CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript: Interview with Zoe Lofgren
Interview
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COOPER: Breaking news now on Republican efforts to stymie the committee investigating January 6 and punish the two G.O.P. members of the committee. CNN has learned that Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs is planning to send a letter to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy this week. It would call on him to remove Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger from the Republican conference. Congressman Biggs is a loyalist, a big loyalist of the former President who worked to overturn the election.
Congressman McCarthy as you know has leveled the veiled, unspecified, but unmistakable threat against telecom and social media companies that cooperate with the committee.
Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren serves on the committee. She joins us now. She also sits on the Judiciary Committee and Chairs the House Administration Committee.
Congresswoman Lofgren, thanks for being with us. So, Congressman Andy Biggs, the head of the House Freedom Caucus has sent a letter to Kevin McCarthy asking him to remove Congresswoman Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger from the Republican conference for their roles, going as far as calling them spies for the Democrats. What do you say to that?
REP. ZOE LOFGREN (D-CA): Well, it's absurd. You know, it's really astonishing that people are calling to sanction these two members of Congress who are simply doing their duty and other members of Congress who are Republicans are calling for violence -- violence, and not a word, not a peep of condemnation for that discussion. It's really very confounding.
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COOPER: I mean, it makes sense that they are calling for, you know, calling for -- you know, against Cheney and Kinzinger when you consider that the Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, is threatening telecommunications companies and social media companies if they cooperate with a duly appointed committee.
LOFGREN: Well, aside from the fact that section 1505 of the Federal Criminal Code says it is a felony to threat to try and impede a congressional investigation, one would hope that the Minority Leader would want to get to the bottom of what happened here, just like the rest of America.
I would hope he would want to step forward and be a participant in getting the truth instead of trying to hide the truth.
COOPER: But you don't really think that. I mean, you know, is it motivation from McCarthy to -- is he just afraid of what may be found? Or is it to look tough to his constituents, to other Members of Congress?
LOFGREN: I have no way of knowing what is motivating his behavior. I'll just say that it's very disappointing, quite possibly not even legal, and not what I expect from one of the leaders of the nation, while we should be, all of us working to get the truth.
COOPER: We know that McCarthy spoke with the former President on the day of insurrection, as did other congressional Republicans. Are McCarthy's records or those of any other Members of Congress part of the request that the committee has made? LOFGREN: Well, we haven't requested records from the telecom
companies or the social media. We've asked that material be retained and not destroyed. And later, if we feel that is necessary to get the truth, we will, using our proper procedures, seek records.
But we didn't release the list because this is not an accusation, this is an investigation. We need to follow the facts and uncover the truth. And we didn't believe that releasing a list of names was productive towards that end.
There are a lot of reasons why phone calls or text messages with administrative officials could be relevant to the investigation, but we'll see as we move forward what we need to get, and we're not going to be deterred.
I mean, we have a mission here, which is to uncover the truth for the American people and all of us are very focused on doing that.
COOPER: Congresswoman Lofgren, I appreciate your time. Thank you.
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