The Jason Chaffetz Exit Interview

The Chuck ToddCast: Meet the Press

Chuck Todd

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4.1 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 July 2017

⏱️ 19 minutes

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Summary

With 48 hours left in office, then-Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) sat down with Chuck Todd to talk about his time in Congress, the cost that his family paid for his tenure in Washington, and why he was leaving when his party was in power.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to a special edition of 1947, the Meet the Press Podcast. We hope you're enjoying the July 4th weekend.
0:06.5	Last week I had a chance to interview then Congressman Jason Chafetz inside the House Oversight Committee hearing room where he was once the chairman.
0:15.8	It was meant to be an exit interview of sorts, not about news of the day, but about his time in Congress. It was honest, I think, freewheeling.
0:24.9	The kind I think you wish more elected leaders felt comfortable giving. And it's always amazing, they will give it when they know there are only hours left in their time in office.
0:36.0	Sit back and enjoy. This is a fascinating one. Get on the crazy train and welcome to 1947.
0:42.2	Ladies and gentlemen, we invite you to Meet the Press. Meet the Predate the Press.
0:47.2	Congressman Chafetz, you're not going to be a Congressman for very long, but thanks for sitting down for what we like to do occasionally, exit interviews.
0:59.3	You got elected in 2008, so you came in unusually. You were a freshman with a Democratic House, so you were in the minority within two years you get to the majority.
1:09.7	And now you finally get to be a Republican member of Congress with a Republican in the White House and you walk away.
1:15.1	From the outside, it looks like a, huh?
1:18.6	Yeah, it doesn't make a lot of sense to people.
1:21.4	Well, in your public persona, it doesn't make sense, so explain.
1:25.9	Well, you work hard to get to this point where Republicans control the levers, but it's not necessarily everything I thought it would be.
1:34.2	First of all, the toll on the family after eight plus years.
1:37.9	I mean, I've spent nearly 1500 nights away. I got kids and expenses and everything else.
1:45.8	And I make a handsome salary, but it's 2008. You get elected in 2008.
1:49.4	How old were your kids in 2008?
1:51.0	Well, look at my youngest. She was seven years old.
1:55.2	Now she's taller than her mom and going into college, going into junior and high school on it.
2:02.5	Two of our three kids are now married and moving off.
2:05.1	We're faced with the reality of being empty nesters.
2:07.8	And I don't want to spend the rest of this Congress two plus hundred nights away.
	...

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