MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: Shooting Near Capitol Hill

Interview

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Congressman Matt Cartwright of Pennsylvania joins me now.

Congressman, thanks for your time tonight. Where were you? How close were you? Describe what you saw and what happened.

REP. MATT CARTWRIGHT, (D), PENNSYLVANIA: Ed, it was about quarter after two, we had finished the first votes series for the afternoon. And when you look on the inside of the House of Representatives, at the Speaker right behind where the Speaker is the next chamber behind that is the Speaker`s lobby as you know. And as you perceived further south along the building, the southern most edge of the building is a balcony where members can go and relax, that`s exactly what I was doing, I was having a chat with Congressman Gerry Connolly from Northern Virginia.
The two of us were chatting quietly for about five minutes when the shots rang out. And I have to tell you, Ed, first, it sounded to put me in mind of the first salvo of a 21-gun salute. It was a little ragged, they weren`t altogether. And then when I put it together, I realized these were shots and it lasted -- it sounded like at about seven, eight, maybe nine shots but lasting in total, less than a second.

SCHULTZ: The e-mail sent to all House offices said to take go kits in escape hoods. Where were you at? Were you all concerned what this might have been more of a widespread attack?

CARTWRIGHT: Yes, I didn`t hear that. What we did, Congressman Connolly and I jumped up immediately and we ran to the balcony edge. Right to the railing and we looked to our southwest over toward, you`re familiar with this, with the Rayburn House Office Building which is the southwest of the southern edge of the Capitol building.

In fact, what we saw was Capitol policemen and women running toward that area, running toward the danger and I don`t need to tell you Ed, these are people who are not being paid right now. They were running toward the danger between 12 and 20 of them that I saw it with my own eyes.

SCHULTZ: We know very little about the driver, the woman who was shot by Capitol Police. There is a unified police briefing, numerous agencies gathering at the top of the hour. We will cover that for you here on MSNBC and we`ll get a full briefing from the police on exactly what happen, very little information has come out to this point.

This is the second shooting, Congressman in Washington DC in less than a month. Your thoughts on this. Do we need more resources? I mean I`ve been in Washington many times there`s cops all over the place. And today things seem to happen in a matter of seconds.

CARTWRIGHT: Well obviously the story is unfolding slowly. We`re getting bits in pieces and watching your show tonight you can see that it sounds like it was a troubled woman. And obviously the shooting 17 days ago was a troubled gentleman.

We`re talking about people who are not entirely stable and who could use psychological help. This is the time in this country when we should not be cutting back on the psychological resources available to these people. We should be beefing them up and not only for the general public but in particular for veterans of our Armed Forces.

SCHULTZ: And of course, Congressman the backdrop of all of this is -- this incident today is the politics that is rather toxic right now in Washington.

What happened today, of course the President met with Congressional leadership last night obviously no deal. What happened today on the floor and what do you think is going to happen in the coming days?

CARTWRIGHT: What we`ve been seeing for the past several days, Ed is a series of attempts to start the funding of the government backup in a piecemeal fashion.

SCHULTZ: Are you for that?

CARTWRIGHT: Absolutely not. Because what does that say? When you started up, for example VA workers or Social Security workers, when you started up for them what are you saying to kids and head start.

SCHULTZ: So were all the Democrats onboard in that position, Congressman? There will be no piecemeal support coming from the Democrats?

CARTWRIGHT: Almost all Democrats onboard. You know, you always have some Democrats in very difficult swing districts who may not join in. But I would say out of the entire Democratic caucus of 201 members, I would say about 185 are dependably against the idea that we can do anything piecemeal and that anything other than an unconditional restart of the government is acceptable.

SCHULTZ: All right. Congressman Matt Cartwright, thank you so much for joining us on the Ed Show tonight and of course Congress going right back to the floor sign of strength and resolve in Washington not to be deterred from the work that they`re at least trying to complete.

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