VIDEO: ICYMI: Auchincloss: The GOP Knew What It Was Getting Well Before Marjorie Taylor Greene
Washington, D.C. - This morning, Congressman Jake Auchincloss (D, MA-04), joined CNN’s “New Day” to discuss his call for Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene to resign, his opposition to permanent fencing around the Capitol, and the prospect of bipartisan COVID relief.
WATCH:
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rIj1rwmXyU
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCaNAf59grQ
KEY EXCERPTS:
On Calls For Marjorie Taylor Greene To Resign:
"If you don't understand that calling for violence against your political opponents is unacceptable in a democracy, then you should not be representing one. Marjorie Taylor Greene failed that test. But I should not have been the first person to call for her expulsion. Leader McCarthy should have beaten me to the punch instead of traveling to Palm Beach to kiss Donald Trump's ring....Marjorie Taylor Greene has called for the executions of Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and she wants to bring a gun onto the House floor. So again, it shouldn't have to be Speaker Pelosi who calls this out. The Republican conference should be taking care of extremism within its own ranks. They should have the decency to be embarrassed and then take action on it as opposed to continuing to buy into this cult of Trump."
On GOP Leadership:
"Democrats want to work in a bipartisan fashion both to govern and to remove the worst elements from Congress but the GOP has ownership of this and the GOP knew what it was getting well before Marjorie Taylor Greene when it embraced Donald Trump in 2016 - and that is really when a ticking time bomb began. And many GOP leaders - including Representative Riggleman who voted against impeachment of Donald Trump [in 2019] - own this issue and they all need to take ownership of removing this faction of white supremacy and extremism. We need to have a GOP that rebuilds itself on the foundations of integrity.
On Permanent Fencing Around The Capitol:
"We shouldn't turn the home of our democracy into a fortress. We don't want the Capitol to become a 'Green Zone' that is unwelcoming - indeed even hostile - to constituents and journalists. This should be open - safely open - to the public and representatives should govern with transparency and accountability. I'm deeply concerned about a permanent security structure around the Capitol that can keep people away. They deserve - taxpayers and voters deserve - to be able to come and ask questions and access the Capitol.
On Bipartisan COVID Relief:
"From my seat, I think a relief package that has bipartisan support is going to be a better, stronger relief package - but - we're not going to wait on it, because Americans and small businesses and local governments are struggling right now and we need to get something fast. And as your previous report raised - we're now in a race between vaccines and variants and we need the money to produce a vaccine supply fast enough and to get into arms fast enough that we can outpace the variants. So this has become a matter of life and death as well as a matter of livelihoods and we just can't wait for the GOP to come around to what is so clearly necessary.
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