CBS "Face the Nation" - Transcript

Interview

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BOB SCHIEFFER: All right. I want to come back to you, senator, but I want to go now to Steny Hoyer, the number two man in the Democratic leadership in the House. This was your friend or is your friend, the congresswoman. This cannot help but have a chilling effect on-- on lawmakers. Are your members worried? Are they shaken by this?

REPRESENTATIVE STENY HOYER (D-Maryland/Democratic Whip): I don't think there's any doubt but my colleagues are-- are very concerned about the-- the environment in which they're now operating. It's-- it's been a much angrier, confrontational en-- environment over the last two or three years than we have experienced in the past. And I think there is worry about that. I will tell you also that the staffers-- and we-- we should not forget that a staff member was lost here. Interestingly enough or tragically enough, ironically enough, the community outreach person on Miss Giffords' staff, Mister Zimmerman lost his life. So, yes, Bob, I think members and staff are
shaken by this event. I-- I-- I share Miss-- Speaker Boehner's view and the views that have been expressed by the two United States senators. This is not simply an attack on Miss Giffords. This is an attack on democracy itself, on the ability, as she said in that reading of the First Amendment, to peaceably assemble, to come together to talk to one another, that's what
democracy is all about--representatives listening to their constituents and trying to reflect their views.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, you know, Congresswoman Giffords had received threats before. That's something that we might have overlooked here. Her office was trashed during the health care debate. And when she showed up on Sarah Palin's Political Action Committee website as one of those who had been targeted for this defeat-- the-- it shows her in the crosshairs there.
She warned herself that this kind of thing could have serious repercussions. Let's listen.

REPRESENTATIVE GABRIELLE GIFFORDS (D-Arizona, MSNBC): We need to realize that the rhetoric and firing people up and, you know, even things, for example, we're on Sarah Palin's targeted list, but the thing is that the way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gun site over our district. When people do that, they've got to realize, there's consequences to that action.

BOB SCHIEFFER: There you are--

REPRESENTATIVE STENY HOYER: And that's of course what the sheriff said. And I think the sheriff was right. One of the things that you and I have discussed, Bob, when-- when you and I grew up, we grew up listening to a set of three major news outlets--NBC, ABC, and, of course, CBS. Most of the people like Walter Cronkite and Eric Sevareid, Huntley-Brinkley and they saw
their job as to inform us of the facts and we would make a conclusion. Far too many broadcasts now and so many outlets have the intent of inciting-- of inciting people to opposition, to anger, to thinking the other side is less than moral. And I think that is a context in which somebody who is mentally unbalanced can somehow feel justified in taking this kind of action. And-- and I think we need to all take cognizance of that and be aware that what we say can, in fact, have consequences.

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REPRESENTATIVE STENY HOYER: Bob, if I can add, I talked to Mark Kelly, Gabby's husband who is an astronaut. Very angry, very angry about the level of angry rhetoric that he believes incites people not only if this Loughner targeted Gabby in particular but to target those in authority, whether they be judges, members of Congress, local officials, generically, to make their anger pointedly heard. And, of course, this allows that. We're going to have to find out exactly what the motivation here was. But I think all of us as Chuck Schumer was saying on--on-- in politics and in the media, in the public square, fashion our rhetoric so that it does not incite but informs and yes can differ but can differ in a way that is civil and consistent with our
democracy's efforts.

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