MSNBC "All In with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Sheila Jackson Lee

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

HASAN: I want to bring in Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Democrat of Texas, Member of the House Judiciary Committee. Congresswoman, thanks for coming on the show this evening. Your leader, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement today that Donald Trump`s threat against the officer who shot Ashli Babbitt is "Only the latest in a long line of vile Republican attacks on the officers who defended the Capitol." Do you agree with the speaker? What is your reaction to that Trump`s statement?

REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE (D-TX): Well, the speakers, right. We had a vile presidency. And so, we`re going to have a vile -- failed Presidency, failed loss as someone who has not been willing to accept the democratic process. You know, Mehdi, thank you, first of all, for having me. This requires a strong, determined and aggressive response on the part of Democrats who now remain in most parts except a few Republicans as really the standard- bearers for America.

We are the standard-bearers for the values of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, creating all of us with certain inalienable rights. The idea of the Bill of Rights, this is what Democrats have been standing on, the process of accepting democratic transition of government. And we cannot be silent. We cannot be a meek and mild as relates to stamping out the big lie.

[20:15:09]

The more we turn the pages, the more we see horrific actions like Attorney General Barr conspicuously trying to investigate the so called fraud that did not exist, forcing the FBI integrity unit, if you will, to do something that they do not do, which is investigated investigation to all that`s over and done with. And so, they will not interfere with the election, which is what he seemingly wanted to be done.

The Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General and the attorney general - - Acting Attorney General Rosen and then trying to get Clark to do things that were inappropriate. There is a long tail of abuse of power and abuse of the democratic process. So, what do we need to do? We need to be bold and loud on our moment in history.

You`re right. The previous speakers were writing about the tragedy of the loss of Miss Babbitt, a veteran. We all mourn her loss. But at the same time, how dare you, President Trump, attack a first responder who did nothing more than to defend the citadel of democracy when he was seeing an attack that would ultimately wind up attacking anyone but members of Congress.

HASAN: Congresswoman --

LEE: I think what we should be doing is being bold in our response to all of this.

HASAN: When you say we should be bold, what does that mean in practice? When we read in Politico about a former AG bill Barr directing the DOJ to investigate a debunked crazy conspiracy theory about election fraud in Georgia, shouldn`t there be criminal consequences for that? Shouldn`t Bill Barr have to answer for that somewhere?

LEE: Well, I think the first line of defense, if you will, or offense is that the House Judiciary Committee should be able to investigate all of these allegations. There were some initial hearings in the Senate, but obviously the House Judiciary Committee can now put the final acts to it, if you will, which is to subpoena persons to broaden the investigation to determine why this fraudulent behavior occurred.

And this is singularly the House Judiciary committee`s jurisdiction, and it should not be limited. It should not be stopped from doing its job. And there are many committees -- we should not stop. We can do two things at once. We can pass the infrastructure bill, we can pass the budget reconciliation bill, we can do all of that. But we need to clean out the cancer that is attacking democracy.

And that means we need to be heard. Once we investigate, once the IG investigates, then Mehdi, it will be the appropriate direction of the criminal justice system. But I think the House of Representatives should be investigating so that America can see what is going on. We have to be at the forefront of stamping out the big lie.

And let me just say this. You know what else the big lie is doing? It`s killing people. COVID-19 and people fighting against vaccinations are now turning into a crisis in two states led by Trumpites --

HASAN: It is horrific.

LEE: And that`s where we are. And I believe we`ve got to stop that right now.

HASAN: It`s truly horrific the completely unnecessary deaths that are happening right now. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, thank you so much for your time tonight. I appreciate it.

LEE: Thank you for having me.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIP

Source