CNN "Anderson Cooper 360" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Jason Crow

Interview

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BERMAN: A rebuttal now to the former President's depiction of the insurrection. It comes from Democratic Congressman and former Army Ranger, Jason Crow, who was pinned down, along with other lawmakers and staffers inside the House Gallery.

We also spoke just before air.

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BERMAN: Congressman Crow, what do you think of the former President's comments that the rioters, his supporters were quote, "zero threat on January 6th."

[20:15:06]

REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): Well, that's perfectly predictable for President Trump. I mean, he obviously wants to sweep this under the rug. He has always denied that this was a problem or he had any role in it, and I expect that we'll continue to see this.

And, you know, unfortunately, the issue is less Donald Trump doing this because we would expect that out of Donald Trump, it's more his enablers and those in Congress who continue to do it and try to downplay the significance of the attack. Obviously, the deaths and the murders that occurred as a result of it.

BERMAN: Yes, I mean, the Secret Service agents guarding then Vice President Mike Pence and his family certainly didn't think the rioters were zero threat.

I mean, how insulting are the former President's comments to law enforcement, the likes of which we're seeing here now assaulted, overrun, beaten on that day? And obviously, the family of fallen Officer Brian Sicknick?

CROW: Yes, you know, when I heard those comments, I actually was thinking about a couple of the officers that I've actually grown pretty close to over the last couple of years. One of whom I called of the day after the attack and asked him how he was doing.

He was on one of the riot teams, the riot controlled teams and he told me about how he had fought for hours, literally fighting back for hours until eventually he was overrun, and just laid on the ground separated from his team, and he thought he was going to be killed.

Instead, he was beaten for about 20 or 30 minutes. He was covered in bruises from head to toe. The very next day, he was back at work, limping around Capitol Hill, doing his job.

So he certainly doesn't think that those folks were no threat, that those rioters were no threat. And obviously, the family of Officer Sicknick and all the others.

I was there. I saw the danger that we were all in. You know, they erected gallows with a noose right outside of the Capitol. This is a big problem. And obviously, the President is going to continue to do what he does. But the enablers and people in Congress need to stop.

BERMAN: Well, talk to me about the enablers. I mean, I was trying to think of a historical precedent here of a former President of the United States who would spent his post White House years defending an insurrection. The only one I come up with is like John Tyler, who ended up siding with the Confederacy in the Civil War.

I mean, that's the level that we're talking about here.

CROW: Yes, I mean, you look at what other Presidents spend their time doing, you know, philanthropy. You have President Carter building homes for homeless folks. You have George W. Bush painting -- you know, paintings of disabled, wounded veterans, and then you have Donald Trump trying to legitimize an insurrection in a riot and the murder that occurred as a result of it.

You know, the contrast couldn't be any more stark. And you know, this isn't just an issue of historical integrity, right. I mean, I think it is important that we have a historical record of this and I've actually introduced the Capitol Remembrance Act, alongside my friend, Susan Wild to make sure that we are memorializing the deaths, and having a proper record of the attack.

But even more so, there's an ongoing threat to this. If we downplay it, if we normalize and if we say this isn't a big issue, the problem is, is we have these anti-government groups, these extremists who remain a severe national security threat to us, and it makes it harder for us to address that threat in the way that we need to.

BERMAN: Will you still work with these Republicans who continue to back the former President and his big lie?

CROW: Well, I look at it this way. There's a broad spectrum of my G.O.P. colleagues. You know, you have the folks, the extreme folks, you know, the Mo Brooks, the Andy -- the Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Andy Biggs of the world, you know, those folks, I'm just not going to work with them because I'm not going to normalize that extremism. I'm not going to normalize violent rhetoric and stuff that's a threat to democracy as I see it.

Then you have you on the other end of the spectrum, the Adam Kinzinger of the world that are really standing up and trying to do the right thing and rebuild the Republican Party, and you know, in it's the older image, and then there's a lot of people that fall somewhere in between.

So I'm really dealing with this on a case by case basis, but it's hard. I mean, I don't think there's any Member of Congress, certainly on my side of the aisle that isn't struggling with how to deal with that right now.

BERMAN: Congressman Jason Crow, thank you for your time tonight. Thank you.

CROW: Thanks, John.

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