HBO on Tuesday will premiere “The Swamp,” a new documentary film offering “a look behind the curtain of Washington politics,” including in-depth interviews with three GOP congressmen, the premium network said in Wednesday release.
Among other topics, the documentary tackles what it means to “drain the swamp,” a favorite phrase of President Trump’s, for Republican Reps. Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Thomas Massie (Ky.), and Ken Buck (Colo.).
“If people are going to drain the swamp like the president wants to do, they need better information … about how this place is broken,” Massie says in the documentary. “And that’s my mission in Congress.”
“‘The Swamp’ highlights how the prevalence of lobbyists and special interest groups in Washington can influence policy based on financial contributions … how Congressmembers’ ability to get key committee assignments depends on how much money they are able to bring in,” a press release on the film said.
Directors Daniel DiMauro and Morgan Pehme, the minds behind the 2017 documentary “Get Me Roger Stone,” interview Gaetz, Massie, Buck and others as they deliberate policy and achieving success “through bi-partisan government cooperation and reform of the status quo.”
“I didn’t run as someone to unify Washington, I ran to change Washington,” Gaetz says in the film, which is slated to debut on HBO Tuesday at 9 p.m.
—Updated Thursday at 3:29 p.m.