Chuck Schumer: “I rise to respond to the President's remarks he made about a half hour ago about the problems we are facing with the…”

“I rise to respond to the President's remarks he made about a half hour ago about the problems we are facing with the firing of eight U.S. attorneys. The President had a press conference, basically, where he said he wanted to cooperate and he wanted the information to come out. That is good news because that is what we all want. This is such a serious issue. The integrity of the U.S. attorneys, the integrity of the Justice Department has been hurt, and we must restore it. It is good to see the President understands we have to do something, we must restore integrity to what is the foundation of this country, the rule of law, without fear or favor. So when the President began to speak, I felt quite good. But when we learned of what he has proposed, it can only be called very disappointing because while he has made an offer that appears to be cooperative, when you look at it closely--you do not even have to look at it that closely--the cooperation is minimal. Let me show you why. The President has said we could interview--his words, we could interview--some of his high-level staff. However, the interview will be held in private, not in public. There will be no oath or sworn testimony. There will not even be a transcript. The interview will be as if it occurred in a darkened room, and then there is no record of what happened.…”