AMY GOODMAN: Congressmember Khanna, I want to go right now to another guest to join you, from Tucson, Arizona. Democrat Adelita Grijalva of Arizona won a special election two weeks ago in Arizona’s 7th Congressional District. She’ll replace her late father, former Congressmember Raúl Grijalva, in Congress. After she’s sworn in, Grijalva is expected to become the 218th vote needed to force the Justice Department to release more of its files on the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. On Tuesday, CNN’s Manu Raju questioned House Speaker Mike Johnson about why she hasn’t been sworn in.

MANU RAJU: Earlier this year, you swore in two Republican members during a pro forma session. So why not swear in Adelita Grijalva, who was elected two weeks ago, during a pro forma session? Does it have to do with her 218th signature on the discharge petition, the Epstein discharge petition?

SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON: No, it has nothing to do with that at all. We will swear her in when everybody gets back. It’s a ceremonial duty.

MANU RAJU: Why not do it pro forma?

SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON: Look, we’ll schedule it, I guess, as soon as she wants.

AMY GOODMAN: “As soon as she wants.” So, why don’t we ask her? When does she want to be sworn in? We go now to Tucson to speak with Adelita Grijalva, the congressmember-elect from Arizona.

Well, you heard the House speaker. What’s the issue?

REP.-ELECT ADELITA GRIJALVA: Yesterday would have been a good day to get sworn in. Last week, when I was on the House floor, would have been a great time to get sworn in. The issue is that Speaker Johnson is just refusing to acknowledge the fact that I am waiting in the wings to get sworn in. Arizonans need a voice in Congress, and I want to be able to advocate for the community here. He has set a — this speaker set a precedent in the last three specials to swear people in in under 24 hours from the time of their election. And now we’re working on day 14 that I’ve been duly elected and ready to work.

AMY GOODMAN: So, you’ve said that the first thing you’re going to do is sign the discharge petition around the Epstein files. Can you explain what that is and why this is important to you?

REP.-ELECT ADELITA GRIJALVA: Yeah. So, so much of the push during the presidential race had to do with transparency and, like, you know, we needed to get these Epstein files out. And then, as soon as this administration is in office, all of a sudden there’s — you know, there’s nothing to see here. And the American people want to know what is in those files, who is implicated. And the victims need an opportunity for justice and a voice. And they will be at the Capitol today, many of the victims, talking about why it’s important for them to be able to be seen, and those that perpetrated crimes to have consequences.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Representative-elect, in this period when you’re essentially in limbo here as a result of Johnson’s decision, what are you — what have you been able to do to represent your constituents?

REP.-ELECT ADELITA GRIJALVA: I can’t represent my constituents. I am an elect. I have no budget, no office, no — no staff. I have been as active as I can be in accepting offers to speak on the issue. I have supported my colleagues. Our Hispanic Chamber, our mayors from — eight mayors from this community have all communicated to Speaker Johnson, like, “Swear her in.” I was in D.C. ready to be sworn in. And now it seems that, you know, if you don’t agree with the politics of Speaker Johnson — this is an incredibly scary precedent to set. If you don’t agree with the politics of the speaker, then they can keep you out of your duly elected office.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to go to talk about precedent. Earlier this year, House Speaker Mike Johnson swore in Republican Congressmembers Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine a day after this — after their election, even before official results were in. This is Florida Congressmember Mario Díaz-Balart.

REP. MARIO DÍAZ-BALART: I ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from Florida, the Honorable Randy Fine, and the gentleman from Florida, the Honorable Jimmy Patronis, be permitted to take the oath of office today. Their certificates of election — certificates of election have not arrived, but there is no contest, and no question has been raised with regard to their elections, Mr. Speaker.

SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON: Without objection. Will Representatives-elect Fine and Patronis and members of the Florida delegation present themselves in the well? As all members rise, and the representatives-elect, will you please raise your right hand?

AMY GOODMAN: Even before the results were in, these two Florida Republican congressmembers were sworn in. Let’s bring Ro Khanna back into this conversation. Now House Speaker Johnson is saying not until the shutdown is done. Have we ever seen a precedent for this? It’s not about as much Adelita Grijalva’s rights as her constituents’ rights to be represented. And if you can talk about this discharge position — this discharge bill that would — that you have put forward with the Republican Congressmember Massie, and what it would mean?

REP. RO KHANNA: Well, it’s really shameful. I’m sorry that we’ve caused all this trouble for Adelita Grijalva. She should just be sworn in. But the reality is, Thomas Massie and I had a press conference scheduled this week. The survivors were going to fly in. We all assumed that Adelita was going to be sworn in on Tuesday, was going to be the 218th signature. And what happened? Well, they didn’t want that. They knew that if she was sworn in, that we would then trigger a vote. You would have a vote within seven legislative days. The survivors were coming on the Capitol. That would get national attention again. And the reality is, you probably have 50 to 60 Republicans on the floor vote for the full release of the files.

So, what has the speaker done and the Republican leadership done? They have refused to swear in someone who won her election, basically, 70% to 30%. They’re denying a district in Arizona of representation. And they’re not having us vote on anything in Congress, including paying our troops.

Now, I just want to say Adelita Grijalva is extraordinary. I served with her father, Raúl Grijalva, who was one of the great progressives. And I can’t wait to work with her when she does get sworn in. But she needs to get sworn in today, tomorrow. I mean, every day is breaking precedent and depriving people of who they voted for.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Adelita Grijalva, Ro Khanna mentioned your father. He was a longtime co-chair of the Progressive Caucus. Our condolences on his death earlier this year from complications from his cancer treatment. Could you talk some about his legacy and what he meant to you and to the people of Arizona, especially the border region around Tucson?

REP.-ELECT ADELITA GRIJALVA: Well, my dad was an unapologetic progressive and voice for southern Arizona. He was the conscience of many communities, Indigenous, migrant, working families, our environment. Those that cannot speak for themselves had a voice with my father. And so, so much of what he did and the advocacy that he pushed for was about transparency and about standing up for those who can’t.

And so, we cannot — this administration is just ignoring the will of the people, in general, sending in troops into committees that are not asking for the assistance, just completely trampling our rights. And this is something — this oath is incredibly important, and it’s important for the community here to be able to have a voice. It’s also important for me to be able to hire staff and open a constituent office. So, the question was “What are you doing?” The frustration is, I can’t do my job until Johnson does his job.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And I wanted to ask you — you mentioned the Trump administration’s attack on immigrants across the country. What you’re hoping to do in Congress to beat that back, and also his attempts to squash any diversity, equity and inclusion teachings in the public schools? You were on the Tucson Unified School District and the Pima County Board of Supervisors back when there were attempts to squash Mexican American studies and bilingual curriculums in Arizona.

REP.-ELECT ADELITA GRIJALVA: Yes. So, I was on the school board for 20 years, and during that time, we had a fight with our state superintendent of public instruction to eliminate Mexican American studies. We had African American studies, Native American studies. And I think it’s important to be inclusive of our communities and our people’s history and their contributions to the fabric of this nation.

And so, the attacks on DEI and — I mean, I never thought that I would be in this twilight zone where diversity, equity and inclusion were said as bad words. It is what opens up doors of opportunity for many people like myself. And without fighters like my dad pushing to be — to have access to higher education at the University of Arizona during the Chicano Movement, I would never have this opportunity. And so, it’s important for us, those of us that have been given the privilege and access, to make sure that that door stays open for other people.

And when you have states that are pushing English-only, that are anti-immigrant, I mean, we saw a loss, a significant loss, of students, with people moving into other states once Arizona had made the statement through English-only laws that we were anti-immigrant. Now that sentiment is across our entire nation. I mean, I have Border Patrol that drive right up and down my way home, every mile marker, sitting there, waiting for what? Looking for who? People that look like me, that look like workers, that have an accent. And they are literally kidnapping people off the streets.

So, what we are seeing play out on television is happening in real time. And as the representative for this community, that has three ports of entry with Mexico, it is critically important for me and our voice to be present when these conversations are happening and when solutions are being created to this problem that Trump and this Republican Party have exacerbated throughout our nation.

AMY GOODMAN: Congressmember Ro Khanna, what about these National Guard deployments and governors, from Oregon to Illinois, saying that President Trump is breaking the law in bringing them in unsolicited? What role does Congress play in all of this?

REP. RO KHANNA: They’re unconstitutional, but they’re also cruel. I mean, when you’re looking at raids that are parading on the streets half-naked children, when you have raids that are separating kids, snatching them away from their mothers, when you have the harassment of not just women and children but American citizens, the American people have been horrified.

And what we have to understand is that Trump is going to keep pushing the envelope. If we don’t stand up, he may say, “Let’s have ICE agents outside the polls,” before an election. This is an attempt to intimidate and harass people of color in this country, people who are the children of immigrants in this country. And we need to stand up. Justice Kavanaugh has said that it’s OK to profile someone if they’re Latino and if they’re in a low-income occupation, literally. He wrote that in an opinion.

So, this is a time where we need to be out there on the “No Kings” marches. If you’ve come out to a “No Kings” march, please bring someone else. The Democratic Party needs to be the leader of a democracy movement. We need to be more than just doing our votes and our jobs. We all need to participate in leading a movement to stand up for democracy and the dignity and rights of people who are seeing it violated.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Congressman Khanna, I wanted to ask you about the Trump administration’s attacks on the press, the multiple multimillion-dollar lawsuits that he has filed against various media organizations, the attempts to use the FCC to investigate the — some of the TV broadcast companies. Your sense of what is happening to the media in America under this administration?

REP. RO KHANNA: It’s been the largest assault on the freedom of the press in modern history. It’s why independent media like yours is so much — so very important at this time. But you’ve not just had the attack on Jimmy Kimmel or the attack on left-wing groups who are, quote-unquote, “anti-American” or anti-capitalist, that according to the NPSM-7 memo that they have. You have a dangerous consolidation of the media. You have them literally having rich billionaires buy up CBS. You have them having rich billionaires buy up TikTok, concerned about whether the TikTok algorithm had too much criticism of Israel and Netanyahu.

I mean, anyone who read Chomsky about capital class controlling media often would say, “Well, is that really true?” Well, look, Trump is trying to actually prove his thesis true. And it should be chilling to all Americans in terms of the corporate consolidation of the media to suppress viewpoints critical of our own government or foreign powers in the world. We all need to be standing up and speaking out for freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

AMY GOODMAN: Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna, I want to thank you for being with us, on Capitol Hill, from Silicon Valley in California. And we want to thank Congressmember-elect Adelita Grijalva of Arizona. She won a special election last month but has yet to be sworn in. She will be, if Hank [sic] Johnson — if House Speaker Johnson allows her to be, the first Latina congressmember representing Arizona.

Coming up, we look at the growing media empire of billionaire Trump ally Larry Ellison and his son David, who heads newly formed Paramount Skydance. David Ellison has just installed Bari Weiss as the new head of CBS News, in what’s been described as a right-wing takeover of the network. Stay with us.

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AMY GOODMAN: “Never Buy the Sun” by Billy Bragg, performing in our Democracy Now! studio. Yeah, he’s British, but he could be talking about The Baltimore Sun and others. We’re going to talk about media ownership now.