Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton on police reform, growing push to remove controversial statues
Washington, D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton joins Chris Wallace on 'Fox News Sunday.'
House of Representatives Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton told “Fox News Sunday” she “completely understands” the calls for police reform saying, “You send people like me to the Congress of the United States to do something about it and that's what we are doing now.”
“You've never seen, I think, a reaction, at least from Democrats in the Congress, as quickly as you've seen after the George Floyd demonstrations,” the Washington, D.C., Democratic representative said during the exclusive interview.
Norton then pointed to the police-reform bill approved by the House on Thursday night.
“You are beginning to see reactions or actions,” she said.
The House approved the wide-ranging police-reform bill by a vote of 236-181, sending it to the Senate one day after Democrats stalled a GOP-backed bill there.
Host Chris Wallace asked Norton what she would say to the critics who might “conclude the Eleanor Holmes Norton way isn't working” after experiencing “a lot more police brutality” and “economic inequities.”
“The Eleanor Holmes Norton way is sending someone to Congress to do something about it,” Norton said in response. “That's what Eleanor Holmes Norton is doing.”
She added, “The impatience in the streets is why we have the legislation that was passed, the policing act, in Congress last week.”
“The streets have spoken to the people they send to Congress and that is how a democracy works,” she continued. “That's what we want to see.”
Wallace then said, “You say this is how a democracy works, the fact is that Democrats in the Senate blocked the Republican bill because they said they were given no input.”
He went on to note that “Democrats passed a bill without any Republican input.”
“The result of it is, it looks like both sides did the same thing and nothing is going to get passed,” Wallace continued.
“I disagree,” Norton said in response. “Since the Republicans have a bill, a policing bill … in the Senate, we've passed a bill in the House. What that leads to is people looking at those bills and getting together.”
“Let them pass their bill. Just as we have passed our bills. Then there will be a conference,” she continued.
Wallace interjected saying, “It was the Democrats in the Senate who blocked the Republicans from passing their bill so there is nothing to have a conference about.”
SENATE REPUBLICANS' POLICE REFORM BILL FAILS ON TEST VOTE AMID DEM OPPOSITION
“They blocked it, that is to say they would not agree to any part of it because it was a disgrace,” Norton responded, adding that “it didn't even rise to the level of a remedy.”
“I'm not sure I would have blocked their bill,” she continued. “Perhaps their bill should have been exposed and voted [on] – and put them on the record about their bill.”
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., ripped into Democrats Wednesday after the bill he authored on police reform failed in the Senate on a procedural vote, accusing Democrats of punting on the issue until after the election and abusing what he described as their "monopoly" on black voters.
Wallace then turned to the growing push to remove statues and monuments and other images honoring Confederate soldiers, slave owners and other controversial historical figures, which have been torn down in states, including Virginia and California – either officially or by the protesters themselves.
On Friday, President Trump announced that he signed an executive order to protect American monuments, memorials and statues and threatened those who try to pull them down with “long prison time.”
Speaking during an exclusive interview on “Hannity” the day before he signed the executive order, Trump said, “We're going to get tougher and tougher and at some point there's going to be retribution because there has to be.”
“These people are vandals, but they’re agitators, but they're really – they're terrorists in a sense,” he continued.
Wallace told Norton on Sunday, “You must know that millions of Americans agree with the president and don't want to see looting, don't want to see vandalism even if they disagree with the statues, don't want to see them taken down by a mob.”
“I agree on that score,” she replied. “That's why there's legislation pending to take down these statues.”
She added, “We would hope that we would be given the opportunity to do this in regular order because you have a Congress, at least in the House of Representatives, that is showing it’s willing to do it.”
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She went on to say that she does not “endorse vandalism as a way to deal with what we're seeing in the streets. That's what they send people like me to Congress for.”
Fox News’ Caitlin McFall, Adam Shaw and Chad Pergram contributed to this report.
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