Press Releases

CONGRESSWOMAN PLASKETT CALLS OUT REPUBLICAN COLLEAGUES FOR DEFUNDING ATF

Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Stacey E. Plaskett gives the following opening statement on the tenth hearing on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

*Please note that the text that is included below is not the full statement*

“Last week, after Trump insider and convicted criminal Steve Bannon demanded that Chairman Jordan do more to protect Donald Trump, this committee answered the call. 

It's no accident that last week, this committee called as a witness a former defense attorney for Donald Trump in the classified documents case, Rudy Giuliani's former lawyer, and the attorney who has written and filed Chairman Jordan's amicus briefs to the Supreme Court to support Donald Trump's many indictments. Republicans rolled their eyes and snickered when I noted as the Ranking Democrat on the subcommittee that the plain goal of that hearing was to influence the New York Hush money trial against Donald Trump. Just so the public is clear how closely this committee is trying to link Donald J. Trump's criminal and civil matters and use this committee to act as outside defense special counsel—two days ago, Robert Costello, a Republican witness from last week's hearing, was called by Donald Trump as a witness for the defense in that very trial and used his same manic, rambling testimony that he gave in this subcommittee. Thankfully now, maybe the Chairman and GOP members won’t continue to be blasted by Fox News and other MAGA news outlets and blogs for not doing enough with the committee to support the former president.

I know the American people don't believe that this is an appropriate use of the $20 million allocated to this committee. Holding six full hearings to bolster disproven lies that the government is colluding with social media companies to target conservatives; calling in an antisemitic, anti-vax racist conspiracy theorist who claims a worm ate part of his brain as a witness….

Some of us in this Congress see the scourge of illegal guns coming across state and city lines to ravage communities with gun violence and death abuse, but these deaths happen everywhere, haunting every corner of the American experience, and without a robust federal law enforcement and ATF and FBI, Americans will die at a faster rate. I know that in the Virgin Islands, my home, our federal law enforcement play a critical role in combating the scourge of drugs and guns trafficking. Without these agencies, or with more guns available to bad people, my region, where I live, and all of America will be even more dangerous. Families of gun violence victims have their lives ripped apart and turned upside down in a moment.

None of that is helped or made a less common occurrence when we attack and undermine the ATF and the FBI. For Republicans on this committee, it’s simply not a matter of caring about those mass victims. Families in Uvalde identified their children by shoes, because they could not identify them by the faces that they had looked at every day. It's easy to become desensitized in politics, but if that doesn't hurt you, if you don't feel anything for that, God help us all……”

“Let's not be mistaken. Republicans are not here today because they're concerned about the tragic loss of life during a police raid…..

As we engage in this hearing, in the three or so hours we'll be sitting here before us, more than a dozen Americans will lose their lives to gun violence. It’s a somber but necessary reminder of the gravity of what we discuss here today, and what's really at stake.”

View the full opening statement here.

View the full transcript here.

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