CNN "Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Madeleine Dean
Interview
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ACOSTA: And that was that. Democratic Congresswoman Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania joins me now. She's the vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee.
Congresswoman, thanks so much for being with us. What's your reaction to those remarks we just heard from Marjorie Taylor Greene?
REP. MADELEINE DEAN (D-PA): Well, sadly, I've had to put up with Marjorie Taylor Greene a bit this week. She came in and observed while we had Merrick Garland in front of the Judiciary Committee. To me it's as though she's auditing Congress. As you know, she has no committee assignments. She's not based in the fact or the truth or any sense of the rule of law. Any sense of the institution of Congress.
Those who voted against the resolution to hold Steve Bannon in contempt are literally voting against their own interests. Against the institution of Congress. Against our subpoena power as a co-equal branch of government. So Miss Greene is sadly very misled. Does not understand literally her oath of office or what democracy is all about.
ACOSTA: And Congresswoman, I don't want to spend too much time on her, but are you concerned about being around her? About your colleagues being around her? What do you make of this? I mean, she has this confrontation with Congresswoman Liz Cheney and Congressman Jamie Raskin. This seems to happen so much.
DEAN: Yes, and she frequently comes in to committees without a mask. Has to be told to put a mask on, like she's a child. So it's disturbing. That's exactly what it is meant to be. She is seeking the hot spotlight through negative attention, and small people like that need to be ignored more. We have really important business to do in Congress. You see Democrats doing just that. Whereas the majority of Republicans are disregarding the rule of law.
They would move forward and defund our government. They would allow us to default on our obligations and they pull stunts like that as they continue the big lie. Democrats on the other hand were governing.
[16:05:02]
ACOSTA: And I also caught up with the GOP Congressman Chip Roy asking him to explain why he voted with the vast majority of Republicans to oppose the criminal contempt motion for Steve Bannon and here's what he said.
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ACOSTA: Can I ask you why you decided not to vote in favor of holding him in contempt?
REP. CHIP ROY (R-TX): Because the entire commission is a sham set up from the beginning.
ACOSTA: If you're back in the majority and you issue subpoenas, does that mean people can just ignore those subpoenas?
ROY: But the premise is all wrong. I have no idea any of the debates or discussions that have occurred in this committee and it's based on a committee that was structured to be a political committee from the very beginning. That's how it was set up. That's the problem. You undermine the rule of law when you don't have to foundational principle to start with.
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ACOSTA: Just to recap there, Roy says that the lawmakers investigating a domestic terror attack are undermining the rule of law, not the man ducking a subpoena in that investigation, meaning Steve Bannon. How do you make sense of that?
DEAN: You can't. You literally cannot make sense of it. That whole argument was incredibly upside down as were the words of Marjorie Taylor Greene. It's as though we're looking in some clown mirror. And so again, we are up against some very serious issues. The protection of our democracy is incredibly important. We saw how fragile our democracy became under Donald Trump as he spread disinformation and distrust over our elections and so many other things.
Not to mention spewing indecency and bigotry and hate, frankly. So those whom you just interviewed really disregard and disrespect the institution. They don't seem to even understand what we are here for. We have an obligation to get at the truth.
We have an obligation to find out what happened. Mr. Bannon, for example, I call him a bit player, but certainly he's a player. He has information as to what was going on in the days and planning before January the 6th and what was going on on January the 6th and beyond.
Because we know this threat is not over. And so we need people to come forward. What I think those two Congress people should have done was should have said, of course Mr. Bannon needs to come forward, and in fact, I'll come and testify before the January 6th committee.
I will tell you everything I know because I know this is about something much bigger than me. It is about our democracy and what we leave for the next generation and the generation after that. They should all want to come forward.
ACOSTA: Do you have any confidence that Steve Bannon will be forced, compelled to testify by the Justice Department? That it's going to get to that point? Do you think that's going to happen?
DEAN: I do. This is a very different world with a new administration. It's an administration that understands the rule of law. Understands the separation of powers. Between the executive and the Department of Justice and of course, this is a very different attorney general. Attorney General Barr was just a puppet for Trump and so this attorney general is independent, is thoughtful. I believe they will move swiftly. They understand the urgency of this.
And so Mr. Bannon will be forced to come forward and to testify. He of course has the chance to take the Fifth in limited circumstances, but he can't just flout the rule of law, can't just flout a legal congressional subpoena. As I said, he needs to come forward. I'm delighted Mr. Clark will be in front of the committee. You're going to see people come forward and be forced to tell us the truth.
Again, for the purpose of making sure we hold accountable those who were involved in the insurrection including the president of the United States, but much more importantly that we never see it happen again.
ACOSTA: All right. Congresswoman Madeleine Dean, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it.
DEAN: Thank you for having me.
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