Congressman Tom McClintock on Why He Voted to Not Censure Ilhan Omar

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Congressman, thank you for joining us. I'm sure you've taken
some heat. Welcome.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Well, I'm used to. It sort of goes with the territory.
I'm afraid.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
I have to say. When I first heard it was
I had an anger feel and yesterday I with the memorial,
I feel different today. I really do. We needed that, man,
we really did. And freedom of speech, and do you
agree with that, no such thing as hate speech?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
You know, yes I do. Speech is speech. You remember
the old motto from from grade school. Sticks and stones
may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.
And somehow we've drifted away from that fundamental premise that
is really the beating heart of a democracy. Democracy depends

(00:52):
upon everybody having the freedom to speak their minds, to
voice their opinions without fear of retribution, that not without
fear of crist is because the same freedom that gives
a license to to to voice, you know, hateful sentiments,
of stupid sentiments, also gives men and women of good

(01:13):
will the freedom to uh call them out on that,
point out their their shortcomings, uh and and reject their
their their their premises. And that's why speech is so important,
and that's why it is so important that we defend
everyone's right to speak, you know, the old saying. You know,

(01:35):
I might disagree with what you say, but I'll defend
to the death your right to say it.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Let me ask you, Congressman, explain to everybody what a
censure is. To have someone censured.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Censures is a formal punishment by the House. And in
this case, uh, the censure would have stripped Omar of
her committee assignments. Basically, and and and But this is
a precedent the Democrat set. They did this to several
Republican members, including Marjorie Taylor Green, who'd said some absolutely
off the wall things before she'd even been elected. They

(02:11):
singled out those statements from before her election and used
them as an excuse to censure her and to strip
her of her committee assignments. They did this roughly the
same thing that Paul goes a slightly different circumstances, but
same outcome. And this is all speech that is protected
not only by our first amender, but it's the whole

(02:31):
reason why we have a Capitol building and a Congress
in the first place, is so that we can all
come together and talk out our differences, and our differences
right now are vast, which means there's going to be
a great deal of friction and heat as a result.
But this is the way democracies work.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
We under.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Back from fiction or love from hate, or truth from lies,
or wisdom from folly, or right from wrong, or good
from evil, is to put them side by side, and
then trust that the people will know the difference. No
central authorites should ever be given the power to take
this vital freedom away from the people, or to punish

(03:21):
anybody solely for expressing their opinions. And that's the fine
point of the matter.

Speaker 4 (03:26):
Man.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
By the way, I'd submit that having Omar and Ocasio
Cortes and cross now freely is the best thing for
our country because it gives every American a clear view
of how hateful and anti American, how violent, and how
dangerous the left has become. And this is not happening

(03:49):
in a vacuum. Americans. You're watching this, and I'm seeing
so many videos on social media from people who claim
me lifelong Democrats are saying their eyes have been open
in the last several weeks to the nature of the Left.
They realize they've been on the side of evil, and
they're leaving that side, they're leaving the Democrats. So so
you know, again, freedom of speech is a it's what

(04:13):
illuminates the path of a free society.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
So you know, if we didn't have a constitution, let
them expose them. So I just hit the mic, talking
with my hands like I'm an Italian. Sorry, let them
expose themselves with this. Let me ask you, congresson Marjorie
Taylor Green. I heard you bring that up and how
they did this to her? Is this in DC kind
of a Republican payback? Is that kind of how it works?

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Well, I hope not, because if we ever allow the
left to become our teachers, we will have lost our country.
At that point, there's there's no longer going to be
a moral high ground and and and no one there
to defend the right. So the last thing we should
do is adopt the tactics of the left. It was

(04:56):
Marcus Aurelius who said the best revenge is to not
become like your enemy, and I think Republicans need to
consider that as these events unfold, and of course we
are all grieving, we are all still numb and outraged
by the assassination of Charlie Kirk and it's perfectly human

(05:19):
and perfectly normal to want to strike out. But we've
we've got to recall that our country was based on
some very sound principles and the most fundamental of them
is our right to speak our minds, whether it's it's
love or hate, and and trust that the people are

(05:41):
going to know the difference.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
Let me ask you. My guest is Connresson, Tom McClintock,
Ilhan Omar. I think Congressman you and I would agree,
as most of the world does that Omar's comments pretty
vile about Charlie Kirk, you know, a horrible bedside manner,
just just vile and but yeah, evil, I'm going to
call him evil comments. And I stated that if if

(06:02):
someone on the left, they don't have anybody like Charlie Kirk,
But if somebody on the left had been assassinated in
you as my representative in Congress as a Republican and
made derogatory comments, I would say that's behavior unbecoming of
a Congressman. You would never do that. But if it
was reversed, what is what is behavior? What is a censure?
What would somebody have to do in your mind would

(06:24):
to deserve to be censured.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
Well, a number of things. First acts as opposed.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
To words cocaine and call girls.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
Well, that's why we censured. Well, not only that, but
I think official acts as well. I mean, that's why
you know, I ultimately voted to censure Adam Shift. The
original motion was to censure him for his words, and
I oppose that. But the second version came back, and
that was to punish him for abusing his authority as
chairman of the Intelligence Committee to misrepresent facts that have

(07:01):
been put before that committee, and that to use his
position to hide from accountability of that for me, crossed
the line. And by the way, we're there are House
rules to protect the civility of debate within the House.
If you cross those rules, you can be subject to

(07:22):
reprimand or censured. You cannot, for example, under the House rules,
question the motives of another member. And there's a reason
for that, and that is because civil debate is essential
in the House of Representatives, and when you cross that line,
the civility breaks down. So there are times within the

(07:46):
House rules where someone who is using uncivil language can
be formally sanctioned and punished, either reprimanded or censured. Normally,
there denied the right to speak for the rest of
the day on the House floor. We saw that with

(08:07):
al Green. Al Green deliberately disrupted the proceedings of the House.
That was not words, that was an act, and that
was properly centured, all.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
Right when he had his cane right that episode with
the can down there.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yeah, So again two things. Number one, with the exception
of uncivil remarks on the floor, of which we can
censure of that punishment ought to be restricted to specific acts.
And Magiver is another case. The congresswoman who physically assaulted

(08:48):
a federal law enforcement officer at an ICE facility. That
was an act that she had done in her official
capacity that was sanctioned, or at least I voted just
the most failed. But I mean that that should have
been sanctioned.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
Well, you were one of four Republicans. I would assume
you had some people probably discussing things with you. How's
that work in DC? Or have you been shunned in
the cafeteria or anything?

Speaker 2 (09:15):
No, not really. I mean, first of all, people understand
where I'm coming from, because I made it very clear
and I've been very consistent to the votes that I've
cast over time. So I don't think it came as
a surprise to anyone. I mean, you have the usual criticisms,
but again that's part of a free society and free speech.

(09:35):
So you know, say what you will. I'll you speak
your peace, I'll speak mine, and then I'm quite content
to let see that the people decide who's on the
high ground.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
My guest is Congressman Tom McClintock. Sir, I want to
ask you, the FCC commissioner car threatened some of the network.
Senator Taed Cruz was against that, and I agreed. We
can see the left using this against us in the
future if this precedent is set here. Your thoughts on that.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
Generally, I agree with you that it was It was
a really bad idea for the FCC commissioner to threaten ABC.
There are statutes that he can point to, but but
it was just tone deaf and stupid. The fact of

(10:27):
the matter is Jimmy Kimball has a right to say
whatever he wants to say that's on his mind, but
he does not have a right for ABC to pay
him sixteen million dollars a year to do so. That's
up to ABC. ABC was being pressured, not by the government,
but by it's a network affiliates the other stations that

(10:51):
were carrying the show, and by the by Kimmel's own
dismal ratings. So I think it was a really stupid
move for the FCC Commissioner to blunder into that government
should not take a position on the speech of individual citizens. Now,
businesses certainly have a right to protect their reputations. If

(11:15):
they have somebody affiliated with their business that is bringing
disrepute on their business, they've got every right to say,
I'm sorry, this is just not working out anymore. But
for the government to apply pressure, that's where you cross
the line in my view.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
In closing, Congressman McClintock hate speech Attorney General Pam Bondi
saying they're going to go after hate speech hate speech
is horrible. They were raised wrong. Probably they should have
their mouth washed out with soap. Probably, But it's like
you stay, it's legal to say what you want up
to a certain point. You can't threaten somebody's life or whatnot.
But to say the Attorney General is going to go

(11:53):
after it, and if I feel it doesn't exist, what
are they going to go after? How are they going
to go after it.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
And again, what that does is to take the right
of the take away the right of the people to
make these judgments from themselves. Let everybody speak their mind,
and then let the people decide. We formed our entire
government on the assumption that more than half the people
are going to be right, more than half the time
when they can hear all sides. So that's why we
have a first Amendment, so they can't hear all sides.

(12:23):
And finally, you remember what Charlie Kirk said about this.
I quoted him on the on the House floor from
a speech he made in twenty twenty, and this is
what he said. He said, my position is that even
hate speech should be completely and fully allowed in our country.
The most disgusting speech should absolutely be protected. The ACLU

(12:46):
used to hold this viewpoint. The American Civil Liberties unionsued
so that actual Nazis could march through downtown Skokie. Now,
why would the ACO you do this? They said, as
soon as you use the word hate, that's a very
very subjective term, because then all of a sudden it's
in the eyes or is an implementation of whoever has
the power. So here's my belief. The more speech, the

(13:10):
better that those were Charlie Kirksworths and and and he
defended them with every breath he took until his very
last breath.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
So if I'm picking up what you're throwing down, Charlie
kirk would probably say, Tom, you're you're right, He would.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
Say, let freedom ring.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
Yeah. Uh, well, the left shut down our speech of
the last four years, and I didn't like that it. Yeah,
and I don't think you know, we had the government
working with the Silicon Valley in conjunction, but I'm concerned
the FCC is overstepped and I'm I'm glad.

Speaker 2 (13:42):
Yeah, well, you know, don't don't forget Under Obama, they
turned the IRS against anybody who was involved with the
Tea Party. Uh. And and you're right, we're getting more
and more information now about what the FBI and the
Department of Justice was doing to shut down the free
debate among Americans over crucial issues like the COVID lockdowns
and you know, climate change, hysteria and Biden family influenced peddling.

(14:10):
People had a right to hear all sides of those issues,
and it was the Biden administration that used the FBI
to suppress that speech. And so We're already far, much
too far down of that dangerous road. We need to
turn back toward freedom. And I'm hoping that this, the

(14:34):
assassination of Charlie Kirk, will awaken people to the importance
to a democracy of free speech and fearless speech.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
It awakened souls yesterday. That was just phenomenal. It really was.
Congress and Tom McClintock, thank you for your time, thank
you for your explanation. And it's it's it's kind of
hard to argue with it. I hate what she said.
I know I'm not supposed to hate her. It was vile.
In my anger, I just like get him. But thank

(15:10):
you for the convers But.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
Trevor, you're not the only one. Americans across this country
heard the same thing and have reacted the same way. Again,
that's another reason why a free speech is in a
vital component of how we all arrive at a common
view for the future of our country.

Speaker 1 (15:32):
Congressman, thank you for your time. We appreciate it. Thank you, sir,
my pleasure.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
Thank you, Trevor, you bet you.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
Congressman Tom McLintock.

Speaker 5 (15:39):
This is the Trevor Cherry Show on the Valley's Power talk.

Speaker 1 (15:44):
He used to kind of be torn about stuff like that.
But I have to say is as hard as it is,
I have to say that I don't want the left
to use that back around on us again, because they've
already done that. Let's come talk to Josh in Fresno
at five five nine, two thirty forty two forty two
forty two forty two. Hi, Josh, welcome, all right, thanks

(16:06):
for having me. You bet, yeah, I was calling in.

Speaker 6 (16:10):
I just found the congressman's uh reasoning. It's just a
little bit weak at this point of where we're at
as a nation, with someone like ilhan Omar especially so
blatantly anti Semitic, anti American most of the time as well.

(16:30):
I mean, I think I just saw a video from
at this was in the last month where she was
still praising Somalia, her home country, you know.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
Yeah, And.

Speaker 6 (16:42):
So the argument concerning well, we don't want the Democrats
to do this to us in the future. They've already
been doing it. You know, they're going to keep doing it.
It's a I think as I listened to speakers like
Michael Knowles, he makes always makes a good point, which
is in government, you know, if people are taking a
vote on it that it is still the democratic that's

(17:03):
still the process of you know, democratic process. So I
mean you have the opportunity there, and all before Republicans
thought it was okay to kind of vote that way.
I mean, well, you.

Speaker 1 (17:12):
Said his vote was weak. Let's take his premise at
the United States Constitution and the First Amendment, the right
to free speech. Where do you draw the line? Then?
I guess you're you're going to draw a line with it.
Oh see, That's where I'm at, Josh. I was ready
on Thursday Friday to be like, I'm never voting for

(17:34):
Congress from mcclint. How I was enraged by it. I
really was. I felt it, man.

Speaker 6 (17:40):
I mean I think we I think we also do
kind of think, uh, you know, censorship. They're not putting
down any new laws. They're not putting down you know.
It really is a behavioral thing, and it is it's
a debatable topic, you know, what they're being centered over.

Speaker 1 (17:59):
I get, okay, that's me that question where do I
draw the line? I guess I draw it where we
draw it as a society where if you threaten that
you're going to kill somebody, or you try and cite
people to go kill. Now we can say there's been
many on the left, even Newsom's office this weekend about
Christy Nome, DHS Secretary. I was it, oh you're gonna
remember the day, or something to that effect. It was

(18:21):
an ominous warning, like a lot of people are walking
it right up to the line. But I inclosing, I
had to say to him, Josh, that I I have
to agree with that, as much as I don't want to.

Speaker 6 (18:34):
Yeah, yeah, I know. And the only other angle I'd
point out, the only thing I just thought of right
now is Congress is it's the governmental body. I mean,
this is not a process where they're deciding a new
law to put on the people. This is really self
governance between them themselves.

Speaker 4 (18:49):
You know.

Speaker 6 (18:53):
And uh, you know I I've seen too many Republicans
over time now say you know, we're going to take
the high noble ground and we're going to do this,
and all right forbid they ever used this against us.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
Hey, Josh, let me flip it on you here. Let's
let's take Congressman McClintock out of the mix. You heard
him quote Charlie Kirk now I or Charlie Kirk has
explained that, yes, the vile hate. I mean, he took
vile and hatred right to his face and he said,
this is America. So I think I'm basing a lot

(19:27):
of that mixed into my emotions right now.

Speaker 4 (19:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (19:32):
Yeah, it's emotional. I'm also looking at it from a
tactical view as far as as what we allowed to
continue to as fester in Congress.

Speaker 1 (19:38):
You know what I mean, I would hope that there
will be enough Americas, Josh, I I sorry to interrupt.
I just want to say that I think I would
hope there'll be enough Americans Democrats that love America and
the party that the leadership of the Democrat Party would
would go after her mind your own, and then the
voters in her area are the ultimate deciders. And I

(19:58):
think that's kind of how this some set up to work.

Speaker 6 (20:02):
Yeah, I mean, but if we imp voters that will
vote specifically for her enough to a degree where she
just remains in office, there's.

Speaker 1 (20:08):
Parts of Minnesota you wouldn't even realize even America anymore. Yeah,
all right, Josh, I appreciate the conversation, Man, you bet
you good call. Good call, But I appreciate that. Let's
go listen to a little bit more of the man
we're discussing Congress from Tom mcquintuck.

Speaker 3 (20:25):
For many years, leftists have told us of speech is
violence and can be answered with violence. This justifies their
shouting down opponents and disrupting peaceful assemblies. We've repeatedly watched
leftist mobs burn our cities, loot shop keepers, and assault
people on the streets, while leftist politicians egged them.

Speaker 5 (20:44):
On Tremor Tary show on the valleys.

Speaker 1 (20:47):
Our talk well talking free speech here, and horrible things
are said and there's repercussions for that. The Constitution are
our first Amendment allows it, and society handles it. Kimmel
set to return to his late night talk show tomorrow night.

(21:08):
He was suspended in definitely last week by ABC. Now
Here's He's not out of the woods yet, Sinclair, they
run a lot of Jimmy Kimmel. They're not the ABC
owned like our local one here. They said they will
not lift the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel live in our
stations until former discussions are held with ABC regarding the
network's commitment to professionalism and accountability. Sinclair also calls upon

(21:32):
mister Kimmel to issue a direct apology to the Kirk family. Furthermore, Comma,
we asked mister Kimmel to make a meaningful personal donation
to the Kirk family and turning Point USA. Regardless of
ABC's plans for the future of the program, Sinclair intends
not to return Jimmy Kimmel Live to our air until

(21:52):
we are confident that appropriate steps have been taken to
uphold the standards expected of a national broadcast platform. Hmm,
all right, you know tomorrow night he will have a peak.
There'll be a peak in viewership and then watch it

(22:13):
slowly drop back down. They'll want to watch it tomorrow night.
I'm not I would not turn it on, but there
will be many that will. I'll see it on social
media the next day, but there'll be many that will
just to see if what he says. I'm interested to
know what he says. We'll see if there's a change
of heart. They're saying, no apologies will be coming out. Well,

(22:36):
he won't be back on Sinclair for a while. We'll
see the hit. He is a stubborn wolverine, is he not. Well,
we'll see what happens. Let's society handle it. President Trump
had a big press conference, big announcement, major vaccine announcement,
tailand announcement for pregnant women DHS, Robert Kennedy. And you're

(23:00):
saying they shouldn't be taking it. They're talking about autism.

Speaker 7 (23:04):
What's like.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
One of the reporters had a question.

Speaker 2 (23:06):
Yeah, no, no, I said, no, not you You're CNN
effect is go ahead.

Speaker 1 (23:13):
Brian Comedy next day, right after a memorial. Right back
at it. Don Junior yesterday at the Charlie Kirk memorial.
His impersonation of his father was just just awesome. I
don't have that. I'll grab that for tomorrow show. But

(23:33):
I'm going to get directly back to what I said
in the three o'clock hour, and I'm stating it again.
I'll probably state it again tomorrow.

Speaker 8 (23:39):
This was.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
The most moving moment on the Cross.

Speaker 7 (23:43):
Our Savior said, Father, forgive them for they not know
what they do.

Speaker 9 (23:57):
That man, that young man, I forgive him.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
When she said, he blinked and he saw his savior
in paradise so quick. She took comfort in that.

Speaker 4 (24:53):
I forgive him because it was what Christ did.

Speaker 1 (24:58):
And is what Charlie would do.

Speaker 4 (25:02):
The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we
know from The gospel is love and always love, love
for our enemies, and love for those who persecute us.

Speaker 1 (25:18):
What an incredible tribute. It was tough moment to get
up there in front of the one hundred million people
around the world and talk about somebody that we also
everybody that saw the video so I can get murdered.
It's tough to get up and everybody did an excellent job.

(25:40):
Here's Erica talking about what the things we did not see.

Speaker 4 (25:44):
After Charlie's assassination. We didn't see violence. We didn't see rioting.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
Report on that, presno b report on that. That's a
story cover it.

Speaker 4 (26:05):
We didn't see revolution. Instead, we saw what my husband
always prayed he would see in this country.

Speaker 1 (26:13):
We saw revival.

Speaker 4 (26:29):
This past week, we saw people open a Bible for
the first time in a decade. We saw people pray
for the first time since they were children. We saw
people go to a church service for the first time
in their entire lives.

Speaker 1 (26:47):
I love how you talked about his work is incomplete,
incomplete work, but not unfinished business. You're realizing we need
to have funeral talk before funerals. Hmm, that sinking. Go
home tonight and have a funeral talk with somebody telling
the good stuff about him. And I'm gonna go out

(27:09):
on this segment right here, ladies and gentlemen. Pastor of
the First Baptist Church in Tallahassee, Reverend Marco Rubio.

Speaker 10 (27:16):
That the movement Charlie Kirk led and started and gave
fuel to was about politics, but not only about politics.

Speaker 1 (27:23):
It was deeper, It was broader.

Speaker 11 (27:26):
And I would say that taking the liberty, but I'm
confident he would agree. One of the things he wants
us to take away from this, from all of this
is the following his deep belief that we were all created,
every single one of us, before the beginning of time,
by the hands of the God of the universe and
all powerful God, who loved us and created us for

(27:49):
the purpose of living with him in eternity.

Speaker 10 (27:51):
But then sin entered the world and separated us.

Speaker 1 (27:54):
From our creator.

Speaker 10 (27:55):
And so God took on the form of a man
and came down and lived among us, and he suffered
like men, and he died like a man. But on
the third day he rose unlike any mortal man. And then,
and to prove any doubters wrong, he ate with his

(28:16):
disciples so they could see and they touched his wounds.
He didn't rise as a ghost or as a spirit,
but his flesh.

Speaker 1 (28:23):
And then he rose to the heaven.

Speaker 10 (28:25):
But he promised he would return, and he will. And
when he returns, because he took on that death, because
he carried that cross, we were freed.

Speaker 11 (28:33):
From the sin that separated us from him.

Speaker 10 (28:35):
And when he returns, there will be a new heaven
and a new earth, and we will all be together
and we are going to have a great reunion there
with Charlie and all the people we love. Thank you
and God bless you.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
Wow. Man, I was just looking at my notes here
and I'd forgot I jotted this down yesterday, and I'm
gonna I'm going to read this. I jotted down Power
Talk Precinct Precinct program. We did that Power Talk Precinct
President program and the tagline was it's a constitution versus socialism,

(29:09):
and I jotted down, I wish it had been reach
out and love your neighbor and your precept.

Speaker 5 (29:15):
This is the Trevor carry Show on the Valley's Power Talk.

Speaker 1 (29:20):
No, that term righteous in the front of that that
it goes to show that anger is okay, but righteous
anger moves into something productive. And that's what we saw yesterday.
So don't let all those influences on your phone cause
you to be consumed by anger. Be angry, do not sin.

(29:48):
I don't need to explain it to you. You feel it,
especially yesterday after yesterday. If you watch, and if you didn't,
please take five I'm telling you, take five hours of
your life and watch it. Yes five hours of your
life and watch it. We need to take a breath
and calm him down. There is an occasion for everything,

(30:08):
a time for every activity under heaven, a time to
tear and a time to sew, a time to be silent,
a time to speak, a time to love, a time
to hate, a time for warrn, and time for peace,
it says Ecclesiastes. Here's what doctor Ben Carson says.

Speaker 8 (30:24):
Kirk's ignorant because he didn't have a college degree. I've
seen him run circles around people with college degrees. Now
I wonder, I wonder if that political figure realizes that
most of learning in life comes outside of the classroom.

(30:50):
And I am delighted to see the young people of
our land merging with the older people like me and
moving in the same and understanding that our nation was
founded upon the kind of principles that allowed us to
rise from nothing to the pinnacle of the world and

(31:11):
record time. That was no accident. That was because of
what we believed, including our Judeo Christian beliefs that our
rights come from our creator and not from government.

Speaker 1 (31:22):
Amen, Doctor Ben Carson. When politicians tell us tone it down,
turn the temperature down, after a guy was brutally murdered,
assassinated in front of his wife and his kids, I
don't think that's the right thing to say. I think
what they need to say is we're going to use
our authority to get you justice. Yesterday was a revival,

(31:47):
just like church camp was. You get back to school.
You don't live it. We got to live it, man,
We all got to. And I was ashamed that I've
wasted a good portion of my life stream from the
word God being all over the place despite knowing the
real existence. Sorry God, Sorry Jesus.

Speaker 5 (32:07):
This assistant Trevor carry Show on The Valley's Power Talk