mr. butterfield?ultimate supervision of the office of special files. >> mr. butterfield, are you aware of the installation of any devices, listening devices, in the oval office of the president? >> i was aware of listening devices, yes, sir. >> on whose authority were they installed, mr. butterfield? >> on the president's authority for posterity. >> all right. mr. butterfield, as far as you know from your own personal knowledge, all of the president's conversations were recorded? as far as you know. >> that's correct. >> mr. butterfield, if one were to reconstruct the conversations, what would be the best way to reconstruct those conversations? >> well, in the obvious manner, mr. dash, to obtain the tape and play it. >> thank you very much, sir. >> a startling development. >> certainly critical in regard to dean's testimony and in essence the case against the president of the united states. >> ron, can you tell us how the president was informed about mr. butterfield's testimony and what his reaction t

mr. butterfield, for a minute. the chair: the gentleman from north carolina, mr. butterfield, is recognized. mr. butterfield: i thank the yielding. for i rise today in strong support of h.r. 4617, the shield act. the world knows, the world knows that our emocracy was attacked in 2016 by foreign actors, and so we have a responsibility as a against to fight back foreign cyberintrusions into our emocracy and protect the sanctity of our elections. the shield act does just that. now, our right country is facing an existential crisis. question for each of us is, what are we going to do? what are we going to do to efend the principles and the constitution upon which this country was founded? the vote today on the shield act moments ne of those that some years from now we will all look back and each of us give an account for what we did. we must take a vote to defend democracy from foreign nterference and ensure that every american's vote counts. the words of in our dear colleague, congressman cummings, which are swirling today.this chamber he said the following -- when we

mr. butterfield from north carolina. >> thank you. reiteratingbegin by what the chairwoman said a few minutes ago. this is not a town hall meeting. all of us have our individual townhall meetings. this is a congressional hearing. this is not a political exercise, this is serious business. the congress of the united spends billions of dollars every year on defense and non-concessionary -- nondiscretionary spending. we have got to build a congressional record and this is what it is all about today. we will take this information and a verbatim copy of what is placedaid today is being in a congressional record and we will take this information back to our committee and our committee will have further hearings and at some point, it will be presented to the house of representatives for a vote during wanted to go record for making it known the may not fully understand the scope of what we are doing today. these statistics show 39,000 injured or killed each day. often.on is not an even more disturbing, the way we fail to treat this as a publi

mr. butterfield for -- butterfield. want to reiterate and say this is not the kind of hearing where we have a lot of rah rah. this is a sober and somber gathering of witnesses so we can do the work that we were elected to do and that is to try to provide several resources to several departments that we have discussion with today and that violence,demic of gun eliminate suffering and pain of families and communities nations affected by this senseless epidemic. with that, i want to ask my friend who i have known for many years -- so many families, including my family. a significantn and striking demographic change youryou recognize [indiscernible] knowing this particular era of violence, do you see a significant change in the demographics? >> [inaudible] >> use the mic please. >> what i have seen is that the perpetrator and the victim as i said were african-american and what i see is there is not today a relationship between perpetrator and victim that resulted in a successful arrest and adjudication of the particular per

mr. butterfield, the vice-chairman of the full committee, for his five minutes for an opening statement. pleasure to recognize. rep. butterfield: i know ms. clark might not take too kindly to that, she is vice-chairman of the full committee, i am vice chair of the subcommittee. rep. eshoo: you just got a raise. rep. butterfield: thank you. let me join with the congressman and thank you for your incredible work on the subcommittee. you promised us months ago that we would have this hearing and you have filled that commitment, so thank you very much. it is good to be with my colleagues, particularly those from illinois, and my good friend bobby rush is to my right, and i understand we are in your congressional district. thank you for your work. the gun violence epidemic in america can no longer be ignored. we must treat this epidemic for what it is, a public health crisis. that is why we are here today. democrats in the house recognize this crisis and we are determined yes we are we are determined to take some action. with that said, madam chair, i would like to yield two minutes to my cha

mr. butterfield: let me thank you, congressman horsford, for yielding time this evening and thank you for your extraordinary leadership. elijah cummings was my friend. nearly every legislative day for the past 15 years, we talked about every subject you can imagine. some of it consisted of small talk. but very often it consisted of serious conversations about our families and about our communities. and so on behalf of my family, on behalf of the 750,000 people of the first congressional district of north carolina, i extend condolences to the cummings family and to the good people of baltimore. you know, mr. speaker, several years ago, i shared with congressman cummings a very sad situation in my district involving an african-american attorney who had suffered a debilitating stroke and was having financial problems. immediately, immediately, mr. cummings said, you know, i have great affection for black lawyers who have served their communities and i'm going to send him some money. and he did. from time to time i would see mr. cummings on national television, on the talk shows, and i would

mr. butterfield, are you aware of the installation of any listening devices in the oval office of the presidentre of listening devices, yes, sir. >> if wt was a bombshell. >> the pressure is on the president to produce those tapes. >> had it not been for the tapes, i'm convinced richard nixon would have completed his second term. >> instead, richard nixon would spend the rest of his presidency trying to keep anyone from hearing them. >> the white house made it clear today that president nixon has decided not to release tapes of his conversations. >> if i were to make public these tapes, the confidentiality of the office of the president would always be suspect from now on. >> he fought subpoena after subpoena. >> i have never heard or seen such outrageous, vicious, distorted reporting. >> even as he tried to convince the american people that watergate was a press creation. >> what is it about the television coverage of you in these past weeks and months that has so aroused your anger? >> don't get the impression that you arouse my anger. one can only be angry with those he respects. >> mr. pres

mr. butterfield? >> well, in the obvious manner, mr.y, this smile comes over my face, and i said, get those tapes as fast as you can before they disappear. >> this afternoon i received from the white house a letter declining to furnish the eight requested tapes. careful study before requesting the tapes convinced me that any blanket claim of privilege to withhold this evidence from the grand jury is without legal foundation. >> nixon had a legitimate argument that congress shouldn't be able to delve into the private discussions of the president in the white house. that's a legitimate constitutional argument. but to invoke executive privilege to cover up a third-rate burglary was suspect. >> now both the senate watergate committee and special prosecutor archibald cox are taking the white house to court in an effort to gain access to those tapes. >> as the weeks have gone by, many have urged that in order to help prove the truth of what i have said i should turn over to the special prosecutor and the senate committee recordings of convers

mr. horsford: thank you, congressman butterfield. stories r sharing your of friendship and how chairman cummings really touched your life, as an example to so many here in this body. i'd now like to yield to my good friend, the congresswoman from the great state of new york, yvette clarke. mr. clarke: i thank my colleague, our chairwoman, ms. bass -- ms. clarke: i thank my colleague, our chairwoman, ms. bass, and our co-leaders for this evening's special order hour, for providing this moment for us to reflect. let me start by saying, on behalf of myself, the clarke family, and the people of the ninth congressional district of new york, i rise today to reflect upon the life and the legacy of the great chairman of the house oversight and reform -- government reform committee, chairman elijah cummings. and express my heartfelt and deepest condolences to his wife, maya, his family, friends, constituents and staff. our great nation is mourning, is in shock over the loss of a great man. as one of seven children born to parents who were sha

mr. butterfield from north carolina. >> thank you very much madam chair. let me begin by reiterating what chairwoman said a few minutes ago. this is not a town hall meeting from time to time. this is a congressional hearing bug this i make the point that this is not a political exercise, this is serious business. congress of the united states spends billions of dollars every year and discretionary spending. we were to invest in this issue and invest in methods of gun prevention and the other issues that we care about including education. we've got to build a congressional and that's what this is all about today. we are building this information in a verbatim copy of what is being said here today as placed in a congressional record and take this information back to our committee. our committee will then have further hearings and mark the administration and some point will be presented for a vote. i will now go on record to make it known that whole not fully understand the scope of what we're doing today. the statistics show madam chair that firearm related

mr. butterfield always does a good job. since he's not here, i will ask his question. how much does a section two lawsuit typically cost, and what are the resources? and if you could chime in here, too, mr. ross. what are the resources that go into filing a section two lawsuit? >> thank you for that question. these lawsuits can run in the ballpark of hundreds of thousands of dollars. studies have shown that voting rights cases are among the most complex cases that are heard by federal courts. often these cases require that civil rights groups like ours retain experts to conduct extensive demographic analyses, produce maps, and so forth. this is not a sustainable way to deal with the crisis of voter suppression and widespread rampant voting discrimination that we face in our country. these cases are not just costly, but they are long and protracted and can take several years to bring to final resolution, meaning that voters on the ground are literally experiencing and living the effects of having a discriminatory law, a practice on the books in their community each and