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AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.
We turn now to Arizona, where Democratic Congressmember Adelita Grijalva of Arizona says she was pepper-sprayed by masked ICE agents as she tried to find out more information about a raid on a popular restaurant in her district in Tucson. Grijalva is the first Latina to represent Arizona in Congress. She posted this video of herself as she identified herself to the agents before they pepper-sprayed her.
AIDE: We have a sitting member of Congress.
REP. ADELITA GRIJALVA: You need to calm down. You guys need to calm down and get out. You need to get out.
UNIDENTIFIED: [bleep]
REP. ADELITA GRIJALVA: You need to — you need to get out. You need to get out. Hey! Hey! Hey! Sir? Sir? You need to get out of here.
ICE AGENT: Get out of the way! You guys need to clear now.
PROTESTER: Let her go!
AMY GOODMAN: The video posted by Congressmember Grijalva slows down the final scene and repeats the part where an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer pepper-sprays her.
Grijalva joins us now for more. She last joined us right after she was sworn in last month to succeed her father, former Congressmember Raúl Grijalva, after a 50-day delay, as she then became the 218th signatory on the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act, which compels the Justice Department, FBI and federal prosecutors to disclose the documents by December 19th. We’ll talk about that in a minute.
But, Congressmember Grijalva, thanks so much for being with us. Let’s start with what happened on Friday. Tell us exactly where you are, what was the establishment that was being raided, and what happened to you.
REP. ADELITA GRIJALVA: Yeah, so, that’s a restaurant I go to all the time. It’s Taco Giro. I was literally on my way there for lunch with three of my members of my team, and we got a call, turning down that corner, saying, “Hey, something’s going on at Taco Giro. There’s like an ICE raid.” So, you could see it. I mean, the road was blocked. I pulled off into another establishment and walked over to try to find out what was going on. I asked questions. I introduced myself as a member of Congress. I believe that it is my job. Oversight is my job. It’s not optional. And I was trying to ensure people’s rights were protected.
And except for one individual, everybody else — it didn’t matter if I was a member of Congress or not. They were trying to incite some sort of riot, because there was no reason at that point for them to still be there. So, at the part of the video where I said, “You all need to go,” right before that, there was an agent that said, “You all need to move, and we’ll get out of here.” So, once I asked everyone to move, but I was trying to deescalate the situation, so the road was clear. That’s why I kept saying, “OK, y’all need to go now. Y’all need to go now.”
You know, our community deserves safety, clarity, due process. And I’m going to continue to demand answers about who was targeted and why this location was chosen and whether protocols were followed, because southern Arizona elected me to stand up for them.
AMY GOODMAN: So, what has ICE responded or the federal government responded to the — your pepper-spraying?
REP. ADELITA GRIJALVA: Oh, they said I wasn’t pepper-sprayed. So, that was the response, that I wasn’t pepper-sprayed, that this was a long investigation. And literally, what we were asking and I was asking is, “What is going on here?” So, the video speaks for itself. I was pepper-sprayed, and then there was gas. And it was — I mean, you can see officers. Telemundo was there. Univision was there. There were other stations there. You can see officers in other videos clearly shooting a spray right at people’s eyeline, unnecessarily. I mean, sort of where I was, the person that was hit the worst, literally in front of me, was a member of the press. And DHS did, you know, admit to that. Like, there was a member of the press. And I said they weren’t being aggressive. They had press credentials and a lot of cameras. So, it was — it was pretty — it’s very, very jarring.
AMY GOODMAN: So, what happened to the restaurant? Who got arrested?
REP. ADELITA GRIJALVA: I don’t know. I believe it’s — I believe it’s still closed. I haven’t gone back. It’s a — so, they’re locally owned, but it’s a chain around other places in southern Arizona. What the claim was is that it was a raid having to do with taxes. But again, the show of force in front, like, in the middle of the community, was very, very concerning, very aggressive to everybody.
AMY GOODMAN: Adelita Grijalva, I want to ask you a question on another issue. You were the final vote needed on the discharge petition that calls for the release of the Epstein files. Other Republicans joined you, and among them was Marjorie Taylor Greene. I wanted to turn now to a clip of Marjorie Taylor Greene. She was interviewed on 60 Minutes, and she’s talking about the threats she received for bucking the president and how serious, in fact, that they are. Let’s go to Marjorie Taylor Greene speaking on 60 Minutes.
REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: After President Trump called me a traitor, I got a pipe bomb threat on my house, and then I got several direct death threats on my son.
LESLEY STAHL: On your son?
REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: On my son.
LESLEY STAHL: You say the president put your life in danger. You blame him. You say he fueled a “hotbed of threats against me” and that you blame him for the threats against your son.
REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: The subject line for the direct death threats on my son was his words: “Marjorie Traitor Greene.” Those are death threats —
LESLEY STAHL: So, you do — you blame —
REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: — directly fueled by President Trump.
AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s Marjorie Taylor Greene saying that she’s receiving death — her son has received death threats because of what President Trump said about her, calling her “Marjorie Traitor Greene.” If you can talk about what he is so angry about, even though he campaigned on the release of these documents, where these documents stand right now?
REP. ADELITA GRIJALVA: Yeah, so, as my — as I understand it, they are — every little piece of the puzzle, insofar as the files, have to be approved by a federal judge in order for the — for that investigation to be released. And so, it is a longer process than I think any of us want to see.
And it’s also — you know, what very much concerns me in what Marjorie Taylor Greene is saying, that as an elected person in any position, you shouldn’t have to worry about that kind of fear. And she’s getting a glimpse of what many of my colleagues have been living with since Trump’s been in office and before that. These targeted attacks are incredibly scary.
And Trump had done up — until the point that he gave permission to both representatives and senators to vote for the release of the Epstein files, had literally done everything in his power to obstruct their release. And so, I don’t know what he’s afraid of that the community, that our nation are going to find out, but I do think that there are implications very high up. I was listening to your show earlier on how often, you know, this family, the Trump family, how they’re enriching themselves off the presidency. It’s a very scary time for all of us and for democracy right now.
AMY GOODMAN: Right, Donald Trump Jr.’s company getting a $600 million-plus contract with the Pentagon, among other things. Let me end by asking you about the massive health premium increases that could soon kick in for millions of Americans, as Republican Speaker Mike Johnson races to finalize a Republican healthcare plan supposedly this week. Republicans want to have an alternative to vote on as Democrats attack them for allowing Obamacare subsidies to expire. House Republicans are reportedly angry at Johnson over his failure to lead on this issue, as well as the affordability crisis, which likely impacted recent election victories for Democrats. He also helped the Trump administration to block the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. And I want to ask you about this Republican uprising, if there is one, particularly led by Republican women like Marjorie Taylor Greene, like Nancy Mace and others. If you can talk about this?
REP. ADELITA GRIJALVA: Well, they’re hearing from their communities about the incredible cost of maintaining insurance for your families. So, you know, that’s why Democrats were holding so strong on healthcare, because it is going to impact millions of people. The Republicans have had 15 years to come up with a better alternative. Since ACA started, all they have done is criticize it. And here we are, December 8th, and they’re talking about rolling out a plan?
People are already looking at those premiums right now. So, as an individual person on the ACA, to cover me, it’s $760 a month. To cover me and my children, it’s going to be $1,400 a month. My husband works at a local community college here, and it costs $700 a month for him to cover me, himself and our three children. Like, this is becoming — it’s a situation that’s untenable.
And what people are going to do, because they can’t afford it, is they’re going to forego health insurance, and the impact to our system in general is going to be devastating. There are five rural hospitals in southern Arizona that are already talking about closing their doors, because the wave of people coming in without the resource and reimbursement is going to be devastating.
So, we have a really big problem to fix here in our healthcare system, and to talk about these Band-Aid solutions right now, you know, in December, when premiums are going up right around the corner, it’s just — it’s past time. And I think that the criticism to Speaker Johnson is justified.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, we’ll certainly continue to follow this this week, Adelita Grijalva, U.S. representative for Arizona’s 7th Congressional District, representing Tucson and beyond, the first Latina to represent Arizona in Congress, the daughter of the former and late Congressmember Raúl Grijalva.
