CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Jackson Lee

Interview

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BROWN: Well, months after the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, a second violent attack on Capitol grounds yesterday shook Washington, D.C., a suspect ramming his car into a barricade. Capitol Police Officer William 'Billy' Evans, an 18-year veteran of the force lost his life in the attack. And another officer was injured. An awful reminder that the nation's Capitol on those who work there are still under threat.

Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas joins me now. She's a member of the House Homeland Security Committee. Congresswoman, thank you for coming on. Thankfully, you and many other members of Congress weren't on Capitol Hill yesterday, though, staffers were and others, but what went through your mind as you watch this attack play out?

REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE (D-TX): Well, first of all, you know that I'm going to offer my deepest sympathy to the family of Officer Evans and thank him for - let them know how much we appreciated the service he gave to the nation and we pray for them during this very difficult time. The one thing I know is that our staff who were there, many of them have felt very secured by the United States Capitol Police. They made sure that they were safe and locked the doors.

So we know that we have a very fine force that needs a lot of help. And obviously, what went through my mind was the fact that there will be many lone wolves and others. We don't know how many others may be interacting with conspiracies and wanting to test the security of the nation, frankly, with two or three or one. We are not safe after the toxicity of January 6th, of course, promoted and agitated by the former President of the United States.

What he did was to say to those disgruntled persons that this perimeter, this citadel of democracy was vulnerable. We have to show them that it is not and I believe we need to get working expeditiously.

BROWN: And, of course, we're still learning more about the motivation behind this attacker from yesterday. But given the realities and obviously as you well know being on the Homeland Security Committee, there's always the concern of copycat attacks and so forth. Do you feel safe working on Capitol Hill?

LEE: Well, I like to say that I'm not afraid. Frankly, I believe that the Capitol Police are doing and would do everything they can and could to protect us as members of Congress, our staff and support staff. But let me tell you what we really need to do, we need to move quickly on general honorees recommendation, which indicated some of the defaults and failures of January 6th besides the fact of thousands upon thousands insurrection has come and poisoned with the idea that the election was stolen.

We need to improve on intelligence gathering and intelligence communication. We need at least 800 to a thousand new police officers and this is to protect police officers. We need a crisis team. We need a team that is mounted patrol.

And yes, in spite of the partisan response, we need to have a National Guard crisis team that is available for the officers and others to call as appropriately needed. And we don't need to delay, we don't need to put this in a partisan posture. We need to put this in a posture of protecting the citadel of democracy in the United States of America.

BROWN: And it is worth noting that yesterday it appeared that the National Guard did deploy much more quickly than what we saw on January 6th. But I want to switch gears to talk more about the election frankly and the big election lie and what we're seeing across the country in these Republican legislature as the Texas State Senate advanced a far reaching elections bill this week with several provisions placing new restrictions on the voting process, particularly for people living in densely populated counties, banning drop boxes and drive through voting. Republicans have said the bill is about election security and integrity. What do you say?

LEE: Pamela, I am on the Judiciary Committee as well and our urgent actions in the next couple of weeks will be to work hard to push forward the John Robert Lewis Voting Rights Act.

[18:40:02]

There needs to be a number of hearings on the HR 1 bill that deals with the practicalities of voting and days that one could vote and as well different procedures for voting is already passed out of the House and moving to the Senate.

I am so saddened by sore losers and individuals who (inaudible) into the big lie and I understand that these legislators, all Republicans have been driven by their constituents. I wish I could put a peace sign up and say to them that anytime you have an election under this democratic process, some people win, some people lose. Who knows who will win in next coming elections.

I think this idea of putting forward this legislation is oppressive. It's suppressing the vote. But it also has a tone of racial attitudes, because so many people of color voted. I for one am going to say that every opportunity to let Americans vote, I as a member of the United States Congress will be supporting.

But I also will stand against this horrific wave of seemingly legislation that has a tinge of racism and as well disparities in the fact that when certain populations vote, all of a sudden one needs to correct the voting system.

I think we need federal laws for voting, but I think our federal laws should be to give everyone a safe and legal way to vote. That's what happened in 2020. So we'll have to just vote these federal laws in, I think we need to move as quickly as we can to the United States Senate and we need to put these laws on the desk of the President of the United States. Because America has to be a beacon of light to the world and that beacon of light is a democracy that allows people to vote and decisions to be rendered peacefully.

BROWN: Right. And as you know there just aren't the votes there with the filibuster in place for that legislation to pass. But Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, of course, this is something we're going to continue to be discussing. Thank you so much for coming on the show.

LEE: Thank you for having me and we may have to deal with the filibuster and may I say go Cougars. Go Cougars.

BROWN: OK. Thank you so much.

LEE: Thank you.

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