I need to retire and to retiring Admiral after 36 years so apparently as long as there's still pizza and Chinese food, there's no pressure here.
How do you feel about your party's objection to this January 6 admission at the moment.
I I'm personally, I'm disappointed that we just haven't been able to acknowledge that an independent commission would be an opportunity for us to have an independent review of this well we do our work. But again, provide some answers to the American people to the Congress. I tell you, I spend a lot of time talking to really good men and women in the Capitol Hill place. And as far as I'm concerned, the need for this independent commission is as much about them as it is for anything else out here so I mean, obviously you know where I'm going to be on it, and I've made clear, Matt. It's not perfect, is there going to be politics in it, there's politics and everything that goes on around here, but I think the way you structure it and if leadership is is is good and honest with with who they who they select to serve as part of the commission I think that that can help alleviate some of the concerns about about partisanship, but it doesn't appear like we're going to have that opportunity and I think that's disappointing.
September 11 commission I think took a year to approve. Do you think that's what's going to happen here and you think this is the story if this gets,
I don't know I haven't been able to really get a good sounding on that right now, I mean obviously right now what we're trying to figure out is, is, is this going to happen, it doesn't look like it's going to happen but I don't think we know yet what what the next step, may be I mean obviously there are, there are investigations that are going on within different committees and we will, we will see them report out and see what that means. And so it's not as if this vote fails and and there's no more discussion about this it doesn't make it go away.
Conversation with, with, officer signix Mother, did you hear with her I
met with her, I met with his partner, and then I met with one of the Capitol Hill police, former representative Comstock was was with them. It was a good meeting. But I started out the conversation by just saying I'm heartsick that you are here. I am heartsick that you feel that you need to come and advocate to members of Congress that we stand up and say, the truth is hard, but the truth is necessary. And it's necessary for not only officer signix mother and his partner, but for the officer that was there and who was representing so many officers, and, and for the country. Truth is hard stuff. But we've got a responsibility to it. So it was it they had come from a hard meeting, and so I was glad that I was be, I was able to sit with them for about 20 minutes and just give everybody serious hugs because that was needed.
They came from a meeting with someone that opposed. Do you think your Republican colleagues are opposed to this because they're worried about President Trump and what he might say and how it would influence the election next year,
I believe there are those. Yes, that, that, that believe that they don't want to, they don't want to rock the boat, they don't want to upset. But again, it's important that there be a focus on on the facts, and on the truth, and that may be unsettling. But we need to understand that. And, and so, other people's motivations, I can't speak to, but, but I think, I think there is some concern that we don't want to, we don't want to rock the boat. What do you think though that your decision may affect your own reelection and people have been, you know, I can't think about that, and I know that that some might doubt that. But what happened I don't know if you were here on January 6 I was here. You were there. You were there, I've talked to some of the reporters that went through some pretty, pretty frightening scenarios. For them, this was not. This was not a group of tourists coming through this was not a, a protest that was mild, we know you know, I know.
And, and
so to to suggest that somehow or other, this was not so bad. This was an attack on our capital does designed to to stop to stop a process that has been in play for. For a century Plus, when we move to allow for the peaceful transition of power from one administration to the next, that democracy is allowed to continue. And so we just can't pretend that nothing bad happened, or that people just got too excitable. Something bad happened. And it's important to lay that out.
Peter McConnell says that there's nothing new to be learned about that date. Do you think that's accurate. You agree with that.
Have you had one on one conversations with members of the Capitol Hill police,
then you know.
Were you here. It was okay then, you know, I think there's more to be learned. I want to know more and I'm. I want to know and I don't want to know. I don't want to know, but I need to. And and I think it's important for the country, that there be an independent evaluation and some have said well it's never going to be independent because you have this speaker select you have the, the, the Senate President, select and, by its very nature, it will therefore become political. Okay, but it's even Steven, you pick one I pick one. If we really want to, to be honest with this we're going to pick in it can't be people that are part of, of this body, um, it's it's folks that are from the outside. So, if you really want to fill this up and make it political I suppose you could with your own picks, but that's your calling. If you want to make it an independent commission. Then, later. This is your opportunity pick the right people
wake up McConnell has made it clear that this is about politics for him. And that, I mean some of these hard truths that you say that could come out of this commission. I mean, his calculus is clearly that some of those hard truths could negatively affect some of the races, the Republican races in 2022, in your mind, would it be worth having those hard truths, having to digest those hard truths, at the party of the nation. If it means that you lose Republican seats in the Senate in 2022
Anything's you guys.
Apparently it's a hard question to be making a decision for the short term political gain at the expense of understanding and acknowledging what was in front of us, on January 6 I, I think we need to, to look at that critically. Is that really what this is about is everything is just one election cycle after another, or are we going to acknowledge that as, as a country that is based on these principles of democracy that we hold so dear and and one of those is that we have. We have free and fair elections, respect, the results of those elections and we we allow for a peaceful transition of power. I kind of want that to mature beyond just one virtual cycle. So there's a lot of focus about this commission is it going to solve our problems, you know, your question isn't going to reveal anything more than we would have gotten otherwise, I don't know and I guess now we'll never know. But that's, isn't that part of the problem that we'll never know. And so if we never know, we'll wonder we'll keep wandering and never it'll never be resolved, it'll always be hanging out there. And so, isn't it only right that we can provide some level of of certainty, at some point in time. My view. Apparently I'm being called back to the office because your questions are too hard to take you right.
