Gaetz represents what DiMauro called “the double-edged sword” of visibility required to make swearing off business donations helpful in meeting fundraising quotas (for Gaetz, at one point, $125,000 for the NRCC) viable. Get email notification for articles from Adrian Hennigan Follow. That’s partly why, said Pehme, the film focuses in particular on bipartisan support for ending America’s perpetual wars; it’s an admittedly surprising image to see Massie, a staunch fiscal conservative who denies human-produced carbon dioxide’s role in climate change (yet whose house runs entirely on solar power), standing in support behind Barbara Lee, the lone lawmaker to oppose the passage of the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists act (AUMF) in 2001, which expanded executive power under Bush for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He breaks free by trafficking in what Lessig calls “the politics of hate” – drumming up “bloodsport” conflict with the opposing party to drive emotions, and thus more fundraising. Okay, Matt Gaetz is a telegenic flyweight Republican weasel. "The Swamp" has an attention-grabbing title, but this HBO documentary -- built around extensive access to three Republican congressmen -- gets bogged down in too many side streams.

“The Swamp” is full of insights and tasty details about how the culture of Washington operates. Massie, a “Star Wars” and “Lord of the Rings” buff, compares the Capitol to the Death Star and nicknames his congressional lapel pin “Precious,” saying, “I think eventually, it will turn me from a Hobbit into a Gollum.” I don’t think he realizes it’s already happening. All three legislators decry, in public and on camera, the poisonous vines of financial incentives in Washington; all three also embody striking hypocrisies in staking their positions. Show full articles without "Continue Reading" button for {0} hours. Rather, it was “to get the American people behind closed doors so they could see for themselves why the system is broken”. The movie chronicled his back-room influence and reveled, with a certain lip-smacking glee, in the perversely open corruption of his personality. Yet there are moments, right up to the end, when the documentary buys into their anti-corruption stance, using them as spokesmen. These three come on as Eagle Scouts of fiscal responsibility, but essentially they stand for an abstract ideal that allows them to feel good about themselves. Not only did Gingrich stoke the partisan fires, Lessig argues, but he understood "the way you raise money is to trigger the hatred of the other side in your favor.". Gaetz will yammer on about dirty money, but he’s against the regulatory side of government (he doesn’t need to be bought off by lobbyists; he already supports most of what they stand for), and when it comes to, say, Donald Trump’s coziness with the fossil-fuel industry, he says nothing. Yet he’s not convinced that carbon dioxide emissions are a problem. Gaetz swore off the Pac money – weeks before the coronavirus pandemic, which triggered a congressional stimulus bill that delivered billions to special interests at the expense of small businesses. In the end, though, “The Swamp” is still well worth seeing, in part for priceless clips like the one in which Trump, during a 2016 campaign rally, talks to his frenzied supporters about how when he first used the phrase “drain the swamp,” he thought it was hokey, but “the place went crazy,” so he kept on using it, and then — he says this with a Cheshire cat grin — “I started saying it like I meant it!” (And the place goes crazy.) Yet “The Swamp” is finally a documentary about too many different things, even if part of its sophistication is knowing how those things are connected. The movie is about the culture of money that has broken Washington, as seen through the lens of three Republican congressman who claim to abhor it. A new documentary finds bipartisan common ground as it follows Republican lawmakers to examine the corrosive influence of money in US democracy, Last modified on Mon 3 Aug 2020 15.30 BST. Rep. Matt Gaetz in HBO documentary "The Swamp." Much of the focus, however, tilts toward Gaetz, who speaks openly about cultivating media and trying to create viral sound bites, making these two hours of exposure on a national TV platform a sort-of meta commentary on the efficacy of that as a public-relations strategy. It’s about the new anti-war sentiment that has taken hold among certain Republicans (in many ways, a revival of the old isolationism). It looks at the chokehold of Washington by corporate money and the toxic gridlock of hyper-partisanship. The lure of corruption, and the entrenchment of money, is all-encompassing – a rare shared point between America’s two political parties, and a thesis of a film attempting to pull back the curtain on business as usual in Washington. Even with his science background, his views on climate change have a convenient way of dovetailing with the fossil-fuel fundamentalism of the Koch brothers, the special-interest titans who threatened any Republican with excommunication if they strayed too far from the ungreen path. The film’s other main figure is Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, the founding member of the Freedom Caucus, the group formed in 2015 to be “the loyal opposition within the Republican Party.” (Gaetz and Massie are both members.) 'Porter Ridge' No 'Duck Dynasty' in Premiere; OWN's 'Haves' Hot, Billboard Music Awards Swamp Sunday's Finales. Matt Gaetz and Thomas Massie talking about fundraising in Gaetz’s office. Adrian Hennigan. "Drain the swamp," of course, became a favorite campaign rallying cry of the president, and it's presented here with a tinge of irony. In October 2019, Gaetz corralled several Republican lawmakers into crashing a closed-door impeachment inquiry committee hearing in the Capitol basement as Laura Cooper, a top Pentagon official for Ukraine policy, prepared to testify. Still, even with its behind-the-scenes glimpse of life in Congress during a tumultuous period that included the run-up to impeachment, the film feels as if it's frittering around the edges, perhaps in part because its subjects seldom appear to forget the cameras and let their guards down. On top of that, the film drags us, once again, through the impeachment of President Trump, an event too recent to need a rehash and not far enough away to gain from the perspective a good documentary can offer. Join us for an online event with Eric Holder to discuss voter suppression in the 2020 election, Thursday at 5pm ET. If you had to describe what his job is, the most accurate thing to say might be that Gaetz is a congressman who plays a congressman on TV. Then they got to the chapter on Buck’s argument for the end of the Endangered Species Act, and it was, “Oh, right, we’re not on the same page with you at all.”. And the movie makes the crucial point that the politics of hate — the showbiz gladiatorial politics of red-vs.-blue conflict that play out on a daily basis on cable news — is an extraordinary fund-raising tool.

Show full articles without "Continue Reading" button for {0} hours. Published on 04.08.2020. THE SWAMP, debuting TUESDAY, AUGUST 4 (9:00-10:55 p.m. ET/PT), provides a look behind the curtain of Washington politics by following three … Like CNN, HBO is a unit of WarnerMedia.

“He’s able to create his own national platform by being so polarizing,” said DiMauro. Ben Kew 19 Jul 2020. Published on 04.08.2020. To call him a selective moralist would be kind. The more illuminating aspect of "The Swamp" comes from a conversation with Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig, who speaks about the destructive influence of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Still, the near-overlap with progressive calls from the likes of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren to cleanse Washington of big-money donors seemed like a window into the deliberately opaque and confusing world of congressional fundraising. The last documentary directed by Daniel DiMauro and Morgan Pehme, “Get Me Roger Stone,” was a portrait of the real-wing zealot as irresistible sleaze.

"The Swamp" does yield some amusing unscripted moments, such as Massie bumping into a colleague he was just (not very flatteringly) discussing, or Gaetz meeting with a constituent who complains about people not singing the Star-Spangled Banner, then botches the words when he invites her to do so. But the two did not expect to find commonality on the issue of corruption in Congress in Drain the Swamp, a book invoking the Trump slogan by a co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus, Colorado representative Ken Buck. When it's all over, though, the film proves less about dredging the swamp than the filmmakers gaining the opportunity to provide a close-up view of what it's like to muck around in it, a process that offers less clarity or insight than advertised. Most awards are political in nature, but that was literally the case last week when the documentaries … He’s a TV hack who has made “reform” his (fake) brand. (So was impeachment.) Massie joined several Republicans opposed to America’s involvement in cyclical wars to support Lee’s proposal to repeal the AUMF. Among those weighing in is John Sarbanes (D-Md. It’s about the war in the Republican Party over its own identity. Like us on Facebook to see similar stories, More Than 70% of Shoppers Have This Food Fear About Coronavirus, ‘The Swamp’ Review: An HBO Documentary About Three ‘Drain the Swamp!’ Republicans Who Can’t See Their Own Swamp. It ties Congress up in permanent gridlock, but it generates boatloads of partisan cash.

You can smell the need for affirmation when he's on the phone with POTUS. ), whose advocacy for genuine reform has not surprisingly met considerable resistance -- proof, Lessig contends, that paralysis benefits the status quo. “The Swamp” is an exposé of the selling out of Washington, and part of the offbeat way the movie works is by cozying up to these three and gaining access to the nuts and bolts of their congressional jobs, only to shine a harsh light on their hypocrisy. “The fact that it became such a big story shows how the media rewards the theater of the absurd,” said Pehme. Still, "The Swamp" allows Gaetz, Massie and Buck to cast themselves as political mavericks, highlighting Gaetz's bipartisan work with California Democrat Ro Khanna on a resolution opposing war with Iran, or grabbing coffee with former congresswoman Katie Hill. It takes detours into school shootings and climate change. “But I do feel that there is an opportunity to bridge the divide between members of different parties.”. If it all seems bleak, the hope, said the film-makers, is change through translating common wisdom – Washington is dysfunctional, we all know that – into clear examples on screen. We learn about how members of Congress have to purchase their seats on committees (with a payout of $300,000 to $500,000 every election cycle).

Filming Buck and two fellow Republican lawmakers – Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Matt Gaetz of Florida in their DC offices, at their homes, at campaign stops and constituent visits – could offer “a chance to take the American public behind closed doors in Congress for the first time and show them how the sausage is made”, said Pehme. So what? "The Swamp" has an attention-grabbing title, but this HBO documentary -- built around extensive access to three Republican congressmen -- gets bogged down in too many side streams.