ICYMI: Congressman Robert Garcia, Freshman Class President, on CBS Face the Nation
Congressman Robert Garcia – Democratic Freshman Class President, and the first openly LGBTQ immigrant in Congress – joined CBS News Face the Nation Freshman Panel this past Sunday.
CBS News: Freshmen representatives from the 118th Congress on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan
During the panel, Congressman Garcia addressed House Democrats unity despite being in the minority and their commitment to fighting back against House GOP extremism.
Congressman Robert Garcia: “I mean first I think what’s been a great surprise is how united Democrats are. I think we’re united to win back the majority in two years. We’ve been pushing back on what we view as Republican extremism, you’ve seen it on the floor time and time again. I’ve also been really really impressed with just how Democrats really represent what America is all about today – standing up for working people, and really trying to uplift the middle class. And so, that’s something that I’m really proud of and I think that Freshman Democrats are united first and foremost to win back the majority.”
He went further on the GOP’s plan for attacking vaccines, the pandemic response, and individual’s ability to make their own health care decisions as it relates to abortion care and access.
Congressman Robert Garcia: “Listen, I think there’s going to be some things we all agree on, but at the end of the day you’ve got to look at the agenda and what Republicans and speaker McCarthy put forward in just this first couple weeks in the Congress.
“Congresswoman Lee and I both serve on the Oversight Committee, their very first hearing is about attacking essentially the pandemic response. [...] They’re attacking vaccines, they’re attacking the pandemic response, they’re attacking basic tools like allowing health care workers to be masked or be vaccinated – that is extreme. That is not coming together and supporting the country.
“And so, when you start attacking the pandemic, when you start the women’s ability to make decisions about her own body as it relates to abortion care and access, when you’re expanding the opportunity for gas and drilling on federal lands – that’s been the initial opening sub of the Republican Party in the Congress.
“So, I think as freshmen, we’re trying to push back on that, and so I appreciate the kind of spirit of working together. There’s a lot of other things we should be working on, but in my opinion, than attacking the country, attacking health care workers, and attacking women.”
He also called out extreme MAGA Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene for inciting violence and defending treasonists that attacked our nation’s Capitol on January 6.
Congressman Robert Garcia: “We all renounce hatred and we renounce violence, but we also have to go back to what you mentioned about the Capitol attack as well, and we have still in this Congress members, particularly on the other side, they’re unwilling to renounce the insurrection that are unwilling to renounce member within the Republican Party that are standing up and they’re saying very violent things. [...]
“I’ll take someone like Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene for example, I think the way that in my opinion and many others, the way that she incited violence, the way that she continues to defend those that attacked our government, that attacked our Capitol, the way that she continues to not support what the Capitol Police tried to do that day, and the way she has treated other members of not just her caucus but of course of the Democratic Caucus, I think it’s unacceptable. I think it’s shameful.
“I think that if you cannot stand up and say that what happened on January 6 was treason and was tyranny against her own government, her own people, I don’t think you should be in Congress and she shouldn’t be in Congress.”
To watch the full panel, please click here.
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