Fox News "Sunday Morning Features" - Interview with Andy Biggs

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Congressman, good morning.

REP. ANDY BIGGS (R-AZ): Good morning, Mike.

EMANUEL: Four weeks after El Paso, a mass casualty shooting 300 miles to the east in Odessa, Texas. Your thoughts this morning?

BIGGS: Well, first of all, of course, we are praying and concerned with the folks, the victims and families of Permian Basin.

And I know you worked there, and I have worked in that area. But I also will tell you, thank goodness for the blue line that went in there. We really appreciate the police there.

And then I guess the next step from there is to acknowledge that we have a tremendous problem in this nation and throughout the world even, but this notion of, how do we stop mass violence and prevent mass violence? And it's not just shooting, but it's -- I mean, if you look two weeks ago, the Dayton -- not the four-week-ago Dayton issue, but the two-week-ago Dayton issue, where you had an individual wielding a knife, attacking people, and then turning around, stealing a car, and killing a number of people with that incident.

So we have this violent -- problem of violence in this country, and we need to address that problem.

EMANUEL: We don't have a word on the motive just yet. We did just get an update on the death toll, at least seven people killed, some brave first responders, police from various agencies really putting their lives on the line, getting wounded in action to take down this gunman.

Some preliminary thoughts on what can be done to stop these mass violence- type attacks?

BIGGS: Well, it's hard to anticipate.

And I think that I agree with Attorney General Paxton of Texas that we need to continue to look at this. But one of the things that he said -- and he repeated this a couple of times -- is that we need to find ways to respond to these quicker to prevent them -- these incidents from exacerbating. I think that's important.

And I have actually talked with some groups that believe that they can do that. But I don't think that we should step in with false palliatives like red flag laws.

And we need to face the fact that we have deteriorating institutions that actually in some way stoke these fires. And we need to change the rhetoric. We need to change our institutions to recognize that we have a severe -- a serious problem here.

We don't know enough about this most recent shooting, the one from yesterday, to know why this guy was doing it, where he got his guns, how he got his guns, and why he was attacking the police officers who were stopping him for a routine traffic stop. This is a problem.

EMANUEL: We have got your colleague Congressman David Cicilline of Rhode Island for the view from the other side of the aisle coming up.

Let me ask you, Congressman Biggs, can Congress come together to pass some kind of bipartisan legislation that might not eliminate the threat, but perhaps would be some commonsense steps to address this problem?

BIGGS: Well, I'm always interested in that question. I -- because I think -- I think we agree on a lot of things.

And David's actually got some good legislation that I support in other areas. But, too often, what I see happening is, we react to this stuff so quickly, and we're trying to do something, and that -- that may be the best of intentions, but they have potential long-term ramifications that are going to impede solving the problem, because I don't think -- I think some of the solutions that are proposed are superficial in nature.

I think this is a much deeper problem, and is a societal problem, as much as anything else.

EMANUEL: So, are you interested in maybe looking at mental health? Are you concerned about violent video games, some of the other peripheral issues, if not guns directly, some of the other things that may potentially be contributing factors?

We have heard in previous cases of family members trying to call authorities about a loved one, and not getting much action. You know, are there some of those other commonsense things that maybe can be tightened up?

BIGGS: Yes, I think that's right.

I think there are a couple things that you just mentioned that are important to understand. I think that we need to stop attacking some -- we need to stop attacking religious institutions. We have the family institute, the family that is under attack.

We need to build that up, because some of those -- some of those institutions, if we can help those, that will ameliorate some of the alienation that I think drives some of this. It will help solve some of those mental health issues.

Additionally, we need to have communications between agencies. And that was the Parkland issue. I mean, that was part of that issue.

EMANUEL: Mm-hmm.

BIGGS: We have got all kinds of ways we can attack some of this.

But don't forget that there are -- most states, if not all, actually have ways to go in. If you suspect that you have a loved one that is suicidal or a danger to others, you can actually go in now, and through due process means, request that they be evaluated. And that's important.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Congressman, let's start there.

Your reaction to the inspector general's findings on James Comey?

BIGGS: Well, I thought it was very interesting, because Mr. Comey had been indicating that he was kind of above the fray, but we know actually he was he was right in the middle of it.

He confirmed that he leaked information to a friend to give to a New York Times reporter because he wanted to manipulate the appointment of a special counsel, which started the whole Russia, the whole Mueller investigation, which is -- basically tried to put a damper on the Trump presidency.

And I just felt like, when you read it, it was nothing surprising there. It was what we anticipated. But I think Mr. Comey basically is just dodging and weaving, and I don't think he understands fully what he did was even wrong.

And that's a real problem, to realize that the very top guy at the FBI doesn't acknowledge his problems and that what he did was wrong. He's defending it, and he feels he should be apologized to. It was actually audacious in many respects.

EMANUEL: More reports to come. What are your expectations for Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report on DOJ's handling of the Russia probe, which sounds like could come any day?

BIGGS: Yes. We anticipate that is going to come probably mid-September.

And I anticipate that we are going to see very -- some very stark revelations of manipulation of the whole system for political purposes.

And when you see that happen, that's when I think you're going to see references or referrals for indictments. And I think you are going to actually see some indictments. I hope you do, because this is trying to take down a sitting president, is absolutely outrageous. It's essentially a coup attempt. And that's what we saw happening here.

EMANUEL: Then there's Connecticut federal prosecutor John Durham looking into the origins of the Russia investigation.

What are you looking for on that front?

BIGGS: Well, I would anticipate that he's going to find that you're going to have a setup, so that all of this goes back to George Papadopoulos.

And, basically, he was set up. And you're going to find that this was a -- there was nothing there. The Fusion GPS dossier, which is basically a set of memos that were basically just put out for oppo research, and some of it was just flat-out lies, were used to try to infiltrate the Trump campaign, and then, in turn, take down the president shortly after he was elected.

And this has been a problem for us for three years now. And it's the most outrageous thing you can imagine. And I think that you are going to see some accountability there. I hope we see accountability there.

EMANUEL: Then there's the issue of immigration.

You are a border state lawmaker. Is there any chance of Congress getting something done on tightening loopholes, addressing some of the roots of the illegal immigration problem?

BIGGS: Well, I would hope so. I hope -- I would hope that we could at least address some of the asylum issues.

I'm not very sanguine about that. And I'll tell you why. We have members of the other side that are actually calling for the abolition of the ICE agency. And ICE is the enforcement arm of the immigration laws. And so, if you are not willing to enforce immigration laws, it speaks to not willing -- an unwillingness, quite frankly, to change and tighten the immigration laws.

And that's a problem I see going forward here.

EMANUEL: Congressman Andy Biggs of Arizona, we thank you for your time, sir.

BIGGS: Thank you very much, Mike.

Source