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DPCC Chair Cicilline: Democrats Are Focusing on the Issues that Matter Most

June 10, 2019

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman David Cicilline, Chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC), appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews on MSNBC to discuss Democrats' congressional oversight responsibilities. Democrats are fighting to lower health care costs, raise incomes by rebuilding America, and clean up corruption in Washington. Below are excerpts from the interview. Click here to watch the video.

"The bottom line is Congress has the right to this material. If we allow the executive branch to just decide to defy lawfully-issued subpoenas for documents or individuals, they would effectively extinguish congressional oversight so clearly they don't have the authority to do that."

"This is an ongoing effort of the President of the United States to engage in a cover-up to prevent the American people from seeing the truth. There is no claim of privilege that any court would recognize. They know that. This is, again, a pattern of this President to prevent Congress from getting to the truth and behaving like he is above the law, when of course he is not…We're going to get to the truth, we're going to follow the facts where they take us and the American people have a right to know."

"While we are doing this, we've passed 250 pieces of legislation that focus on the important issues like healthcare, reducing the cost of prescription drugs, equal pay for equal work, universal background checks, a whole number of things that are addressing the important priorities of the American people. So we have to do both things."