CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Ruben Gallego

Interview

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BROWN: This week the House Select Committee looking into the January 6th insurrection is set to hold its first hearing. Just putting the panel together has been fraught with drama and exposed deep partisan divides. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two picks from Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Then McCarthy pulled the plug on all the members he appointed. Today, though, Pelosi has appointed Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger to the committee.

Arizona Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego joins me now.

Nice to see you, Congressman, thanks for coming on. So the panel will have Kinzinger, also Liz Cheney. Do you support these choices?

REP. RUBEN GALLEGO (D-AZ): I do. Like this is a very good example of country over party. You know, Liz and Adam, I don't agree with them almost 90 percent of the time, but we do agree on one thing is that we want to preserve our democracy.

What happened January 6th is a great sin against our democracy, and we want to get to the bottom of how it happened. And the fact that they're doing this is very brave and we should commend them for that.

BROWN: In her "dear colleague" letter, Pelosi wrote, "Now our imperative must be to find the truth, and let's do so in a way that retains the trust of the American people in the proceedings so that they will have the confidence in the truth that emerges."

How do you get that trust when the GOP at large isn't buying in?

GALLEGO: Well, look. We have to worry about trying to get the American public to buy in. And we may not have the GOP party apparatus. We may not have the Trump loyalists but there's a segment of this population that I think wants to be educated about what happened. I think they're deeply traumatized by what happened, and we have a committee to do that.

And at the end of the day, the American public doesn't care who really is on this committee as long as they feel that they're going to be even handed. And the fact that you have people like, you know, McCarthy arguing, trying to put these two other people, Banks and Jordan, on there, it would be like trying to get like the Watergate break-in criminals into the Watergate committee. It just doesn't happen. That's not how you get an even investigation. That's certainly not how we get to the bottom of what happened and what led up to January 6th.

BROWN: And the others also voted to decertify the election results. But she just chose those two. Pelosi rejected Jim Banks for a number of reasons and the other Jim Jordan as well. Today, Jim Banks told FOX News that Pelosi only wants committee members who will stick to her narrative.

What do you think about that? I mean, couldn't the panel gain more credibility by including a Republican who isn't a Donald Trump critic?

GALLEGO: Look, I think there actually was an approach to this. You know, Speaker Pelosi accepted three other members that also voted to decertify the election who, you know, were, you know, very good Republicans in standing. What she didn't want to add is two Republicans that were just going to be distractions. So just bring the clowns to the clown show. And, you know, that's what we need right now.

We truly need a real investigation that's going to get down to the truth of what happened on January 6th. Kevin McCarthy purposely did this on purpose. He put two of the most controversial Republicans on the committee to basically much up what's happening, instead of treating this like a real investigation.

He had the option prior to this, by the way, he had another option where he would have equal opportunity to actually appoint people and they refused to compromise on that so this is just another distraction. Another, you know, game the Republicans are playing really to appease Trump at the end of the day.

BROWN: I want to switch gears because this actually does tie in in a way that this, quote-unquote, audit happening in your state right now is all about questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election results. Even after what we saw there on January 6th, this effort to cast doubt on the election results continues in your state. Are you concerned that this has the potential to incite more violence?

GALLEGO: I certainly do. I mean, what happened on January 6th was built up, starting on election night. And you hear, you know, General Flynn talking about violence right now against people in Washington, D.C. You've seen the rhetoric increase about how this was an election that was stolen all the way leading up to January 6th and even beyond that.

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And this so-called audit, we call it a fraud-it here in Arizona, a sham audit, to be clear, is designed to basically give more excuses to the Republican wing -- sorry, the Trump party, essentially to be able to come up with excuses for them to continue their lies, to continue basically to fundraise off people.

Donald Trump has raised $75 million. $75 million, supposedly to audit the election. He has spent zero dollars in Arizona to help this audit. As a matter of fact, taxpayers have now picked up more than $6 million of cost because of this sham audit.

So, you know, this is just going to be continuing to basically do two things. Number one, create more chaos and potentially more violence. And number two, just put more money into the coffers of, you know, people like Donald Trump and other Republican grifters that are using this as a way to raise money.

BROWN: All right. Congressman Ruben Gallego, thank you for coming on, sharing your perspective.

GALLEGO: Thank you, Pamela.

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