CNN Newsroom: Interview with Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)

Interview

At this point, yes, but let me just say, Jim, you know, these climate events are devastating and they're unprecedented.

You look at in my area, it is prone, of course, to wildfires, as you know. But we have earthquakes, we have floods, we have these unprecedented tropical storms.

Right now we have to make sure all of us in California make sure that people are safe and the lives are saved, and I have to applaud our governor for declaring a state of emergency and our mayors, Mayor Bass, our supervisors, our city council; people, the first responders. FEMA is embedded in many of the teams that are making sure that people are safe and that lives are saved.

And so this is the time we have to pull together and make sure all of California focuses on the dangers before us and make sure that people are not impacted and that they follow the guidelines that had been put forth.

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Well, the judicial process is working. No one is above the law, including Donald Trump and we will see how these court proceedings proceed.

I have to just say, you know, we have many tools at our disposal to hold Donald Trump and those responsible accountable. For example, I am the lead plaintiff in an NAACP lawsuit indicating and saying, as the basis of the lawsuit that no one is above the law. Donald Trump does not have immunity. And yes, we're suing for damages and we intend to make sure that this never happens again.

We filed our lawsuit before the January 6 Committee and they did a phenomenal job with Chairman Thompson leading that effort. And he initially was the lead plaintiff in our NAACP lawsuit, but excused himself and recused himself because of possible conflicts, which he did not need and want and wanted to make sure he had full rein of the January 6 Committee.

And so, we're working on a variety of legal strategies of civil and criminal to hold Donald Trump accountable. That's the issue that we all must really focus on, not whether or not the president or anyone is spoken out, but let the process work, and I'm sure that there will be justice.

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I don't think that's the issue for me. We have to all hope that she recovers and that she is in such -- in good health and can get back to work. No one benefits from her not being there.

But first priority is her health and making sure that she's okay. And that's what I have said in the past and I will continue to say that. And in fact, once again, no one benefits from her not being there, but we have to be concerned first and foremost, most about her health.

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Look, it's all hands on deck when we have storms in California, when we have emergencies. We have emergency preparedness protocols established, House members, members of the Senate. I serve on the Appropriations Committee. I stand ready to do everything I can do personally in my capacity as a member of the House Appropriations Committee to make sure that lives are saved and that people do not -- are not negatively impacted by this tropical storm.

And so this is a moment where everyone is working together to make sure that we provide the mitigation efforts and the emergency preparedness and the funding to make sure that California is and its residents are okay after this devastating storm.

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Thank you. My pleasure.

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