Congressional Overspeech with Josh Chafetz
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 9 June 2020
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
High profile congressional hearings, like the 2015 Benghazi hearings, the 2019 Mueller Report hearings and most recently, the Ukraine impeachment proceedings are often described in derogatory terms like "political theater," "spectacle" or "circus." But do these exaggerated performances on Capitol Hill actually serve a constitutional purpose? Margaret Taylor sat down with Josh Chafetz, a law professor and author of the book "Congress's Constitution: Legislative Authority and the Separation of Powers." They talked about his most recent article, in which he argues that congressional overspeech, like congressional oversight, is actually an important tool of constitutional politics, even if it doesn't automatically produce good outcomes.
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Transcript
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| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:32.6 | You know, and I have trouble with this word political, right? |
| 0:36.8 | What would you expect political institutions to engage in if not politics? |
| 0:41.8 | But the things that sort of look political in the way people are using it in that sense |
| 0:46.2 | are the things that are meant to sort of directly engage with the public. |
| 0:49.2 | And we want Congress to engage with the public. |
| 0:51.1 | We want Congress to both reflect public opinion, help to shape public opinion. |
| 0:55.7 | If it's ever going to be able to sort of stand up to the other branches, it's got to do |
| 1:01.0 | so by enlisting the public on its side. |
| 1:04.0 | And it's got to therefore engage in effective communication with the public. |
| 1:08.9 | And so my argument in this article is that a lot of, you know, that the tools of congressional |
| 1:15.1 | oversight give it a ways of effectively engaging with and convincing the public and that when |
| 1:21.6 | it can successfully use those tools, it has sort of empowered itself in really important |
| 1:27.1 | ways. |
| 1:28.1 | I'm Margaret Taylor and this is the LawFair podcast, June 9, 2020. |
| 1:34.7 | High profile congressional hearings, like the 2015 Benghazi hearings, the 2019 Mueller |
| 1:40.7 | report hearings, and most recently the Ukraine impeachment proceedings are often described |
| 1:46.3 | in derogatory terms like political theater, spectacle, circus. |
... |
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