know, argued these were First Amendment
03:25 violations, but I think it's important
03:28 for the American people to know that we have adversaries
03:32 out there who are trying to undermine American democracy.
03:35 And the 2024 election is at risk, frankly,
03:41 by some of these foreign agents.
03:43 They're trying to find ways to undermine it.
03:45 I really want to commend CISA and the department for trying
03:50 to find ways to attack that.
03:52 I don't want to attack the private sector people,
03:55 some of the social media platforms
03:57 who've been participating and trying to work
03:59 with the government, state or federal, or any other actors
04:02 who want to try and protect elections as well,
04:05 and recognize that social media platforms, in some instances,
04:09 have been used by some of these foreign adversaries
04:12 to spread misinformation and disinformation in an effort
04:15 to undermine our democracy.
04:16 And that's not just for elections.
04:18 That's other scenarios, too.
04:20 So I want to thank you all for the work that you're doing.
04:24 I also did want to just, before I run out of time here,
04:27 raise my concern about this committee's attacks
04:32 on government employees, federal government employees
04:35 in particular, who are really just trying to do their jobs.
04:39 Ms. Jenkiewicz was one of the worst examples of that.
04:42 She ended up having to hire security to protect her
04:47 from people who were making threats.
04:49 Some of them fed by people in the House of Representatives
04:52 on the Republican side as we sit here now.
04:55 And that's not the way this should work.
04:58 It really isn't.
04:59 People who are just trying to do their jobs, work for Uncle Sam,
05:03 and do the right thing to make America better, safer,
05:05 and stronger don't deserve to be attacked in that way.
05:08 So I see my time has expired, but again,
05:11 I hope that we can find a bipartisan way
05:13 to stop attacking you all for these issues
05:18 and protect our elections from some of our foreign adversaries
05:20 who are actually trying to undermine them as we speak.
05:23 And with that, I yield back.
05:24 >> I just inquired, and the gentleman's not suggesting
05:27 that anyone on this subcommittee is attacking government
05:31 employees by inquiring about status of subpoena replies.
05:33 >> Not this subcommittee at this moment, but in the transcripts
05:38 that this subcommittee
05:39 and this committee will not release publicly,
05:41 that's absolutely the case.
05:43 And that's also absolutely been the case
05:45 in social media statements that have been made
05:48 whether it's on X or Twitter or whatever.
05:50 And I don't want to name people because, you know,
05:52 then we get into that issue.
05:53 But yeah, Nina Jankowicz was personally attacked by members
05:57 of this committee.
05:59 >> The whole committee?
06:00 Is that what you're suggesting?
06:01 >> Yeah.
06:02 >> All right.
06:03 >> Absolutely.
06:04 >> Wow.
06:05 >> Absolutely.
06:05 I can share the information with you whenever you'd like,
06:08 but it's -- and we made it part
06:10 of the record actually during her deposition here
06:13 and when she testified on Homeland Security.
06:16 So it's, you know, it's not secret.
06:18 I'm happy to share.
06:19 >> I appreciate the gentleman.
06:20 The subcommittee controls what it can.