MSNBC "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Eric Swalwell

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

O`DONNELL: Joining us now Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell of California. He served as a House impeachment manager in the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump. And he is a member of the House Intelligence Committee and the House Judiciary Committee.

Thank you very much for joining us tonight, Congressman Swalwell. Chairman Thompson is saying that anything is possible in terms of where the subpoenas will be going next. But it seems like the January 6th committee does have to calculate how long a fight, a legal fight Donald Trump would put up over a subpoena.

REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): Lawrence, we should assume that he is going to fight everything. That`s what he does. He is a legal terrorist, as we would call him on the impeachment team.

We offered for him to come and testify in impeachment number two, and if you recall, he refused that offer and we believe that showed a consciousness of guilt. And if he makes the same refusal if he is asked for January 6th, I hope the country recognizes the reason he won`t come forward is that he`s guilty.

As it relates to the sedition suite at the Willard Hotel, yes, we should know who paid for and stayed in that suite at the very least.

O`DONNELL: Yes, and apparently there were several of them. Let`s listen to John Eastman, the lawyer who was there providing the phony legal memos to justify stealing the presidency.

Listen to him on a podcast talking about that command center and then running over to the rally so that he could speak himself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN EASTMAN, LAWYER: We had a war room at the Willard Hotel, kind of coordinating all of the communications. And when the president`s arrival to the rally in front of the White House was delayed, Rudy Giuliani and I were asked if we would come on stage and say a few words.

The rally organizers had a number of campaign and Trump family people that had been speaking all morning long, but then there was all of a sudden a big gap before the president was going to be able to arrive. And so I wasn`t even the one that was asked.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O`DONNELL: It sounds like the January 6th committee has a lot more questions for him about what was going on at the Willard.

SWALWELL: That`s right, Lawrence. If they were successful in the coup, he would be celebrated for his work, but now Mr. Eastman, like so many others, are distancing themselves. And that`s to be expected.

But what he described there shows organization, premeditation, planning, a purposefulness in what they were doing, which leads me to believe that this was anything but some sort of impromptu, extemporaneous rally.

This is something that for nearly two-and-a-half weeks Donald Trump had prepped his supporters for when he sent that 2:00 a.m. tweet saying, January 6th will be wild, and then spent $50 million all the way up to January 5 inviting, inciting and assembling people to go.

And then, of course, his remarks at the ellipse that day where he aimed his supporters to go somewhere he wasn`t willing to go himself, to the Capitol.

O`DONNELL: President Biden has once again denied a Donald Trump request of executive privilege for material subpoenaed -- records subpoenaed from the Trump White House that are now stored at the archives. President Biden sent a letter to the archives saying -- the White House sent a letter to the archives saying, "President Biden has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interest of the United States and therefore is not justified. President Biden does not uphold the former president`s assertion of privilege."

And so there we see once again Joe Biden saying, no, turn over all the information.

SWALWELL: That`s right. Executive power does, it turns out, has some boundaries, meaning that when you help incite, assemble a mob and aim that mob at the Capitol to essentially overthrow the government, that that`s going a little bit too far.

[22:44:59]

SWALWELL: And we hope that sticks. The Department of Justice also in my case, in my lawsuit against the former president, has said that Mo Brooks, who we have listed as a plaintiff, was not within his scope of employment when he went and showed up at that rally and made his inflammatory remarks.

Look, Lawrence, what we are seeing with the rhetoric that`s coming out from January 6th and those that seek to defend it is this is a party that has chosen violence over voting, grievances over governing, and lies over leading, and we cannot expose that enough.

O`DONNELL: Congressman Eric Swalwell, thank you very much for joining us tonight.

SWALWELL: My pleasure.

O`DONNELL: Thank you.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source