Tomorrow on the creation of an independent Bipartisan Commission to investigate the deadly january 6th capitol riot but gop leader Kevin Mccarthy trying to derail the commission before it gets off the ground, now saying hes opposed to it, siding with republicans who are trying to downplay the violence that day. Its important to point out that mccarthy initially blamed trump for helping to incite the insurrection. The president bears responsibility for wednesdays attack on congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding. But then two weeks later, mccarthy completely changed his tune. I dont believe he provoked if you listen to what he said at the rally. And lets not forget that mccarthy made a pilgrimage to maralago to meet with trump and beg for his blessings. So now hes trying to whitewash the january 6th attack and hoping to block the investigation altogether. And tonight the number two republican in the house, gop whip steve scalise, urging members to vote it down. Lots more on these developments just ahead. In the battle against covid19, the cdc saying 15 states reporting zero covid deaths as 60 of American Adults have had at least one dose of the vaccine. But why are mask mandates so confusing . And President Biden pitching his american jobs and infrastructure plan at a ford plant in michigan and taking a swipe at the previous administration. And they announced infrastructure week and announced it and announced it and announced it every week for four years and didnt do a damn thing. Didnt get the job done. Folks, the rest of the world is moving fast. Theyre moving ahead. Theyre not waiting for the United States of america. Government, labor, industry working together have to step up, and we have a playbook that will work. Lets bring in now the transportation secretary, pete buttigieg. Secretary, thank you so much. Appreciate you joining us. So you met with thanks for having me. The gop wants to stick to things like roads and bridges and Mitch Mcconnell is saying no more than 800 billion. Are you remotely close to that kind of agreement . I think we had a good conversation. It was productive. Obviously were starting from different places, but thats how a negotiation works. What i will say is that everyone in that room cares about infrastructure, cares about this country. And what we need to do, as the president said, is make sure that america is competitive going forward. We cant be coasting off of infrastructure decisions and investments that were made 50 years ago, 100 years ago, and expect to remain the leading economy in the world. So theres a lot of motivation to get this done. Theres a lot of impatience. You also saw that reflected in the president pointing out that weve been here before in terms of big expectations about infrastructure. This time we really have to deliver. And i think everyone, no matter what party theyre from or what part of the country theyre from, one thing ive noticed is that everybody in congress is from somewhere. Theyre going home to constituents who are impatient for action, and i think that creates a lot of propulsion for these negotiations that are going on in the days and weeks ahead. So youre saying theres a chance . Thats right. Yeah. I mean, look, we know theres a big difference in perspective. We get that. Again, thats how a negotiation works. You come in with different perspectives and see where we can go. Thats part of the conversation were having as an administration. Also the conversation in the committees that the republicans and democrats are having with each other as part of regular order. And i think theres every reason to believe that we can get something done here, but we cant take forever to do it. Time is of the essence. You cant let infrastructure week be a punchline again. Theres got to be some way to pay for it. The president wants to raise the Corporate Tax rate 25 to 28 . Republicans say no way. So fine. Assuming thats the case or just a ploy on their part, are you prepared to move forward because the truth is they didnt care about the ballooning deficits from the trump tax cut. Well, one thing ill say about Infrastructure Investments is that they can pay for themselves. But lets be clear. The president has put forward a way to fully fund this, proving mathematically really that we absolutely can afford to do this as a country. More than that, we can afford to do this while still having corporate rates be lower than theyve been for most of your and my lifetime and while not increasing taxes on anybody making less than 400,000 a year. So we think the president s approach is the right one. But, look, were having conversations because we recognize that there are other ideas. The president wants to hear other ideas. And the only red line ive heard so far from him on payfors is his commitment to making sure we arent raising taxes on anybody making less than 400,000 bucks a year. I want to talk to you about some other news. I want to talk about this january 6th commission and the republicans full embrace of the big lie and the attempts to memoryhole the events of that day. I know the Biden Administration is focusing on policy, but are democrats doing enough to push back against this . Well, look, the house has a job to do, and theyre going to approach it in the way that they can arrive at. It doesnt change what happened that day although i think its important for us as a country to reckon with what happened that day. It also doesnt change the focus that we have right now, which is knowing that the best thing that we can do, that this administration can do to help bring the American People together is to deliver. And thats why theres such a sense of urgency. Theres a sense of urgency around getting the rescue plan through and now looking ahead to the jobs plan, we have got to make sure that the American People can feel, regardless of how they voted, regardless of what their politics are, that life is Getting Better for them because we are delivering better infrastructure whether its roads and bridges or pipes and internets or making child care or elder care more affordable. Thats going to be our focus. I know you said congress has a job to do. Its up to congress. I get that, but you know politics. Should there be a full investigation on capitol hill into what happened, come hell or high water . The future of our democracy could depend on it. We are living in a posttruth, postfact society right now, and its important for people to know the truth. I think getting the facts is important, and dealing and wrestling with the implications of those facts is important. How will it be done, whether congress is prepared to do it, will be up to congress. But one way or the other, our country has to move forward in a way that recognizes that facts do in fact matter. The truth does, in fact, matter. And peoples lived experiences that are undeniable are at the heart of what were trying to do at a policy level definitely in my department and really across this administration. Listen, youve been, you know, in politics for a while, and ive been doing this for a long time, but ive never seen a divide like this. These people are the same people, secretary, that you need to negotiate with on these deals, and they are totally out of touch with reality. What happens if you negotiate with republicans in good faith, and you cant reach a deal . Will you do it without them, and how will you get senator manchin or others who are insisting on bipartisanship how do you get them onboard . Well, i think that rightly, there are a lot of members in our party who expect us to do absolutely everything we can to get a good bipartisan deal. At the end of the day, the president s been clear, and this is the only other red line ive heard from him in this process. That doing nothing is not an option. So we need to make sure that we do everything we can to get there. Todays conversations were part of that, and a lot of whats going on, especially in these days, is part of that effort. And i can tell you its a goodfaith effort. I can tell you that ideas are being exchanged. They may be different ideas, but theyre being put forward in good faith to see where the overlap is. There really is a lot of meaningful overlap. Theres also a lot of meaningful difference. Im hopeful this will get us to a bipartisan place. The bottom line is we have to do something because our competitors arent waiting. Chinas not waiting. And the laws of physics arent waiting. Right now on the border of arkansas and tennessee, youve got a bridge i40 costing probably millions a day in economic impacts. Thats just one bridge in one part of the country. You multiply that out, and we simply cannot allow this infrastructure week, month, season, whatever you want to call it, to also pass without action. Sorry. I didnt mean to interrupt you. We have a delay here. I have noticed that the president is framing this increasingly as a National Security issue, focusing on china for example. As you said, competitors, other countries cant wait. Is this a way to make the case to centrists and independents to think beyond roads and bridges . I think so. Look, i mean if weve been reminded of anything in the last few months, its that our Critical Infrastructure takes a lot of different shapes, and its vulnerabilities affect our way of life. Whether were talking about the Colonial Pipeline and what a cyberattack on a private company did to the eastern seaboard or whether were talking about the storms in texas and what the vulnerability of our electric grid showed and did for so many texans. Case after case where we have seen new kinds of threats, cyber, climate, and Global PublicHealth Threats affecting our security and our way of life, i think its demonstrating why we need to think big. In a way this is actually traditional. For example, nothing is more traditional today than roads and bridges, right . The interstate highway system. But part of why eisenhower believed it was important to have an interstate highway system is he recognized that d america more secure. That a better connected country is a safer and more secure country. The same is true now of the internet just as it was then of the interstate highway system. Secretary buttigieg, thank you for your time. Thanks for having me on. An update now on the sham audit of votes in Maricopa County, arizona. Auditors hired by the state senate backtracking tonight from claims that a key database had been deleted from county election servers. All of this, however, may be a moot point because subsequently ive been able to recover all of those deleted files, and i have access to that data. So, um, with that being said, do you do we do you still need to get that database from the county, or did that rebuilding or recovery that you did does that have the information you currently need for that database . I have the information i need from the Recovery Efforts of the data. Im so happy now to bring in this gentleman to talk about it. The Maricopa County record. Mr. Recordrecorder, i appreciat joining us this evening. Let me get this straight. The auditors running this sham recount who claim that files were deleted now say that theyve miraculously recovered those files. But to be clear, the files were never deleted, is that right . So, don, you brought me in on a good afternoon because, yes, this did just happen where the very thing that they had accused us of on wednesday night of last week and sent us into a tailspin trying to figure this all out, it turns out to be exactly what we said, which was that we never deleted these files. They were always there. You know, you heard what they said. That didnt amount to an apology exactly, but at least they acknowledged that the files are there, that my employees, my team, me personally have not violated the law. Can you explain to you know, i try to sit here every night, stephen, and explain to people what the truth is, what reality is, and, listen, its been frustrating for quite some time. Youre in that position now having to do something similar. What is this like for you and for the people who work with you . Its incredibly frustrating. Were trying so hard, but as you just said to the secretary, were operating in a posttruth world in some capacities in which no matter how much data and information you provide, you cant convince them. And how are you supposed to argue with that if you cant use facts and logic . For instance, Something Like these deleted files. I promise you there will be people emailing me months from now saying, what about those deleted files . Or dominion. Dominion is a case closed. There is nothing to it, but i get an email a day at least saying, are you on the take of dominion . Has dominion completely overtaken the elections . Listen, how do you argue with someone when you cant use facts and logic . You just said it. The former president has seized on the false claim. You called his comment unhinged. Why is the party indulging the former president on this big lie . None of it makes sense. Its all a lie. Because it stinks. Ive already lost a few people that i thought were friends. Ive already gotten scores of angry emails who said, youre a traitor. You know, these are my friends, the very people who are showing up even to this audit are, you know, fundamentally good people, but they have been led to believe otherwise, and they are being led by a company that indulges in conspiracy theories with this cyber ninjas. And i dont know if well be friends again after that, and thats not something i relish. So i can understand, i guess, why other republicans make that decision. I did what ultimately i felt was right. The entire Maricopa County governing body has done the same. We are united. We will come out. We will stand on this. And, you know, whatever the consequences may be politically, were going to go with it because its right. Stephen, i have friends that ive had since college in louisiana, some of whom ive had to let go because they i mean they literally say crazy things that i cannot explain to them that what theyre saying and what theyre believing is nuts. So i understand where youre coming from. Its sad. Im going to miss them. But i cant i dont have room for liars and Conspiracy Theory believers in my life. When these auditors are looking for things like traces of bamboo on ballots, what is the craziest Conspiracy Theory youve heard . Is that it . No. No. The craziest Conspiracy Theory by far is that one of the board of supervisors who happens to own a very large chicken farm took ballots from the 2020 election, fed them to 165,000 chickens, and then had them incinerated. Now, what actually happened is that this poor man had a serious fire at one of his barns, and 165,000 chickens did die. But the idea that they had ballots inside of them, i mean, you know, legitimate people indulge this. A prominent member of the state legislature indulged this in a conversation, and its just you know, what is going on here . Thats facially laughable. Look, i dont want to who is whos the Republican Party right now . Like what i mean i dont know. I think well figure that out in 2022. But, look, that stuff like the bamboo and the chickens and the uv lights, you know, if youre going to do that, you know, okay. I disagree. But what really crosses the line for me is when you accuse the hardworking people who have gone through just heck and back over the last year running an election in the face of a pandemic. When you accuse my rank and file, when you accuse my i. T. Department of fraudulently, unlawfully deleting files, no. That goes too far. Stephen, you can say hell on this program. But, listen all right. I wasnt sure. I was i was raised in utah, so i get it. The colloquialism. I thought it was that or the midwest somewhere. To heck and back. Listen, Maricopa County has twice audited the vote and its upheld its integrity. What do you think should happen at this interest, stephen . I dont know. Im scared. I dont know what good comes out of this audit at this point. I think given the nature of the principal auditor on this project, i think theres at least twothirds of the state that wouldnt believe anything they say. And i think theres, you know, a third of the state that has reached its conclusions, you know, whatever may come basically. I dont see how were changing that. Thats a scary thought moving into 2022. My only hope is that if enough republicans and enough leaders come out and dont indulge these anymore and dont, you know, sort of dance around the issue but say, im sorry, but what you have been told about dominion, for instance, is factually inaccurate, and, you know, im sorry for you, and im sorry youve been put in that situation. But we need to move forward because thats inaccurate, and you need to stop parroting that. Stephen richer, there need to be more people like you speaking out. I thank you for coming on this program. Youre welcome back anytime, whenever the hell you want or the heck you want. All right. Thank you very much. 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