Power Grab

by Jason Chaffetz

  Dedication

  “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”

  —Stephen R. Covey

  “First you win the argument, then you win the votes.”

  —Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher

  Dedicated to those who want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

  Epigraph

  “I think we’re a superior branch, quite frankly.”

  —Nancy Pelosi

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  Introduction: The Last Town Hall

  Chapter 1: Monetizing Anger

  Chapter 2: The Weaponization of Public Charities

  Chapter 3: The Real Authoritarians

  Chapter 4: Creating False Narratives

  Chapter 5: Double Standards

  Chapter 6: Democrats’ First Priority: Protect the Swamp

  Chapter 7: Oversight Without Government Reform

  Chapter 8: Outcome-Driven Investigations

  Chapter 9: Real Reform Loses to Political Theater

  Chapter 10: The Impeachment Dilemma

  Chapter 11: A Positive Path Forward

  Acknowledgments

  Index

  About the Author

  Also by Jason Chaffetz

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Introduction: The Last Town Hall

  The opening line of a call to action on a Daily Kos message board said it all: “How is it that Trump is not being investigated for treason?” wrote the author, who posted under the name Archprogressive. Just three weeks after Donald Trump’s shocking presidential victory over Hillary Clinton, the Russia collusion narrative was already in full swing.

  The soon-to-be president’s alleged treasonous crimes had quickly become an article of faith among true leftist believers. In this post, Archprogressive laid out the case: Donald Trump “had a computer that communicated only with a Russian bank.” The Russian government had “hacked at least two election databases”—a claim that implied votes had been changed. The allegations suggested Trump had “borrowed money from the Russians.”

  Then came the call to action. The call had already gone viral by this point, having been repeated by countless activists, nonprofits, pundits, and celebrities in the progressive universe. “If everyone opposing Trump’s takeover of our government calls the local office of their Senators & Congress person as well as President Obama every day,” wrote Archprogressive, “and demand that Trump be investigated for the treasonous act of colluding with the Russians to influence the presidential election, we might be able to stop Trump from getting into office.”

  That was a tall order. But progressives pursued it with alacrity.

  Without a shred of evidence, many of those theories would be easily debunked. But in the weeks between the election and the inauguration, speculation ran wild. The desperate frenzy to stop Donald Trump from even being sworn in called for congressional intervention. That intervention, so the theory went, would have to come from the committee I chaired.

  As a result, many of the calls to action included the number of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform as well as those of my D.C. and Utah congressional offices. The calls overwhelmed every office and every voice mail box for many weeks. At one point, someone even posted to Reddit the direct line of the House Oversight Committee staff.

  It was in this environment that I decided to host a town hall in my deep Red Utah congressional district. I love doing town hall meetings. They give me an opportunity to explain the backstory that constituents don’t always get to hear. I love the dialogue, the differences of opinion, the aha moments when constituents learn something they didn’t know before.

  Although there have often been wide differences of opinion at these events, they remained productive and respectful. Prior to what would be my last town hall, my biggest such event was an August 2010 event attended by more than one thousand people concerned about the very predictable (and ultimately accurate) projected shortcomings of the so-called Affordable Care Act. Although people on both sides of the issue were angry, we managed to maintain a civil, productive discussion. I think we had a local police officer or two on hand to provide security. But never at any time did I feel I was putting constituents in physical danger by inviting them to a public town hall. That would all change with the progressive backlash to the election of President Donald Trump.

  Given the heartburn from so many on the left over the election of President Trump, I opted to schedule the town hall in the most moderate area of my district—a city nestled along Salt Lake County’s majestic Wasatch mountains and the last stop before ascending the canyons that contain the Greatest Snow on Earth. Cottonwood Heights, Utah, was more than happy to host. Little did it know this town hall would not be the event any of us were expecting.

  When we booked this routine event, we expected heated debate. But we had no way of knowing that national opposition groups would see it as a chance for televised performance theater. Within hours of our announcing the date, unusual things began to happen.

  Our offices and the Cottonwood Heights city offices began receiving phone calls from people requesting information about the town hall. But unlike past town halls, many of the callers were irate—and many seemed to be reading from the same script. Cottonwood Heights police chief Robbie Russo remembers, “The city was barraged with phone calls. Social media that we monitor as a common practice blew up. It was inciting people to attend from outside the city, which is never a good indicator that it’s going to be a peaceful event.”

  Indeed, announcements began circulating throughout the metro area, within the state and beyond, in left-leaning Facebook groups, on Twitter, and in mass emails from activist organizations. The event was announced several weeks early, which gave opposition groups lots of time to organize, book flights, and engage a full media blitz.

  In our congressional offices, we noticed many of the rude calls we received originated from area codes outside of Utah. The vast majority of calls—both local and long distance—all asked a similar question: “Will you be checking ID at the door?” It didn’t take long to figure out why. The callers wanted to make sure they wouldn’t be turned away for not residing in the district. Like most representatives, I did not check IDs and didn’t care if people outside of my district wanted to attend my town halls. We welcomed all comers, and I tried to be just as responsive to visitors.

  Recognizing that this town hall would likely attract more people than our usual one hundred to two hundred constituents, we quickly moved the venue from the Cottonwood Heights City Hall to the Brighton High School auditorium across the street, where we knew we could seat up to one thousand people. Even that venue would prove to be too small, but for the safety of everyone involved, we were advised not to go any larger.

  At that point, we still had no clear picture of the extent of the other side’s coordination. But we did catch wind of a few ominous developments.

  Not long after the calls began, we were given a screenshot of a Facebook group called Utah Indivisible, in which plans were being finalized for disruptive behavior at our town hall. They even had a training manual (produced by national, nonlocal groups) providing a how-to primer for disrupting and derailing town halls. They called it “Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda.” The plans were very detailed. Fortunately for us, they were also very public.

  The Security Challenge

  You’re going to get death threats. If you serve in the United States Congress and you do anything at all controversial, someone somewhere will get angry and become unhinged. You have to take it seriously, but unfortunately, threats are not all that unusual
. I once had a man leave me a voice mail suggesting he would find me and string me up on a light post. Another tweeted that he would shoot me in the head and yet another would slit my throat. Some threats were hand delivered. Some targeted my wife or my children. Direct threats were unusual but not unexpected.

  This was different. We were not dealing with a few isolated cases of mental instability. We needed to be prepared to respond to real constituents with genuine fears and concerns. Against all odds, Donald Trump had just been inaugurated as the forty-fifth president of the United States. Despondent Hillary Clinton voters were still, two months later, trying to process the results of an election for which they had been wholly unprepared. They sincerely believed America had made a terrible mistake.

  In their minds, nothing less than our democracy was at stake. At this point, many of them saw Donald Trump as a modern-day iteration of Adolf Hitler, intent on plundering the Treasury, selling us out to the Russians, and reenergizing the Ku Klux Klan. Elected officials, activist groups, celebrities, and media pundits had been ratcheting up the hysteria for months.

  In what they rationalize as a noble effort to save democracy, any means justify those ends. The only problem with this story is practically everything about it.

  Fortunately, opposition organizers tipped their hand early enough for a savvy local chief of police and his extraordinarily professional team to have a few surprises in store for the would-be anarchists descending on Cottonwood Heights.

  Now aware that scheming was under way to disrupt the event, the Cottonwood Heights Police Department (CHPD) went to work. They obtained a copy of the Indivisible Guide so they could be prepared for the planned disruptions. Working with my security team, they performed threat assessments, did a site survey of the venue, and put contingency plans in place. I credit them with the fact that we saw no violence that night.

  I won’t lie—the conclusions of the initial threat assessment were disconcerting. But police assured us that the department had the training and personnel to control access to the venue, to calm the crowd, and to get me out safely when the event concluded. They were right.

  “This one felt like a legitimate threat,” said Detective Brent Jex, a West Jordan City police officer who headed my private security team and warned my wife to stay away from the event. “Let’s be honest,” Jex said. “Sometimes security stuff is window dressing—the appearance of security versus the actual need. When it came to this one, I knew early on it was something that Julie Chaffetz shouldn’t attend. From a security standpoint, we didn’t want her there. Our hands were going to be full enough protecting Jason.”

  Since this was not the first time left-wing groups had used the Indivisible Guide to disrupt a town hall, Chief Russo called around to police departments in other states to find out what tactics to expect. One department told him their biggest mistake at an event the previous week was opting to have too visual a SWAT team presence, which only provoked the crowd.

  Instead, Chief Russo wisely planned to deploy a mixture of uniformed and plainclothes officers to keep the police presence from feeling overwhelming, even though some thirty officers would work the event with more available if needed.

  “We did not have a visual presence,” Russo said. “We had snipers out there. We had all the tools. But we didn’t make it obvious.” Russo had even arranged with the Salt Lake County sheriff’s office to have transport in place (but not visible) in case mass arrests became necessary. They ran bomb dogs through the venue before seating anyone and kept dogs nearby in case they were needed. To take such precautions for a simple town hall was unprecedented and something none of us wished to see.

  On the day of the event, we learned national news crews planned to be on-site. That should have been the first hint that something didn’t add up. I was one of 435 members of Congress. I had just won my reelection with a convincing victory. My Democrat opponent had momentarily caught fire among social media progressives sufficient to raise a quick half-million online campaign dollars, which constituted her fifteen minutes of fame.

  After her fifteen minutes were over, I won with 73 percent in a “contested” race. Why would national and cable news show up at my humble little town hall? What made cable assignment editors think this particular event would be sufficiently newsworthy to scramble camera crews all the way out in Utah?

  With a 7:00 start time, most of my constituents expected to be able to show up at 6:30 or 6:45—as at town halls past. But this time was different. We received a report from the high school that people were hanging around in the parking lot and trying to get into the school during the lunch hour—while school was still in session! Some were upset that neither the school nor the police would allow them to choose a seat in the auditorium hours ahead of the event. By 5:30, the line wound around the building, taking on the aspect of a somewhat malevolent festival.

  We later learned that the opposition groups had instructed their people to show up at least two hours early. That tactic successfully crowded out genuine constituents unaware that the seats would all be filled by those in line two hours or more ahead of time. It was an effective way to silence opposing views without having to shout them down. It worked. The auditorium was packed with hard-left progressives, many from outside my district, while constituents not aligned with progressive groups were left outside at the back of the line.

  What was the point of crowding out opposing voices? Presumably, they were there because they thought we had elected a fascist tyrant who would threaten their rights and suppress their speech. Yet here they were, conspiring to pack the venue with a united voice of opposition. Did they believe I would be hoodwinked into believing my district had taken a hard-left turn overnight?

  As the opposition groups arrived at the venue, the CHPD began to execute their carefully developed plans. Officers began cordially greeting early arrivals and quickly ascertained that many were not local residents. “We made it a point to walk through the crowd and shake people’s hands, introducing ourselves,” Russo explained. “I talked to them, introduced myself. I asked each of them where they were from. And they would tell me. They weren’t locals. I remember some from Washington State, Portland, lots of different places.”

  The interactions seemed to follow a pattern. They would ask if police were IDing people before they could go in and if anyone would be stopped. My staff and the police officers all reported talking to people who had come from Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, California, and one group reportedly saying they had flown in from New York. Even the ones who were from Utah often reported coming from areas I did not represent. Liberal bastions outside my district, such as the ski resort community of Park City and deep Blue Salt Lake City, were reportedly well represented that night.

  As planned, the officers simply welcomed people and let them know police were available if they needed anything. They were friendly, welcoming, and nonconfrontational. They educated people about what was acceptable behavior and what would not be tolerated. I believe the professional and friendly demeanor of the CHPD was disarming and was instrumental in diffusing the worst of the tension that night.

  At one point, a uniformed officer reported seeing a group in black bandannas openly carrying weapons. They were not local, according to Russo. Utah is an open-carry state, so there was nothing illegal in simply possessing weapons. Police did not approach them.

  All in all, the crowd outside, while disappointed not to have been admitted, was better behaved than the cohort inside the venue.

  Inside, as the meeting began, things were less settled. We kicked things off in the usual manner but to a much different response. As instructed by organizers, the audience attempted to shout me down on every question. Thanks to the manual, we knew ahead of time how the organizers had instructed attendees to take control of the meeting and prevent me from answering questions, to disrupt the dialogue and incite an incident.

  Everything about the opposition was calculated. They were specifically instructed to spread o
ut among the seats to create the illusion of consensus. The Indivisible Guide reads, “Do not all sit together. Sit by yourself or in groups of 2, and spread out throughout the room. This will help reinforce the impression of broad consensus.” They even orchestrated the applause. The guide reads, “After one member of your group asks a question, everyone should applaud to show that the feeling is shared throughout the audience. Whenever someone from your group gets the mic, they should note that they’re building on the previous questions—amplifying the fact that you’re part of a broad group.”

  Who were they trying to deceive with this performance? These strategies are designed to create an illusion of unanimity. Who were they trying to persuade? The audience was filled with like-minded people. The crowd would have been content to drown me out all night. I was not their target audience. So, who was?

  The Indivisible Guide offers this advice: record everything. “. . . unfavorable exchanges caught on video can be devastating for MoCs [Members of Congress]. These clips can be shared through social media and picked up by local and national media.”

  There is the answer. The whole thing was intended to be political theater for a national news audience. It was a show—a highly choreographed, carefully orchestrated, nationally directed pageant for coastal elites to feast upon, comfort for the broken souls of the progressive left.

  Both in and outside the venue, people were supporting extreme left-wing positions that actual Utah 3rd Congressional District voters resoundingly rejected by large majorities. For example, the most vociferous, visceral reaction of the night came when I said Mike Pence was a good person. This audience exploded with catcalls and jeers.

  Who were these people? Even allowing for the fact that this town hall was in a more moderate area of my district, the unified trigger response to the mention of the vice president’s name was notable. The voters of my district may have had some concerns about Donald Trump, but they love Mike Pence. This crowd was triggered by him.