Rep. Jayapal: Whitaker Was ‘Arrogant, Dismissive, Disrespectful’

EXCERPT:

JAYAPAL: "Oh, absolutely. And it started from the minute he walked into the hearing. He was arrogant, he was dismissive, he was disrespectful. And then when it came to this, I actually think he didn't quite know what to do. First if all, he knew nothing about this. Earlier, I had said did you know about family separation, he said it didn’t happen. I said there was a memo. There was a memo. And he said no, that didn’t happen and I said there were four Pinocchios to that statement that The Washington Post afforded to this. And by the time we got to the end, I think — this is such a compelling issue, Joy. You and I have talked about it before. Republicans and Democrats agree that this was a heinous crime that has been committed against thousands of children. And I think he really didn’t can know what to do and so he tried to be dismissive and say, oh well, I respect your passion which is a way of saying you’re getting kind of emotional about this. And then I had to make it clear that this is not about my passion, this is about the future of the children. And yes, you know what, I will say I am so proud that I am so passionate about this because anybody should be thinking about not only these children who don't get to see their parents ever again, but the that were children separated for months and some of them, I watched them come together with their parents. I heard their parents say the kids didn’t want to go back to their parents in some cases because they thought they had been abandoned. If we all don’t have real passion, real commitment, to figuring out what happened and making reparations, the U.S. Government should make reparations for what we have done to these families."