Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA11) speaking on CNN this morning:
- “I mean, this is desperate Donald Trump right now. He knows he is on track to lose the midterm elections in a historic fashion because his policies have failed. He hasn’t delivered on the promises he made in the campaign and he’s doing everything in his power to try to tilt the playing field. We’ve seen that with the mid-decade redistricting he’s pushed Republican states to do. We saw that in Minnesota, where at gunpoint the Secretary of Homeland Security told Minnesota officials they need to turn over their voter roles. And we now see this with this call to quote nationalize the elections, which is not constitutional, not legal and it’s not going to happen.”
- “I’m outraged by that explanation [by Todd Blanche]. I think it shows what we’ve seen throughout the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files, which is a callous disregard for the survivors, the victims of Epstein’s horrific crimes. And look, we need to get the full truth. And survivors have said that there were others involved and there were others who knew about it. The idea that with this sprawling, years-long child sex trafficking endeavor that Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were engaged in, that no one else was involved or no one else knew about it, I think doesn’t pass the laugh test. And we’re going to continue our investigation. Oversight Democrats are going to continue our investigation and push and push and push until we get all of the facts and complete transparency that the survivors and the American people deserve.”
- “…my position and oversight committee Democrats’ position has been that we want to talk to anybody who has information that can advance our investigation. We don’t care whether they’re Republicans, Democrats, independents, doesn’t matter. We want to talk to anybody, and President Clinton should come in and talk. And it sounds like he’s agreed to do that. I think that’s a positive step. There still seems to be some question as to whether Chairman Comer and the Republicans will take yes for an answer. They seem to be focused on pursuing a criminal route, more interested in prosecuting the Clintons than getting the information from the Clintons. Our focus is getting information from anyone who might have it.”
- “I voted to hold the Clintons in civil contempt, which would have levied fines against them if they didn’t come before the committee. I voted against criminal contempt because I didn’t feel that criminal contempt would advance our investigation. If the House moves forward with criminal contempt, it will be tied up in court for potentially years. there won’t be an interview with President Clinton and our investigation doesn’t move forward. Civil contempt would have accomplished that. Although we now have accomplished it with the Clintons agreeing to the terms that Chairman Comer has laid out.”
- “I think the process had been working. The Clintons were engaged in a negotiation and a dialogue with Chairman Comer about the terms, when and where they would sit down and conduct an interview. They were willing to do that. They made several offers to do that. They submitted sworn statements under penalty of perjury. They answered questions in writing. So yeah, I think the process has has been working. My concern is that there seems to be more of an interest on the Republican side in creating a spectacle around it and having a lot of cameras present and having a kind of circus atmosphere. I don’t care about any of that. I just want to get to the truth and get the facts.”
********************************************************
