The Daily Signal - Montana Lawmaker Outlines Troubling Implications of Biden’s Executive Actions

Episode Date: February 3, 2021

Freshman Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., has entered the House with a bold plan to develop America’s natural resources and push back on the agenda of the far left. Rosendale joined "The Daily Signal Podcast” during a recent trip to the U.S.- Mexico border to discuss why he ran for Congress, his former service in the Montana Legislature, the divisive moment the country finds itself in, and much more. We also cover these stores: House Democrats put forward their case against former President Donald Trump in the impeachment trial slated to begin next week in the Senate. Two lawyers representing former Trump in the impeachment trial, lay out their defense. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says his state is committed to taking action against censorship by big tech companies.  Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Wednesday, February 3rd. I'm Virginia Allen. And I'm Kate Trinko. Rachel Del Judas recently traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border with a number of congressmen, including Representative Matt Rosendale of Montana. Today, we share Rachel's interview with the freshman congressman as they discuss why he ran for Congress, his former service in the Montana legislature, and the decisive moment the country has found itself in. And don't forget, if you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe. Now, on to our top news. Democrat House managers put forward their case against President Donald Trump in the impeachment trial slated to begin next week. There is no January exception to the Constitution that allows a president to organize a coup or incite an armed insurrection in his final weeks in office, the House impeachment. impeachment manager said in the statement, according to the Daily Signals, Fred Lucas, the Senate must

convict President Trump, who has already been impeached by the House of Representatives and disqualify him from ever holding federal office again, the House manager said, we must protect the Republic from any future dangerous attacks he could level against our constitutional order. The Democrats also made the case that it was constitutional to try Trump even after he has left office, saying the text and structure of the Constitution, as well as its original meaning in prior interpretations by Congress, overwhelmingly demonstrate that a former official remains subject to trial and conviction for abuses committed in office. Attorneys David Schoen and Bruce Castor, who are representing former President Donald Trump

in the Senate impeachment trial, laid out their defense of Trump on Tuesday. During the trial next week, the two lawyers will argue that the impeachment trial is unconstitutional and that Trump's speech to supporters on the National Mall on January 6th is protected under the First Amendment and did not directly lead to the riots at the Capitol. The attorneys write in the 14-page defense brief that it is denied that the 45th President of the United States ever engaged in a violation of his oath of office. To the contrary, at all times, Donald J. Trump, Trump fully and faithfully executed his duties as the President of the United States, and at all times

acted to the best of his ability to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States while never engaging in any high crimes or misdemeanors. The Senate impeachment trial is set to begin next week. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell derided Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia, saying in a statement, per NBC News, Many lies and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican Party and our country. And somebody who suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9-11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clinton's crashed JFK Jr.'s airplane is not living in reality.

Democrats are calling for Green to lose her committee positions. Green tweeted, the real cancer for the Republican Party is weak, Republicans who only know how to lose gracefully. This is why we are losing our country. And later, too bad, a few Republican senators are obsessing over me instead of preparing to defend President Trump from the rabid radical left. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says his state is committed to taking measures against big tech companies. During a press conference on Tuesday per 10 Tampa Bay, DeSantis said that the acts of censorship, being carried out by big tech companies

may be one of the most pervasive threats to American self-government in the 21st century. Our founding fathers were deliberate in the enshrinement of our rights and the Constitution to ensure that we, the people, were guaranteed protection against those wishing to violate our rights. Ironically, our early founders

were most concerned with the tyranny of government in deciding these rights, but today, the big tech oligarchy has in many ways become a clear and more present danger. to the restriction of the right to free speech than the government itself. And certainly if you go back and look at the monopolies at the turn of the 20th century, these current big tech monopolies are exerting power far, far more pervasive than standard oil ever did.

DeSantis explained several actions he and the Florida state government planned to take against the big tech companies in order to protect the First Amendment rights of the people of Florida. We will seek to do the following. Ensure that Floridians are safeguarded against these practices from technology companies by requiring proper notice and disclosure of these changes to the standards and full disclosure of any actions taken against a user for violating the standards. We'll also seek to prevent these platforms from rapidly changing these standards and applying them unequally against users. It will also require that users be provided the option to opt out of the various algorithms, these platforms used to steer content or in many cases suppress content from the view of other users. But these provisions are of no use without enforcement, and we will provide recourse for Floridians both by enabling a user to bring a cause of action against a technology company for violating these

requirements of Florida law and empowering the Attorney General to bring action against the technology company for violations of these requirements under Florida's Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act. We've also seen the breadth of big tech's influence on campaigns and elections. While there wasn't a state in the union that ran a better election than Florida last year, we still saw on a national scale how articles, candidates, and content had the thumbprints of big tech executives all over them. DeSantis said he also plans to take action to ensure that big tech companies do not influence or sway elections. Now stay tuned for Rachel Del Judas's conversation with Congressman Matt Rosendale of Montana. This interview was recorded in an SUV in the Arizona desert,

so please forgive the sound of a door opening and any slight chatter that you might hear in the background. We're all guilty of it, spending too much time watching silly videos on the internet. But it's 2021. Maybe it's time for a change. At the Heritage Foundation YouTube channel, you'll find videos that both entertain and educate, including virtual events featuring the biggest names in American politics, original explainers and documentaries, and heritage experts diving deep on topics like election integrity, China, and other threats to our democracy. All brought to you by the nation's most broadly supported Public Policy Research Institute.

Start watching now at heritage.org slash YouTube. And don't forget to subscribe and share. Hey, everyone. This is Rachel Dald Judas with the Daily Signal podcast. I am here joined by Congressman Matt Rosendale of Montana. He is a new congressman in this new Congress. And I'm just so happy to have you with us today. Good to be here.

Thank you for having me, Rachel. Well, it's great to have you with us. I want to start off talking about your service in Montana before running for Congress. So tell us a little bit about that. And then also what led you to run for Congress? So actually, 10 years ago, I was riding my horse four or five days a week and chasing cows around the ranch. And I really didn't expect that I would be in this position right now. I've been very engaged in politics my entire life, but I was building a business and raising a family.

And so I never really had the time that was necessary, what I felt, to dedicate to public service. And once my boys were out of college and the community really came to me. And I found myself as chairman of the local ag association and president of the parish council at the Catholic Church. I'm very active in the church. And they said, look, we are not getting proper representation in eastern Montana in the legislature. And so folks recruited me to run for the legislature. and I entered in in 2010. I was elected to the House.

In 2012, I was elected to the Senate. And in 2014, my colleagues elected me as the Senate majority leader. And so everything just, it just really happened very quickly. And I've always said that I just want to serve where I can be the most effective for my community. And my community means my county, my state, or my nation. and then the folks encouraged me to run for the open U.S. House seat because Greg Gianforte had disclosed that he was not seeking re-election. He was going to run for governor. And I obviously ran for the House seat and was able to win it. Well, congratulations. Before talking about going into Congress, what are some of the issues that you worked on in the Montana State House that you really saw as important to Montanaans?

and really affected what you did on day to day there. Sure. So really the things that I focused on was trying to lower the regulatory and tax burden on our businesses and put people in a better position to either start or expand businesses and grow job opportunities. And then the last four years, I have been serving as the state auditor, which in my mind. Montana means I was the commissioner of securities and insurance and I really focused the bulk of my efforts on trying to do something about the cost and the access to health care. It has not been addressed. We still are dealing with these problems, but I was able to make some great strides to reduce the cost, to expand access, to guarantee coverage for preexisting conditions, and actually in many cases improve the quality of health care. that people were receiving and start beginning to bend the cost curve down. So health care is a really big deal. I sat on the state land board, so we were responsible for managing 5.2 million acres of state school trust lands.

So any agricultural lease, any mineral lease, any pipeline easement that pertain harvesting of timber, all of those agreements were run through the state land board and we would approve those. And we were generating somewhere between 40 and 45 million dollars a year to put towards the K-12 education system for the state of Montana. Before we get to Congress, I have to ask you, you have a ranch out in Montana. Tell us about the ranch and what you do there. I miss it a lot is what I do. People often ask me, do you get back to the ranch that often? And I say, yes, every night. Just as soon as I close my eyes, it's a wonderful place. It is about 20 miles north of a little town by the name of Glendive. It is on the Yellowstone River. By the time the Yellowstone River gets to me and my property, it's been flowing about 600 miles, so it's a big river.

It's not just a little trout stream. And I'm very blessed. My wife, Jean, and I are very blessed to have the ranch and our sons. I have three sons. We have enjoyed every moment that we've been there. there. That's awesome. I want to switch talking a little bit about Congress. You're a new member there. What has been your reflections before you get started talking about what you want to do? What has your reflections been on starting off at such a, just a turbulent time in history right now?

It is, and I will tell you, my initial thought was that I was disappointed on swearing-in day. I have to tell you, after going through swearing-in at the state legislature where we convene every other year and you haven't seen your colleagues from across the aisle, your colleagues that are of the same party, you haven't seen each other regularly for quite some time. And so we would come together and people would embrace and they would greet each other and the speaker, regardless of who they were, gave a very, very positive message to try to set the tone on trying to get worked on. Complete opposite, day one, United States Congress. And I was disappointed. I thought that Speaker Pelosi delivered a very divisive message, and it was just not the same tone and tenor that I had hoped that we were going to start off with.

And so you deal with that, and you can't let that one unfortunate day affect the work that you want to accomplish as you go forward. And then obviously we've had a tumultuous time over the last three weeks, and we have gotten through that. We are beyond that. And now finally, I was told what committees I'm going to serve on, so I'm going to be on natural resources and Veterans Affairs, two committees that are going to be extremely important to the state of Montana. And I'm looking forward to getting to work, quite frankly. I mean, this is what the people elected me for, and this is what I want to do. So you talk about getting to work. What are some of the things that are top line on your heart and mind is issue? that you want to work on in Congress as you go forward? Sure. So on natural resources, there are so many natural resources that are located within our state that I want to make sure that they can be developed and utilized in a safe and environmentally

sound method. And we can do that. We've seen the practices have changed over the last several years. And whether we're talking about the new copper mine that has been permitted near white sulfur spring or whether we're talking about. better management of our public lands where our national forests are located so that we don't have to watch them burn thousands and thousands of acres in the summer. We can actually harvest that timber and put it to good use. And certainly we want to make sure that our oil and gas resources are

developed. That is a place where we're going to have conflict with the new administration. He's demonstrated. President Biden has demonstrated by revoking the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline and revoking at least for a stated period of time any leases or drilling on public lands. That's a problem. That's going to be a problem for we have four refineries located in our state. And in addition to having four refineries located in our state, we have a lot of people that work for those refineries located in our state. We have a lot of people that work for those refineries. and the ancillary businesses that feed them. And the development of those energy resources not only drives a pretty good segment of our economy, but it also contributes dramatically to our national security. And this is something that we've seen over the last just four years under the previous administration where we were able to go from being dependent upon other countries that were not friendly to the United States to actually being.

not only energy independent, but energy dominant, so that we can start looking to our allies and helping them with their energy needs so that they're not dependent on some of these unfriendly nations either. Let's talk a little bit, too, about the state of play where things are at, as you mentioned, we have a Democrat in the White House. President Biden is there. Now the House and Senate are both in Democrat control. So as you look forward into the coming weeks and months and years, we've heard talk of possibly Democrats voting to make D.C. in Puerto Rico estate, different policies like the Green New Deal, talk of that being implemented,

the Equality Act. And in your perspective, where do you think and how do you think conservatives should work so that that type of policy is responded to in an inadequate way? And that is very good questions. And so obviously in the House, the majority rules anything. And so that is all it takes. So I hope that all my friends that are out there listening right now, recognized when they were calling for the end to the filibuster, maybe that wasn't such a good idea because obviously we're going to end up being in the minority sometime or another, which is right now where that could work against us. Quite frankly, thank goodness there is still a filibuster in place because what I'm hoping is that the most damaging of those agenda items will

be able to be stopped in the Senate because they won't have a 60-vote majority to be able to start pushing any of those issues forward onto the floor. However, the Democrats do have control over the reconciliation process through budget, and it's my understanding that they have not only this year's budget, but they have 21, 22, and 23 fiscal years that they're able to utilize for reconciliation. I also understand that right now, none of those most damaging agenda items can be attached to reconciliation to be pushed through. So I'm thinking that the Biden administration is going to try to use their executive powers to implement some of these things. And fortunately, then it's going to fall to our attorney generals across the country to be able to file lawsuits and keep these things from being implemented upon the states.

And so I have a very good relationship with my state attorney general. We came into the state legislature as freshmen together in 2010. We're very good friends. And I've already had a meeting, sat down and talked with him and said, we need to make sure that we are working together to push back on some of these most damaging issues. Well, we were just on a trip to the border, got to see a bunch of different things. One of the things that stood out to me was in different areas since President Biden's administration has stopped construction on the border wall.

There's these big areas of border wall that have been completed, but there's so many different spots where they still need to finish and now all that's being halted. Congressman, can you tell me a little bit about your reflections from what you've seen and also just your thoughts on what else needs to happen here? So the couple of points that I took away from the border trip were number one, as you said, to have just an immediate halt to all that construction was unfortunate. on day one, President Biden started killing jobs. And this isn't rhetoric. These are just plain simple facts. Whether we're talking about the closure of the Keystone Pipeline, whether we're talking about the halting of oil and gas permits on public properties. I mean, all of this started killing jobs immediately.

So what we also saw was it was killing jobs immediately as we. went down to the border and we saw equipment parked and, like you say, construction on the wall halted and construction sites that were not complete. They hadn't even finished the work that they were doing. And so in the conversations with the different law enforcement people, the Border Patrol security, and the local residents, they have major, major concerns about how this is going to impact the area going forward. It was interesting to hear them say that the populations of people that are coming across the border on different areas are different types of people that they're dealing with. So you have more of a criminal element in the mountainous, more isolated areas as opposed to more of people that are just trying to seek an improvement in their life that are closer to the urban areas as they are trying to come across the border. I think one of the takeaways that everybody in our country needs to understand is that the people that I spoke to down at the border, whether we were talking about Border Patrol, whether we were talking about the local ranchers or the local authorities, the sheriff's departments and things like that, were very compassionate and cognizant of what was going on with these people that were coming in illegal.

to enter our country. And they felt bad for the ones that were being so harshly treated by this criminal element that was helping get them into our country. And they want to see the suffering. The human suffering stop. And the best way for us to keep that human suffering from taking place is to stop providing an incentive and a free pay. for people to enter into our country. Once they've recognized that they cannot just walk in, then and the deterrent is there, you won't have this wall of humanity that's trying to attack the border. Well, as we wrap up, we talked a little bit about how divisive everything is right now. And as a man of faith, also as a leader in your community and now in your country,

what are some parting words you'd like to leave not only your constituents in Montana with, but the rest of the country and what our outlook should be as we just try to move on and move up. I think that, again, as a man of faith, I do place my faith in God. And I pray daily that we can improve what is taking place here. And my hope is that I will be able to connect with enough other like-minded individuals in Congress, regardless of what side of the aisle that they're sitting on, that we can basically take personalities and set them aside and look at, What has proven to work to benefit our country in the past? Because, look, you can talk about personalities all day long.

But if we are really focused on improving the economy, expanding jobs, trying to make sure that we do something about health care, then let's talk about those things and get everything else off of the table. And that's what's going to put our country in a better position, which means that the lives will be better for the people that we serve. Well, Congressman Rosendale, thank you so much for joining us on the Daily Signal podcast. It's been great having you with us. Thank you so much, Rachel. Good to see you. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to The Daily Signal podcast.

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