Fox News "Hannity" - Transcript Interview with Debbie Lesko and Andy Biggs

Interview

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Joining me now for reaction, GOP House lawmakers, Congressman Andy Biggs and Congresswoman Debbie Lesko, both of Arizona.

Thank you both for joining us here tonight.

Was there -- let me start with you, Congresswoman Lesko, was there any consideration to the United States Constitution? Did it never even come up when the Democrats talk about this?

REP. DEBBIE LESKO, R-ARIZ.: Of course not, Jason. I mean, this is just another example of an unconstitutional power grab by the Democrats and also radical bills that they keep passing out of that House. I mean, they have this one -- just yesterday, they passed a bill that would undermine police so they couldn't do their job. They want to give $1,200 payments to legal immigrants. They want to give free health care to illegal immigrants.

These are all bills that they've passed out of the House, and if the Democrats control the House, the Senate, and the presidency after November, all of that stuff would be the law of the land.

And so, I hope our listeners are listening to that. That's why this election matters.

CHAFFETZ: Congressman Biggs, again, the reason I was opposed to it when I was in Congress is it's against the Constitution. The Constitution clearly spells this out. But there was no consideration of that today in the debate, was there?

REP. ANDY BIGGS, R-ARIZ.: No, not at all, Jason. You're exactly right.

And if they really were sincere, they would've sent a resolution -- to send this to the people for a constitutional amendment as opposed to -- for ratification by the states, instead of doing what they did today which is simply a bill. And you're correct. I mean, it's just an attempt to power grab.

But it's less than that in some ways because it's merely pandering. They know that it doesn't mean anything other than to summon their base that are interested in this. And so, it's really a shame that they try to manipulate the Constitution this way.

CHAFFETZ: Yes, Congresswoman, I want to ask you. You know, most people don't realize this, but Washington, D.C., goes through the facade of electing shadow -- literally, they call it shadow senators that are prepared to take their seats at the United States Senate at every moment.

So Washington, D.C., has a homeless problem, they have -- you know, how do they fund this, they have all these issues to deal with. Meanwhile, they have office space for shadow senators, and they're not really addressing the real core problems that are actually facing the city.

LESKO: Well, yes, you're absolutely right and in the bill, it said that the mayor of Washington, D.C., would be the governor of -- of this new state. I mean, can you imagine Mayor Bowser being the governor? She can't even run her own city.

Like you said, there's homelessness. The schools are not performing well. Now, there's looting, rioting.

She didn't even want to help President Trump defend, you know, national monuments. I mean, this would be a total disaster.

And, you know, it's just another one of these radical bills that the -- that the Democrats are pushing through even though they know it's not going to pass in the Senate, at least not yet. We can't let the Senate be taken over by Democrats and certainly not the presidency.

CHAFFETZ: Congressman Biggs, quickly. I've only got about 30 seconds. Your reaction?

BIGGS: Yes, you know what? If they really are concerned about getting a right to vote in federal elections and getting electoral votes, they can do what they did in 1847, and we gave some of that land back to Virginia and we can get some of this land that's remaining back to Maryland and keep the federal district in and of itself. So there are options there.

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CHAFFETZ: That's exactly right. That's exactly right.

BIGGS: Yes.

CHAFFETZ: Retrocede the residential areas to Maryland.

BIGGS: Exactly.

CHAFFETZ: But Maryland would never want to do that.

Congressman Biggs, Congresswoman Lesko, thank you so much for joining us. I wish we had more time.

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