paying less taxes are going to be working class folks. it will put women back to work. will put people in situations where -- i know you're tired of hearing me say it but my dad's constant refrain, just give people a little breathing room, a little breathing room. thank you, guys. [shouting] >> the debt limit, sir. announcer: on saturday debate over the 20 22 budget requests with the house budget committee live at 2:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, online at c-span.org or listen on the free c-span radio app. republican congressman jim banks

and rodney davis speak to the republican national lawyers association policy conference in arlington, virginia. the topics include the afghanistan withdrawal on the election security, and the 2022 midterm elections. this is one hour. -- representative banks serves as the chairman of the republican study committee, the largest caucus of conservative legislators in washington.

rnc, this is a policy group focused on developing a conservative legislative agenda and correct me if i'm wrong, jim, the largest in the republican caucus. and the last thing, and i suspect that jim may be proud of this, he has the distinction of having been kicked off the january 6th so-called bipartisan commission by nancy pelosi. with that, jim, thank you so much for being here. [applause] >> well, good morning, thank you very much, tom, for that great introduction. it's an honor to be with all of you today, and thank you, again, for the invitation. i'm really humbled that a group of lawyers would allow me to come and speak to you this morning. i'm really grateful for the work that you do in behalf of the republican party and secure our election, it's a topic i want to get to later. i saw in 2020 of the lawyers who donated to political campaigns, get this, 88% gave to joe biden

and 12% gave to donald trump. that's a remarkable spread and it's similar to what we see across the board with bankers and doctors, and business analysts. so i guess it's worth noting that as a member of congress, i'm in the last white collar profession that's close to 50% republican, right? and thankfully, in a year, we're going to be over 50% republican in the house of representatives. [applause] so i can't complain, but it is a difficult time right now for a lot of professionals to be openly conservative and i think there's enormous value in just the existence of a group that publicly supports republicans like you, that allows republicans to meet and speak freely and organize. so, thank you, and i hope your membership grows in the years to come as well. so, to begin with, i want to give you a rundown of what's happening in congress because a lot is happening very quickly.

we just finished a seven-week recess and speaker pelosi and chuck schumer, the senate leader, are trying to ram through seven years worth of spending. a $1.2 trillion dollar fake infrastructure bill and a $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill. i won't bore you with the specifics, but right now today, as we speak, we have $28.8 trillion national debt. so think about that. we can't afford either one of these spending bills and even if we could, they're not worth buying. so on tuesday, i urge republican leadership to start whipping against the $1.2 trillion so-called bipartisan fake infrastructure bill. and i'm happy to report that on wednesday, whip scalise announced at our republican

study committee meeting he would be officially whipping against the bill. which is a formal republican position in the house of representatives against this phony infrastructure bill. and these bills, both of these bills, the reconciliation bill, the infrastructure bill, are a package. one can't exist without the other. we've given house democrats a tight window and they can't afford to lose more than a couple of members if they're going to pass the $1.2 trillion fake infrastructure bill. so, i'm more hopeful than ever that congress won't pass either of the bills as we meet here today this morning. by the way, if they did, democrats will have authored, $13 trillion of new spending since taking over the house of representatives on january 2nd of this year. for reference, that's slightly less in new spending than congress spent in total over the course of the entire trump administration.

right now, democrats are supposed to pass the so-called bipartisan infrastructure package package. they have to pass a continuing, if they're going to pass that, they have to pass a continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown by october 1st. just days away from today. now, this is a continuing resolution that pelosi passed, also suspends the debt limit through december of 2022. and leader mcconnell already stated that the senate won't pass a bill that suspends the debt limit. so the continuing resolution will likely die in the senate. it's perfect, i think, that the last organization that gets shut down by democrats will be the federal government. so what goes around comes around, right? so i think, so i really think that the democrats bungled this package. there's more infighting than there's been since biden took

office and they're running out of time. so things are looking rosie for the democrats. but unfortunately, the biden administration, not joe biden himself, but his advisors are way less dysfunctional. and they've been able to do a lot more damage in a very short period of time. not just by enlarging our deficit, but by directly weakening our constitutional system of government. we've never had an administration that relies this much on empowering agencies to unconstitutionally write laws that it can't pass through the legislative process. we've never had that. osha is now forcing people to take medicines against their will. the c.d.c. is suspending private property rights. dhs and the executive branch are ignoring their constitutional obligation to protect states from an invasion. the doj is writing state voting laws and selectively enforcing criminal law, all of this is obscene.

right now, and especially after 2022, what the republican party needs more than anything else, is get this, more lawyers. and i'm not just saying that because of the audience. the biden administration has stoked crisis after crisis, at the border, in afghanistan, there's a murder crisis in our cities and we have an inflation crisis and a debt crisis. and the administration broke the law every step of the way. there's a lot of oversight work that needs to be done when republicans win back the majority in the 2022 mid-term elections. i think that americans, not just republicans, but normal nonpolitical people are really overwhelmed and disgusted by the bureaucratic intrusion over the past year. if the republican party can take control of the house, and drag the worst offenders to the floor and grill them on live television, and investigate agency negligence and wrongdoing

and hold the biden administration accountable for its law breaking, then we'll have shown the voters that we can stand up for the people and stand up to the people that they didn't elect, who have shut down their businesses and writing, unconstitutionally writing their laws. i think that's our path to winning back the presidency in 2024, proving that republicans belong to the party of the constitution of democratic norms and of law and order. president trump communicated a little differently, right? when you think about the substance, speaker pelosi and old uncle joe have completely shattered our norms of governance. the best example for me personally is the january 6th commission. and my time on it, which didn't last very long. in fact, i never actually made it to a committee meeting. because for the first time in

the history of the congress, the speaker of the house vetoed members of the minority from serving on select committees. i guess this is going to be on my wikipedia page because that's never happened in the history of this country or in the history of congress. but i've still been working on responding to the january 6th committee with other former committee appointees and with some of the republican leadership's lawyers who are of course, great and very smart people. we're fighting against the january 6th committee's plans to subpoena republican members of congress, phone records, their social media messages and even their e-mails. the majority party is abusing its oversight party to spy on the minority party. that, too, has never happened in the history of america. we have a plan to fight it and a good chance of stopping it. we've been sending letters to the telecommunication and social media companies, if they don't do the right thing, what they're legally obligated to do, we'll hear from them under oath soon.

speaker pelosi has done more damage to congress as an institution than any mob ever could. not just in other assault on 230 years of oversight precedence, but also in her assault on the biden administration's assault on the democratic process itself. as i mention the biden justice department is threatening to sue states that return to their pre-pandemic voting laws. remember, those laws were changed illegally without the consent of state legislatures to give democrats an edge in the 2020 election and now they're threatening to sue states that follow the constitutionally prescribed process. speaker pelosi's first bill in this congress, hr-1 aims to rewrite our voting laws and have the democrats a permanent majority, giving them permanent power.

this isn't a normal political game. it is the rigging of the rules of the game. the first bill that i and the republican study committee which i'm proud to chair in this congress introduced, was the save democracy act. it is an election integrity bill that requires valid voter i.d. and boosts voter integrity banning practices like ballot harvesting, automatic mail-in voting and drop box elections and it restores elections proving they're safe and the republican party flagship election reform bill and i hope to see it on the house floor when we take back the house after the mid-term elections. republicans need to offer simple solutions to strengthen the underpinning of our democrat because the other party is trying to weaken democracy each and every day they're in power. thank you for having he moo, i hope i haven't taken too long and happy to answer any questions you might have about the work of the republican study committee, the house's

legislative agenda, the national events authorization act that we passed on the floor last night, afghanistan, whatever you want to get into, i'm happy to answer any questions you have. >> we're going to hold on for a second. elizabeth has the microphone so if you'll raise your hand she'll work her way over, with that i'm going to take the privilege of the, i guess i'm not at the podium, but of the microphone and ask congressman banks the first question. we were at the embassy of georgia last night and spent quite a bit of time and talked to their staff, countries like georgia have a lot of concern about the afghanistan debacle, in particular of georgia with russia having already taken about a quarter of the country, sitting on the border with russia, and to be honest, wondering if we're going to be there to have their back if putin decides it's the time.

>> the irony, right, of what we heard for four years, that donald trump was destroying our status around the world and our allies would never trust us or like us again. they were saying that donald trump is going to do that even though he never did that, it was my actually quite the opposite and then in an instant, joe biden and his incompetent administration, his inability to lead as the commander-in-chief in a moment destroyed our status around the world, unlike i've-- prove me wrong, but unlike any point in modern american history. i don't think there's a historic comparison to what joe biden did in an instant that diminished america's role and stature and the respect that the rest of the world had for america as much like what happened in afghanistan. we're hearing it from country after country, how can we trust america when we saw them retreat and leave allies behind.

leave their own people. never in the history this have country, has a president knowingly and intentionally left americans behind enemy lines like this president did in afghanistan. there are still americans who cannot get out of afghanistan today because of this president's incompetence and negligence. i don't know how to answer your question other than that. we need a commander-in-chief back in the white house who puts america's interests first. when you -- when american leadership is missing, like it is in this moment, the rest of the world feels the effect and that's what we're seeing now and certainly more than at any point in my lifetime. >> thanks. >> unfortunately we have this guy another three years and a few months and those of you who bring up impeachment question, i'm not sure would rather have a president harris. >> the august 25th letter from the january 6th committee seeks to wave with the biden and

department of justice's approval all the president's executive privileges and asked for tremendous publication of intelligence and personal advisors and government advisors and attorneys to the president. how are we going to deal with that, although you're not on the committee? >> i'm not on the committee. only a banana republic can one party abuse their power to spy on the other party and weaponize the legal against -- that's what's happening with this january 6th commission. what can we do about it? we can stall them every step of the way. i've written letters to the telecom companies explaining if they hand over records of many of congress to bennie thompson

and the committee then they have to hand them over to me and the other side as well. as least we can remind them that they don't have to hand over those records and shouldn't hand over the records and have a debate about that process. that, in the meantime, that's what we're doing, but when we get back the majority we have to hold those accountable who abuse their power today. and you all should hold us accountable for that when kevin mccarthy is the speaker of the house and the republicans are in the majority. bennie thompson and liz cheney and others who were a part of this process to abuse their power should be held accountable for that abuse of power. it's our duty when we get the majority to hold them accountable for it. >> first, congressman, i want to thank you for all you do in congress and hope that you're fully successful. political question. it's hard for me to believe that all of the democrats in congress are really totally in line and in step with nancy pelosi. are there any efforts underway without naming names, to get some of these folks to convert

or at least to declare themselves independent from the democrats? >> i wish i could say that there was. but nancy pelosi doesn't control the democratic party in the house of representatives. this is not -- this is not my grandpa's democratic party or nancy pelosi's democratic party. this is bernie sanders grandkids democratic party. right? this is bernie sanders' democrat party. this is not my democratic party because aoc, bernie sanders, the radical socialists, progressive wing of the democratic party

controls this democratic party. that's why they have this tug-of-war going on over the reconciliation bill and the fake infrastructure bill and the cr, all of the other radical proposals that they put on the floor are put on the floor because of the radical socialist wing of the democratic party controls the democratic party today. so what i hear from my, many of my democrat colleagues who come from-- there are no real-- the democrats have stripped away all of the moderates, the last pro-life democrat was a guy named dan lipinski in illinois, taken out by the aoc socialist wing. and they've gotten rid of the so-called blue dog democrats, and pro-life, and defeated in primary, that's the state of the democratic party and why they found themselves out of touch with the reality of where the most of the country is today and about to lose the majority. and i'll bet my starbucks card, which in you know me, it's holy to me, and that i will predict we'll win back majority by a 2010-like margin because a wave is building up in this country to take it back from the democrats in the house of representatives who are trying to destroy it.

>> thank you, congressman. good to see you. i have a question about the looming government shutdown. is there-- predictions are hard to make, but is there a prediction that you have is it going to happen and how long will it last? >> i've been a member of congress for five years and i've seen some wild things and i've gotten out of the business of making predictions. but if the house -- the house passed the continuing resolution earlier this week. it needs 60 votes in the senate. and mitch mcconnell said we're not going to pass it. so the only way to raise the-- to pass a continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown,

which is separate from the debt limit question, is for the democrats to come back to the table and invite republicans back to the table with them and say how do we get this done. so far they haven't done that. so far democrats have not invited the democrats to the table to negotiate a bipartisan deal that can get 60 votes and pass. why haven't they done that? because the aoc, bernie sanders democrats socialist wing of the party won't allow them to do that. and they own the democrat party. until chuck schumer and nancy pelosi say we're ready to ignore aoc and bernie sanders and bring republicans to the table to negotiate what a bipartisan deal might look like, then we're staring at a government shutdown. which all of us want to avoid, but it takes democrats who control the white house, the senate, and the house, to come to that reality that they have to negotiate with republicans to get something like that done . >> well, thank you for being

here and thank you for your leadership. as you mentioned in afghanistan, there are american citizens and others that are desperately trying to get out. not just in kabul, but all over the country. i'm somewhat familiar working with veteran groups to get lifts for these people which we have and there are people-- they're not only american citizens and dependents, but they're green card holders, they're siv holders, they're interpreters that helped our forces, there's women activists, there's prosecutors and judges who put these people in prison. they're being hunted down, they're going from safe house to safe house. their time is running out. what can congress do, whether

through appropriations or otherwise to help these people and help us get them out? i know democrats have spoken out about this issue, too. >> yes, i mean, get this, it's even worse than you think. you have-- when the biden administration turned its back on americans in afghanistan you had private rescue efforts that tried to go into afghanistan and extract americans out of the country or legitimate special special immigrant visa holders or those legitimate eligible for an siv and the state department blocked the private efforts to do it. why are they blocking it? it's egg on the face to the biden administration, it's embarrassing for the biden administration, retired special operations forces to go into afghanistan to save these people's lives to get them out of the country because the bid administration refused to do it themselves. so, if they can do it, why

couldn't the biden administration do it? i mean, it's embarrassing for them. so, they've blocked -- i mean, i had, i can't tell you how many phone calls from many of these private rescue efforts who were saying we're on the ground, we have americans or others who are trying to get out of the country, but we're being prevented from taking off in our aircraft or landing anywhere to get these people safely evacuated. so it goes to show you first of all, the biden administration lied to us. they lied to us from the outset about the -- about their ability to withdraw, their ability to leave afghanistan in a secure situation when they left. i remember one day reading intelligence reports saying that kabul could fall in 30 to 60 days. it fell the very next day. that's what i found. i served in afghanistan. i've i've gone back and led colleagues on both sides of the aisle back to afghanistan in recent years and we were briefed by the same generals who were there until the very end were briefing us about the isis-k threat.

they were telling us that, you know, that obviously the taliban was stronger than it had ever been the last couple of years, since 2001, but the real threat is the isis-k threat and that's what they were concerned about, and that's why we're trying to bring a negotiation with the taliban to have a more secure situation so we can fight isis-k. the administration knew that and lied about it and dismissed it and got what they did when they retreated from bagram airfield, where i spent a great deal of time when i was deployed there. massive base with multiple air strips. by the way, it would have been ideal ideal-- it would have been the ideal location to evacuate americans and those who, you know, we evacuate 110,000

afghans, but a fraction of them are actually eligible for special immigrant visas. we evacuated afghans who simply physically get to the airport and hop on an airplane without vetting them. now we're stuck with a situation where we-- the impossibility of vetting 60,000 afghans who are in the united states, the other half are in-- on bases in other countries where they're held until they can be vetted. this is a dangerous situation, but it just shows the sheer incompetence of this administration. and the president's poll numbers are showing that the american people see the incompetence for what it is which is good, but again, we're stuck with this guy for three years and a few months and if he's done this much damage in that short period of time imagine what he can do in another three years.

>> i'm shocked reading the new york times with the lack of coverage of the afghan incident. but found buried in there, the so-called biden doctrine. it seems like we are now paralyzed militarily and that we're only going to use systemic means to resolve differences. is this a treasonous policy that these leaves our hands tied to do anything? >> any question that starts off with i was shocked when i was reading the new york times. [laughter] >> yes, again, i mean, we're dealt the hand of an incompetent president who is showing his inability to lead, who's reversed the-- many countries

around the world or world leaders around the world might not have always liked donald trump, but they respected him and they respected america with him at the helm. with this president, it's the -- they don't, they don't like him and they don't respect him. that's the situation that we have. and it's a dangerous one because it has ramifications for a long time to come. in 2024 we'll have an opportunity to replace the current administration with a president whose mission will be immediately to restore the position that america holds in the world, but also to combat the greatest threat that america faces economically and militarily, which is the rising communist china. the greatest legacy i believe, president trump over four years created was rallying the rest of the world to recognize the china threat. this president has retreated from that legacy and frankly, we're at a position with president biden where we are

back to the -- something even worse than the obama era, appeasing china, bending over backwards for china's interests other america's interest after having the only president in my lifetime recognizing china as a threat and willing to do something about it. i'm not sure that the biden doctrine is fully developed at this point because i don't know that joe biden knows what the biden doctrine is, but i think that's probably to be determined. anybody else? yes, sir. >> congressman, thank you for your time and for being here today. i was going to ask about the threat of communist china and you addressed that. i want to ask more specifically to ask what more can be done to support taiwan? >> we just passed the national defense authorization act out of the house yesterday. it remains a bipartisan issue, i believe that at least leaders on

the armed services committee on both sides of the aisle recognize that taiwan is our ally and we have to do everything to support them. but, at the same time we have a president, a commander in chief in the white house who spent an hour and a half on the phone, i believe, with xi last week apologizing and with a tone of appeasement towards xi for, you know, some media reports put it said, apologizing for america being tough on china for the last four years and that's not going to -- that's not the peace through strength mantra that president trump exercised, i think as well as president reagan did in projecting there will be a price to pay if china ever invades taiwan.

so i'm not sure that china is afraid of -- i'm quite certain that china is not afraid of president biden or america in this moment like china was over the four years of the previous administration. so what more can we do? i suppose if the president is going to -- if the president is going to turn a blind eye or willfully ignore the china threat then it will take a congress hopefully led by republicans after the mid term election that will continue to lend support to taiwan. i guarantee with a speaker mccarthy and myself and others leaders on the armed services committee to do that. >> jim as an exit question, my son is a naval aviator, and joanne's, and military here. how does the not just the killing of the marines in afghanistan, but the entire afghanistan debacle, how does that affect the morale of the military?

>> more substantial than you realize. we have veterans calls into the crisis line of veterans who served in afghanistan and i hear from those i served with and others who served in afghanistan and question the sacrifice they made and what's more deeply troubling for them and me, those we lost along the way. i served with congressman daniel crenshaw who lost an eye. and congressman who lost both of his leg in afghanistan and at the same time i certified offed with sergeant wardell turner, the highest ranking member in my unit who didn't come home from afghanistan, who was killed while i was there. those are the sacrifices that we question, whether or not they were worth it and i tell everyone absolutely worth it, for 20 years we avoided another 9/11 on american soil and that made it worth it. don't for a moment believe that your service and sacrifices weren't worth it because of the incompetence in a moment by this administration.

let me also make it very clear, i've made -- was deeply involved in the afghanistan debate over the last four years under president trump. didn't always agree with what didn't always agree with what president trump was trying to do, but in the end, because i can tell you from private conversations i had with president trump and the president trump administration, president trump had always left the door open to keep a lightfoot print of special operation forces in afghanistan to prevent what happened on joe biden's watch from happening. and at the time we had about 2500 troops in afghanistan, we didn't have a single death of an american for a couple of -- i believe a couple of years on donald trump's watch.

to prevent the forces, and the taliban from overtaking the country. and led by pompeo and donald trump, they wanted a seat on the table. never an agreement to give them the country, which is what joe biden did. the biden administration called the taliban, what was it professional and, what was it -- diplomatic and professional. and announced they're going back to killing gays in afghanistan to abusing women, the human rights abuses on behalf of the taliban, the biden administration pumped them up like they're good citizens and we're seeing that's exactly the opposite. so, that's what's most troubling. i see that you have a v.i.p. that walked in the room, rodney davis from the great state of illinois and i can't wait to leave the podium and let him take it and allow you to hear from your keynote speaker.

>> -- >> thank you, jim. we appreciate you being here. have a good day. [applause] congressman davis, could you come up here, please? [inaudible conversations]

would like to introduce john fogarty, the general counsel and seen counsel at clark hill and introduced the keynote speaker, representative davis. >> good morning. my name is john fogarty. i practice election law with the firm of clark hill in chicago. and, yes, this past year i've had the privilege of serving as rnla's general counsel. this morning i have a different kind of privilege, but a privilege nonetheless. introducing to you our next speaker, our keynote, my friend, congressman rodney davis. rodney represents illinois's 13th congressional district in the heart of illinois. heart of central illinois. first elected in 2012 in a district that the democrats drew for themselves, rodney's elections have never been one-sided affairs. and in 2012, rodney's margin of victory was a mere 1002 votes.

in 2018, he won by a relative landslide, 2,058 votes and these have been nail biters and that election was called for his opponent, he did prevail. his election foreshadowed the important work that rodney would do in congress. as a ranking member on the committee on house administration, rodney davis has literally led the fight against hr-1 and hr-4 which, of course, are the democrats attempts to federalize and control all of our election processes. if anyone understands the fight for election integrity, which is the pillar of this organization, it's rodney davis. i've had the relative pleasure

of knowing rodney since before he was elected to congress. when he was executive director of the state republican party and i was a fresh general counsel of that organization. i've been in the trenches with rodney for many years and it has been a pleasure both for and since his election and it gives me particular pride today to present to you, congressman rodney davis. [applause] rep. davis: tom, this is great. now all of you know why john fogarty is as good as what he does. he actually told you the truth. he had a relatively pleasurable time working with me over the last few years. [laughter] as i reminded him out in the hallway and remind him once again in front of you, this is not a billable hour. ok? there. -- i don't want to see it pop up on any piece of paper you don't think i'm going to micromanage. this is great. [laughter]

a shout out, jessie, how are you doing? jessie was the one on the other end of the phone in 2018 and in 2020 when i would call and go, i'll not use the same language as i used then, it looks like there's some young people in the room, what the heck is going on in champaign county? remember those? yeah, yeah. i do, too. john mentioned 2018, so imagine sitting at your kitchen table, you've got friends around you, family around you, where i watched the election night returns and we go and give our victory speech. well, i'm like rain man when i can see the numbers coming in on my county spread sheet, you know, votes in, totals, here we are. i'd been down all night, and my hometown did not come in yet and i always win by big margins there which is shocking because they know me the best. but i'd just gone ahead on the

spread sheet and i knew, all right, if this spread sheet is right, these idiots haven't made a data entry error, jessie, i think i'm going to win. all of a sudden my cell phone rings, it was paul ryan, who happened at that time to be the speaker of the house, and a good buddy. and he said, how does he know so fast that we flipped this thing, that's great. he says i'm so sorry. -- what are you sorry about, paul? -- well, you lost. lost. -- well, you lost. who told you that? cnn.

ok. i'm like, paul, i actually think i'm going to win and i think he thought i was in denial and we hurriedly got off the phone and told my team, what he is going on? cnn told me a loser. well, we finally, re realized we were right. i can't imagine being my opponent in that victory party, yes, we won! i've actually seen video of it, it's pretty funny and cnn called my race and 10 minutes later pulled it back. why? because we were prepared. because we had people on the ground and that's where all of you come in and what you do. and it's so important. and just rest assured today, i remember that day every time i open my refrigerator in my office in rabun because my neighbor got me a picture of harry truman hold me up dewey wins, and my face when cnn projected. and if i want a diet coke, a bud light maybe a budweiser, and remind why cnn sucks. [laughter] [applause]

appreciate everything you've gone to help stop the democrats from just disrupting the election process. you all have been helping us on social media and remember, every time you engage in twitter, trust me, every bad response you all get, you know, two complaints that somebody will could many back at you with, that's like a response to me. we get it, the media somehow thinks that twitter is real life and social media is real life. we realize that a recent study done shows twitter if you look who is using it and who is on it, would be the second most liberal congressional district in the nation. ok. who is first? aoc. all right, who is second? maxine, rasheeda, ilhan? second. understand that when you're in social media, take an offensive

posture, we can never let the people who scream the loudest win. just because we don't want to engage. that's something that i know your organization continues to do and i've got to tell you, we've had great members of rnla who has been helping us the last couple of years and especially this term. and folks like sara, caleb, and a great relationship with our secretaries of state. i just had secretary of state la rose in my office this morning, coming over to meet leader mccarthy, i wish i would have known banks would have talked the way he normally does and i would have spent more time over there and i love jim banks, jim banks is one of our true leaders in our conference and he has a bright future in washington, d.c. but these folks are going toe to toe with democrats in their states and out here in washington, d.c. house administration committee.

would you ever think the smallest committee in the entire congress would be the committee where democrats try to jam 800 page electoral reform bill through? i didn't either until we became in the minority and until i had to sit through hour upon hour with democratic faces with straight faces act like hr-1 was progress. i run the smallest full committee in congress, we have nine members in the house administration committee. three republicans, we're small, but we're tenacious. and i'm also, ironically, the ranking member of the largest subcommittee in congress. my subcommittee on highways and transit has 59 members, it goes to tell you where the priorities are for republicans versus democrats. democrats have turned our committee into a committee that's their leadership's

authorizing committee and they've tried to jam hr-1 and electoral policies through the last two congresses and we've fought hard and continued to fight hard to stop this. all of you have been a great re resource for us and i'm here to talking about bolstering voting, i watched the faith in elections process to combat the democrat'' efforts to nationallize the systems. over the past three months and months ahead, i've with a great team undertaken a comprehensive effort to educate people and engage stakeholders and put forth thoughtful conservative reforms how elections are run in this country and our mission is to restore faith and confidence in the american election system, which, as you all know is a foundation of our democracy. you know, as a matter of fact we've traveled around the aunt to be able to talk about what matters most in administering our election, that's election administrators, right?

just got back from alaska, how many democrats in congress do you think when writing hr-1 or any of the other election reform pieces of legislation have decided that what matters here may actually adversely affect administrator abilities to run elections in states like alaska. where you have -- i know some of you don't live in rural america like i do, may think all of rural america has roads, many parts of alaska do not. we were in anchorage, alaska talking to the postmaster general and that postmaster general said you can't get voting machines to alaska unless you use the postal service and process.

you have to look at the entirety of what they have to deal with and put it through a prism of what democrats are trying to do in washington, and now, because we've gone throughout this country talking to the people who run our elections, we now have the ability to ask that question the next time the democrats try to jama electoral policy through without talking to their own election administrators, i will now be able to say, have you talked to the postmaster general in anchorage, alaska about your problem, about your solution here? because i think what you're proposing is going to adversely affect individual's abilities to cast their vote in places like alaska. we've traveled to other states, too, and we're going to continue to talk about our efforts to be able to focus on what matters most. but let's also not forget, we're all driving towards an ultimate goal here and that's to -- that's for when we take the majority. and ladies and gentlemen, i will guarantee you right now, republicans will be in the majority in the united states house of representatives on

january 3. [applause] you know why i feel confident? because all of you are going to be on the ground, on election day of 2022, right? you're going to be there to make sure that we have free and fair elections right here in the most competitive congressional districts in the nation. we will be in the majority. i cannot wait to be the chair of the committee on house administration because the democrats have taught me a lot. [laughter] -- all right? i cannot freakin' wait. [laughter] we're working with you, all of you, some of you a little more than others, some of you less, because fogarty charges too much. he does. he really does.

i like you better when you're at home with your own shingle and now you've got to worry about pleasing the corporate bosses. -- >> that's another point won. rep. davis: kissing up, kissing up. i love messing with you. he's a great guy. i can't look over there, i'll just start laughing. we've got to be prepared though, we've got to have our vision of what we want to do on our committee and my mission, again, is to put forth legislative priorities when we take majority to help restore our faith in our elections. you know, i don't think i've ever met the guy before, but i don't think mark elias likes me. [laughter] he's in a bit of trouble right now, i think, too, it's going to be interesting to see what happens. but mark elias and nancy pelosi have tried and tried could do what they can to flog their power right in front of the american people and they have many complicit allies in the

media that don't call attention to some of the -- some of the issues that they want to address, but are actually offensive to most americans. and we learned pretty quickly after this last election, because we got -- a shout out quick to my legal team here, caleb hayes is here, rachel collins is here and janine breso is not here, but caleb came on late in the election process in the last congress and jessie was part of this, too, in helping to prepare for this. we had an election observer program that is government-funded, that's constitutionally set, and we had no idea we would need that many people to go to areas of this country where we had possibly contested elections. in a matter of weeks our team under the leadership of caleb hayes put together the best election observer program that

my colleagues have -- and they've told me this -- have ever seen. we were prepared, we were ready, and we hit the ground running before the election and had people on the ground after the election and it was so prep this time because of what we saw in states like new york, and especially states like iowa. remember, i just saw her a few minutes ago, marinette miller meeks, landslide. i won by 1002 votes my first race. marinette would like half of that, six votes in a congressional district. you know what we knew? when i don't think her team now right off the bat, but they did get to know pretty quickly. she was probably going to be unseated in the u.s. house of representatives. and our team put together a strategy that worked hand in hand with the nrcc and our leadership team to change and create the narrative that this cannot happen.

and as they were marching, as mark elias and nancy pelosi and the house administration democrats who were paying mark elias at perkens, they were marching to unseat marinette miller meeks and trust me, they would have done it, you know that. i know that. they're corrupt. but we created enough of a narrative because of the efforts and many of you via social media and many of you talking about the issues that are important, in fairness, many moderate democrats realized this isn't fair. and you know what? mark elias, nancy pelosi, the democrats in the house lost again. when all of a sudden, marinette's opponent withdrew her contested election request and marinette miller meeks was safe. now, i've got to be honest with you, the former political op operative, somebody who used to yell about fogarty's bills in a

different position i was in, i was looking forward as i, as a former operative, the super bowl of elections, who raise it on the house of the representatives. i would have felt like tom freakin' brady. [laughter] unless i lost. but you know what? i'd much rather give up that opportunity to do that, to not have to go through it and know what the end result would have been. it would have been the voters, the will of the voters in iowa's congressional district that elected marinette, that will would have been thrown out.

we would have fought hard, we would have fought valiantly and matter of fact i think we would have had enough moderate democrats who would worry this may happen to them. fear is an amazing thing in politics. and that's our message, i just kept saying to many of them, well, i can't wait to kick you out. better win by a big margin. and now what? i think we would have had a shot, but in the end pelosi's really good at keeping her majority together, i think they would have removed marinette and that would have started us on the path to even a larger majority. little did i know that joe biden as bad as he is, he's done it without us needing that. well, speaker pelosi is not going to stop on election she's not going to stop trying to implement her topdown approach in washington, d.c. and we saw that over the month of august. i've been in congress nine years and worked for a member of congress for 16 years before that. do you know how many times i've ever come back to washington d.c. in the middle of august until

this summer? zero. but she felt it so important to bring hr-4 to the floor without having a hearing for our part of the jurisdictional boundaries and hr-4 and house administration. this is their number one issue. their future, their dominance, and their power depends upon them changing the electoral system here in washington d.c. you're on the front lines of this fight. don't think that we can just sit back and prepare maybe for some contested elections. we can go out to certain parts of the country that are a little better than others and then we're not going to work hand in hand with the folks who are running these elections and we're going to be there and all of a sudden after election day you pick up and go home because we may have won, we may have lost. we need each and every one of you to be as dedicated on the

front end as the democrats are to take republicans out of power. to make sure that we keep republicans in power. and i pledge to you, when i'm chair of the house administration committee. we're going to work hand in hand with the rnla to make sure that we have the best ground operation that will be -- that we will continue to use our election, post election observer program, but that program cannot win elections without all of you dedicating your time, your energy, and your will to be thereafter election day.

we've got to prepare before election day, but i need you after election day. that's the only way that we get through this never-ending counting process in states like new york and california and others, the democrats don't want us to know what results are on election day because they're trying to change the system to make sure that election day continues to count until they win. this is why i'm here. this is why i tell fogarty, i'm not paying you. and this, ladies and gentlemen, is why i didn't read my 22-page speech and talk to you all about some other things, but the bottom line is, and one thing that i see from each and every one of you, when i pop open social media and see you out there defending our republic, is because you care about this country. you care about our constitution. and you care to come out here in washington, d.c. and be a part of something bigger today. let's not stop after today. when you walk out of here, and you realize that the democrats are going to keep the city across the river closed until we take the majority, that should be your rallying cry as the rnla to make sure that we save not

just washington, d.c. and the ability to exercise our first amendment rights in our nation's capital, we're going to save our country together by taking the majority. we will do that when we work together and prepare, we will do that when we're all on the same page as to what our mission is. and i commit to each and every one of you today, i will listen to your ideas. our team will listen to what you think the battlefield needs to look like, and putting that strategy in place to win, and i will commit to you today, i will be with each and every one of you every step of the way before the election on election day and again, where i need you the most is after election day in certain parts of our country and very marginal races. that's our mission. that's what we are here for. let's not forget that and let's

fight on until november of 2022. thank you for having me here today and i'm happy to answer any questions that aren't stupid. [laughter] e have time for maybe a one question, but first -- [applause] -- so, we've got time-- i've got plenty of questions. however. however. have a question. -- >> perfect. >> first of all, thank you, congressman davis, for all that you do. you're a great to the rnla, i'm on staff here we appreciate all that you do and you mentioned a lot of people who are concerned about whether their vote will count and confidence in the election. what is the number one thing that you would have us tell our friends and our family members so that they know that people like you are working to make our

elections as fair as possible and that their vote will count? rep. davis: it's very difficult and that's why we started our faith in elections project. i believe the american electoral system is the freest, fairest and safest in the world. the decentralized process allows us to have a process that is very adept at avoiding what we've considered cyber security attacks on a national level, but the best advice i could give anyone on a regular basis. look, the election didn't work out the way i wanted it to. it didn't work out the way most of you in this room wanted it to, but you've got to understand the processes in place and every single precinct and every single county and every single state in america to understand there are a lot of checks and balances in our system. i would tell everyone who must have faith in elections-- it's always fun to have faith in elections that they have vote in, but in another state or locality, take them to learn about processes in their state.

i go to the voting machine and a either vote electronically or eye color in my ovals. the next step is i go and slide that into the tabulation machine, right? i wish we had voter id laws in illinois. someone crosses my name off on the list. i go to the voting machine and a either vote electronically or eye color in my ovals. the next step is i go and slide that into the tabulation machine, right? five steps. at the end of the night in christian county, illinois if those numbers of the number of people who your signature cards and the number people checked off in the number of ballots that were cast into the place in the machine don't match, those results are not reported. that check and balance is there in a bipartisan way to every one of our precincts.

look, i want republicans to win elections. do you want to know what's going to stop republicans from winning elections? republicans thinking that their votes don't count. we have to do a better job of making sure that doesn't happen. there is one reason and one reason only that if republicans don't control the united states senate, because to me republicans in georgia thought their vote wouldn't count and they didn't go vote. in republican areas. we had in 2016 and 2018 an outpouring of people who finally

got the voice was heard by washington, d.c. i saw that when i waited 25 minutes minutes on a saturday in my hometown of taylorville, illinois to early vote. 25 minute line. we don't ever headlines in taylorville illinois. and i knew it was a good line because when someone is voting against you, they don't talk to you in line. [laughing] it's easy to figure out. frankly, they don't even look at you. trust me, they know i am their member of congress in my hometown. but the people who came up to me saying this is the first time i voted, they made me take my trump hat off before i walked in. they made me take your sticker off my coat before i walked in. i never voted before. what's it like? those are the people that are going to be the first to lose faith in what we do writer in

america, and that is to freely elect our leaders if we don't stand up and defend the processes that we have in place in every precinct and nation. there is fraud and with god to do what our job is to make sure those fraudulent cases are prosecuted. somebody votes twice, prosecute them. deter them. but let's work off facts. the facts are most people don't understand the process and we've got to get them to do that. we called an election judges in illinois. my county clerks need a lot of poll workers. have them go sign up. learn, educate and we are going to win. so i know i'm running behind. i apologize for that. actually i'm not sorry. but thank you all very, very much. appreciate you. great to see me or you again. i continued to look forward to working with each and everyone of you as we move forward. god bless you all. -- >> thank you. [applause]