CNN Newsroom: Interview with Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA)

Interview

"Hey, Jim.

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We are pro-keeping the government open, and that's the difference between Republicans and Democrats. They like to rule. We like to govern. When it comes to ruling, they want to rule your body, they want to rule what you read, they want to rule how you vote. And we want to govern. We want to fix things. We want to get things done.

When I-95 collapses in Philadelphia, we want to be the party that gets it open in 16 days. When COVID hits our country, we want to reopen main streets, churches, and schools. And when your health care costs are rising, we want to be the guys that bring down Medicare costs because you now can negotiate for the prices.

So that's what we do, Jim. And so we're going to be ready to do that. It's just a matter of, you know, will McCarthy choose chaos or will he choose competence?

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I fear we will because too many of his chaos agents are upset that the majority of the votes that came to pay America's bills to extend the debt ceiling a couple of months ago came from Democrats. And so because they're poor sports, so many of them in the last couple of months have said that they're going to shut the government down.

And what's so rich about that, Jim, is that deal set the parameters for keeping the government open. So we already negotiated how much we're going to spend so that we can take care of health care, education, veterans, military, police funding in America. But, again, this isn't about taking care of people or working for working people. It's just for working for Donald Trump, and many of them have said unless we defund the special counsel investigations into Donald Trump, they're going to shut down the government.

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For what? You know, again, these guys, they've been all over the place as far as who they want to impeach. One day it's Mayorkas. One day it's the FBI director. It goes, you know, between Biden, and I think they would impeach his son if they could. They like to weaponize, you know, the president's family members. But the truth is we're focused on just helping people. You know, that's why most of us went into government. And so, again, Americans will see, Jim, you know, one party who wants

to help the country and a MAGA party who wants to help a criminal in Donald Trump. And they're willing to do anything, including to bring the government to absolute chaos to get that done.

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You know, it's not good just functionally for Americans who are relying on Social Security benefits, veterans benefits, to go to the airport and for it to be open, you know, for the mail to move, you know, all of the things that the government does, you know, to move our daily lives. This would all be at risk if they shut the government down. Now, of course, this would hurt Republicans as it has in the past politically, and the speaker has to figure that out.

But, you know, the second, Jim, and I'm not really in the business of giving him free advice. But the second he realizes he doesn't need these guys, they don't have a plan B, they don't want a plan B, is the second that he puts the country over his party and we actually get things done that help people.

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The fact that any poll shows that President Biden is even with Donald Trump reflects to me one thing. We're too modest as Democrats. We're too nice. We need to play on the Republican side of the field and make sure people understand that every freedom you value is at risk if they are given the keys to government. The freedom of your body, the freedom of what you read, the freedom to vote, the freedom for your kids to live not in fear but to come home from school.

And so we let Republicans show up to ribbon-cutting ceremonies for something they voted against. And so it's time for us not to be so modest, not to be so nice and make wallpaper of the infrastructure, health care, COVID, and gun safety accomplishments that we've put in place.

And if we do that, I promise you, Jim, when that choice is on the ballot next November between President Biden and President Trump, it's going to be a blowout.

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The legal problems that Donald Trump have, you know, reflect something larger than just what it means to him, you know, personally and legally. It reflects, you know, a person, as I said, who wants to rule rather than govern. It's all about Trump. It's not about bringing down anyone's health care costs. It's not about reducing someone's commute or making, you know, student loan debt less of a burden in your life.

It's just about Donald Trump. And so we can't be so nice and modest, you know, when we tell the story of who we are and define them every single day as to what they would do to this country. And so that's why I say, Jim, we can't fight with one hand tied behind our back. And then too often as Democrats, that's the upper hand. Time to go all in for democracy. Too much is on the line.

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You know, Donald Trump should be disqualified from running for office because he led an insurrection to try and overturn a blowout election. This wasn't even close. But, Jim, we proved that, you know, with the impeachment that we had. A majority of the Senate in a bipartisan way believe that. And now he's been indicted on those grounds. But I'll just say we shouldn't pursue that as parties pursue that because we're afraid of Donald Trump.

We should do that because he should be disqualified. But even if he is the nominee, I'll stand on our record and values every single day, and put our faith and future in the American people, and it will be another blowout election, as I said, if we go on offense on these issues.

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My pleasure. Thanks.

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