>>> As the Republicans prepare
to make the most of their house
majority, GOP congressman James
the presumed incoming chair of
the oversight committee says he
wants to restore credibility in
a wide ranging interview with
CNN's Pamela brown, he discussed
his plans for oversight.
>> So you say you want to
restore credibility of
oversight, what do you say to
some Republicans who don't want
oversight seemingly to do this
investigation, Mitt Romney came
out in "The Wall Street journal"
with an op-ed saying Republicans
need to focus on the economy,
not as he called it pointless
noise and pointless
investigations.
What do you say to that?
>> I am one very small part of
the Republican conference.
As I've said, my lee comprises
8% of our total conference.
We're in charge of
investigations.
And this is a major
investigation for our committee
in January.
>> You've talked about the fact
that Marjorie Taylor Greene will
be on oversight.
How do you plan to manage fire
brands like her being on your
committee?
>> Well, you know, historically
the committee has been a haven
for a lot of the fire brands in
congress.
I mean, everybody is supposed to
serve on committees.
And if you look at the Democrats
on the committee, you have four
of the five squad,
ocasio-cortez, tlaib, Cory bush,
Pressley, they're on the
oversight committee, Jamie
raskins, I would consider a fire
brand, led two investigations of
the former president is on the
oversight committee, we have a
lot of the freedom caucus.
The steering committee puts
Marjorie Taylor Greene on the
committee, she will be on the
committee.
Jim Jordan is on the committee.
A big percentage of the -- Andy
Biggs who challenged Mccarthy is
on the oversight committee.
So you're going to have some of
the most visible people in both
parties, but again, they still
make up a minority of the
oversight committee.
If you look at the last --
>> Are you worried it's going to
undermine credibility that
you're trying to restore?
>> No.
I think -- I'll be honest --
honestly, I understand your
concern.
Honestly, though, having
ocasio-cortez from the Democrat
side and Jim Jordan from the
Republican side on the oversight
committee, it honestly attracts
more media.
A lot of committees produce --
work very hard and produce
reports and never get picked up
in the media.
So you know, there's an
advantage to having people in
both parties that are considered
fire brands that are in the
press a lot on a committee
because it helps your committee
be high profile.
So, I feel like we have all the
tools necessary to be a high
profile committee, but an
effective committee.
Both sides have members that --
we have members that MSNBC can't
stand and they have members that
Fox News can't stand.
But in the end, you know, what
I'm going to try to do as
chairman is to make sure that
everyone has a voice.
>> And we should note that we
did reach out to congresswoman
Marjorie Taylor Greene's office
for a response but did not hear
back.
>>> Meanwhile, a new generation
of house Democrats led by new
York congressman hakeem Jeffries
is preparing to replace house
speaker Nancy Pelosi and her
leadership team in the next
conference.
Earlier Jeffries told CNN that
he's confident that Democrats
will remain united during their
time as the minority.
>> The majesty of the house
democratic caucus is that we
also incredibly diverse in terms
of race, gender and religion and
sexual orientation, region, life
experience and even ideology.
If we can have some noisy
conversations at times about how
we can make progress for the
American people, what we have
seen is that under the
leadership of speaker Pelosi,
Jim Clyburn we have constantly
been able to come together time
and time again.
>> And I'm joined now by house
democratic whip Jim Clyburn who
is right now the number three
leader in the democratic caucus.
He's thrown his support behind
Jeffries and also announced his
bid for assistant democratic
leader.
Good evening, congressman.
>> Good evening.
>> So you stepped aside from
your leadership position along
with Nancy Pelosi, but you
clearly don't plan to retire any
time soon.
So, what is your number one
legislative priority for this
session?
>> My number one priority is to
continue president Biden's
efforts to get this country back
in its pursuit of a more perfect
union.
To get the families and
communities throughout this
country back on their feet, back
flourishing again.
This campaign we just had was
based on the platform that we
saw very successfully building
America back to beyond where it
was before the pandemic.
And the people responded very
positively to president Biden's
approach and to his agenda.
And I want to see us Democrats
continue that pursuit of a more
perfect union.
And that's tops with me.
>> So congressman, you've said
that you believe that this new
generation of Democrats could
really help your party retake
the majority in 2024.
President Biden turned 80 years
old today.
You wished him happy birthday.
He is, of course, a dear friend
of yours, as you say, but I have
to ask, do you think that he
should consider stepping aside,
like speaker Pelosi did in order
to complete this generational
handoff, so to speak?
>> Well, I don't know that you
hand off generationally the
presidency of the country.
What you do in legislative
matters is totally different
from what takes place in the
white house.
I think that the president is
doing the right thing at home
with his family to make a
decision.
But let me make it clear, I
think that he has earned the
continuation of this success.
And I think the American people
demonstrated that at the poll.
So if he were to run again, I am
going to be full throated in
support of him.
I think he'll win.
>> And I mean, congressman, I
just want drill to down on this.
Your endorsement of president
Biden in 2020 was absolutely
critical.
You're saying tonight you will
indeed endorse him and support
him if he does run, as he said
he will, in 2024?
>>.
>> Absolutely.
Let there be no mistake about
that.
Everybody ages differently.
I tell everybody, I'm two years
older than -- I turned 82
several months ago.
And so, I feel very comfortable
that I can continue in the
congress.
I think I will make a decision
very soon as to how long that
will be, but I don't think that
I've shown any diminishing of my
intelligence.
And he sure hasn't with me.
If you look at all that he's
accomplished, it has been
fantastic.
And it's been Earth shattering.
We've had the best productive,
most productive congress that
we've had since 1965.
And this administration made it
so.
>> So congressman, I want to ask
you about something that house
minority leader Kevin Mccarthy
is promising to do.
He's promising to remove several
house Democrats from their
committee assignments.
Listen to this.
>> You've talked in the past
about removing Omar and Adam
Schiff, Swalwell, will you
deliver?
>> Yes, I will.
I'll keep that promise.
One thing I said from the very
beginning, Eric Swalwell cannot
get a security clearance in the
public sector.
Why would we ever give him a
security clearance in the
secrets to America?
Adam Schiff who lied to the
American public time and again,
we will not allow him to be on
the Intel committee either.
And look, congresswoman Omar,
her anti-semitic comments gone
forward, we won't allow her to
be on foreign affairs.
>> Mccarthy warned that he would
do this when Democrats voted to
remove congresswoman Marjorie
Taylor Greene from her committee
assignments last year.
Right?
What's your reaction?
>> Well, you know, the
government is here for the
benefit of the American people.
All of this tit for tat stuff is
so sophomoric.
I don't believe that the
American people will reward the
Republican party for acting this
way.
Now, everybody that was removed
from any committee, they were
removed for reasons.
And everybody knows that.
If you feel that you've got to
indict or in this instance
impeach Joe Biden as I've heard
Ms. Taylor green say, she has
filed papers to impeach Joe
Biden.
For what?
What are you going to file
papers to impeach him for?
Why are you going to remove Adam
Schiff from a committee?
Because one of your members got
removed?
That's not the way you run the
government.
That is childish.
I would hope he would not do
that.
>> Congressman, let me ask the
question this way, do you think
that Democrats may have perhaps
set the precedent by voting to
remove congresswoman green from
that committee?
?
>> If my memory serves, I think
the Republicans themselves
removed a member from our for
behavior unbecoming of a
congressperson.
I think when you walk to the
floor carrying a loaded firearm,
that's unbecoming of a
congressperson.
I believe when you say stuff
that's insulting, that's
unbecoming of a congressperson.
If any of these people were to
say something or do something,
unbecoming of a congressperson,
I would join them in having them
removed.
This is not a partisan issue.
We should all conduct ourselves
as if the house is America's
classroom.