■ >> good come everybody. thank foay. this week house republicans are hard at work advancing several important measthese items i wano highlight two bills we are pushing to protect financial privacy. values are believe that everyone ac gehind. the financial innovation and technology for the 21st century will protect consumers and encourage innovation by creating a regulatory framework for n. again, the most importantarugh h

regulators, which is one of the reasons this town is in such disarray. we are going to do this through legislation. through transparency and disclosure requirements the digital asset market place be a betterants and allow american innovation to thrive. i commend the financial services and cultural committee for their work on this important legislation. re also supporting the cbca anti-surveillance state act which is critical toeyking fedes from creating a central-bank digital currency and allowing a china-like reality in which our financial system could easily be weaponize against americans of that -- and allow the government to closely monitor every chance action. un-american. there are a few things that could totally infringe on our freedoms and autonomy, few things and it's kind of currency can be closely be weaponized based on behaviors, of crse political innings. i commend our majority whip tom emmer for his readership on this

bill and i invite him to take the podium now. this republicans, as blake just said, are going to take action to safeguard our bill, the cbdc or central-bank digital currency anti-surveillance state act. with this lla we're going to stop unelected bureaucrats in the biden administration■'ntral-bank digi- again, the cbdc -- that threatens to destroy the american way of life. unlike decentralized digital assets such asitc cbdc's designed, issued, and monitored by the federal government. short, a cbdc is a government controlled progrma

that, if not these i and to be just like cash, open, permission list, and private with a capitol p. it not only could, it will give t government significant transaction level data on i ability to suppress politically unpopular activity. we've already seen examples of phone governments weaponizing their financ st their citizens. in china, the communisttyactulyn that is being used to monitor its citizens, and they are buil s based on behaviors. again, that's an anti-american approach. in the western hemisphecahe bank accounts of hundreds of truckers protesting the vaccine mandate 2022. if you think it can happen, th again. it has and it will if we allow thisere.

it's naive to believe that your government will not weaponize e tools that it has to control you. this may be why the biden administration issued an executive order placing urgency on cbdc research and development. all signals point towards this administration developing a cbdc can and will be used to surveil and control americans. described -- don't listen to them when they tell u they are not doing anything. the has already described cbdc's as one of their key duties in a document that was provided to my in doing this, the biden administration has provene chi's right to privacy for a ccphouseg to let that happen. 165 members of our conference have cosponsored our cbdc anti-surveillance act, and it has garnered wide industry support. this bill ensures that congress,

not the administration, or the administrative state, more ec retains the authority over the united states digital currency policy so that it reflects our american values of privacy, individual sovereignty, competitiveness. if not open, permission■@ list - permission list, and private again like cash, a cbdc is nothing more than a big government surveillance tl that will be weaponized to oppress american's freedom and right to privacyi encourage ally colleagues, republican and democrat, to support this bill which protects innovation and defends against an ever expanding government surveillance state. with that, i yield to ri leader. >> well, i applaud the work that the whip has done on this legislation we are bringing to have two bills that are limiting the ability for aucrs in

washington to control digital currency. more and more popular amongst people not just here in the u.s. but around the to fund things, a stroay commerce. but if they want to have digital currency, they don't want to have the government tracking their transactions. and it's important that we make it clear with these bills that we are bringing to the floor this week that th's what the rules of the game will be going forward, and it limitations on the biden administration'■ desire to control those transactions and track people's spending habits. and av seen over and over again by this abide administration. by the way, the same biden st that has tried to double the size of the irs to go and target people that are making well under $100,000 and forcing them to pay more in taxes even know when they are already paying more than their fair share. so needless to say we are going

to continue to fight for those nginbills like this of the floor. another bill we are bringing to the floor this week would prevent people here illegally from voting in dce elections. this is something that the d.c. counsel has a few years ago to create the ability for people here illegally to vote in election. if you look atssivflow of illegals coming into our country still to this day because of president biden's open seen millions of people come into our country. the minim million, it could be well above that. people on the terrorist watch list coming into our country. why should somebody at the russian embassy be able to vote in elections here in the united states of america? yet that is what is allowed we have a bill that says no, that is not the case. if somebody from russia or from china working at the embassy in china wants to vote, they can vote in their own country's election. they should not be abof china, o

vote in america's elections, for sake. i think that is something most americans agree with. we are going to find out who here in congress agrees with that when we have a vote on that bill tomorrow. something we have been united against is not only the growing anti-semitism and the growing movement against israel's right to self-defense, which we have strongly supported. ternational criminal court trying to arrest the prime mini israel for defending his country against a terrorist organization who, on october bas against the people of israel. gue ency. i know this majority has taken many steps against it and we are going to cnu action. but we are also calling on our friends around the world who are helping fund the icc to stop funding and organization that has become heavily anti-israel

wentcan if they had that opportunity. soboably talk more about that is our speaker mike john thank you mr. leader and wp and vi chairman, blake morris. glad y'all are here. a lot going on around the world and let me address first what is top of mind for us. e iran's president. we wouldthat the world is a little bit safer place this morning because of that. he was clearly a malign force to the iranian people enter israel and the west. while he engaged in tortanterrol criminal court it is important to note ironically, they never d him or even consideredes him. instead what we see is the icc has chosen to target israel with sess and illegitimate arrest

warrants and is attempting to israel's just war for its existence with the horrific acts of the october 7 massacre. to us this is just unconscionable. you have international to allow them to use warfare to underme state sovereignty or usurp the authority of democratic nations. america should punish the icc kari and putm khan -- we don't put any international body above american sovereignty. israel does not do that either. congress is reviewing all of our options. we have very aggressive legislation that we are going to push as quickly as possible. it will impose sanctions and if

the icc moves forward with its ■xabsurd requests, this is going to be an even bigger international problem. regarding the border, sadly, international bureaucrats are not the only ones trying to subvert the notion of safe sovereignty. our own commander-in-chief joe biden is continuing to undermine america's sovereignty through his open border po. latest repom the border this morning, fox news reported there were large groups of persons coming through middle eastern countries in china. men military age probably. justy appearance, of military capability, flong right across the border into our country. the problem continues every single day. and now you have senator schumer who is trying to get his vubers covered for this because they created this catastrophe by voting on a bill which has already failed in the senate. it may not even get 50 ves because it is a bad bill, and it

is really a phony messaging exerciseis gng to go nowhere. the house, as we all know, we pass multiple bipartisan bills, by the way, to secure the border and deport criminal illegal immigrants including the lake and riley act. with every single measure we have sent to the senate has bee. if he was serious in his attempt to secure the border, senator schumer wobr up the security border act, which as you allwas the most comprehensive border security bill ever passed by congress that we did now more than 13 months ago. it has been sitting on chuck schumer's desk. if thet through the set and get ey would sign into law. but they are not serious about it. do not ever forget, documented 64 specific executive actions that president biden himself to■8 bval office, and that his agencies at dhs under the direction of secretary

mayorkas, that they einred. they opened the border and it it intentionally. they aot issue. many democrats here in washington want illegal aliens in our country. why? so they can become voters and affect the outcome of the senses in six years to reapportionment in congress. ifou want example of that, look at the district of columbia. he city council has decided they want noncitizens and foreign actorsid who will serve as mayor and local attorney general here. as the body in charge of overseeing d.c., congress will not support such lawless behavior. it a violation of federal law. we are not going to let russian crinal aliens decide who runs our nation's cap. that is why the houses voted this week to reverse the dangerous decisions by the.c. city council and bar noncitizens from voting ic.ions. i was grateful when congress and the white house workegeerse d.'s

revisions to the criminal code. if this voting bill cannot pass, and everybody watch very closely, it will be proof positive that there are some democrats who want illegal aliens deciding election outcomes. it is going to be clear that they don't wantcans deciding american elections. and with that, i will take a few esons. >> what's next on the contemptay general? >> we're working on that and it will be coming to the floor soon. and the reason we are doin that is because this is not about politics. this is about process. you have the judiciary and the oversight commissions working on this. the purpose of getting the audiotapes of the biden interview is because the committees have to do their audio to evaluate the work and the accuracy of this vessel council.

we have the transcript. it is very interesting to us the president is evoke executive privilege over that, which does e this is not covered by executive privilege. this is not the president receiving candid advice from his advisers while executing a presidentialesremember, this waw with his ghost■l writer, and thn sitting for an interview with a ether he himself criminally mishandled classified documents. so, executive il does not even apply here. and that is why the contempt is the measure that is appropriate here and i think it will pass the house handily. >> has israel's response to hamas made jews around the world safer? >> i am not sure how to evaluate the question. i would tell you israel is in a fight for their very existence. hamas is a proxy up iran.

this a high-stakes battle for the survival of a nation. and very close friend and ally, and a very important one. it destabilizes all global affairs. ast is a tinderbox. and now you have a hot war going on there. have to stand with israel unequivocally and we have to pr protect jewish people. just becausey on college campuses right now they are under physical threat, just because of who they are. that is not who we are as americans. that is why we sued so strongly agains that and we stood here just to beaks ago and announced we are having a hole of house these universities allowing this madness to go on. we h every angle and approach we can to stand with the jewish people and with israel time of great need and we will continue to do that. and that will be a big theme here. >> can you talk more about what

kind of coordination you have with the biden administration and leader schumer on response to the icc, and how closely you might be -- >>re a some great ideas on the table. we're finpoints of that. i have spoken about it directly with prime ministeyahu on friday and i'm scheduled to talk with him again today. clearly this is a great threat tohe international community and our allies and to all spear we are getting dn the fine points of that and hopefully it will be a bipartisan bill and everybody will be able to stand together on that. we need to send a strong message to the world that this is wildly inappropriate and we are not going to stand f i>> what is tho ir spain, and norway, sayingwould recognize palestinian statehood? >> i don't have any reaction to that. proposing. seen what they ar

i would just say this is not the time for anybody in international community including our own president to be stepping innd trying to micromanage the affairs in israel as theyinto fight for their very existence. we have to be very careful about that. of deliberate discussion about what is next after the war, and after p ther. but i think s ure to do that and i'm not going to comment on that. >> you have been clear about your disdain. what about the underlying ge conduct of paying off a porn star to keep them quiet? you are a deeply religious man. does that conduct cause you any concern about the former 'character? >> i am not going to comment on that. i have cal disgrace. they are clearly going afterideo he is. he will soon officially be the nominee for president.

he has been tied up for weeks in a courthouse when he should have the ability topeak freely in the campaign and be around the country. this is clearly by design. these prosecutors in these various locations have coordinated with partnt of justice in washington. everybody knows what's going on. everybody. if you look at this objectively, there is no way to look at this in any o wthe case is patently . you have had every legal analyst across t acknowledge as much. it needs to be handled quickly, and i hope that he will be fully acquitted and we can move forward. but the damage has been done. they are doing real damage to our i do ever to be say many times that is my greatest concern. l republic do the justices fear and you have equal justice under the law, and you lose an important element and what is required to maintain a likours, so we have a

lot of repair work to do to the institution itself and our system of justice without this -- after this madness. >> do you have any reaction to the americans being held?