CNN "Newsroom" - Transcript: GM Vehicle Recall

Interview

REPRESENTATIVE TIM MURPHY (R), PENNSYLVANIA: Good to be with you.

COSTELLO: It is nice to have you here. What do you want to hear from Mary Barra today?

MURPHY: I would like to hear why they accepted an ignition switching system that was below their own specs and why they then took that switching system once they figured out they ought to change it and put new ones in new cars and didn't replace the old ones in the old cars, why they even kept the same part number that was clearly different. There were a lot of problems that occurred here with it in GM.

What I don't understand is why people were not communicating with one another across the waves in GM and up and down the chain of command and worse yet, why the federal government didn't pick up on this twice? Twice, NHTSA was doing investigations and each time said, nowhere to go. Why weren't they asking questions? I mean, that's what they are supposed to be doing, looking out for the safety of people.

COSTELLO: It is mind-boggling to think about how this happened. General Motors admits knowing about this defect in 2004 and they had a fix for it a couple of years later, but they didn't fix the problem. Why would that be?

MURPHY: Well, we don't know. I mean, were people not communicating this to one another. What kind of corporate culture was there within G.M.? Where they didn't have this?

MURPHY: Did the impending bankruptcy have anything to do with these problems occurring too? Did they have the right personnel? Were there changeovers? Did they have continuity? Are there people not want to hear bad news because they were so concerned about the finances? All those are big what if questions. But somehow it sounds like they were making some sort of a financial decision when it said it didn't make sense in the business case. We don't know what that means. It is another question we are going to ask Mary Barra.

COSTELLO: You mentioned General Motors went into bankruptcy. The company got a bailout in 2009. Do you think that could have played a role in an alleged cover-up of some kind?

MURPHY: I don't know. The federal government also put people on the board of directors of G.M. who I don't think ever made cars before. Do we have the right people in charge there? Were there people that had information they were not encouraged to pass it up and down the chain of command. Big questions we have here. At the same time, why wasn't NHTSA, the National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration looking at these issues too? Big gaps in this whole system. A true failure to communicate.

COSTELLO: It is possible that Mary Barra will not answer many questions at least with a lot of specifics because there are legal issues at play here.

MURPHY: Sure. I mean, I'm sure lawyers are saying, be careful what you say. I understand she has taken over as the new head of GM, but she was there before. Her responsibility is to find out what occurred. This hearing today will not be the end of it. Report back to us. The same thing. There will be a new head of NHTSA testifying today who he, himself, took over a couple of months ago. Neither one of these scenarios is going to give comfort to the American public until each one takes responsibility, finds what the problems were and reports back what they are going to do to change this.

COSTELLO: The amount of cars, the number of cars that GM is recalling is mind-boggling, what, 2.2 million cars. They include all kinds of General Motors products. So far, we know that 13 deaths can be attributed to this defect. Could there be more?

MURPHY: There may be more as people see these stories and bring up questions of old accidents. There may be a lot more damage reports of cars with accidents where there were injuries and no fatalities. In all these cases, I'm sure people will be stepping up to give us more information.

This will give us more clues of what's taking place. One of the things I would like to know from the people who talk about these things. Do they ever even see these warnings that came out from the federal agency and from GM, don't put too many car keys on your key ring, that borders on the absurd to tell people that's what they ought to do to protect their life and safety. But all these things we'll look at together.

COSTELLO: Congressman Murphy, I appreciate it. Thanks so much for being with me.

MURPHY: Thank you. We'll stay on this story.

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