Rep. Trey Gowdy questions Jonathan Gruber (C-SPAN)

the C-SPAN networks bring you long form public affairs programming from the nation's capital and are a public service of your television provider cpan created by cable I thank you we now go to Mr gouty Professor guber what did you mean when you said they proposed it and that passed because the American people are too stupid to understand the difference when I said that I was my conference being glib and quite frankly trying to make make myself seem smart by insulting others are you offering the Vue as a defense uh for uh for saying it or for meaning it I'm offering it as a defense for using inappropriate and hurtful and excusable language to expr well what did you mean by to stupid to understand the difference Congressman I didn't mean anything about it by it well you said it you had to ADM it I was once again being glib and trying to make myself seem smarter by reflecting what did you mean when you said it was a very basic exploitation of the lack of economic understanding of the American voter what do you mean by that once again it's another example of my inexcusable arrogance and trying to insult others to make myself seem smarter well what did you mean when you said the American people don't care about the uninsured once again that was an overstatement of trying to conjecture on political topics in which I'm not an expert well you know what uh Professor grber I have listened to you all morning talk about your lack of political Acumen and that you're not a politician so therefore you don't know not to call people stupid most of the people watching this morning aren't politicians and they don't call people stupid and I can't help but note uh professor guber and another one of your quotes which I'll read to you that was politically infeasible you remember saying that yes so you do like to factor in the politics from time to time don't you and also happen to knowe Professor Gruber that usually you insult the American voter not the American public so you do factor in politics don't you I have tried a number of occasions pretended that I know more about politics do you think not being a politician is a defense is that your defense this morning I mean I know initially you said that you offered these comments at a conference I think you meant conferences plural but you said conference when you went on a very obscure television show and initially apologized for what you said were inappropriate comments and now today your defense is that you're not a politician is that the best you can come up with the best I can come up with is to really just apologize for we're an in excuse but I want to know I mean the pervasiveness of your quotes is so much that it has to be more than that it has to be more than just an episodic mistake that you made well here let me keep going see see if this helps you any um what did you mean when you said you wish that you had been able to be transparent but you'd rather have the law than not once again it was my trying to conjecture about a political process in which I'm not an expert well what what did you mean when you said it was written in a tortured way to make sure the CBO didn't score the Mandate as a tax once again it was using an appropriate language to try to sound impressive about something to my colleagues do you see a trend developing here Professor Gruber I don't understand the question uh it's a lot of stupid quotes you've made that's the trend a lot of see them inexcusable quotes yeah right and and again your defense is that you're not a politician the lack of transparency is a huge political Advantage well what is a non-politician doing talking about political advantages a non-politician is talking about political advantages to try to make himself seem smarter by conjecturing about something he doesn't really know so you're a professor at MIT and you're worried about not looking smart enough yes okay well you succeeded if that was your goal now I want to ask you are you sorry when did you realize that these comments were inappropriate because it took you about a year to apologize so I'm trying to figure out if you realize sooner that they were inappropriate or or was it just the morning before you went on M MSNBC that you realized that it was inappropriate when did you realize that these comments are indefensible and inappropriate I I honestly didn't remember making them you didn't remember calling your fellow citizen stupid and and you didn't remember saying that you're the only person who cares about the uninsured that the rest of your fellow citizen don't give a damn about the uninsured you don't remember saying that I don't cuz they were really glib and thoughtless comments that I made well Professor Gruber let me just tell you what it looks like from this Vantage Point um is that you thought that they were really pithy and really funny until the video showed up and then even then it took you a little while to to apologize and and what I'm struggling with is whether your apology is because you said it or because you it which are you apologizing for because you said it or because you meant it I I I didn't mean it I'm apologizing all of these quotes that I just read to you you didn't mean a single one of them not a one what I what I said congressman is that I was using glib Thoughtless and really inexcusable language well you used them a lot you used them a lot Professor guber which tends to undercut the notion that you were sorry for an episodic misstatement I just read to you about 10 you see why people might possibly think the apology is a little disingenuous maybe I'll you back Mr chairman the gentleman yield me just 10 seconds following up on missert Mr gouty when you made these repeated comments these glib inappropriate comments in an intellectual Community with lots of other like-minded people did anybody come up to you and tell you that what you were saying was inappropriate um not that I can recall no I guess what you said was popular in that Community we now go to the

Channel: C-SPAN

Views: 397,548

Keywords: YouTube Editor

Id: 4xPYuvPrvG0

Length: 6min 42sec (402 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 09 2014

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