Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees: Interview with Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-NY)

Interview

Donald Trump has no right to incite, he has no right to harass. He has no right to intimidate, Anderson. And frankly, I think this judge has probably shown more patience than any judge that I've appeared in front of as a prosecutor where most defendants acting the way that Donald Trump has, harassing witnesses, harassing the judge, harassing the prosecutor would have been hauled into the court and given one warning and said, if you do this, again, you're going into custody.

And she has given him a lot of leeway, and I think Jack Smith has every right to want to protect the integrity of our rule of law and justice system.

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Well, you have to play on his side of the field, Anderson. I mean, he has benefited so often because people have flinched or have been in quicksand, you know, trying to catch up with him and letting him set the terms.

We saw this with the Mueller investigation. We've seen this with Donald Trump being a legal terrorist in the past and what you're seeing here is Jack Smith is playing on Donald Trump's side of the field. He is going on offense against Trump.

And this judge, it looks like has been doing the same. If you give this guy any wiggle room, he will exploit it and he will diminish the prosecution's ability to have a fair trial.

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Well, Anderson, first we need a speaker who is going to keep the government open. But to your question, I'm not working with Matt Gaetz. I probably should call my accountant though, because it looks like I'm living rent free in Kevin McCarthy's head, and that's probably something I should declare as income.

But here, Kevin McCarthy's problem is his own conference and the deals that he's made, that are now collapsing, and they're collapsing at the expense of the American people who need him to keep government open and functioning, who need to make sure that we keep our promise to Ukraine, to keep them in the fight, and he is not able to do any of that.

And so Democrats will show competence in governing and a preference for governing, and Republicans will show continued chaos and a preference for ruling rather than governing.

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No, I mean, and by the way, Anderson, Gaetz is all talk because he makes these threats every single week and so does Dan Bishop and so does Matt Rosendale and they never follow through on them, and so they have the ability to do that. They don't need the Democrats. We're not going to save Kevin McCarthy -- again, we're on the side of competence.

But this all makes me very nervous for our democracy as we go into this upcoming election to see so much chaos on their side, because democracy is on life support right now. And it just needs to live long enough to live forever. And if we can't get through this upcoming election, we're going to be in a place that America has never been before and it is playing out right now with the chaos under Speaker McCarthy.

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Well, if he's going to, again, bring forward a bill that will lift America's debt ceiling and pay our bills as he did with the majority of Democratic votes and bring forward a bill that will prevent a shutdown, Democrats will work with him, but if he is just going to allow his conference to act as a law firm on behalf of Donald Trump, then no, it's going to collapse.

We're ready to get things done, give breathing room to the American people with their pocketbooks and make sure that people understand that we want government to function and they want it to ruin, and so no, I don't see how he survives this unless he recognizes he is actually more powerful if he works in the great big center where most Americans are.

I mean, the Democratic votes are there to do that.

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My pleasure.

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