At a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) clashed over the New York Democrat's questioning of witness Jonathan Turley.
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00:00Let's, hypothetically, it's not hypothetical, it's true, Donald Trump has a financial interest in a meme coin named after himself.
00:10And he recently offered a VIP White House tour and special reception to the meme coin's 25 biggest holders.
00:22After that announcement, the coin surged more than 50%.
00:27Does that seem like something that warrants investigation to you, Mr. Turley?
00:33Well, there's no question that you can investigate that to see if there was any criminal conduct.
00:37I want to distinguish between that and the influence-peddling scandal that the hearing was about in the Biden administration.
00:44I'm not talking about that hearing.
00:46And I know you like to filibuster, Mr. Turley.
00:48No, no, I'm happy to talk about that hearing.
00:50It was the biggest joke of an investigation.
00:52It was embarrassing that you call yourself a credible criminal professor that you would actually think that there was any evidence that warranted an investigation.
01:04But I'm focusing right now because it would seem to me, if you have any credibility, you would agree that auctioning off a White House tour for the highest investors in your own company would warrant either impeachment or criminal investigation.
01:22But let me move on, because it gets worse.
01:26The president is a significant financial beneficiary of a company called World Liberty Financial, which issues a stablecoin.
01:36Are you familiar with stablecoins?
01:38I'm not.
01:39Okay.
01:39A stablecoin is essentially a digital version of a dollar that can be used in transactions.
01:45Recently, the World Liberty, this organization, which Donald Trump is a beneficiary of, entered into a deal with a UAE-backed company
02:04that would complete a $2 billion transaction with a company that has previously admitted to engaging in money laundering.
02:17And Donald Trump's company will now generate tens to hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from that transaction with a foreign government.
02:29And I'm sure you're familiar with the Foreign Emoluments Clause, Mr. Turley.
02:34Would you say that, based on that information, since apparently you only follow Hunter Biden's finances and not President Trump's,
02:42would you say that, based on me providing you with that information, that that would warrant an impeachment investigation?
02:49Congressman, when you say that we have to preserve our credibility, I think you would agree.
02:55Can you answer the question, sir?
02:57He's trying to answer the question.
02:58Your time has expired.
03:00I will allow the gentleman to answer the question.
03:01Thanks.
03:02In the interest of credibility cited by the member, I'm not going to rely on the facts that you just gave me for the first time to render a judgment on it.
03:10I'm not opposed to investigations of alleged corruption.
03:13That was the point of the previous hearing.
03:16But the way to establish credibility is not, as you did, sir, just engage in personality attacks and personal innuendos.
03:24I'm happy to speak with you and to work with you about anything dealing with corruption in this building.
03:31I've been writing about that for three decades.
03:33I've been called as a witness for both the Democrats and Republicans dealing with that.
03:37Well, I've only seen you as a witness.
03:39Your time has expired, sir.
03:40Your time has expired.
03:41I'm happy to yield back.
03:44Did you finish your question?
03:46Only that the way that we can actually regainā
03:49I thought my time has expired.
03:50Your time has expired.
03:51I said your time expired.
03:52He gets an opportunity to finish answering the question.
03:55I'd like to reclaim my time.
03:56No, you have no additional time.
03:58You are out of order.
04:00He's answering my question.
04:01Be quiet.
04:01You are out of order.
04:02I would like to reclaim my time.
04:03You cannotāno.
04:05He's answering the question because you personally attacked him.
04:08I've said he can answer the question.
04:09I give that courtesy.
04:10How did I personally attack him, Mr. Chairman?
04:13You attacked his credibility.
04:14We're not going to get into it.
04:15That's not a personal attack.
04:16We're not getting into this right now.
04:18What we're going to getā
04:18He's a witness.
04:19His credibility matters, sir.
04:21You are out of order.
04:23You are out of order.
04:24You're done.
04:25You can't say anything else right now.
04:28You may finish answering your question.
04:31Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
04:32I think that the one lesson from this exchange is that it's possible that we can restore credibility in this institution if we can just get beyond the personal attacks.
04:41There were no personal attacks, Mr. Turley.
04:44You are a witness.
04:44You are a witness.
04:45Your credibility matters.
04:48You, sir, you, sir, you have lost your credibility with me.
04:54I gave that courtesy to everyone on this bench.
04:58Mr. Chairman.
04:59You ask a question.
05:00If they wanted to continue to answer beyond the time limit, I said, time's expired.
05:05You may answer the question.
05:06That's my routine.
05:07That's what I did today.
05:08You challenged him, asked him a question.
05:11You wanted an answer.
05:13Your time has expired.
05:15He is answering the question.
05:16Mr. Chairman, I have a parliamentary inquiry.
05:16You don't like his answer.
05:20Because you don't like his answer, you want to shut him up.
05:24What's your inquiry?
05:26My inquiry is when you offered at, when my time was up at 0-0 for him to answer the question, he went and answered the question.
05:35You then gaveled and said my time was up.
05:37That's not a parliamentary inquiry.
05:39You gaveled and said my time was up.
05:39That's not a parliamentary inquiry.
05:41Mr. Chairman would like to know when my time is up and when he gets to continue answering my question.
05:46That is not a parliamentary inquiry?
05:48Your parliamentarian is about to tell you.
05:50That's not a parliamentary inquiry.
05:51He actually disagrees.
05:53He thinks it is a parliamentary inquiry.
05:54That's not a parliamentary inquiry.
05:55Why?
05:56I'm asking for the process question, the parliamentary, the process question as to when my time is up, which you allowed him to answer the question,
06:06you then gaveled and said my time has expired.
06:09And then you then offered him to answer the question again, which he already had done.
06:15He was, no, he, no, sir.
06:16Let us, if we were to watch.
06:17You did it based on accusations that I was personally attacking him, which I was not.
06:21Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me.
06:23You are in, not only are you out of order, you're being incredibly rude.
06:29Here's the deal.
06:31I gave everybody the same courtesy.
06:34You didn't like where he was going.
06:36You began interrupting again, but your time was expired.
06:40He was trying to answer the question.
06:42You didn't like the answer.
06:43That is false.
06:44I'm happy to have this answer.
06:46No, no.
06:46No, that's what happened.
06:47I didn't like the accusation that I was personally attacking him.
06:50His credibility is relevant.
06:51I didn't say that until the third round when you interrupted.
06:53His credibility is relevant.
06:54And you continue to interrupt.
06:56His credibility is irrelevant.
06:56You continue to be out of order.
06:57And then I asked you, sir.
06:58You are out of order.
06:59I asked you, what am I personally attacking?
07:01And you said his credibility, and he is a witness whose credibility matters.
07:06You're out of order.
07:07You are so far out of order.
07:09Well, you are not conducting this in a fair and equitable way.
07:12Sure I am.
07:13Because everybody, everybody got the same courtesy.
07:17You asked a question, they're going to finish answering.
07:20Everybody got that same courtesy.
07:22You interrupted him while he was giving the answer.
07:24That's why you got gaveled.
07:26You got interrupted.
07:27And then you said my time is up, which is when you would go to the next person.
07:34I gave the same courtesy to every member on your side of the aisle as I gave over here.
07:39When your time was expired, five minutes expired.
07:43If they were in the middle of answering the question, I let it go.
07:46Now, we can talk about that round and round all you want.
07:49That's what I did.
07:50That's what I do.
07:51Well, I look forward to you continuing to do that.
07:53Yeah.
07:53Well, good.
07:54And I look forward to you being in order next time.
07:58So, Mr. Turley, you may continue to answer the question that he so much doesn't want to hear.
08:05I've never been so certain in saying I'm happy to move on.
08:09Very good.