At a House Judiciary Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. Michael Baumgartner (R-WA) spoke to former Speaker Newt Gingrich about immigration policy and universal injunctions.
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00:00The gentleman from Washington is recognized for five minutes. Thank you
00:05Mr. Chair, thank you to our distinguished panelists for this insightful
00:09testimony and what's been a long day. Mr. Speaker it's real honor to be able to
00:13ask you a few questions when you're a freshman in this body. You see a lot of
00:17portraits on the wall and frankly you don't know who a lot of people are but
00:20I think the American people always remember you in your the mark you left
00:24on this institution. The question I have for you is is just to comment on the
00:30situation the American people find themselves in because I think this is a
00:33very dangerous and perilous time for America because I think the American
00:36people think the fix is in and you talk the average person in my district and
00:41they look at a situation where over 12 million people came into the country
00:45illegally and there was no remedy to stop that procedurally from their elected
00:51officials and now they look at a situation where after they had an
00:54election they had a president that clearly campaigned on this issue and
00:59they look at dangerous gang members who spread fentanyl that's killed over a
01:05hundred thousand Americans more than died in Vietnam more than died in the wars in
01:10Iraq and Afghanistan and they say well let's get these people out of here this is
01:14what we just voted for and yet now there's a system where the one judge or a few
01:20judges in a certain area after judge shopping can stop so they look at the
01:26situation say is there any remedy to this I mean what is the future of the
01:30republic if what they just voted for is something as egregious as dangerous
01:36hardened gang members from a foreign country in the country illegal spreading a
01:41deadly drug that is killing over a hundred thousand Americans and they say well how is
01:46this supposed to work so what would be your comment to these people well
01:49three quick things first I run a project called the America's new majority
01:55project and if you ask the American people do you think the system is corrupt
02:0082% say yes now that's really dangerous in a free society I don't care what your
02:07ideology what your partisanship is when more than eight out of every ten of your
02:11fellow Americans think the system is corrupt you have a deep challenge to
02:16somehow break through really on a nonpartisan basis second President
02:20Lincoln once said with public sentiment anything is possible without public
02:25sentiment nothing is possible and I think it's very important for every judge who
02:31thinks they want to impose themselves on the president to ask themselves are you
02:35putting the entire judicial system in disrepute because if the country sees
02:40really sort of by the standards of most Americans fairly radical positions being
02:46taken by judges blocking what there's a clear will of the American people not just
02:51the president I think that it literally puts the entire underlying system under
02:56enormous stress and leads to popular dissatisfaction in a way that's very very
03:02dangerous the stability the system ultimately requires that all of us find a way to
03:07work together to to behave in such a way that people no longer think the system's
03:12corrupt and mr. speaker just finally you know you referenced Thomas Jefferson one of
03:19our founding fathers one of the founding revolutionaries of this country and the
03:22author of the Declaration of Independence in your opening statement I was able to
03:27visit the White House for the the first time last week and got to meet
03:32President Trump there and as we came in we made exchange some pleasantries and there
03:36was a kind of a humorous moment because neither of us knew quite what to do
03:39because staff wasn't telling us and as we had this kind of moment of silence and he
03:43said well can I show you the Declaration of Independence and he turned around and
03:46and it showed it to me that was on his wall and he's very proud he just had it
03:49installed and so it was kind of a fun moment as you can imagine for any American
03:52citizen particularly a fresh member of Congress but I hear you loud and clear and I
03:57hope on what you think is the best remedy at this point is that Chief Justice
04:01Roberts steps in and brings some some clarity and some sanity to this to the
04:06craziness right now but if he didn't and President Jefferson were sitting in the
04:14White House or the president right now what do you think President Jefferson
04:19would do if Chief Justice Roberts wouldn't step in and help this issue you
04:24know the Jeffersonians as a group were bitterly anti-judge the number two demand
04:31in the American Revolution after no taxation without representation was their
04:37hatred of the British judges because they were appointed by the king served at the
04:42king's convenience and were seen as the oppressors imposing the law of a foreign
04:48government on the American people and Jefferson had grown out of that
04:52tradition Jefferson's probably the most radical of the founding fathers and the
04:57Jeffersonians ran essentially on cleaning up the judiciary this is why the
05:03whole thing with Marshall such a wonderful example of a sleight of hand
05:06because if you look at the Judicial Act of 18 in 1801 after they lose the
05:12election the Federalists passed the Judiciary Act of 1801 which creates judges
05:17many of whom were being appointed literally the night before Jefferson sworn in so
05:22they were called the midnight judges well the Jeffersonians thought we're not
05:25going to have this so they write the Judiciary Act of 1802 and they wipe out as I
05:30said at the beginning of my statement they wipe out I think 16 of them 14 of
05:34which were actually occupied I I got into this because a good friend of mine is a
05:37great lawyer said those must have been vacant because after all it's a lifetime
05:41appointment no we went back and pulled up the biographies these 14 guys had to go
05:45out and get a job I mean they were gone and so I think Matt Marshall knew you
05:52push Jefferson very hard I mean a guy who buys half a continent sends the Marines to
05:57Tripoli you really want to play this game and they didn't it's very if you read
06:02Marbury vs Madison it's a brilliantly clever device in which he says we really
06:07have this authority but you don't have to worry about it because we ain't going to
06:10give it to him so you know Marbury doesn't get doesn't get his writ well so
06:15he tweaked Jefferson but he knew if he tweaked him too much he probably he would
06:20probably have replaced the whole Supreme Court I mean Jeffersonians were very
06:24tough about this stuff I think what but I think Jefferson also was very practical
06:28and I think what Jefferson would say is you've raised the issue you've begun to get
06:33the country aware you might consider as a first step chairman Issa's bill there
06:40may be I'm not suggesting this but I'm responding to your question it may be
06:43speculatively at some point that the most radical and dumbest of the decisions
06:48could lead to interrogatories to the judges first in writing it might even be
06:53conceivable at some point that the judges might be brought in under oath to
06:57explain what's the constant how did you think of this what's the
07:00constitutional basis why are you doing this I mean there are many ways one
07:04could pursue this my hope is that the comments we've made here today will in
07:09fact move the Chief Justice to eliminate the problem and and to get back to a
07:15situation where no single district judges is an alternative president and
07:20where we can have greater respect for the court system because the court system
07:24has greater respect for us I think you all it's been a long day
07:30and although my closing statement I'll read in a