Judging Freedom - Sec. Pete Buttegieg Stonewalling the Press

Episode Date: February 23, 2023

Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Thursday, February 23rd, 2023. It's about 1140 in the morning here on the east coast of the United States. Everybody's sort of been following I think this disaster in East Palestine, Ohio where Norfolk Southern Railway long train derailed and spewed highly dangerous even poisonous even lethal and toxic toxic and lethal I should say chemicals into the ground and into the atmosphere. Nobody would want this in their backyard. Nobody would want it anywhere. And unless this case is settled quickly with huge payments to those who have suffered, and a lot of innocent people have suffered, it's the type of litigation that will go on and on for a long time over whose cost it is.

My former colleagues and still friends at Fox News are reporting this morning that an axle on the train was overheating and the crew was aware of it and they tried to stop the train, but they couldn't. That might be a manufacturing default or a design default on the part of the manufacturer. So when innocent landowners and people whose bodies have been harmed sue the railroad, then the railroad sues the people they bought the train from, and they sue the people that manufactured it, and they sue the people that designed it, excuse me, and it goes on and on and on and on and on. We're familiar with this, but that's not what I want to talk about. What I want to talk about now is the freedom of the press.

What's the freedom of the press issue? Coming up, the freedom of the press issue is that the government doesn't want to talk about this. In my opinion, this is not a federal issue and should have nothing whatsoever to do with the federal government. It's a national issue. It's an issue that involves two states, Ohio and Pennsylvania, but that doesn't make it a federal issue. The federal government should have nothing to do with the cleanup of these disasters. The federal government is the most inefficient, most bankrupt, most unwieldy entity on the planet. It is not the entity you want cleaning up your backyard

or keeping your rivers or your drinking water or your breathing air safe. But that's what we have today. We have a concocted Department of Transportation that can't manage the airlines. Just ask people that were trying to fly on Southwest at Christmastime and can't manage the trains. And we have a secretary of Transportation, very bright, articulate guy that the Democratic Party likes a lot, Congressman, or excuse me, Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, who doesn't want to deal with the press. That's my argument here, that when the government is going to insert itself in a public issue, even one that is not given to it under the Constitution, disasters and explosions on railroads, Madison flipping at his grave over this one.

But when the government is going to get involved, it has a duty to explain what it's doing, when it's doing it, where it's doing it, why it's doing it, and how it's doing it. And it shouldn't suppress or intimidate reporters who attempt to find that out. What am I talking about? We're going to show you two clips. One is only about 15 seconds, and it's Secretary Buttigieg walking through a public park last night in Washington, D.C. on his way to dinner, and he's approached by a reporter whom, at the end, he tries to intimidate by asking for a picture of her with him. You'll see that. Then you'll see his own official spokesperson. These people work for you, the Secretary of Transportation and the spokesperson for the Department of Transportation. And you'll see her

using a phony baloney excuse about why she doesn't want to speak to the press. So it's two clips. I'm going to jump in the middle of the two just for five seconds to point out what Secretary Buttigieg just asked for. It's reprehensible. And then you'll see the second clip of his his press spokesperson uh snowballing whatever the language is refusing to speak as aggressively as he refused here we go are you going down there what's up are you going down there at all um yep i am when are you going uh i'll share that uh when i'm ready. Okay, thank you. Can I get a photo with you? Yeah. You guys, I would like you guys to turn your cameras off.

You're on my camera. Well, I'm on a camera. I would like your cameras to be off, and then I'm happy to talk to you guys. Well, if you're the press secretary of the Secretary of the Department of Transportation, don't you think you should be able to ask questions from the American public that you serve? Absolutely. I would like to do it without the camera on. Can I ask why? I think that is a little bit aggressive. Why is it aggressive? On behalf of the American people,

I'm just asking why he has not been here. That second clip, as you could see, was from Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk's organization of very patriotic, conservative young Americans. But boy, did that reporter make a good point. Why won't you talk on camera? We pay your salary and your salary is paid to you, so you will explain what your boss, the Secretary of Transportation, is doing or isn't doing, what that massive bureaucracy that wastes money, it shouldn't even exist, in my view, as I articulated before we ran the clips, the Department of Transportation is doing. I think this might have been a George Bush boondoggle. No, it goes back to before that, but it shouldn't be in the federal government.

They can't deliver the mail. They don't know anything about trains or airplanes. Private industry would do a much better job. But back to this. When you have a job as the spokesperson for a member of the president's cabinet, you have a duty to answer questions. They're not calling you at three in the morning. They're not asking you questions while you're about to put a mouthful of food into your mouth while you're sitting at a restaurant. It's a public place and a public encounter. And why on earth is she afraid of a camera? And why on earth does he want a picture of who the courageous reporter is who's questioning him? Is that an act of intimidation of the press? This is a full-throated defense of the press. Look, Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press. Today means, this is not me, this is the Supreme

Court of the United States. The press is the eyes and ears of the public. And when the press presses members of the president's cabinet, and it's reasonable. Time, place, and manner are reasonable. It's not three in the morning. It's not while they're eating a meal. It's not while they're at mass. They have a duty to answer and answer responsibly and not make secrets and not demand to know who is it that's asking these questions of me.

You know who it is, Mr. Secretary? It's the American public. It's the people who pay your salary. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.