CNN "CNN Newsroom" - TRANSCRIPT UGA Football Player and Staff Dies in Car Crash; California Still Under Severe Weather; Russian Missile Strike Kills 30 in the City of Dnipro; Rep. Jeff Jackson (D-NC) is Interviewed About President Biden's Handling of Classified Documents Issue; Mental Health Issue of TikTok on U.S. Teens; Two President's Special Counsel Investigation for Classified Documents; Two Planes Nearly Collide at JFK. Aired 5-6p ET

Interview

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BROWN: Democrats say a key distinction is that Biden and his attorneys immediately turned over the classified documents. Trump's refusal has led to him being investigated for obstruction of justice. So, let's continue this conversation now with freshman congressman, Jeff Jackson, who was sworn in just last week. He is a Democrat representing North Carolina.

Congressman, thanks for coming on the show. So, look, the reality here is Republicans hold a slim majority in the House. At least three new Republican chairmen are vowing investigations into Biden's handling of those documents. What questions do you have that you want answered?

REP. JEFF JACKSON (D-NC): I think there are two questions. The first, did the president have personal knowledge that those documents were there? And the second is going to be, did he obstruct their return or the investigation in either way? And, look, I'm a former prosecutor. I respect evidence and the role that it's supposed to play. We're going to have a chance to see that evidence before we reach any conclusion here.

BROWN: And so, are you glad that there is a special counsel investigating this now for Biden?

JACKSON: Yeah. I don't think there was any choice about that. If there hadn't been, then that means the person doing the investigation would essentially be someone working for the administration, and that wouldn't work.

BROWN: So, you've said that transparency is the key to trust, and I want to play this conversation I had with Comer. Here is more from -- Representative Comer. He is requesting more information from the White House. Let's listen.

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BROWN: Okay. So that was a conversation with my colleague, Jake Tapper, this morning. But he is saying that following a sit-down interview I had with him late November, where I asked him point blank, I said, will the Trump classified documents investigation, will that be a priority for you as the head of oversight, and he said, no, it will not be a priority. Now, he is clearly making Biden's handling of classified documents a priority. So, what do you make of that?

JACKSON: I think the charitable way to say this is that there are probably some consistency issues. And look, I don't think anyone is shocked that this is going to become partisan really quickly. I think if we can all just kind of exhale, all right, there were some documents that were some place they weren't supposed to be.

There is now a process in place that is a sensible process that everyone in the country can understand. That process is going to produce evidence. We are all going to get a chance to see that evidence. That process matters so much more than anything that any member of Congress might say about this, including me.

BROWN: But do you fear that a lack of transparency coming from this White House will erode public trust in the administration? Again, your words, you have said, transparency is the key to trust.

JACKSON: I think that there are questions that the administration is going to have to answer. I think those questions are going to maybe have to answered personally by the president himself. I think that the sooner that happens, the better. But the most important piece here is going to be the formal process.

And the big question will be, is the president participating with that process? Did he do anything to obstruct the investigation? Did he do anything to obstruct the return of those documents? Again, we're going to know the answers to all of those questions by the end of this process.

BROWN: So, this is really the first big scandal President Biden has faced since the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. And I'm curious, would you support him for re-election, or would you like to see fresher faces running for office?

JACKSON: I would support him for re-election. He won the last one, and I think he would be the odds-on favorite winning the next one.

BROWN: Let's talk about something else that is you're going to be dealing with a lot in the coming weeks. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is warning that the U.S. could default on its debt as soon as June. How are you going to work with your Republican colleagues in the House on something as divisive as the debt limit, and do you agree with the White House saying it doesn't want to negotiate on that?

JACKSON: I understand the White House's position because the last White House didn't have to negotiate. The Trump presidency saw a Republican Congress raise the debt ceiling more than once, so I understand their position on this. And look, I think if you're McCarthy, you have an overwhelming political incentive not to crash the economy.

He knows that in order to keep his majority, he's going to want to try and grow his majority. He has to show the American people that he actually got some positive things done. If they decide to be reckless about the debt ceiling and crash the economy, it's going to be terrible. It's going to be terrible for the country. He doesn't have an incentive to do that.

So as a freshman member of Congress who has been there for all of two weeks, I'm really hoping that the small group of people who have said that they're basically okay with breaching the debt limit and crashing the economy, that those people get sidelined in this conversation, that they aren't given the power to really set the terms of this debate. If those people are allowed to set the terms of this debate, the consequences could be catastrophic.

BROWN: Yeah, no doubt the consequences would be catastrophic. Before we let you go, I'm going to share a clip from your Instagram account.

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JACKSON: Six weeks ago, I was elected to Congress, and now I'm using this account to tell people what happens after you get elected. I don't get to vote on any bills until next month, which means the stuff you see them voting on right now, I didn't get to vote on any of that. But I do get to vote on who our party leaders are going to be, and that just happened, and here's how it went down. They bring all of us into this big fancy room. Lots of flags. Lots of eagles.

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BROWN: So, you've used social media to kind of pull back the curtain and take your constituents behind the scenes. Why is it so important to demystify the inner workings of Congress and speak directly to the people in your district?

JACKSON: It's because trust in political leadership has never been lower. And in that situation, you can't respond by telling people that they're wrong. You have to respond by showing them a higher level of transparency. Transparency is the key to trust, and it can be as simple as saying, here's what I'm going to do today. Here's what I'm going to do tomorrow. But if I don't take that step, the step of trying to rebuild trust and

there's a whole group of people that just aren't going to hear anything that I say. So, you have to start there.

BROWN: All right. Congressman Jeff Jackson, thank you for your time tonight. We appreciate it.

JACKSON: Thank you.

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