CNN "The Lead with Jake Tapper" - Transcript: Interview with Kelly Armstrong
Interview
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TAPPER: All right, Josh Campbell, thanks so much. I want to bring in Republican Congressman Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota. He was one of the five Republican members recommended by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to sit on the committee before Pelosi vetoed two of them and then McCarthy pulled the other three including this congressman right here. Thanks for joining us, sir. I appreciate it.
I want to ask you, tomorrow, four officers, you just heard some of them, describing how rioters beat them and tazed them, one was crushed in a door. We are expected to see new video from that day. Despite your differences with Pelosi and the Democrats, do you think that these officers will be able to shed light to the public on what happened on January 6th?
REP. KELLY ARMSTRONG (R-ND): Well, I know they deserve to have their voices heard and I was in the capitol the day of January 6th, and the men and women wearing uniforms and all across that place were doing everything they could to keep staff, press, and members safe.
There's nothing short of heroic to how they acted that day. And they absolutely deserve to have their voices heard. I wish they were being heard in a less partisan forum, but, yes, they absolutely get to have their voices heard and I'm glad they're testifying.
TAPPER: McCarthy is being pushed by some of your fellow House Republicans to punish Congresswoman Liz Cheney and Congressman Adam Kinzinger because they've accepted Pelosi's invitations to be on this January 6th panel. Do you agree that Kinzinger and Cheney should be punished?
ARMSTRONG: I don't. I think electoral consequences happen the second Tuesday in November. I think we need to continue to move forward and go from there. I mean, the problem isn't that there's Republicans serving on the committee. The problem is who picked the Republicans and the Republicans that are picked.
If they think this is going to get any credibility with 50 percent of the country, I would actually argue that those two are probably -- there's a special level of disdain across the country for those two as even compared to some of the Democrats on the committee. TAPPER: Why is there disdain for them? They say Cheney and Kinzinger
that they want to get to the bottom of what happened. Liz Cheney is more conservative than Kevin McCarthy when it comes to voting records. What's wrong with them wanting to get to the bottom of what happened?
ARMSTRONG: Because when you serve on the committee at the call of the Speaker and the minority members aren't allowed to put their own members on the committee, you just completely make this thing partisan and move it forward in a way that just, I'm just telling you, 50 percent of the country is not going to take anything going on with it with any credibility whatsoever.
TAPPER: Jim Jordan and Banks, Congressman Banks, not just according to Speaker Pelosi but according to Liz Cheney had said things to make it clear that they didn't believe with the goals of the committee. They didn't -- obviously I'm not talking about you, but there are things that they had said about, first of all, they had been putting forward the election lie that Donald Trump actually won the election, something that you have not done. That was the reason.
But beyond that, Pelosi wanted to keep you on the committee, you and the other two. Congressman Adam Schiff said today it would be appropriate if you were seated. I know it's not your call, but don't you think just in terms of what's best for the nation, don't you think you could do more good on this committee than off this committee?
ARMSTRONG: I think absolutely what's best for the nation, best for this institution in the short term and best for this institution in the long term is for the minority members to be able to put their people on a committee.
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I was on judiciary with Jim Jordan as ranking member. I served in the Republican Study Committee with Jim Banks and they're both, I mean, I spent two years in judiciary with Jim and a lot of time with Jim Banks, and they have every right just like any other member of the minority to be on this committee.
TAPPER: Well, they have a right to, but the question is if the purpose of the committee is to get to the truth of what happened and you have these two members that are constantly spewing these lies about the election, how much can you actually rely on them to be effective members of Congress in terms of the mission of the committee?
ARMSTRONG: So, select committees, I mean, we populate committees with minority leaders. We get to continue to do this. I serve through this. And to -- I mean, just to say that this is a somber, sober affair, I mean, you can sell that to other people, but I served on judiciary and oversight with members on the other side, and I spent two years with them. I spent two months in a bunker in a skiff with them.
So, to say -- I mean, we can come on here and be all solemn, but this is a partisan town, all committees are partisan and the members should get to put who they want on there, and that's the way -- and that's how it has to be, that's how it always should be. I used to try cases and you don't get to change the law or change the
rules the harder the case gets. If you do those types of things, the function of the building, the function of the institution cease to work.
TAPPER: Yes, but I guess -- the question I have, I understand that you don't like this committee although there was this 50/50 commission that most Republicans voted against, 35 of them voted for it and the Senate Republicans killed it. It would've been completely bipartisan. But McCarthy and others voted against that.
Don't you think for the good of the nation if Pelosi asked you to be on this committee, it would be better for the nation, forget Kevin McCarthy, forget partisan politics, but for the good of the nation if you served on this committee?
ARMSTRONG: No. I think if you -- first of all, I don't take positions from the speaker's office, I take them from our leader and on our side because that's the way this place works. And I think for the good of the nation, to have any credibility at all to allow in a very, very partisan body, to allow the opposing side to pick your team members is just simply never going to work.
And I don't think -- I think it's a terrible mistake and I think we should continue to move forward, particularly considering I've worked with and been in numerous hearings with members on the other side. And to say that they're not some of their best partisan warriors is just simply not true.
TAPPER: All right, Republican Congressman Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota, thank you so much. I really appreciate it sir.
ARMSTRONG: Thanks for having me.
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