CBS "Face the Nation" - Transcript

Interview

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BOB SCHIEFFER: --your colleague in the Senate, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York. Senator, I know you're on the Rules Committee. You're on the Judiciary Committee. I believe, you got a briefing this morning from the Capitol Police. What can you tell us?

SENATOR CHARLES SCHUMER (D-New York): Yes. Well, first, I just want to convey my hopes and prayers for those who are injured and the thoughts of the families-- with the families of those who have lost loved ones. Obviously, this is a terrible tragedy. It's an attack not just on those individuals but in a certain sense an attack on the system as was said yesterday. It's an
American tragedy. I have been briefed by the Sergeant at Arms Terry Gainer and they are on top of this situation. They're coordinating very closely with the FBI, the Secret Service and the congressional leadership and doing whatever needs to be done. There have not been any increase in threats over the last few weeks or for that matter in the nearly twenty-four hours
since the shooting and I have a great deal of faith and confidence in them. They are-- they have-- we-- there are handful of threats that are made every-- every month. They investigate them thoroughly almost inevitably. They tend to be people who are mentally unstable, not people with political motivation. In almost every case, those people make the threat but take no
action and they're handled effectively and quietly. So I have a great deal of faith in the Capitol Police and the coordination with--

BOB SCHIEFFER (overlapping): All right.

SENATOR CHARLES SCHUMER: --other law enforcement. And I've told them if they need anything more, let us know and we'll do it for them.

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BOB SCHIEFFER: And we're back now. I-- I want to go back to Senator Schu-- Schumer who is in New York. Senator, is this going to change the way that Congress does business? What--what

SENATOR CHARLES SCHUMER: Well, you know, maybe in a certain sense this terrible tragedy can import tune us to take a time out, to look each of us into ourselves and remember the shared values that we really do all have. And one of the grandest of American values is debate. It can be strong debate. But it should always be civil. And when a shooting like this occurs, it sends a deep chill down the spine of the body politics. And maybe what we should be
doing now is in a certain sense this might, this terrible tragedy could be an opportunity for us to come together over our shared values. Hopefully, that might happen.

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BOB SCHIEFFER: About thirty seconds left. Senator Schumer, do you see a time when congressmen, just members of Congress, are going to have to have security wherever they go as sometimes federal judges now do?

SENATOR CHARLES SCHUMER: Well, we obviously have to keep people safe. That's for sure. But there also has to be a balance, because one of the hallmarks of our democracy is being able to go out and meet people and hear what they have to say and let them bring their grievances for us. That was part of the First Amendment that Congresswoman Giffords read on
the floor. So we're going to have to look into it but we're going to have to remember there has to be a balance.

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