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AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman with Nermeen Shaikh.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva was finally sworn into the office by House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday, 50 days after winning her seat in Congress in a special election to fill the congressional seat left vacant when her father, Raúl Grijalva, died in March. Up until yesterday, House Speaker Mike Johnson had refused to swear her in to prevent her from submitting the final signature on a discharge petition to force a vote on the Justice Department’s full release on the Jeffrey Epstein files.
AMY GOODMAN: In a moment, Congressmember Adelita Grijalva will join us. But first, let’s turn to her speaking on the House floor on Wednesday.
ADELITA GRIJALVA: I rise today the proud granddaughter of a bracero, a hardworking Mexican immigrant who came to this country for a better life. And I stand as the proud daughter of a U.S. congressman, a man who spent his entire life fighting for justice, equity, and dignity for the most vulnerable. Yeah.
From working as a vaquero to serving in Congress in just a single generation, that is the promise of this country. That is the America I want to raise my three beautiful children in, Adelina, Raúl and Joaquin. Stand up. Stand up, babies. [Laugh] Look at them.
They, along with my amazing husband Sol and my wonderful mama Ramona, are here with me today. Muchas gracias por su apoyo y tu amor. And thank you to la gente of Southern Arizona for making history electing me, the first Latina, the first chicana from Arizona to ever go to Congress.
Este momento es histórico para nuestra comunidad. Es un honor ser la primera latina en representar Arizona en el Congreso, y les aseguro que aunque soy la primera, no seré la última.
And while we celebrate this moment today, our American promise is under serious threat. Basic freedoms are under attack. Healthcare premiums are skyrocketing. Babies are being ripped away from their parents by masked agents. We can and must do better. What is most concerning is not what this administration has done, but what the majority in this body has failed to do: hold Trump accountable as a co-equal branch of government that we are.
It has been 50 days since the people of Arizona’s seventh congressional district elected me to represent them, 50 days that over 800,000 Arizonans have been left without access to the basic services that every constituent deserves. This is an abuse of power. One individual should not be able to unilaterally obstruct the swearing in of a duly elected member of Congress for political reasons.
Our democracy only works when everyone has a voice. This includes the millions of people across the country who have experienced violence and exploitation, including Liz Stein and Jessica Michaels, both survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse. They are here in the gallery with us this evening. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Just this morning, House Democrats released more emails showing that Trump knew more about Epstein’s abuses than he previously acknowledged.
It’s past time for Congress to restore its role as a check and balance on this administration and fight for we, the American people. We need to fight for our immigrant communities and veterans. We need to stand up for our public schools, children, and educators. We need to respect tribal sovereignty and our environment. We need to stand up for LGBTQ+ rights because that’s what the American people expect us to do: fight for them.
That is why I will sign the discharge petition right now to release the Epstein files. Justice cannot wait another day. Adelante, mi gente. Muchas gracias. Thank you very much. I yield back.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Arizona’s newly sworn-in congresswoman Adelita Grijalva speaking on the House floor Wednesday. She joins us right now from Capitol Hill. No longer do we have to call you Representative-Elect Grijalva. This is your first full day in office. As you took the floor yesterday after being sworn in, you spoke in English and in Spanish. This is the first time in more than half a century that a person who was elected was prevented from becoming a congressmember for, what, more than seven weeks. Your thoughts today?
ADELITA GRIJALVA: Yeah, Southern Arizona waited 50 days to be able to have a representative in Congress. Southern Arizona did their job, and Speaker Johnson refused to do his.
And as frustrating as it was for me personally, it’s more heartbreaking when people needed help during this shutdown that was completely preventable. But they needed help with their VA benefits, understanding whether they were going to get furloughed, whether they were going to get paid back, what is happening with Social Security and their immigration status, and I couldn’t answer any of those questions.
And so, now we finally have the green light to be able to open up offices in district, offer services, onboard staff and I’m very excited for the opportunity that Southern Arizona has given me.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, Representative Grijalva, Mike Johnson, it was 50 days over seven weeks, as Amy said. His justification is that he couldn’t swear you in while the House was out of session, but in fact, there’s no such rule that would block your swearing in, on top of which, during this time, he swore in two Florida Republicans while the House was in recess. Your comments on how this unfolded?
ADELITA GRIJALVA: Well, every excuse that Speaker Johnson rolled out, whether it was my race wasn’t certified, we don’t – and that was never a requirement, has never been. He actually swore in three people less than 24 hours from the date of their election – that we can’t swear in a pro forma, except that he did swear in two Republicans during a pro forma session. And the fact that we couldn’t do it while we were in a shutdown, there was a whole class in 2019 sworn in during a shutdown.
So, every excuse was literally just that. Speaker Johnson was making a political ploy, was preventing my swearing in for a number of reasons, one of which was, I believe, the signing of the Epstein files. And so, now that that’s all out, my hope is that very shortly, Congress will be able to vote, the House will be able to vote, on that very important issue so the public in general will know where their representative stands on getting that information out and holding people accountable.
AMY GOODMAN: So, it is believed, of course, that he didn’t want to convene the House because he didn’t want what you had promised, which was to sign off on that discharge petition, which now has to go to the floor of the House, calling for the DOJ to release the Epstein-Maxwell files. That was your first act in office.
If you can talk about the significance of this, what this means. People just talk about, quote, “The Epstein files,” and, of course, many people may be surprised a bit since President Trump campaigned on releasing those files, that the fact that his name is mentioned throughout these files, that’s why he held a situation-room meeting yesterday, they called in your colleague, Congressmember Lauren Boebert, who is crossing the aisle to vote for the release of the files. If you can talk about what it means as a young woman yourself, we’re talking about possibly more than a thousand sexual assault victims, many of whom were underage.
ADELITA GRIJALVA: Yeah. Well, I sat next to Ms. Michaels for a period of time yesterday, and just the strength that she has in having to tell her story over and over again, her credibility being questioned.
And when just a tiny fraction of these files are released, we can see how many people are going to be implicated. It is so critically important that justice is finally served to those predators, to those people who committed pedophilia and rape against children and women. And every single individual, I don’t care what their background is, I don’t care what their political party is, has to be held accountable.
And what my concern is, this administration is doing literally everything they can to ensure that that information doesn’t get out. And what we’ve seen is, this is a bipartisan push, not just here in the House but across the nation. Everyone wants to know what is going on and who is sitting in the White House and in positions of power throughout our nation.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: And Representative Grijalva, in fact, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has accused Republicans of running what he has described as a, quote, “Pedophile protection program.” What is your message, first of all, if you could comment on that phrase and also your message to the in the coming weeks?
ADELITA GRIJALVA: Well, I think that Leader Jeffries is right on. The fact that this information hasn’t come out, that Trump ran on this platform as part of his campaign on day one, he was going to release these files, and here we are, we’re into November, and he’s doing literally everything he can, bringing in individual members of Congress and applying what I can only imagine is an incredible amount of pressure on every single one of them to remove their names. He did not want to see what happened yesterday.
And if you look at the pressure that he was applying, it’s no wonder that Speaker Johnson didn’t swear me in for 50 days. I believe that we have to apply as much pressure as possible, not just to representatives to vote their values and vote their conscience, but when it goes to the Senate, to do the same. Trump, I would love for him to be sitting at his desk and being forced to sign this document. And if he doesn’t, then there should be legal consequences for him as well.
AMY GOODMAN: It is remarkable that the possibility that the House went out of session to prevent you from being a congressmember to protect what someone called the Epstein class. And what this means – and then there’s everyone else. And this goes to another issue. You represent more than 800,000 people. This was not just a violation of your rights, and we’d like to ask what’s going to happen with your lawsuit brought by the Arizona Attorney General at this point, Kris Mayes – not only of your rights, but of your constituents’ rights.
You represent many people who lost their food stamps, who lost their SNAP benefits. What is your congressional agenda now that you’re in office? What do you hope to accomplish? And the fact that so many have still not yet gotten their food aid?
ADELITA GRIJALVA: Yeah, well, one, this administration, it really is a campaign of cruelty. And when you look at the fact that SNAP benefits were even part of this equation is unconscionable. To take food away from people in poverty across the nation? When we’ve had shutdowns before, SNAP was never impacted because it’s always funded.
When you look at what Trump did with furloughed employees, threatening them that if they don’t show up, they were not going to get hired back, and, “Maybe we’ll just fire everybody,” it’s that kind of cruelty that motivated those Senate Democrats to compromise. And that compromise is a horrible compromise that I hope goes down – that’s one of the things that I was hoping for is that we would have bipartisan support in some of the basics, in providing healthcare and food. But here we are.
And so, for the constituents in Southern Arizona, I’m going to continue to push an agenda of transparency, of affordability, trying to hold on to every right we have in this democracy. And the issues that I was elected to fight for are public education, environmental justice, looking at our immigration policies and trying to make them more humane, and working wherever I can with anybody bipartisan group that wants to work for the American people and for rights of people, I will be there.
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about your decision to speak Spanish and English on the floor of the House yesterday as you were sworn in. There was a standing ovation for you throughout.
ADELITA GRIJALVA: Yeah, I was really appreciative of that. I felt it very important. In Southern Arizona, we have a lot of Spanish-speaking families and even many that are bilingual. And so, I wanted to let them know that I was there for them and that I appreciate this glass ceiling that was broken and Southern Arizona’s faith in me, but that I will not be the last Latina from Arizona to hold this position.
AMY GOODMAN: And your thoughts, this famous picture now where you’re shaking the hand of the House Speaker who prevented you from serving out your full term, him complimenting your father, even as he disagreed with him? What was the little thought bubble as you were standing there, sort of half-smiling?
ADELITA GRIJALVA: Yeah. [Laugh] Well, my face is – I don’t play poker well, but I knew that it was something that I had to – I had to go acknowledge the Speaker’s role and for him to look me in the face and understand that all of this was completely avoidable. And the platform that I have right now, where people know who I am, is a direct result of him highlighting how corrupt this administration is and how much work there is to do to ensure that we can get back to a country that all of us have an opportunity.
AMY GOODMAN: And the report that in the Senate right now, part of the deal that was passed was that a number of senators can get up to a million dollars if their phone records were taken – were being observed by the FBI after 2021 insurrection, that that was included as people, millions, lose their food stamps, that these senators can get up to a million dollars of government money, they can sue the DOJ?
ADELITA GRIJALVA: Well, Trump is suing us. So, why can’t they?
AMY GOODMAN: That’s for millions.
ADELITA GRIJALVA: That is, to me, just some of the most outrageous examples of how people under the Trump administration are enriching themselves. We don’t have enough money for SNAP, we don’t have enough money for affordable healthcare. We don’t have enough money for basic infrastructure throughout our nation, but we do have money for a ballroom, and retrofitting a plane and giving – building up Trump’s own army in ICE agents throughout – that’s the kind of – it’s the priorities. A budget is a value statement, and this administration continues to show that they value enriching themselves, protecting themselves, making themselves more comfortable over everybody else.
AMY GOODMAN: I just want to end with this observation. On Wednesday, President Trump dined with Wall Street executives at the White House. Among the CEOs invited, JP Morgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon, David Solomon of Goldman Sachs, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Morgan Stanley’s Ted Pick. Their dinner came as millions of people who rely on SNAP food assistance benefits continue to be denied access to their full November benefits.
A Department of Agriculture spokesperson said Wednesday, “Some beneficiaries will have to wait even longer before benefits will be loaded onto the debit cards they use to buy groceries.” In this last 30 seconds, your final thoughts, Congressmember Grijalva, as you take office?
ADELITA GRIJALVA: Trump is so far removed in understanding what the average working person is going through right now. People are – literally don’t know where their next meal is going to come from. And the audacity of this administration to hold parties, to cater to the wealthiest amongst us, really highlights how far apart and far removed he is from the rest of the 99% of us in this nation.
AMY GOODMAN: Adelita Grijalva, we thank you very much for being with us. U.S. representative, congressmember for Arizona’s seventh congressional district, the first Latina to represent Arizona in Congress and the daughter of former congressmember Raúl Grijalva. Congratulations.
Coming up, the devastating human cost of the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID. We’ll talk with Dr. Atul Gawande. He headed global health at USAID during the Biden administration. Back in 20 seconds.
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AMY GOODMAN: “Fenfo” by the Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara, performed in our Democracy Now! Studio.
