I can’t embed the video of Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA11) this morning on CNN, because apparently the NFL has (ridiculously) blocked it due to containing content from the Super Bowl, but if you click on the following image, you can watch it. Also, see below for highlights from the interview:
- [On members of Congress being able to review the Epstein files at DoJ] “We have to schedule a time to go in and review the files. I think it’s a mix of electronic and paper. And look, there there are three million files with a lot of redaction. So we’re going to have to be targeted in looking at the most troubling redactions…for me, some of the missing information we know that survivors have laid out in their original statements to the FBI, the list of co-conspirators, others who they say were involved in these crimes. I want to determine whether any of that was redacted. obviously whether there are any redactions related to President Trump, members of his Cabinet or other prominent figures quote unquote Trump’s friends who he’s concerned by being harmed due to the release of the file.”
- “[Ghislaine Maxwell] knows who those co-conspirators are. She knows which other men were involved. She knows exactly what Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said to her when they met and she was subsequently moved to a cushy lower-security prison. I want to understand all of that. Unfortunately, it sounds like she’s going to plead the Fifth today. We won’t get direct answers to those questions.”
- “I spoke to [Epstein survivor] Jess earlier today, and I know she and other survivors plan to be at that hearing today. And I think my Republican colleagues are going to have to grapple with can they look her and the other survivors in the eyes and place again their loyalty to Trump ahead of the pleas that we’re hearing from Jess and other survivors to push to get the full release of the files. And look, the deputy attorney general said that there were 6 million files. He said that. He then said he made a subjective decision that they had overcollected 3 million files. The law doesn’t allow him or Pam Bondi to make a subjective decision to not release 50% of the files. They got to release all 6 million files.”
- [In response to Sen. John Fetterman saying he doesn’t know what Democrats’ red lines are on ICE funding] “Well, look, in a negotiation, Democrats put forward a tangible list and the ball’s in the Republicans’ court now to accept or reject those things. These are things the American people support. I’ll tell you the red lines for me: no masks, no secret police. They got to operate just like our local law enforcement do with professional standards. And here’s the other thing. The federal government, if they’re going to smash down your door while your wife and your children are sleeping, they should get a warrant before they do it…a judicial warrant. And Republicans want to shut down the government over that? To allow federal agents to smash down the doors of any American without a warrant? They can do that. I don’t think the American people will agree with it…”
- “I don’t think there’s any such thing as an agreement with Donald Trump. I mean look, he’s shown that throughout his life, his career in politics and business, he makes agreements and he breaks them. So it’s got to be in the law. Has to be in the law. I wish that wasn’t the case, but it has to be in the law.”
- “…in terms of the so-called sanctuary cities argument, look, that’s an issue of federalism. State and local governments in this country get to set their policies. And those policies make sense for those communities. I don’t agree that it interrupts; having been in local government, what the Trump administration says is a sanctuary policy is actually their demand that local police, local sheriffs, local jails do the federal government’s job in enforcing immigration law. They call THAT a sanctuary policy. Federal immigration enforcement agents can detain anyone anywhere in the country. They don’t need assistance from local governments to do that. We know in a lot of places local jails, including in Minnesota, do cooperate and work with federal law enforcement when folks have serious criminal histories or there are criminal warrants. But we don’t need local government turned into federal immigration enforcement. That’s what they call sanctuary policies. I just think it’s false.”
- “I think [Republicans are] trying to buy time. I think they’re trying to buy time. I think they believe that the outrage from the American people peaked in the wake of Alex Pretti’s death and each day that passes, they hope folks will focus on other things. I think that will be a mistake because if they continue on this path, with this very brutal way of enforcing immigration law, sadly these kind of incidents are going to continue. The videos are going to continue. Social media will continue to be dominated by it. But I do think that’s the bet that they’re making and it sort of seeped into the culture.”
- [On Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl] “First of all, I want to thank Donald Trump because he he kind of turned me on to Bad Bunny. I had not been to Bad Bunny…I mean, my wife is going to be embarrassed by this, but I had heard of him, but I wasn’t really a fan. But now, you know, I think it was quintessentially American, honestly, the performance. And you could see in President Trump’s response, which I think like demonstrated his loser energy, it got under his skin because it was so quintessentially American.”
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