Transcript: Rep. Terri Sewell on "Face the Nation," September 29, 2019
The following is a transcript of an interview with Democratic Congresswoman Terri Sewell of Alabama that aired Sunday, September 29, 2019, on "Face the Nation."
MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to "Face the Nation." We turn now to a Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. Alabama Congresswoman Terri Sewell. Congresswoman welcome.
REPRESENTATIVE TERRI SEWELL: Thanks so much, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Now the accusation is that Democrats were chomping at the bit to impeach. But you say you were actually very reluctant to move ahead with this.
REP. SEWELL: Well, you know, look it's not because I didn't think that there were really unpresidential behavior by this president from moment one, but because I was worried that it would get us sidetracked from other more important items for the American people. But I do believe that we've crossed a- a Rubicon here. I do believe that this whistleblower allegation is so serious, it gets to the very heart of our nation's democracy, the integrity of our elections. And if any district understands that it's my district, Alabama's Seventh Congressional District, which was the Civil Rights district where people died, fought, bled for the right to vote. And the integrity of our elections are at question when the president of the United States ask a foreign leader for a favor and then withholds millions of dollars of foreign aid in order to solicit interference in- in our election. I don't think it gets more important than that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: A- a- as you've heard, Republicans dispute this idea that there was a quid pro quo, and dismiss this--
REP SEWELL: You don't need--
MARGARET BRENNAN: --whistleblower as just relaying hearsay.
REP. SEWELL: You don't need a quid pro quo.The reality is that the complaint speaks for itself, and it corroborates the partial readout that we received earlier in the week. So, I think that, you know, none of us come to Congress to try to impeach the president. I know the people I- elected me to go to Congress to lower prescription drug prices for them, to be sure that we have a- an equal level playing field when it comes to education. But, I think that we find ourselves at a very sombering moment in American's history, and we can either choose to live by the oath that we took, which is to uphold this constitution and get to the bottom of what's going on. We need to understand that what we've- what the speaker has done is initiated an inquiry. An inquiry. And, obviously the road map is the complaint. It ob- it raises lots of concerns as to the extent of- of this- this president's portrayal. And we need to get to the bottom of that. We--
MARGARET BRENNAN: How--
REP. SEWELL: --do so in a deliberate manner.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Deliberate manner. How quickly is this actually going to move from inquiry to articles of impeachment?
REP. SEWELL: Well, I can tell you that we in the Intel Committee are working diligently through this Rosh Hashanah break, and we don't know exactly when it will come, but we do know that we're working in a deliberate, thoughtful manner. We'll follow the facts where they lead us, and the American people deserve to understand and know to what extent did the president, you know, interfere in our elections and to what extent has it been a cover up? I think all of those things are, unfortunately we're- we're at this moment in American history, but we need to live up to our oath if the president is not going to live up to his.
MARGARET BRENNAN: As a Democrat, you said this worried you that you wouldn't be able to get real work done for your constituents. In- in the polling that CBS has done, 42 percent of people polled think Congress will still work on legislation, 58 percent of Americans say they're gonna be just too distracted.
REP. SEWELL: But we've already shown that we can do both.
MARGARET BRENNAN: How can you work with the president when there's an effort underway to impeach him? How is it po- possible to do both things?
REP. SEWELL: Wh- first of all, we can do things in a methodical, diligent way. The Intel Committee will- will conduct the investigation, and I'm on the House Ways and Means Committee. We are working diligently to address a surprise billing, to address the prescription drug problem that we have in America. I'm also on the working group of Democrats that's looking at USMCA. So, we have a lot of things going on simultaneously. We are multitaskers as legislators and we can do both.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Congresswoman, thank you very much.
REP. SEWELL: Thank you.