CNN "Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Ruben Gallego

Interview

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BROWN: Congressman Ruben Gallego joins me live on that and the state of the Biden agenda, up next.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BROWN: More than nine months later, we are still learning horrifying new details about what unfolded at the U.S. capitol on January 6th, thanks to a new HBO documentary.

[20:15:00]

One Democratic Congressman described how he was preparing to fight for his life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GALLEGO: You know, people are hyperventilating. It was just bad. They were scared. They were really, really scared.

I was an infantryman in the United States Marine Corps. I had to deal with some very aggressive crowds when I was in Iraq.

Individuals themselves aren't usually a problem. But when they get collectively together and they create a mob, the mob is the weapon.

(SHOUTING)

GALLEGO: I was ready to fight. I saw a lot of shit back in my day but I was not going to die on the floor of the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) House of Representatives.

I was not going to get taken out by some insurrectionist bastard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: That was Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego of Arizona. And he joins me now live.

Congressman, thanks for taking time out for us.

What was it like to relive that horrible day when you hear some of your Republican colleague down-playing what happened, the same colleagues you saw running for their lives?

GALLEGO: Well, I'm scared. And I'm not scared for my health. I'm scared for the health of this democracy.

You know, clearly these politicians -- and I don't want to use that word because they don't deserve to be called that -- are cowards.

And instead of dealing with reality and trying to explain what happened, they're more afraid of Donald Trump and Donald Trump's base than telling the truth.

So they're just going to lie hoping that this, you know, somehow doesn't happen again.

But I am scared because -- because of their lies, because of their cover-up, they're going to try this again.

And I've been saying this for quite a while. We need to be throwing the books at all these people involved, those finance it, organize it, that were complicit one way or the other.

Because right now, the only party that's having any accountability and actually trying to protect democracy is the Democratic Party.

BROWN: When you were going through everything that day did you maybe think, well, if this isn't a wakeup call, what is?

Maybe this will change things in terms of taking the threat seriously in terms of what could happen in a democracy?

GALLEGO: I knew some people would take a seriously. I knew my Democratic colleagues and many Independents, men and women out there had taken it seriously.

But I also knew, you know, knowing the Republicans, knowing how they've acted in the past -- let's not forget this actually has, you know, some roots that goes even further back.

This goes further back to when we basically decided in Bush v. Gore that Bush was going to be president. When that happened, when that was allowed to happen, it basically allowed this to happen, you know, almost 20 years later.

When we've allowed continuous --

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: What do you mean by that? Just to be clear, what do you mean by that?

GALLEGO: Well, when Bush v. Gore was decided and basically there wasn't as much objection that I think it should have had, it encouraged the Republican Party in their anti-democratic tendencies to continue going forward to 20 years later.

And if you look at what they're also doing in terms of disenfranchising voters, we've been allowing this to happen for so long that it all built-up to 2020.

If you go back to the Tea Party, you were hearing these stirrings of anti-democratic, you know, rhetoric in asking for violence, and we all ignored it or people just made excuses, no it's not.

They made excused. They just said I've got economic anxiety, which is they knew what was going on there, which is the fact they hated we have a black president.

So this is something that's been going on for a while. We need to push back on it.

The Republican Party has been feeding this monster. The monster now has taken over the party.

BROWN: In your view.

Of course, I interviewed a Republican earlier in the show who would obviously say, no, that's not true.

There are Republicans who care about democracy -- this was Congressman Meyer of Michigan -- who was willing to take tough votes and who are willing to go against the party president.

So, you know --

(CROSSTALK)

GALLEGO: There are still some people out there but they have no power. They're losing primaries. They just kicked out, you know, Cheney from leadership of the Republican Party.

So I'm glad there are some token Republicans out there that are still fighting with us. But they're the last resistance within the Republican Party.

The Republican Party is a broken party. And it is going to continue to be a big danger to democracy.

BROWN: I want to talk to you about the Biden agenda. You are a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Democrats hope to have a deal on the spending bill by yesterday. That didn't happen.

Do you worry Democratic inaction could cost you the governor's mansion in New Jersey or Virginia?

GALLEGO: Well, I think it can, absolutely.

I think we need to pass a bill that works to really transform the American middle class. You know, obviously the side effect and benefit of that would make sure we save these two good governors.

[20:20:04]

But I think we're going to get there. We'll just have to come to a compromise. I hope the two Senators understand that.

And we can pass a bill that will actually move this country forward.

BROWN: But time is running out, as you well know, with the election being held on November 2nd and early voting under way right now.

Was it mistake to wait to vote on infrastructure given both bills are at risk now? Nothing's passed yet.

GALLEGO: I think it was a mistake those two Senators actually did not negotiate in good faith early enough so that we could get this done.

Let's be clear that the Democrats in Congress, not progressives, passed a bill supportive of 98 percent of the caucus.

And we were very clear at the beginning of this, there was a deal made that there would be a two-track approach to this, the Build Back Better agenda and the infrastructure bill.

And halfway through, about a month and a half ago they -- the two Senators decided to pull the rug out of that deal.

Well, at the end of the day, you still need two sides of this. You need the House to vote and the Senate to vote.

And we don't have the votes for the infrastructure deal without the Build Back Better agenda because that was the deal to begin with.

If you don't have a deal, if you don't have a compromise among your own caucus, it's going to be a difficult time to govern.

BROWN: One of those Senators, of course, you're talking about Senator Manchin and Senator Sinema.

You've not ruled out a potential primary challenge to Senator Sinema. If jumping in will put pressure on her to jump behind the president's bill. would you do it?

GALLEGO: I know Senator Sinema very well. She doesn't really feel pressure in that manner.

What I'm going to do, what I'm going to continue to do is focus on landing this plane, running for re-election, making sure that the Democrats hold the House. And then, we'll see what happens in 2023.

BROWN: OK, so you didn't really answer my question there, Congressman Gallego. Are you contemplating a run against Congresswoman Sinema? Is that something that you're contemplating right now?

GALLEGO: No, at this point, what I care about at this point is getting re-elected, finishing the Build Back Better agenda, winning the House and holding the House.

BROWN: But you're not ruling out the possibility?

GALLEGO: The future is the future. We have to see where we got to go. But right now, 2022 is all we should worry about.

BROWN: Very quickly, you said you know her very well. Are you talking about what concessions and compromises she'd make in this bill?

She's notoriously tight-lipped with other members of Congress, just really negotiating with the White House. Have you been talking to her?

GALLEGO: No. And look, I think that's the biggest complaint among many people. I don't think it's a problem she's not talking to members of Congress.

I think the problem is she's not talking to her constituents. She's negotiating and I hope she's negotiating in good faith.

But not really explaining why she's moving in the direction she's moving, there's a lot of people in Arizona that are very frustrated by that.

I don't agree all the time with my own constituents, but I have to explain to them where I stand and why I stand. I think, at the end of the day. she'd do well in speaking to the

people who helped her get there or speaking to constituents in a manner that you can have a free exchange of ideas.

BROWN: And are you hearing that frustration from those who supported her feel as though she's not speaking to them enough?

GALLEGO: Absolutely.

BROWN: All right, Democrat Congressman Ruben Gallego, thank you so much.

GALLEGO: Thank you. Have a good one.

BROWN: You, too.

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