JUDY WOODRUFF: Just three days after being sworn in to serve his first term in Congress,
Representative Peter Meijer, a Republican from Michigan, was among the lawmakers in
the House chamber last January when pro-Trump rioters attacked the Capitol.
He voted later with nine other House Republicans to impeach then-President Donald Trump. That
decision has resulted in death threats. And now he is facing a Trump-endorsed primary
challenger as he runs for reelection.
Congressman Peter Meijer joins us from Grand Rapids.
Congressman, thank you so much for being with us.
As we said, you were in the House chamber on that day. What memories does it -- come
back to you as you reflect on that?
REP. PETER MEIJER (R-MI): Thank you for having me tonight.
I would say just feels of anger, of frustration, of feeling something sacred was being trampled
on, and that, in the history that was made, a very dark, dark possibility raised of the
threat that every four years we would no longer have a peaceful transfer of power, but that
we have just chosen to expand what we compete on in a political playing field outside of
elections, outside our institutions and, frankly, put everything up for debate.
JUDY WOODRUFF: As we mentioned, you were one of just a handful of Republicans to vote to
impeach President Trump over inciting that riot.
And we also mentioned death threats. You had a reaction, very negative reaction, from your
constituents, even from family members.
Are you able to have a rational discussion about what happened with any of these people?
REP. PETER MEIJER: Certainly on a one-on-one basis.
I think, oftentimes, we will find that the misunderstanding or where we differ is a lot
less significant than it may appear from the outside, especially talking about the lack
of response in the immediate hours after the Capitol was broken into.
You know, there's obviously people who have very strong beliefs about the November 2020
presidential election. But when you start to get down to brass tacks and what actually
occurred, clear away some of the fog, some of the deception and the misinformation that's
out there, it's very hard to justify how the former president reacted, at the very least
in the hours after the Capitol was attacked, when the vice president and the next two individuals
in the presidential line of succession were under assault in the Capitol.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, I want to ask how you reconcile those views, because in a poll we
have just done, only 10 percent of Republicans said they could call what happened on January
6 an insurrection. And then, coupled with that, you have the great majority of Republicans
who don't believe President Biden won.
How do you explain these views, both of which are clearly not based on facts?
REP. PETER MEIJER: I think you -- whenever you're asking a survey or a polling question,
there's a certain defensiveness that can come in.
I think I have seen that plenty of times, where somebody will publicly be very defensive,
and then, in a one-on-one conversation, where the guard is let down, where somebody doesn't
feel like it's their tribe against another, they're more than willing to accept and acknowledge
things.
But when we have a highly polarized context, when it's black or white, when it's all or
nothing, when we're dealing with absolutes, it's very tempting to feel like it's us vs.
them, when, at the end of the day, we're all Americans.
JUDY WOODRUFF: But 10 percent of the Republican Party saying -- members of the Republican
Party saying they don't think it was an insurrection.
I also want to ask you, Congressman, about -- you did an interview with NBC News over
the weekend. You were asked about President Trump, whether there was another option for
the Republican Party other than to support him. And you said there's no other option.
I mean, what does it -- what do...
(CROSSTALK)
REP. PETER MEIJER: Yes, to clarify, when asked about whether -- why there was the reversion
back after January 6 to supporting Donald Trump, I said because individuals did not
see an alternative, they did not see another path, not that there is no choice, but that
we need to be creating the path.
We need to be working on what a party that is reflective of the concerns of conservative
Americans, but that also is a party that adheres to the rule of law, what that looks like.
And, to me, that is a charge, that is an opportunity to be defining that, not succumbing to a belief
that there is no other option, but that the charge is to create it.
And just to clarify on that poll that only 10 percent of Republicans describe it as an
insurrection. I think the other options were a protest or a riot. And I think riot was
30 percent, and I think protest was 40 percent, if I'm referencing the same poll.
JUDY WOODRUFF: But I think it's clear that you -- and listening to the police officers
we just heard from, there's no doubt in their -- or at least what came across is, they believe
this was an attempt to overthrow the results of the election.
Congressman, you didn't vote for this January 6 Committee in the House. You have said that
you want to wait and see what the work product is.
But I did interview yesterday the longtime partner of Brian Sicknick, who was a Capitol
Police officer who died the day after the attack on the Capitol. And she said, unless
members of Congress, including Republicans, are able to hold President Trump accountable,
there's going to be more violence.
What do you say to Sandra Garza, who -- again, longtime partner of Brian Sicknick?
REP. PETER MEIJER: I say we absolutely have the same fears, that I grieve for the tragedy
that struck her and her family in those moments.
I mean, the loss of Officer Sicknick and then the subsequent loss of several other Capitol
Police officers and Metropolitan Police officers who took their own lives in the days and weeks
and months that followed is an absolute tragedy, and why it is even more frustrating to see
people whitewash and downplay the events of January 6.
We have to face it for what it was. We have to recognize the threat of political violence,
and say that we should not be tolerating that. That was one of the reasons why I voted for
impeachment, the fact that we cannot, in our political system, be playing around with such
dangerous rhetoric and encouraging, spurring, inciting people to go and try to use force,
use threats, use violence in order to achieve a political end.
That cannot be tolerated in our politics.
JUDY WOODRUFF: But...
REP. PETER MEIJER: But I would say -- sorry.
JUDY WOODRUFF: I was just -- excuse me.
I was just going to say, but you know the leadership of your party in the House and
the majority of Republican members of the House are saying that this committee shouldn't
be there, it shouldn't be doing this work, that it's important to look ahead, not to
look back.
In other words, it's just the opposite of what these police officers and what Ms. Garza
are calling for.
REP. PETER MEIJER: And there were dozens of my Republican colleagues who voted in support
of a bipartisan independent commission that was styled after the 9/11 Commission.
And I think -- I'm still deeply disappointed and frustrated that that commission was not
formed. Again, I said that I will look at the work product and the results coming out
of the January 6 Select Committee as it continues along.
But, in my mind, the opportunity that was missed -- and I hope that the ultimate work
product will be this -- was to have something that could be looked at and viewed objectively
by the American people that can be clearing away a lot of, again, the rumors and innuendo
and the deception and the misinformation, the whitewashing, the blame-casting that we
saw in the days, weeks and months after January 6, and still today trying to make it seem
like anything other than it was, which was a violent attempt to interfere with the proceedings
of Congress, and specifically the certification of the Electoral College results.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And we're hearing your voice, a minority voice in the Republican Party.
Congressman Peter Meijer, thank you very much for joining us.
REP. PETER MEIJER: Thank you.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And, tomorrow, we want to say we will continue our coverage of the January
6 anniversary, including a conversation with the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus,
Hakeem Jeffries of New York.