MSNBC Scarborough Country - Transcript

MSNBC Scarborough Country - Transcript

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SCARBOROUGH: Oh, it"s so terrible, Rita. Thank you so much for bringing us that report. We really do appreciate it.

And I want to turn now to a lawmaker from Capitol Hill who"s already calling for hearings into what happened and to talk about mining.

With me now is Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, Republican from West Virginia, who was in the church when the families were told that they the miners were alive.

Congresswoman, take us inside that church, not only after the first news came that they were alive, but through the three hours, the terrible ordeal. What was it like in there?

REP. SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO ®, WEST VIRGINIA: Well, what happened, we had been--and the church was wonderful. The community was wonderful through the whole days of the vigil.

And the families were incredibly strong. And I was--there are sort of two rooms in the church. There"s a sanctuary and then more of an eating hall. Most of the members of the family had gravitated to the sanctuary over the days and had taken up residence there.

And so I was out in the eating room, in the hallway, when I heard this just eruption of joyous cheering. And I was like, what? What happened? And I went running up. And some of the folks, the family members, said, they"re alive; they"re alive. And I just was incredulously joyful to think what a miracle had happened here.

And I didn"t really question, where did the information--my assumption was and everybody in there was thinking if this information is coming from the mine, then it"s got to be the right information.

And we sort of went on. The sad part about what happened next was in

there was all this joy in the sanctuary, but there was another family who we knew who had lost a family member, because if you remember earlier, they had mentioned that one of the miners was definitely found, a body was found.

And this family had not been notified. They had not been confirmed by the company as to the loss of their loved one. They were surmising, because of where the individual was found and the job, that it was him. And it turned out they were right.

And so, I then tried to go and find information on this individual to help them through their sorrow. And that"s when I basically ended up in an information blackout, next--and the agonizing wait. The silence was deafening. And then to go back into the church again, the governor comes in, and we all knew that there was going to be an announcement. And to hear it, it was just shattering. You can"t even imagine.

SCARBOROUGH: Congresswoman, have you learned in the past 24 hours why there was such a tragic communication breakdown in this case?

CAPITO: Only through what I have heard through the media.

I think in hearing your earlier comments, I think we all know now and certainly at the time more frequent updates was what we were needing all through the whole vigil. That wasn"t just at the end, certainly at the end, but through the day, hourly. Even if it was no change, just please come and tell us what"s going on.

And I think the tragic mistake was that even though they didn"t have 100 percent confirmation, they should have come to the families. I"m sure they"re realizing this now, but to come to the families and tell them what you"re hearing is not exactly--please start saying your prayers again. There are others--there"s other information out here.

(CROSSTALK)

SCARBOROUGH: And talk about investigations on Capitol Hill. What do you think Congress should do?

CAPITO: Yes.

Well, we have got to find out how that blast occurred, why it occurred, and where it occurred, and what caused it. That obviously is going to be the first line. And the federal inspectors are in there now, with a team of workers, right off the bat to try to determine that.

We have got to define where the communication breakdown is. Certainly there"s a protocol as to how to communicate not only with the media, but certainly with the family members who are--have such loss at stake here. And then we need to find out, too, with the violations and others that we have come to learn this particular mine site, and I"m sure others are. what does this mean? Was the enforcement there? Were the penalties there? Was the improvement moving along?

Was there a breakdown? Certainly there"s a breakdown. If something like this can occur, there certainly is a breakdown.

SCARBOROUGH: No doubt about it.

CAPITO: And we have got to unturn every stone here.

SCARBOROUGH: All right. Thank you so much, Congresswoman. We really do appreciate you being with us. And we will follow this, obviously, as the hearings move forward.

Everybody that has followed this story has been so impressed by just the good people that you represent in West Virginia, tough, hard-working men and women of faith. And just let them know that our thoughts and prayers are with them.

CAPITO: And we so appreciate that. And we need your prayers and your thoughts. And West Virginians are incredibly strong people, as you said, but this is a difficult pill to swallow.

SCARBOROUGH: Oh, no doubt about it.

OK, thank you so much, Congresswoman. God bless you.

And we will be right back.

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