Mary-Charlotte Domandi:
How are you?
Teresa Leger Fernandez:
I am okay. This is actually, it is very cathartic, uh, to actually are you recording? Yeah. Okay. It is actually very cathartic to do our job, right. This is what needed to be done and the ability to actually get it done really does move you behind. Right? I’ve been talking about how, um, healing and unity start with accountability. And it’s true, right? That this does not divide us. This brings an end to what we need to do regarding what happened on Wednesday a week ago in all of its horror and terror. Um, and it allows us to move forward now to begin working on what we need to do, but there is definitely, I hadn’t thought about it until I told you now that there really is, this catharsis is really, is this okay now it’s done. Now. Now we can move to the next thing. Cause our, our role in this has done, we’ve done our job.
MCD:
It’s I mean, one week ago today, January 6th, insurrection, you were in the capital so much more as coming out each day about what, what did happen. And so much more will come out in the coming days. One week later, impeachment, all Democrats voted in favor of it in the house. 10 Republicans also voted in favor. Um, and, and so like, I guess I want to ask you, what does it, what does it feel like, like from, from a far, I mean, as, as, as Maria was saying before it’s so it feels surreal, it feels surrealistic. It feels so scary. Um, uh, AOC was talking about the trauma of it. What does it feel like to you?
TLF:
It is all of those things. I mean, the trauma is not just about the fact that there was horror and anger and violence and people who wanted to do harm to us out there, but that there was also violence directed at something that I talk a lot about that I love. Right. Uh, and, and the fact that for a long time, for a whole week, it felt like we couldn’t do anything about it, right. That there was a lack of agency because we could not control, um, those moms, we could not control this president, but what we could do was what we did today. So we did what we are empowered to do, which is impeach. And that feels good because that is my job. And I can do that. And I have that power and that power should be used to protect Americans, ideals, to protect our democracy, to protect this institution and re we exercised it.
Uh, and so I think that that’s why it’s very important that we did this today. With regards to that issue, you were re you were raising about the surreal niche of it, or the trauma of it that this brings closure to that the reality, however, is that the hate and violence that were incited by this president and that we’re encouraged to come to light and, and, and to row more streets, uh, that is not over, um, the Capitol right now is awful. I mean, it is safe. You feel like it’s safe, but you only feel like it’s safe because it looks like, uh, you know, we’re barracks for thousands of national guard. Uh, there, you can’t get anywhere near it. Um, and so it is a very safe place right now, but is also a place that shouldn’t have to look like this. Um, you know, we’re preparing for the inauguration, they’re going to do everything to make it as safe as possible.
The alarm bells have been wrong. Everybody is awake about, um, the violence that is intended to be inflicted on, um, our democratic institutions and president Biden and all of those who support him. So we now know that. And so this level of security is so that nothing happens, but it shouldn’t be like this. I mean, I look forward to the day where we move back, uh, from this abyss and, and we build and have that healing in unity. They talk at the beginning, you will look, I, I posted a picture or a video today of what it looks like in, um, the Capitol where we have thousands of, uh, national guard who they’re not, um, at their posts, they’re basically sleeping, you know, in the Capitol, um, they’re using their rucksacks to sleep and they do look like they are good, they have donuts. And then they also looked like they had some healthy stuff that they were able to eat, you know, but you, it just, it’s, it’s jarring, right?
It’s jarring, I’m a student of Latin America. And so I spent time and Latin America throughout college and during my master’s work and doing the law school. Cause I also, uh, worked in Latin America during law school and, you know, presence of military, you know, it was kind of expected because there were crews and there were, you know, uh, dictators and those kinds of things. That’s not what we should be seeing here in the United and in our capital R capital. We’ve always been proud of the fact that, you know, regular people could go to the right house that, you know, or house was the people’s house, you know, and, uh, little by little based, this kind of violence is forcing a hardening of the security and it’s needed right now, but it also breaks your heart that it’s there.
MCD:
One of the things that I’ve been thinking about is, you know, we just had this gigantic hack in which a lot of government, uh, computer systems were infiltrated. And because we’re in such a vulnerable moment right now, I keep wondering the director of Homeland security step down. Are we safe from our enemies at this moment? Is that something that is part of the conversation that you’re engaged in,
TLF:
Right. That’s exactly what I was talking about right now that in order to be saved from our enemies, both external and domestic, we have this level of security that is required at this moment. I cannot speak, I’m not an expert on the cyber security issues. Uh, and so I, you know, I can’t really talk to you in any more detail than you or anybody else, we in the paper code about what we’re doing on cybersecurity, but it raises those issues. And that’s one of the important, but this gets to the point of why it’s so important to actually impeach Trump, even though he only has nine days left, is we don’t want him to have access to our security briefings, which all past presidents do, because there’s certain level of trust, whether we liked them or not. You kind of trust Joe per se, is not going to go and take those secrets to wash up.
We do not trust president Trump, that he will not take those secrets and share them with Russia. Um, I mean, he’s not shown, uh, any kind of restraint in his dealings with, uh, other countries that are enemies to us. You know, his first impeachable offense was in particular kind of saying, Hey, you know, this other country, let me give you something that you want. If you’ll give me something I want, I mean, this guy has been willing to trade, um, in, um, in trade, you know, use America like a commodity that he can use for trading. So we cannot trust him. And that’s the other reason why we impeached, even though he only has nine more days left in the office.
MCD:
So the, uh, impeachment in the house happened today. But as we know, the Senate is on vacation essentially until the day before the inauguration. So what’s the way forward. What does this mean? What’s the next step?
TLF:
So we did, I’m a member of aggressive, the house of representatives that people house, and we did our job. Um, uh, the Senate is in this interesting state of flux with regards to, as they transition from Republican led Senate to a Democrat led Senate. And it is up to them to take it up. And when they take it up, the impeachment proceedings do provide certain timelines. Um, but how they get there is going to be their job.
MCD:
Um, have you, did you have to go through metal detectors? Yes. And I had
TLF:
No problem. It doesn’t take long at all. You know, as long as you’re not carrying a gun, no problem. You just give him your purse. I finally figured out, you know, my purse is one of those persons that has a zip and because I can lose things, right. You don’t want to lose anything. So I zip it up and I finally learned to like, Oh, unzip it for them and you get it real fast. So my third time I went through, I went down four times onto the floor today. So on the fourth time, uh, I was like handed over on zippers. Great. Cause there was a woman, a woman guard. And like, she was like kick, she lucked into that thing so fast. Like she was like, she knew what to look for in a woman’s first. She gave it right back. I did see I got it. Don’t you? And she goes, yeah, it helps a lot. So, you know, uh, Roman Roman know how to go through women’s persons a lot faster than those guys do.
MCD:
Could you, can you bring in like a Swiss army knife or what are they looking for?
TLF:
You were not allowed to have guns on the floor of the house. There was a rule that does not allow that. And there have been Republicans who have stated that they are going to take the guns on the floor of the house, given that certain Republicans were more active participants with Q Anon and, and last week’s events, it is scary to think that they want to bring guns on the floor of the house. You know, they can argue with my ideas. They do not need to take the gun out to argue with what we might say on the floor of the house.
MCD:
Right? Anything else you want that’s on your mind today? Anything else in your heart? My heart, my heart,
TLF:
My people of New Mexico and across this country who have sent me blessings and prayers and worries, and, uh, you know, encouragement about what to do today, they have helped fill up my heart, uh, and make me strong. And I am so grateful for that.
MCD:
Well, I look forward to talking to you tomorrow as things develop.
