real quickly, david ono not a stranger to angelinos. he's the anchor of abc seven eyewitness news at four and 6 p.m. he's produced multiple award winning documentaries, two of which have made their way into the smithsonian institution. we welcome to our stage. he served in the united states

house of representatives from 2011 to 2023, representing. 16th congressional district. during his tenure, he served on the house select committee to investigate the january sixth attack on the united states capitol, as well as the house committee on energy and commerce and the house foreign affairs committee. gentlemen we welcome you to the stage. hi, everybody. yeah, great, great to see you. you can hear our mikes, right? everybody's mikes. okay. can you can you hear his notes? one, two and two. not hearing him. try now. there you go. i did have it on and then i that off. good, good, good. well, first of all, thank you for for here. thank you. yes, i'm sitting with you because i've always wanted to meet you. and i'm not just blowing smoke.

shoot at that. thank you. and i think jim set up was perfect. he talked about this community and. i know many of you are familiar with little and what happened here during world two where so many people were whisked off to concentration camps and this whole community was wiped out and was empty and that was a a classic example of how the constitution was not defended and there were not enough people of courage who were willing to speak up and defend the tiny community that was locked up unjustly. they never got their fifth amendment rights and never were able to defend themselves in court and that they were law abiding citizens and never should have been locked up. so that leads us to and the the gentleman sitting to me was one of the few that has the courage and has had the courage to speak up when. things were wrong when things were not truthful to the point where he eventually was by his

own party. and now is on the outside looking in. but maybe that's not necessarily a bad thing. so here's our opportunity to talk to you. adam thank you so much. yeah, it's great. so. right off the bat, i'm just gonna throw you a real simple question. we get into the nitty gritty, and that is why, did you want to write this book? so it's kind funny. somebody told me when was looking at like, should i write a book? or they're like, okay, listen, it's going to feel like an inherently thing to do to write a book right, because you're going to be like, oh, i'm going to write something. me like you guys care about it, but the thing that finally got me to decide to do it is i know that my story in my experience, particularly growing up, but also my time in office from 2011, kind of advent of the tea party. so really in january it tells it's a microcosm of the bigger picture and you know, we get asked questions a lot and i'm sure we'll talk about some of this like what's been happening why is this happening?

and i think you can tell in my story a little bit of the answer of what's been going on and why it's been going on so the reaction has been great and i think that's just because it helps to shed some light to a very confusing time. yeah it is confusing. and i'm sure that's why everybody is here is because we'd love to pick your brain and what is happening to our country and how it get this way. i what i love about book is you do lead us from well even before the tea party but you make sense of it from tea party on to to to donald trump. and then there is a very definite connection between the two. but i want to start since we only have a few minutes really kind of to delve into this, i'm going to jump right. what i think is one of the more dramatic moments, your book and that is you're you're sitting in your office and an angry mob is descending on the capitol. you have your pistol out. this is a lieutenant colonel in the air force. so he knows how to use a gun. and he has that. he's done two tours in iraq.

so thank you for your service. but you're sitting there and you. got a gun on your desk knowing that this mob descending on the capitol, you you're not afraid, you're prepared. but what is going through your mind on how did you get there and how did things get this? first off, thanks for paying your taxes because you let me fly your airplanes, which was really gig. but i look up so i predict that violence actually after the election and specifically january 1st we were on a conference call with the conference and if you hear me talking about the conference i'm referring basically every republican member of congress, there's like a republican conference, a democratic conference, and so on. that call on the first. kevin mccarthy actually. liz cheney had started and said like, you guys gave this very compelling of why you have to vote to certify the and then kevin mccarthy on and goes like liz speaks for herself not for

the whole conference and then he basically informed us that he was going to vote against certification that surprised me honestly, because typically leadership takes, the hard votes and at this point the hard vote unfortunately was to vote to certify. so i said i was the first congressman to go after. the leadership had given their presentation. and i just kevin, there's going to be violence on the sixth. i mean, i look at twitter, there are threats against me. there are people that are talking about coming on the sixth and in essence, 1776. you've convinced you and donald trump and whoever have convinced a significant part of this country that an election was stolen. i mean, truly patriotic americans, that have had their patriotism abused. you've convinced them that an election was stolen. there's going to be violence. that's the that's a natural act. his reaction to me was just adam, next caller. next person. a guy, whatever. so that day of the sixth, i told my staff to stay home. i used to say i told my wife to

stay home and i learned that i ask her to stay home. i, i, you know, i may have been married or may have been born night, but not last night. but i asked her to stay home. and so i was the only one in the office. and because i just knew something was going to happen and i was seeing around the capitol the capitol was closed. but i was still seeing like groups of kind of maga in the capitol. and i'm like pa this weird. anyway, i go to floor of the house, i kind of get the something's happening before really anybody. i left the floor during the proceedings and went back to my office and by the time i got back there all hell was breaking. and we had had the initial lockdown call because of the pipe bombs that were found at the rnc and the dnc and i go back to my office and open my window and my window of my office, which would be behind my desk, overlooks the west front of the capitol. and that west front is where you saw all the all the fights. and i just heard bang pop like

explosions. and it was d.c. metro police had just shown up and they were using their nonlethal munition was it had d.c. metro not shown up when they did they showed up with like 600 officers. the capitol have been sacked, would have been destroyed like they are unsung heroes among the police force and i called my wife and we were talking we were she's like, go to c-span dot org. and there's all these different like views of the capitol. and i went to c-span dot org and i statuary hall which is this beautiful it was the original floor, the house just off the the big floor of the house now. and i. saw the first rioters come in are insurrectionists come in, you know with their goofy clothes and stuff. and and i'll tell you ladies and gentlemen, let me just. fair warning. i'm a christian. i take my faith seriously, but i'm not one of these. it feels like incense is evil or anything. all right. i did that day. i can't describe it. i can't explain it beyond. but when i talk to my wife and i saw this happening, there was this dark that i just felt that i cannot describe, just like a

black veil and that's when i had pulled my gun out and put it on the desk, because i knew at point once they pierced the capitol, the perimeter there, there, there were threats all over to come kill me. all they to do was was basically walk to my office at that point. so barricaded myself in with my gun out. and i'll say there was about a 30 minute period where i thought might have to use it. and that's a that's a really crappy feeling, especially as a military and somebody that went into to try to stop violence from happening. right. so tell me about the others, because there's all this rumor of so-and-so did this, so-and-so did that. was there fear because what we saw later on in the days to come, people suddenly beginning amnesia to how awful the situation really was. i mean, this was our constitution in coming to a halt, an insurrection is trying to basically end our country as we know it. there was not i will say

honestly there was not a single person in there that was not scared to death. which is funny when you think about the fact that those same people are the ones out calling it a tourist visit and, everything else. and so what happened is they're all scared to death that day but still 138 of them vote against certifying the election was to me, kind of the beginning of like, hmm maybe maybe won't learn our lesson from this moment but what happened is for about two weeks, you know, you're in these conference meetings, everybody's quiet. we're all swapping stories. oh, well, i was here when this happened and then i saw this happen, right. you know, like, if you're in a fight or you see a fight, know, and everybody gets together and talks about it, that was happening for and nobody knew where this was going to go. nobody knew was going to come from this until your native son, kevin mccarthy, california, until he showed up at mar lago. and the second he showed up at mar a lago and picture of him

and donald trump came out. that's when i saw it. not people enthusiast actually backing donald trump again, but kind of this like kind of beat puppy look where it's just like, oh, no, well, we have to support him again. and then the enthusiasm for him. rose so, kevin himself and i'm not going to say that donald trump wouldn't be where he was him, but i think there's a really chance he wouldn't have been. trump was in the political until mccarthy showed up, took the little paddles from the ambulance the political ambulance and him back to life. that's interesting and and i do want to talk about kevin mccarthy in a little while what's been in the news lately? you probably know what i'm talking about, but we'll get to that. good. and they also want to talk about your religious, too. i think that's important to your story. but first, i think it's important for us to understand who these people are that invaded the capital. yeah. and you wrote the b c. they want to make themselves into action. trump marauders were ignorant of current events.

american history and the constitution full of false self righteousness. i think it's important to understand these people are and why they did what they did in order for us to figure out what's wrong with america and get a deeper understanding of how do we fix this. so some of its visions of grandeur, this like idea that, you know, i'm going to be the savior of some of it is abuse people's patriotism but bottom line comes down to their there is this actual war against kind of good and evil there of course on the good side, by the way, everybody, no matter what, thinks they're the good guy, just that's something good to keep in mind in any conflict. and so they basically see part of the q and on when you hear about q and on and i tell you that there are people that truly believe and a significant number of people that truly believe that the government is run by satan worshiping child blood drinkers. okay and a significant number of those people were were there on

january six. you also had christian nationalists that were there on january six. you that if you're not familiar with too much of that kind of faith, you wouldn't have seen the symbolism that i saw, which is people blowing horns like the shofar, which symbolizes in time stuff. there was a jericho march around the capital the day before, so it was people that were convinced by failures from the pulpit of churches by the way, they were convinced that was the kind of armageddon the fight against good and evil. so it was a combination of people that had been had their patriotism abused, people that were like cosplaying civil war because there was also a group of folks that think that a civil war is hanging out with your friends by the, you know, by the campfire and shooting people you don't like. and they have this like, wonderful idea of a civil war. and then some are people that have been abused from their faith perspective to believe that this is a battle against good evil. so it's all of that. but it comes from this idea that they feel left behind. they feel ignored and and quite

honestly, that happens any time you get an unstable society when a majority, particularly a racial group in a majority, becomes the minority, even though technically white, is becoming a minority, it'll the large, you know, it's just not over 51%. and that creates a real concern among people so i think it's of an all of the above along lines and you mentioned christian nationalism you were raised a religious yeah but you make it very clear in this book that you see a marked difference between christian national ism and your kind of christianity and what nationalism has become and how it has fed into the republican party is part of this problem. yeah so christianity as i've gotten older and understood better to me is, you know if you look at and and just bear with me as i talk about this, if you look at the example jesus in the bible, he said, give caesar what

caesar's and god's gods. what are you saying? and his and his disciples were constantly like, hey, when are we going to overthrow rome? and he's like, you guys are missing point. i'm not here to overthrow the government right. well, what you see in is directly what you're seeing like in the january six stuff and in christian nationalism, which is this idea that christianity is about overthrowing government or it's about frankly no different than the taliban. all honesty, it's about a running the government. and part of that is an abuse again from the pastors that that at the pulpit part of is just a complete misunderstanding of what christian anti is. and so i was independent fundamental baptist. i've learned if you're ever in a religion that has to like adjectives before it it's probably a cult or close to it and so i was raised independent fundamental baptist i now consider myself protestant nondenominational and which doesn't have added adjectives,

just protestant. okay. but i, you know, and part of that was just a control on how you act, a control on who you hang out with. and again this idea that somehow governance represents this broader battle of good and evil. and so there's a massive difference between the faith. i practice and understand now the jesus follow actually believes that immigrants worth and value and they should be treated as human beings and that everybody has and if to respect differences and all that kind of stuff, because he loved people, christian nationalism hates anybody that doesn't believe exactly what they do. i consider you and i were talking backstage and i'm like, i consider it the same as the crusades the crusades were all about killing. they had nothing to do with a faith. faith became just kind of a flag attached to an essence to identify who you are i mean, look at the number of people claim to be christians, you know, fighting for donald trump that have never been to church a day in their life. because what christianity

becomes is a synonym for white. white america. so the racial undertones obvious? yeah. yeah, i think it's and i wouldn't say it's directly like, you know, somebody like black people, they don't like hispanic people, but it's a cultural thing. so, you know, i mean, find obviously black and hispanic in the major groups they and they exist in growing numbers but it's a cultural idea which is some of it is a racial undertone. some of it is, you know, america sure ain't what it used to be. well, america's never what it used to be, because it's a growing and evolving country. and, you know so i think there's some of that there. yeah if you ask african-americans the old america of the good old days, it's a different thing. there was no such thing. that's right so let's get into why they don't know the truth they're uninformed and we have to bring in and granted yes i work for abc but i'm going to

say it you know fox news and a lot of their pundits have feeding misinformation knowingly. and what we're finding out in various court cases knowingly feeding this information and that's only source of information. these people, as well as these extreme places on, the internet. so how do you reach people with the truth? the truth no longer resonates with certain groups of people? well, we're both media guys, so i'm like i'm part of evil cnn. right, which i love cnn, but yeah, i think so. what happens? people went like, i'm going to watch the and sometimes see things that challenged me and challenged my way thinking or see a different side. stuff. you know, when you present the news, you present in essence, both sides or just facts, right? well, what happened is starting in the nineties with am radio

and rush limbaugh, people started to realize media companies started to realize person ality started to realize that and anger is a huge addiction. so there's this dopamine hit comes with fear. this dopamine hit that comes with the anger. i mean we've all been in situations we have to admit where we've been watching. you know, cnn, fox or msnbc and just hooked on this thing, making us angry. well, that's the dopamine and what you know, rush learned as the angry roommate he made you the more you'd listen to him and, the more the commercials he could make, the more he'd make commercials the internet then came and realized if they created, you know, stories that that fit what you wanted to see and made you mad, you'd click on them many, many more. and then politicians the scary thing. so fox news did that you know newsmax which actually newsmax used to be like a pretty sane conservative. you know, website. now it's a crazy tv station.

and then politics begins. and this is when it got kind of out of control. we learned that the best way to raise money is fear and if i convince you that nancy pelosi is going to kill your family unless you like elect me, okay? and i say that kind of facetiously, but that's sort of what's happening in this. you will part with anything, including your fixed social security income. if you think the thing standing between your certain death or an america that doesn't include you and the other and so politicians have learned to raise a ton of money and fame on fear and anger and now that's a toxic stew right and while this community understands that because it was the governor of california used fear to promote the fact that japanese-americans need to be in the camps and so it's a it's a bit of history that repeats

itself and thus the uninformed if you know your history, sometimes you can navigate your way through that. but if you're ignorant to our history, which most people are, then that's why we see it repeated and over again. yeah. so what is republican party today? i mean, this is i mean, this is your party. sure. you were proud on your first day to become a u.s. representative and. i'm sure you had giant dreams of what you could accomplish in that position, only to find the party to be what it is today, only to find yourself ostracized for telling the truth. so what is this party? well, look, i'm saying this not in any bragging way. i could have been the star of the gop if i wanted to. i came in as the youngest member of congress or next the youngest member of congress. i was the second post-9-11 veteran. you know, i was all over tv as freshman and and then i was proud of it because, look, i'm a center right?

i'm much more moderate today than i was as a freshman. but that's a function of age and kind of growing and maturing and seeing things. but i think this country, a solid conservative and a solid progressive movement, because what happens is that tug and pull, that tension actually ends up kind of moving the country along. generally at the rate it should. not too fast, not too. and but the republican party, it exists as an institution, but there's no conservative movement anymore. the republican party doesn't believe in anything. i mean, are they for less spending only if biden's the president, you know, are they for afghanis like not leaving afghanistan. yeah, are when biden was president. but they were all about donald trump. you know creating the situation to leave anyway. josh hawley who's a clown by the way, i want to be very clear like running josh spirit and

josh josh hawley just tweeted that biden has answer questions because there's this rumor that ukraine blew up the nord stream two pipeline. first off, i don't know if they did if they did good, but like josh hawley was also attacking biden for not being harsh enough against for nord stream two before nord stream two was canceled. there's no there's no principle. the principle is, are we surround donald trump and donald trump is our man and whatever he wants will be for that moment. and also, let's own the liberals. it is a culture. it is a party that now exists simply on a cultural fight and not on any policies. so i personally haven't gotten rid of the title republican because once you do like as a republican criticizing the republican party, i have much more authority to do it. once i said that people don't listen to me as much and i also

think there has to be a sort there has to be normal republicans fighting for the future of the party. but i didn't republican last election. i don't to vote in this election because i think there's one issue on the ballot and is democracy. and that's the only issue on the ballot in 2024. yeah, there's a to get through on that. i want to kind of a follow up, but i do want to, you know, an observation when i was covering and you may remember this, the republican national convention, when romney and ryan were the nominees, there was a ticker around the stadium and that ticker was the national debt going higher and higher. and you can really watch it. mhm. so i remember that and then fast forward to when donald trump is passing his tax cut which was going to astronomically in historically raise our national debt and suddenly the republican party is like oh that's no big deal, that's fine now, but now we've come full circle. now that biden is president, it's become an issue.

it yep, yep it's so they do it's constant flipping and i think we all have to recognize that the debt's out of control and all us have to kind of jump off the the bridge proverbially and do things we don't want because it's pretty but the republicans don't have a right to own the issue because when i was in we skyrocketed the debt i think even more than what's been done under any of the democratic administrations. so when it comes to you evolving a politician, would you ever run as a democrat? i'd open to it. i'm not i'm not like stuck on the title. if the democrats would, i'd welcome somebody like me, a moderate. yes. i mean, i have nothing against democratic party at all. and so wouldn't i. i have no desire to be in the house representatives ever again in my life. there's not been 5 seconds. i've missed it that i only wish i could be there to for ukraine

right now because that to is the fight of our generation, the fight in ukraine and. but yeah, i would run as a democrat i'd run as i'd run as a sane republican. okay, well, i'm stealing this from what i saw online a little while ico. so it's not my original question. i find it fascinating that you live in. oh, yeah. and then you you talk about ted cruz quite a bit in there in your book. and he's not your favorite guy. not not much. no. and he he might coming out. but i think it's four years though. so you have time to kind of settle in and to get this out. that would be a fun race to run. ted cruz. i mean, he's such a loser, such a charlatan. the thing is, like, i respect, i don't really but i mean, i have more respect for people that actually believe what they're saying because it's like at least they believe it. he's just like if being a moderate was what got him attention, he'd be a moderate. like, he doesn't care about you and he doesn't about policy.

well, i want to if you can indulge me, one more guilty pleasure, and that is the the elbowing story that he had yesterday. but what was i thought it sitting, knowing that i was going to do this interview, your name kept popping up because you had openly talked about being shoved by mccarthy a couple of times in the past as well. tell me about that, by the way. like, i don't know. i'm not going to go there. that could get me in trouble. so after so mccarthy and i used to be really good friends when he was trying to be like this kind of normal republican. and then he obviously went off the rails with. and so i probably about right when the january six committee started, i'm standing on the back rail in the house just, kind of like, you know, leaning over the railing and all of a sudden, boom, i get hit. i'm like, well, i turn around and mccarthy is like ten feet away now, walking away. and his security is fall on him. and i'm like, my first reaction was just of to revert back to when we were friends. and i'm like haha you just and

then i'm like, wait i mccarthy i hate each other now and like he just shoulder checked on purpose. okay like just to be like tough guy thing. and i'm like, okay, whatever. in a week or two or three weeks later, he did it again and we were walking past each other and he leans over and goes, boom! and it hits me. and just like, what a child, what an emotional child and what it is is when you compromise and your values and hit you really and he knows he's done that's like he knows trump is not a good guy. he's told me in the past. and it's like when do that you he's not projecting like he's angry at himself and so he's projecting on to the people have opposed him and when i was on the january six committee everything i would say every reminded him of how he didn't have the strength and courage to say the same things. and so i think that's what happened. but so then when this happens three or four days ago, it's a birch. he elbows him hard.

the kidneys, evidently, and then he tries to play it off like, oh, no, it must have been an accidental hit. and the media is like, well, you know, kinzinger, in his book that just came out and he's like and he kind of is like, oh, i don't know anything about that. yeah, you're right. i just made that. yeah. ironically, the the inner workings of congress which is great. but you mentioned, you know, there's the january six select committee. so that's kind of like really getting into the nitty gritty of your identity. and well, i hate to the word downfall because, you know, you're a hero to us because. you did it may not be in congress anymore, but it doesn't mean you're not part of our future. so what was it like to be on that committee? what? and you also voted to impeach trump and you were vilified for too what was going through your mind as you debated whether or not to be part of this and to participate, knowing that this

would be your demise? you know, there's a moment so in politics and i don't who you are if you into politics, there's compromises. you have make. you know, there's always going to be you vote for you didn't love something. you got to go along with it. you don't love. and that's the nature of frankly constitutional. you represent people you know. but there is point and there should be a line in. everybody's life that you're unwilling to cross. there should be a moment where you're like okay. i can go this far, but no further. this is and i have a new kid, you know. so i remember this when i ran for congress, i had just gotten back iraq and i wear on my wrist andrea o'keefe, who was a friend of mine that was killed in iraq in 2018. but when i ran. he hadn't died yet. but i remember coming back and saying, if i'm going to take votes as, a congressman that are going to send people to war and die for this, and we need people willing to do that right, literally the ultimate sacrifice. but if young people are going to

die this country, i have to, as a member of congress, be willing to put my job on the line. the country if i'm going to ask somebody to, give their life. i have to be willing to give my job right and i and that stuck with me all my time in congress. i thought about that a lot. and when i thought i'd end up voting to like reform social security and that might me i didn't know it would be like, you know, democracy but and it just came to the point with the with the impeachment, obviously, with january six, with the lies, my biggest burden of everything was the fact that for democracy to survive you don't have to agree on any issues, but you do have to agree that you can vote and your vote counts. and the person that gets most votes wins when that trust is destroyed, you can't self-govern. like that's the thing that you have have and that's the only thing you have to have. but that's the story. donald trump did his to destroy that. and he's still trying to destroy that.

and he's got minions him so it hit the point with my red line where i'm like you what how am i ever going to look at my six month old at the time two month old, whatever he was then? how am i going to ever look at him in the eye and tell him to do the right thing no matter how hard it is if i'm unwilling to do the right thing and you hit a moment where it's like the chips are in this job is not worth my soul and i'm going to go out with a bang and i'm going to go out, tell them the truth and i have zero zero regrets never a second have i ever regretted it and i would do it all again. so i recall watching the hearing. you speak, seeing liz cheney speak, knowing you guys were republicans, you were adding credibility to this this. but what was it like behind the scenes when you get off that and you've just done what you've done? did people still talk to you. yeah, it was interesting so

probably the most is all my friends i thought were friends. right that weren't you learn this because they basically you by text. i've i literally got a letter a couple days after i voted to impeach sent certify to my parents house and you know we had to go into hiding my wife and i for about a month after the impeachment vote because of the threats we hid we didn't hide but we went to a place in florida a friend's house and there you know and then we know you're doing all this stuff and i get back and my dad's cousin sent a certified letter, 13 of them signed it, disowning, saying, what a disappointment that you are. you're a member of the devil's army like just brain worms. it was brain worms like written out and you know, and my copilot in iraq just a year ago sends me a text says he's ashamed to have ever flown with me and served with me. that would hurt most. and, you know, and it's like, why? because i told you the truth and you don't want to hear the truth. but on the floor of the house

for the first part of the january six hearings those that kind of first half of all that everybody on the floor would come up to me and to me still and joke me and a lot of people that would amaze you could come up and be like, thanks doing it. the same people that go on tv and be like, this is a partizan committee that, you know, they'd thanks for doing it. i can't do it because of my district. but whatever. i'm like, listen, my district is not with me either. but by the way, you an oath not to the 700,000 people in your district when it comes to a constitutional issue i'm sorry to say it, the hundred thousand people you represent their opinions are absolutely irrelevant, absolutely irrelevant. if every one of the people in my district said we demand that you as our congressmen against impeachment, it is absolutely irrelevant because i an oath to the constitution not to them and the constitution was a threat.

and i would try to tell this to my and they oh, you know, i'll never get reelected. i'm like, okay, great. you can't look at yourself in the mirror either. so it was it was a strange couple of years it was it was a weird couple of years the oath is where i'd like to kind of get to near the end of this. i want to touch on the fact that since your district now hates you, your family hates, you, my immediate family, your immediate families go there. but and this was my question when you announced it was, you said, i'm not going to run for reelection, which is so disappointing. you explained it in the book and i think people's knee jerk reaction no stay in the fight we you but why did you not. well it's a couple of things you do a couple in vietnam. you don't have to go back for your third leg at some point. done enough. the on my family was intense. the democrats in illinois drew

me out of my district by the way after saying that adam's the exact kind of republican we need, they drew me out my district because they controlled redistricting. i probably as importantly, i had been in congress years and that's a long time i'm sure i would have run again anyway, even without the january 6th stuff. but most importantly i couldn't win. i mean, i not make it through a primary with what i had done because i had gone after the cheeto god would call you know i advice violated this religion now i mean literally to these people it's the same as if you're at church and you're like, i don't really believe in jesus anymore. they'd be like, well, get out of the church, go to a different, you know, whatever. that's what it's like. and knew i couldn't win. and so yeah, there's something heroic about saying, well, you should have run anyway. and it the fight like liz cheney did and i respect her for doing it. but then also giving them the satisfaction of beating. and as of right now, i've never lost an election.

and it's a great transition because i did want to talk to you about liz cheney. she was super important on that committee with. you what was she like? and i could you have a great deal of respect for her and then. and also the parallel of the fact that she lived the same faith that you did. liz cheney was the linchpin, the success of that committee. and for reasons number one, her voice a lot of credibility because know i'm kind of a moderate republican. i was on there. people are kind of like, well, yeah, he's moderate, whatever. she was like the you know, she made me look friggin nancy pelosi in comparison, you know, she's got a famous name. but most important liz the work she did i mean she understands law like nobody i've ever met she she were what she was working i'd say probably 19 hours a day from the day we formed that committee till we took the final report simply on this work. we would go home for the weekends, stayed in virginia.

she was in deposition. she saw big picture and she could put everything together. when some of us couldn't put this in this piece together, we had an amazing we had amazing members. it was like god himself. honestly, the committee, because each person that committee had a unique thing they that they brought to the table hers was the ability to bring it all together. schiff by the way, and i had been friends with schiff prior to this, but here's a story because i know he's a local guy, right? when we get to the committee the first thing i did, i dubbed in the committee adam senior and then myself adam junior, because i wanted to make the point that he was older and he got ticked. he's like, no, no, you can't call me adam senior. and everybody on the committee from that point forward called him adam senior. so i succeeded. that was the one thing i wanted to do, even than january six. i want to do it now. kidding. but everybody brought something unique. so cheney was the bulldog that

really caused this thing to succeed. now, there were moments she rubbed each one of us the wrong way because she's very she's just like her dad. right. very intense. but you could see, you know, and she would relent when we had a good. so it's not she wasn't a bully about that. but you could see that hurt, tenacity. i mean, we had like 20 lawsuits going at any given about trying to get this person testify or get these phone records. she knew all these lawsuits i got so lost in all these lawsuits that were having. i'm not a and so that great the other one that's really kind of heroic is bennie thompson because bennie is the only in congress that be the chairman of a committee was so famous at the moment that was so you know, the whole nation was watching and he was okay giving the spotlight to other people because any other person in congress would want to take the spotlight for themselves in that position. and he recognized that liz and i

needed the spotlights to add that credibility. so without him, i you know, it's literally like god himself authored committee. it was pretty amazing. so the end result of that committee, you put out tons of information. things seemed so obvious. yet it's turning a boat. it's i guess it's in the process and still taking a long. how do you feel about the outcome of all your hard work? well, the only disappointment i is i was hoping it would wake up more republicans obviously, i think it woke up. there's a small minority of republicans that are supporting like chris christie now because they can't stand that. and, you know, and so those exist. and i think we need to minimize them. but the country here's the one thing i know. my kid, in five or ten years, probably ten years when he's learning this in school, maybe 13 years, whatever, he's first off, he's going to be proud of his last name, which means a lot because. a lot of my colleagues are going

to have kids that are ashamed of their last name. and secondly he's going to hear the truth because history, it takes sometimes 20, 30, 40 years to get it right. what happened. what we put out was a complete a complete synopsis of what went down as complete. we can get in a short amount of time. he's going to learn the truth. he's not going to think it was the fbi i think in ten years there's not going be a single person that admits they were a trump supporter. that's what i predict. it'll be like finding a nixon supporter, right? there were a lot more at the time. and then but lastly, it was extremely successful. the department of justice would not doing what they're doing right now without us. and i know that for a fact. donald trump be in jail, i believe and i think it is 100% because of the work of the committee. well. i want to get to your optimism in just a second, but but first, i'm going to you to the dark side and play the what if which. yeah. really sucks. i know for you, but yeah. what if donald trump wins?

what plays? and gentlemen, do not scoff at this. it is very possible that he wins. i mean, the and the thing is, now, even in just the last few weeks, we've gone from when would say to somebody like donald trump can where they laugh and goes oh, i don't don't that and now i think people understand it which is good. you have to recognize because we cannot rest on our laurels if wins. look, i really think democracy's a threat and i'm not speaking, i'm not proverbial, i'm not speaking metaphorically. i really see that we have a very hard time holding guardrails of democracy together because donald trump winning in 2017 and the people were put around him were generally decent people. now he's only going to put he knows what to do. now he's only going to put people around him that will to put him over the constitution. you know, love or hate, bill, bill barr at the right time, basically held the line against donald trump.

he's going to put the opposite of bill barr and he's going to interview 20 people and find the one that says, i don't about the constitution. i only care about what you want me to do. and by the way, the power that the president actually has over the department of justice is frightening, to be honest with you because he can demand the department of justice do something and that's why i i say to my democratic friends be careful going after the supreme court, because the supreme court has held these democratic norms in order. and we've got to try to keep that institution, even if you disagree the policies coming out as legitimized as possible because we may have to lean on the supreme court under a donald trump administration, but it is a very frightening possibility. and i would say this. make sure you vote. this is why i'm concerned. as much as i'd love to have a third party, i'm concerned about third parties this election because, all they'll do is take like i'm going to vote joe biden, but they're going to take people me and give somebody an excuse to, not vote for joe biden and.

that's very dangerous. so this is a serious. now, the good news is, if we get through this and i am going to say if we get through this, i think 2028 is going to be marvelous, think it's going to be an amazing presidential year. and i think a new american century is going to bloom from this because it'll be a new generation, new ideas, all new candidates. i think that'll be good for the country and well, that's but that's a big if they if it is the l.a. times the new york times came out with a couple of weeks ago looking at all the swing states. and right now, trump is winning almost all of them. and i got to tell you. i've been talking to people that are biden fans that were biden fans. it's very anecdotal. so just take that for what it is. but people i know that are now talking like i may vote for, i may vote for trump or i may stay home. yeah, i don't. and i know why there's something going on under that underneath. but it means we have to be on the offense on this and i think

joe biden could do a good job of selling the message that democracy is on the line. and that's what he needs to sell. well, democracy in its most fundamental state is, you know, the person with the most votes wins. we haven't seen that right. it is the electoral college broken it. does it work against? yeah. i mean, look, it's the problem is you need a constitutional amendment, but think it's time to get rid of it because, you know, look, we don't live in a time where news travels by horse and buggy anymore, right? if something happens, the whole country knows about it in the speed of light. and, you know, the president is not the president of different states now. he's the president of the whole country. and so i think it's time just basically have a general vote. right. and the winner of the vote wins. but we're we're probably a long way off from that well this is allegedly not your party the democrats but the big knock on president biden is his age even though he's very close to the same age as donald trump. yeah, but he seems, you know,

that's his vulnerability. is there anybody else out there that you would like to see run against donald trump as opposed to president biden? well, look, i would look for in the primary side of it, i'd love to see like chris christie just he's he's a truth teller on the democratic side. don't know the candidates. i mean, i know your governors obviously interested and he's in the mix and i don't i didn't really understand why he went to china recently. that was kind of a conceit that confused me a little bit. but i know he'll be in the mix. i mean, there's actually a lot of talent on the democratic side. you've just got to bring that talent forward. and i think there's a lot of talent not the republican side, because anybody that was ever, you know, supportive of donald trump i think is disqualified. but i think if you can clean the party and make it a party that's truly about like ideas, you could bring a lot of talent in, but i do think the democrats have a fairly strong bench. but the at least congress, the

one thing republicans did better than democrats is we term limited leadership positions. and so you could only be a chairman of the committee six years. and so there was always lot of churn and then it wasn't the next person in order you actually competed to the chairman. i think that would be beneficial to the democratic party to do that. yeah. okay. so i love this quote in your and it's near the conclusion and why i wrote it down. but it said you said laws are just words on paper. they mean nothing without public servants dedicated to the rule of law and who are held accountable by a that believes oaths matter oaths matter more than party tribalism or the cheap thrill of scoring political points. we the people must demand more of our politicians and ourselves oaths matter you know explain. well, bottom line, dc is not going fix this moment. we're in what ultimately they'll do whatever they need to do to get reelected. that's something i'm cynical in

and maybe i should have always been cynical about it, but it's just like people, don't go to dc really with a compass. they just go there and they try to get reelected. their moral compass comes from the demands of the people that put them in, if the people that put them in have moral compass and in essence demand they act like that, they will. if we get as just the american people, if we get into let's let's get in fights, the internet, what's on the libs or on the conservatives or whatever and let's have serious discussions. they're not going to have serious discussions either. if we don't honor the oath won't either. and this is the thing, people i think, by the way, 99 be honest, 99% of the republicans in the house right now are totally disqualified. in my mind, because they don't honor their oath maybe 100%. but what matters is, no matter what the supreme court says, no matter what law exists, no matter anything, none of that actually works, unless we have

that contract i was talking about earlier about the voting thing, but also under standing that laws work. we trust that laws work. we're going to obey a law because we've decided as a society will obey. right. and that's that oath is is you're committing to that basic structure of governance. but if all of a sudden our politicians decide, i don't care what anybody says, we're just going to act. and as fast just then there's no law you can put down that's going to stop that from happening. and that's what we to demand of people. this is california and it's going to vote democratic one for the president right. so kind of. as a final question before we open it up, what can people in california do to help with a presidential election? well, obviously vote. that's important. i think just first off, the one thing i would say is take that weight of the world. you carry that we all kind of

carry with all the bad stuff happening and just take that weight and put it down. it doesn't mean disengage. i'm actually telling you that because we carry that weight, we get exhausted, we give up like put down. love your family. love who think differently than you. it's okay right. they're not going to bite. but just put that down so that you stay engaged and so that you stay empathetic and you can actually be effective. obviously, there's tons of stuff you can do on new media and social media and all that kind of stuff. but the most important thing you can do in is vote you guys. we do know how the election is going to go, but that doesn't mean you don't have an impact that so that's going to be important as and of course you have that in your senators and in congress and in state reps and state senators as well as hold them accountable to great. ted you want ask some questions. yeah. thanks to of you who sent in questions. here's a first one. we're a week away from thanksgiving, an occasion that is a time to bring families

together. but however, the last few years, politics has been a big divider. and even in your family, you've been disowned? yeah. what thanksgiving be like at your home this week next week mine will be great because all those people just me. i don't give a rat's -- about them honestly. like, i really don't. i have forgiven them. just myself. right, because you want to hold on to that. it's always important to do that. but i have zero desire to up with them like that's on i didn't i'm not the ahole in this situation they are so they're not but you know my immediate family of course is great but i would say this when it comes to thanksgiving, like if you if you're and most people have problem where it's like okay there's going be somebody at thanksgiving that says things. it takes off and you know, they can't help. it is worse. you love this person sending a

text, an email and just being like, can we all us all a favor and let's all stay away from politics this year because once you can do that and if you have an agreement to stay away from it can actually enjoy being around each other. it is a problem in this country that we're we're separated into groups of people that all think the same left and right. so i think less of that's better. gentleman says being an myself one of my biggest disappoint minutes where all the military and ex-military participated in the insurrection. i would like to thank you for helping to my faith in my fellow veterans. are your thoughts about that? yeah, that's really disappointing to me as well. you know, the military is the last institution in government that has bipartisan support and that is essential. i knew during a while, january six was going down. i knew that matter how bad it got. at the end of the day, you had the break glass in case of emergency, which is the national

guard and federal forces. you needed them. and it was nice know that they were going to come in and restore order if we needed that. what we saw on january six was a lot of veterans, some active duty members. you can't control how people, what you can control is when i joined and when the veteran out here joined as well like ask you are you a member? are you a communist are you a member of a terrorist group? have you ever been a member associated with a group that wants to overthrow the united states government that needs to include things like proud boys needs to include light papers, which i don't even understand fully what they are. but those groups that to overthrow the government. and then the other thing like when people come home from military, like being a a guy and being at war is like it feels like the height of like what you are built to do and get like you

just you fighting for your country. you're fighting with your brothers and sisters and you come home and it's like you'll never reach that high again ever, no matter what you do. and that's good but it is. it's and so i think a lot of people come back feeling kind of hopeless or, feeling like they don't have a mission, and then somebody comes along and puts. it's the same way gangs recruit. they put their arm around them and said, like, we're going to give you a purpose. by the way, your government's under attack. you want to keep fighting for americans. here's, here's, here's what we're going to. and i think that's a huge problem. people don't have a mission after. the military i feel the middle is where most of america is. that is also where i feel national politics is. and the general position on many issues. yet the loudest voices of the democratic party and the republican party push agendas on the extremes of both sides. how can a centrist candidate or centrist positions get? that's a good question, because i actually agree with this, that

i think most americans are moderate generally. you know the problem is is in a two party system it's boiled down our understanding issues to two positions. you know let's take the issue of abortion there's pro-life and pro-choice. actually, that's totally wrong. there's actually like 50 positions on abortion just so you guys know. you know, are for a ban at this point or. not at this point. or, you know, you can go through and find 50 different positions. people think same with guns, same with same with every issue. but we've been ingrained believe there's only two sides. and so that is a disadvantage to. for instance, creating a new party so within the party's i think structurally a big change would be something you guys do jungle primaries here which i think is really you're election system is good on that things like ranked choice voting which forces candidates to attract the middle more. the other thing is vote in a primary right if one of the things i have an organization

country first and we actually in north carolina we were focusing on turning democrats out to vote in the republican primary and madison cawthorn, the district, because we said, look, you're going to have a republican representative, right? you can either just vote for the democrat and whatever or you can vote in the republican primary for somebody that's madison cawthorn. and we turned out 5000 democrats and he lost by 3500 votes. well, those are ways you can make a difference. so i think i think just being if you're running for office and you're a moderate, be a moderate and expressed to people what you believe. but the real key on that is is through the primaries in opinion what percentage of the republican truly believe in trump as being good for our country, short of them being voted out and are in very protected, gerrymandered mander districts? is there any hope that they will truly see what is truly for the country? oh, that's a great question.

so i think census election there actually people that ran because believed donald trump was a real god and some of them got elected. so outside of that the that i served with if you put them all in cia truth serum there's not a single person that i think truly believed the election was there's only few that maybe believe donald trump was good for the country. but the rest of them, like matt gates and that that guy, they're all about fame. that's all he wants. he wants to be famous. i think and i'm actually i would almost rather there be people that truly this in congress then the fact that there are people that don't they go along with it because you now see how adolf hitler comes to power right. how does he come to power? well, most the people knew that he was crazy, but they were going to go along with it because they didn't want to lose their jobs. and so it's depressingly high. the number of people that know he's pretty bad for this

country. does the average american really need an ar 15 rifle for personal use aside from the right to? have one? no, i don't think they need them. no. as a democrat, i consider myself fiscally conservative and socially liberal. i believe in a robust and healthy republican party where ideas be shared and debated with democrats and vice versa in order to a compromise and pass legitimate legislation and in the current political climate, i don't see republicans prepared to practice democracy in manner. no, they're not. i mean, they're just not an. here's the interesting thing. so there's i told you, there's like a sick party and a healthy party right now. the thing i worry about and i want to make this point is democrats have every right to kind of mimic what republicans are doing. you know to be authoritarian kind of like by or the highway.

i would just ask that they don't because right now it is the only party that's actually holding up that flame of democracy and so keep holding that flame because if if the democratic party succumbs to the anger that the republican party has i don't know how you come back from that i don't know if you do so in terms of the compromise. yeah i don't think i don't think in the next year or so going to be any compromises like that i will say to joe biden's credit because i voted for a lot of this stuff. he's actually been one of the most successful presidents in terms of passing things. he doesn't get credit for it. but like i was the only republican to vote for the chips act, which is what's weird. i voted for it. the republicans basically the chips act. and then when biden decided to go with it, they turned against it and it was like, that's what happened. i for the infrastructure bill, you know, that kind of stuff. and so i think there's still room to stuff like that done, but i think we have to get through election cycle. but ladies and gentlemen listen,

the debt has got to be dealt with and the question is a fiscal conservative we spent more this year on interest on the debt than on the military, which is a very frightening thing to think about. well, people tell me all the time that we spend too much on the military. i disagree, but i get the point right. we spent $800 billion on interest, which is a pointless expenditure. and yet we're fighting, sending arms and spending. you're crazy. yes, exactly. it's not. it's nuts. the priorities are not. gentlemen says i immigrated to the us in the eighties. i was in awe of how government worked in america. i watched c-span to learn about congress. i watched a vigorous debate on legislation from both sides. and when a bill passed, both sides acknowledged each other's efforts and acknowledged that at the end of the day, they were working the american people. i thought to myself, many countries in the world learn from this now. i watch and i'm not so sure how has all of this impacted our

reputation globally. okay, so i'll answer that question and then i want to hit you with something else. so it's definitely heard it because i think and this is something that i would need 30 minutes to get into depth and talk about. i'll just touch on it very quickly, which is i think america's mission in the world is to be an example of self-governance to billions of people that don't have what we have but are desperate for it, like the iron curtain came down because the third generation had enough of america and decided they that right we change lives, not just our own lives. we change around the world. and so, yes, it's taken a hit and it's very sad. but i said this kind of the cuff on the very first hearing on the january six thing, i'm like democracies aren't defined by bad days. like i france has a riot every week i see yellow vest riots in the vest and the purple heart riot or whatever it is like. but you know, they're healthy, a healthy democracy like.

we had an insurrection that was a really bad day. we're in a really bad moment. what will define us? history correctly is how we back from this. do we take inventory of this moment and do we make like the low point or we just feel like it's too hard and we just give up and it gets worse. and that's what that's what's yet to be written. i will say that every generation in america has actually left the next better off than theirs. and i don't think we're going to be the first generation to do the opposite. but that has yet to be written. and so, yeah, i think the reputation has been hit, but i think we still can come out of this and have even a better reputation if. we get this right in an you said the republican party is messed up right now and i've been part of it, i'm not going to sit and say i didn't contribute at all to the slide of the republican party. any particular regrets you might share with us?

yeah, i mean, i have regrets. i've already as the first impeachment, which i regret regret, you know, like, yeah, there's like that, you know, i can look back on and say, i think it's important if going to talk about your prescription for the party to admit your role in it. and i think the problem we have now, you know, with all the people that are in power in, donald trump, they're like, if i come and admit that what i did was wrong instead of people listening, they're just going to be like well, you won't you you you like okay? yeah, i it but yeah, i mean there's i can look back, say there's a few things, but i also will say to them, to my credit, sounds weird say that i was probably the outspoken member of congress against, donald trump for his entire four years and which leads to another thing where he was very obsessed with me because he couldn't win me over and he couldn't figure out why. but yeah, there's there's i certainly some regrets. two more questions. here's one that says and the

person stresses. this is very hypothetical. let's you were invited to mar a lago. and and you had the chance to say a few words directly to donald trump. what would those words be i mean, it's not something i haven't kind of said to him anyway, but like, i'm trying to make this family friendly. i'd call him a teabag. like he's just i would just tell him that he's he's he's got to live with the fact that he you know, if i. i couldn't, like, appeal to him, which i couldn't, i would just tell him that he has to live with the fact that his name will be seen as a stain on history and he has to understand that, like people are not going to look back at donald trump with any affection. there's not going to be statues to him. there's not going to be a trump library. there's not going to be trump

highway because he's going to be seen a national embarrassment and. he has a chance to fix that because. he can come out and admit everything did and try to, you know, try to make amends. he won't but he's he will his memory will be a complete joke for this country in the book. he use a clinical term knocking knocking but i said he's not going to. final i'm sort of combining a few together and it's asking for comments about the candidate it's running on the republican side. and lastly somebody asks joe manchin and it's just a question mark. well, on the republican, i mean, i think there's three people left really. and that is there's there's nikki haley and there's chris christie. and each of them represent, a

certain part of the party obviously trump has trump. haley represents kind of the estab the old establishment lane, but it's like the the ones that went along with trump never liked him, but kind of went along with to save the party. and then chris christie is like my guy, right? the that are just like, okay, we've had enough my you know, we're going to drop grenade. so i think those three are the ones that are left and i actually want to tell you folks, i think, you know, i implied that i think donald trump to jail. i think there's a good possibility that this spring, the most player on the january six committee was mark meadows, because he gave us some text messages and then quit cooperating. so we only got a fraction them. but those text messages gave us the entire roadmap for the rest of the investigation. he's not. so every time donald trump went to the bathroom like mark meadows knows, knows everything he said or thought or anything. he's not cooperating when this

is exposed. i do think there's a possibility that it is so bad and so terrible that trump collapses at that. it's possible, and i've predicted it before. let's be clear. but i do think the evidence against donald trump is going to be so stark that that would be the moment where nikki haley or, maybe even chris christie, if people are shamed, can come back. but, you know, that's that's again, that's the optimistic view. it's not real. it's not it's not what i'd put my money on, but it's a possibility in terms of joe manchin, what i the guy personally he's got a very ego. let's be honest i and and any other time if this was bush against clinton again, i'd be like, yeah, let's let joe. because, you know, bush and clinton are they're not that far apart. this is an existential battle right now and all joe manchin going to do is give this disaffected republicans a place to go. that's not and that's not good for biden. he needs those republicans. and and look, what if joe wins a

couple of states well, you know what happens? he doesn't like it goes to the house of representatives to vote. if joe manchin wins two states and nobody gets to 70, the house of representatives votes for the president and the way it's not like, okay, the democrats have the majority. so biden wins, it votes by state. whoever has the most in a state that state votes way. republicans control 26 delegations. democrats control 24. that was the point on january six, by the way, is to get that delayed to trigger the constitution, to get the house to vote for the president and trump would have won 26, 24. that's joe manchin can do in this if he's actually even successful. well, with that. thank you, congressman thank you, david, everybody. thank you. thank you