MSNBC "All In with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Pete Aguilar

Interview

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Congressman Pete Aguilar, Democrat of California, is a member of the House Select -- January 6 Select Committee, and he joins me now. So, Congressman, what is the -- what`s the sort of next steps on this uh complaint referral that made it out of the Rules Committee today?

REP. PETE AGUILAR (D-CA): Well, tomorrow in the afternoon East Coast time, we will act on it. We will have 60 minutes of debate and then we will vote on the criminal contempt that the committee -- that the select committee passed last evening unanimously.

So, the full House floor will have a recorded vote on that matter. And after that, after we have the votes to pass that, we will we will then -- the Speaker will certify and then it will go directly to the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. And then that individual, the federal law is clear, has a duty to bring it before a federal grand jury.

[20:25:24]

HAYES: You have -- obviously, you have two Republican votes for it already, the two members that serve on the committee with you, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. I think there were 10 Republican votes for impeachment if I`m recalling correctly. Do you think you have any more than those two votes for this referral tomorrow?

AGUILAR: I don`t think we have any more than those 10 votes. But clearly we have -- we have two votes. This is going to be bipartisan. And like I`ve said from the beginning, the work that the Select Committee is doing is being done in a non-partisan way.

We want to get to the facts. We owe that to the American public. We owe that to the brave law enforcement individuals who protected this building and were the last line of defense on democracy that day. We have to get to the facts. And in order to do that, we need -- we need to hear from folks. And so, it`s not optional for Mr. Bannon to shed the subpoena. You know, these aren`t optional. He has an obligation as anyone should to follow the subpoena.

HAYES: My colleague Rachel Meadow last night was pointing out the history here which is the last time the House did this it was for a EPA administrator who had been embroiled in a scandal about allegations of misuse of superfund sites at the EPA. And she was -- she was given this criminal complaint by a House that voted unanimously every single vote of both parties because I think it viewed it as an institutional prerogative to not essentially be trampled by the executive.

What does it say that House Republican leadership is recommending a no vote on this vote now, you know, 30 years later?

AGUILAR: You know, it`s -- you know, I`d say it`s shocking but it sure doesn`t you know feel that way, you know, given the political temperature and how folks on the other side of the aisle have treated this issue since January 6th when many of them spoke out against the former president.

Now, they seem to walk back those remarks. It`s just deeply unfortunate. These were individuals, many of them, were on the House floor with us and they were witnesses and they saw what happened. And they still continue to avoid, you know, the accountability that is due. And so, that`s the -- that`s the problem that we -- that we have here and it`s truly unfortunate.

HAYES: There are three other witnesses who are subpoenaed along with Steve Bannon. There`s a whole bunch that have been speeded generally. But along with Steve Bannon, Kash Patel who worked on the intelligence committee and then was the Department of Defense, Mark Meadows, the former congressman, chief of staff, Dan Scavino who was the president`s chief poster online. What -- how would you characterize the status of their compliance with the subpoenas?

AGUILAR: I`d say that they`ve been engaging. Mr. Meadows and Mr. Patel have engaged with the committee so we have had conversations with their counsel, but that`s all I would say, you know, at this point. And then, Mr. Scavino, there was a delay in servicing that subpoena, and so there was a mutually agreed upon postponement for those deadlines.

But I would say at this point, you know, we are engaged but nobody is openly defying a subpoena like Mr. Bannon. And that`s why it`s forcing this unprecedented step of a full House vote of Congress.

HAYES: All right, Congressman Pete Aguilar, thank you very much.

AGUILAR: Thank you, Chris.

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