CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Eric Swalwell

Interview

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ACOSTA: We've been following the long-planned right-wing rally at the U.S. Capitol today and after incredible threats of violence, the U.S. Capitol Police Department pulled out all the stops to prevent this from turning into another January 6th. The entire point of this rally was to show support for the January 6th insurrectionists who have been charged with crimes.

Let me bring in California Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell.

Congressman, you were on CNN recently describing today's rally as sort of a celebration of, quote, "cop killers" but it wasn't much of a celebration after all. What is it like, though, seeing the Capitol turn into a fortress yet again? I mean, the thing that I thought was just so awful about this is that not only did they put the fencing out there, we had dump trucks lined up in front of the Capitol, just the police out in force, all because of what happened on January 6th.

REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): Jim, it's no way for a democracy to sustain itself, and it was not comfortable to read an e-mail yesterday from the sergeant-of-arms urging members to stay home. Now I didn't intend to be at the Capitol today. We'll be back there on Monday. But this is the seat of democracy. And to think that it may not be safe from these insurrectionists, that's really concerning.

Now, you're right, the police showed up in force, they had the presence that they should have had on January 6th, considering what Donald Trump was promising, and I think that may have been a deterrent. Also, perhaps Donald Trump's ability to inspire people to show up on his behalf may also be fading. But that doesn't mean we should let our guard down.

I really feel, though, Jim, for the police officers who stood guard there today, who also stood guard at the Capitol, and may have suffered injuries on January 6th. This must have been triggering and traumatizing, and this vigil is held at a time when, one, these people aren't worthy of a vigil but, two, many officers have not yet even returned to the Capitol from the injuries they suffered.

So it'd be like having a September 11th vigil for the hijackers, so thankfully, no one was hurt today, and look forward to getting back to business as usual.

ACOSTA: And what did you make of this nonsense that they were describing this as a rally for, quote-unquote, "political prisoners"?

SWALWELL: You know, I've served in Congress with political prisoners. John Lewis, the late John Lewis, you know, God rest his soul, these are no John Lewises in jail. These are not, you know, letters being sent from the Birmingham jail, that these insurrectionists, you know, are sending out for their supporters. These are people who attacked police officers, wanted to hang the vice president and the speaker of the House. They're not worthy of our sympathy.

But the real concern here is you're seeing a decrease in Republican leadership willing to condemn, you know, these types of rallies, Kevin McCarthy has said nothing, and a real increase in Republican members of Congress willing to suggest that violence may be necessary. As we saw, Madison Cawthorn, a North Carolina representative, recently say that it may resort to bloodshed if people continue to not believe the election was stolen.

ACOSTA: Isn't some of this driven by the Republican base these days, though, Congressman? Trump's lies about the election have clearly spread. A new CNN poll found 78 percent of Republicans believe President Biden did not win the 2020 election. That's almost eight in 10 Republicans.

SWALWELL: But I do think the base is shrinking, Jim. And when you look at victories we had in Georgia and Arizona in 2020, you know, those were Republican states, and voters are running away from a radical party that continues to put out two deadly lies, the lie that the election was stolen where lives have been lost, violence has been committed because of that lie, and the lie about vaccines, where thousands of people have died since the vaccine was made available, because of radical Republican lies.

[15:20:06]

$4.6 trillion has been spent federally to treat COVID and $20 billion, a Kaiser Family Foundation estimate, has been spent to treat the unvaccinated. So these twin deadly lies put out by radical Republicans I believe will actually lead to fewer Republicans who will identify with their party.

ACOSTA: And I want to get your reaction to something that caught my eye. Yesterday Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill tweeted the following, and perhaps you saw this. It says, "Today our team met with Mike Lindell of MyPillow. We discussed the 2020 election. He was very impressed by our efforts and said that Alabama had the best election system and the safest procedures he had seen in America. We look forward to our next meeting," hashtag "easy to vote, hard to cheat."

This is the secretary of state. What's going on here? When election officials, prominent state officials feel it's necessary to meet with Mike Lindell, the MyPillow guy.

SWALWELL: Yes. Well, I will not rest more comfortably tonight knowing that, not on his pillow, not on any pillow, Jim. It's concerning because it demonstrates that Republicans are now willing to resort to two things to win elections. Either, you know, putting together a system where you disenfranchise voters and make it easy to overturn the result if you don't like it, or again, to threaten violence, as more and more Republicans continue to do.

The best thing we can do to counter this of course is to break the filibuster in the Senate, pass the For the People Act, allow the Department of Justice to look at any changes that states like Georgia and Arizona are making to make sure that every American who's qualified and able has access to the ballot box. Until we do that, Jim, our democracy will remain on life support.

ACOSTA: And before we go, I want to ask you about this U.S. drone strike that killed 10 innocent people in Kabul. The CIA warning that came seconds too late, saying civilians were present. Have you been briefed on any of this? Is the intelligence community going to get involved to get some answers on this? What you can tell us?

SWALWELL: It certainly seems like an issue the intelligence community would be briefed on. I have not been briefed on it yet and I first just want to, you know, express my sympathy and condolences to the family and seven children who lost their lives. I mean this is just, you know, so awful and the worst nightmare for anyone, and I think we owe it to that family and that community, as a country to, you know, financially do everything we can to give them some measure of justice.

And I will make that recommendation. And then for any future civilians who could be in harm's way, to go back and review the process that led to a strike like this taking place. But Jim, again, I'm just thinking of the Afghan people representing the largest Afghan-American community in the country and so much that they've been through, and I just want to take a step back and say a Montana congressman tweeted yesterday that 75 Afghan refugees are headed to Montana and he's going to do everything he can to block that.

Well, Jim, we have to show as much compassion to these folks who served shoulder to shoulder with us on the battlefield, as they come to America, and show them that we truly are a compassionate and open- armed people. ACOSTA: That's right. That's what we do in this country, we welcome

refugees, we welcome people in need, that's always been the American way.

All right, Congressman Eric Swalwell, thanks so much for your time. Appreciate it.

SWALWELL: My pleasure. Thanks, Jim.

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