CNN "The Lead with Jake Tapper" - Transcript: Interview with Elaine Luria

Interview

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TAPPER: All right, Ryan Nobles on Capitol Hill, thank you so much.

Joining me now for her first national interview since today's hearing is Democratic Congresswoman Elaine Luria of Virginia. She's a member of the select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection.

Congresswoman, thanks so much for joining us on this really depressing, grim day.

What do you think was the most important thing that the American people learned today?

REP. ELAINE LURIA (D-VA): Well, I think hearing from the officers themselves directly, just seeing the emotions and pairing that with the videos and understanding that you're hearing from this officer who's pinned between this door with a mob of people just pushing him and, you know, afraid for his life, and the fact that they were so brave to come and tell their stories because the stories need to be heard, but -- that we can't let something like this happen again.

And so, I just think those images and the sounds and the stories from people who were there and suffered real traumatic injuries, both physical and emotional, you know, that really stuck with me, and I think that other people watching it can feel that.

TAPPER: The chairman of the committee, Bennie Thompson, said the next hearing could be August, could be September. Subpoenas could soon be issued.

Who do you anticipate is going to be subpoenaed?

LURIA: Well, you know, as a committee, this is something that we're looking at closely.

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So, I think that the one thing we've been clear about is that nothing is off the table. We'll follow the evidence where it takes us, and we need to understand everything that happened that day and led up to that day so that it can't happen again.

TAPPER: Are you looking into how all those people got there, who paid for the buses, who organized the groups? People -- I mean, some of the people there that day obviously were swept up in the emotion of the moment. But others obviously had been planning.

There was a constructed gallows. There were people with shirts that said "January 6th." For some people, this was obviously planned.

LURIA: I agree. There's certainly -- everything shows me there was an orchestrated effort, someone was behind that, coordinated it, brought those people there, got them into the fold to get them in Washington and angry and ready to come to the Capitol. You know, there was one clip that was played during the hearing that basically said, we're not here to be violent, we're just here to overthrow the government.

TAPPER: Right.

LURIA: So I think that's very telling, that people came for a reason, they were in Washington, they stormed the Capitol, they were violent, they harmed these police officers, and they tried to stop the work of the government and the certification of the election results.

TAPPER: There are seven Democrats on the committee, two Republicans. The Republicans were appointed by Speaker Pelosi.

Listen to what Republican Congressman Kelly Armstrong told me yesterday. Armstrong was originally one of McCarthy's picks and then when Pelosi vetoed Jordan and Banks because they're big election liars, McCarthy pulled all the rest.

Here's Armstrong.

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REP. KELLY ARMSTRONG (R-ND): 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.

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TAPPER: Now, I want to distinguish between Congressman Armstrong and the Jim Jordans and Bankses of the world. This is not an election liar. This is not somebody who's out there lying about the election.

But he's saying the way that this has happened, Republicans are not going to take it seriously.

LURIA: I think that anyone who watched that testimony today and saw and felt what those officers went through should take this seriously. And, you know, I think we all welcome members on both sides of the aisle who will come to this committee and work seriously and not make it a partisan circus. I think you could see that it was very solemn today, it was very emotional.

Many members of the committee at various times had tears in their eyes because they felt the pain that those officers felt and they felt the responsibility they felt is the last line literally protecting our democracy on that day.

So, you know, I think that we have a bipartisan committee now, and I think that there's the opportunity to bring more Republicans on.

TAPPER: And we should note, you're a Navy veteran. We heard from one of the officers is a veteran as well, and he said he was more testified -- I'm sorry, more terrified during the insurrection than he was during his entire deployment in Iraq. What was it like for you as a veteran to hear another veteran say that?

LURIA: Well, I think the connection there is this oath. And, you know, we in Congress all take the oath, the police officers. But as a veteran, to know that you take that oath to support and defend the Constitution against enemies foreign and domestic, that serving overseas in a war zone -- he said, you know, I expected to be in danger, I expected to get attacked and IEDs and hostilities overseas in Iraq.

But here in our Capitol, in the seat of our democracy, you know, they all said that they just never could've envisioned being in that situation that they found themselves in on January 6th.

TAPPER: No question a horrible, horrible day.

Democratic Congresswoman Elaine Luria of the Commonwealth of Virginia -- thank you so much for your time today. Appreciate it.

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