>> for a few years, couple of years during president bush's tenure. and i've enjoyed the practice of law. i enjoyed representing the people of west tennessee as the united states attorneys, as the chief law enforcement aumps for the district. >> tell our viewers what is -- what was operation tennessee woelts and your role in it? >> in the early 2000s and the mid 2000s in the tennessee legislature, there was a level of corruption among state legislatures. and so the u.s. attorney's office and the fbi before i became united states attorney developed an undercover operation, tennessee waltz, where a fictional company was

created. they would quote unquote lobby members of the tennessee legislature. of course they were bribing those members who had been engaged in other activity that they should not have been engaged in. so, i prosecuted those cases after they were indicted. and it resulted in the conviction of 12 members of the legislature, some that were outside of the tennessee legislature, but the main thing is it sent a signal to elected officials, public servants across the state of tennessee that you just can't engage in that type of behavior. you know, nobody is above the law, no matter what your title is. and you know, the one thing that i told the members of my

community during that investigation is -- i believed it then, i believe it today, that the majority of people who are involved in public service are good, honest people. politically you may not agree with them all the time, but they try to do the right things for the right reasons, but for those people who were engaged in illegal activity or who thought about it, it sent a very strong signal that law enforcement across the state is watching you and don't do it again. >> some well-known names caught up in that. democrat senator john ford, the brother of former congressman harold ford sr. and uncle of form congressman harold ford jr., a name known to political junkies who watch msnbc. what did that teach you, do you think, about now coming here and being a member of congress yourself? >> well, first thing is it does show that clearly nobody is

above the law because there were state senators who were convicted in that and as you said, john ford being among the most prominent of those elected officials. and there were people in our community who said, you know, there's no way that somebody named ford is ever going to be convicted by a jury of his peers. you know, the one thing about the criminal justice system is it's not perfect, but if you look around the world, it is the best system that exists. what it caught me is it doesn't matter whether you're white, whether you're black, whether you're hispanic, nobody wants to see their elected official on the take. it did send a strong signal that

no matter what your power of influence, you need to do the right things for the right reasons. again, the majority of those in public service do that. >> why did you decide to run for office? >> you know, i'm very concerned and had been very concerned about the way our country is going. for the last eight years, where i am in west tennessee economically there are parts of west tennessee that clearly have not recovered since the 2008 recession. but the other thing is national security and terrorism. as united states attorney and the other united states attorneys who served under president bush, the one thing that president bush and the attorney general asked was make anti-terrorism, make national security your number one priority. you structure your office however you want to after that, but make that your number one priority. so, as we looked around and we

see acts of terrorism committed around the world and in this country, i felt like that somebody with my background, my law enforcement background needed to step up and lead. frankly, as we know, anybody can come vote yes or no, but to come up and be able to lead on issues of national security and the economy and health care, which to me are the most pressing issues as we face today to come up and lead. >> have you thought about some outlining of legislation that you would like to work on first? >> well, i have and i'm not ready to talk about that yet, but, yes, i have. and i'm looking forward to working with my other colleagues to make sure we can get things passed. >> what about our family, will

they be moving to washington or are they going to stay in tennessee? >> they'll stay in tennessee. i'll be back in the district in west tennessee when ever i'm not in washington voting. i think that it's important -- that's important for our family stability. my wife who has been a true partner and very supportive of what we're trying to do and it was frankly our campaign was a joint decision and it was a partnership with she and i, my two children maggie and jake, who worked really hard on the campaign, but our life is in west tennessee and that's where we're going to continue to live. >> have you found a place to live out here? and are you bunking with any fellow freshmen? >> you know, i think that i found a place. i'm going to be by myself and that way -- and as you know, we're always working.

something is always going on, so the only thing i'm going to do there is sleep. >> what else would you like to accomplish in these next two years? >> several things. one is as it relates to the economy -- and i talked about the economy in west tennessee and in parts of rural west tennessee, we've got to work on improving the economic environment. and i think one clear way that can be done at the federal level is tax relief. i look forward to working with president-elect trump to accomplish that. very concerned about health care. we -- you know the stories. i've heard from real people all throughout west tennessee during this congressional campaign and afterwards that they simply can't afford health care, that their premiums have doubled and

tripled going back the last several years, that they're working -- going to need to work two and three jobs. and not only the premiums, but the deductibles and the fact that they were promised by president obama that they could keep their doctors and their doctors are not available on their health insurance plans, so it's clear to me that obamacare needs to be repealed and that's something i'm looking forward to doing very early on in this term. then again national security and terrorism. i'm really excited. to work with president-elect trump and other members of the house and the senate to make our country safer. but it also extends down to the local and state and of course the federal level because if you're in law enforcement today -- and i don't care whether you're a police officer, a sheriff's deputy, an agent,

the moral among law enforcement in this country over the last several years has been demoralized. they feel like they do not have the support from federal officials. and i'm going to be a strong advocate for law enforcement. because i worked with those men and women and i know and i think we all realize that each and everyday they clock into work, they're putting their lives on the line. they don't know whether they're coming home at night. so, i'm going to be a strong friend to law enforcement in congress. >> congressman, what kind of groups and/or individuals supported you in your race? >> i was honored to have support from mayors in west tennessee, from business leaders in west tennessee, but more importantly just people. to -- as you know, to win a congressional race is very difficult. and you've got to put together,

especially in a district like the eighth congressional district which is 15 counties. it's a large geographic footprint. there's a lot of area. and to have the support that we had is really humbling and this is not just something that you say but you remember that when you're walking the halls of congress, that you're here for the people. you want to do what's best for the country, but you remember the stories that people have told me and continue to tell me when i'm back traveling my district. and that's what i take that's important. >> well, congressman, thank you very much for your time. >> thank you very having me today. >> congressman roger marshall, republican of kansas, this week your first few days on the job. you've garnered some attention, you and your son, doing the dab

while you were getting sworn in. >> yes. >> did you know he was going to do it? >> absolutely not. his mom would have had a fit and thrown him out of the room. now you tweeted out after that he's grounded. how long is he grounded for and what will he be doing during that time? >> well, if anybody needs help having their snow shovel removed this weekend, please let kel know. he's still negotiating the length of his term. he's asking for a presidential pardon, though, after this weekend. so we'll see how it goes. >> what was your reaction? what were you thinking when you saw what was happening? >> i really was clueless. i really thought he was sneezing. i had no idea what he was doing. and then someone mentioned the word, he was dabbing. i had no idea what the word even meant, so i guess the speaker and i both learned a new term. >> that's right. tell us why you decided to run for congress. >> there's always a lot of reasons, but we had our first

grandchild about two years ago was born. and my wife and i had the conversation what's next in life. and we were unfortunately convinced that we weren't leaving the country better than we found it. my grandson was not going to have the same opportunities that i had growing up, a free market, a chance that no matter where you're born, what -- where you're from, that you can make it in america. we just thought that we were drowning in regulations from the government and taxation policy and frankly our military was not as strong as i was comfortable with. national security was becoming an issue in kansas. we're in the middle in the country and house wives in kansas told me they were fearful for national security. and in this conversation, my wife looked to me and said -- you like to fix things. it's time for you to go to washington. so here we are. >> and you had what you called a surprise victory in the primary battle against former