Transcript: Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick and Tom Suozzi on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” March 9, 2025

The following is the transcript of an interview with Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, Republican of Pennsylvania, and Tom Suozzi, Democrat of New York, that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on March 9, 2025.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to Face the Nation. We’re joined now by the co-chairs of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus. Pennsylvania Republican Brian Fitzpatrick represents a district that was narrowly carried by Kamala Harris, and New York Democrat Tom Suozzi represents a district that went for President Trump. So you all have to find the middle and that brings you together and brings you here today. It’s good to see, in a bipartisan fashion, this conversation take place. But I want to start with you, Congressman Fitzpatrick, there is this potential government shutdown looming March 14th. Speaker Johnson says there’s going to be a vote on Tuesday. Will Republicans be able to pass this on party lines, or do you need Democratic votes? 

REP. BRIAN FITZPATRICK (R-PA): Well, that remains to be seen. You know, the text was just released yesterday, compliant with the 72-hour rule before a vote. We’re still digging through it. Like most bills, there’s some good in there. There’s some not so good in there. And we got to make an aggregated decision. I will say, you know, Tom and I are friends, we came in together. We obviously co-chair this bipartisan group together. And we do lament the fact of any single party bill- the construct in this country is if you get 218 votes, you get everything, and if you get 217 votes you get nothing. And that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. So the reason that we do what we do is we want two party solutions, including on the CR. So, it remains to be seen whether the votes are there or not, but I think we’re really going to be learning over the next 24 hours what’s in it and what’s not in it. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: So, you haven’t decided your vote? 

REP. FITZPATRICK: Correct. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: What about you, Congressman Suozzi? Because Leader Jeffries initially said in a letter, Democrats cannot back it. You have the text. Are you a no?

REP. TOM SUOZZI (D-NY): Right now, I’m a no. I mean, there’s been no outreach on a bipartisan basis. What Brian and I are trying to do in this environment, you can imagine, is not too easy. Everything’s very fractured, everything’s very divisive, and to overcome that requires trust building and requires people to work together. In the case of the CR there’s been offers to negotiate, and there’s been very little negotiated. It’s kind of been a my way or the highway type of thing. And I think that’s going to go on for a while. I think that the leadership is going to try and do my way or the highway for a while, and then at some point they’re going to need Democratic votes. And then people start negotiating.

MARGARET BRENNAN: A while, meaning we could be staring down to shut down March 14? 

REP. FITZPATRICK: Well, we’ll find out on Tuesday or Wednesday. I believe the government funding runs out at the end of the week. We’re scheduled to end votes on Wednesday. Oftentimes, that does not happen during weeks like this, but it’s- it’s incumbent upon every legislator to read the text and to make an aggregate decision. Does the good outweigh the bad? We never want to shut the government down. That’s why I think we need no budget, no pay. If you cut legislators’ funding off, if they don’t pass a CR or a budget, I think you’ll have a much different outcome. So people need to put their money where their mouth is.

REP. SUOZZI: Right now, the Republicans are counting on all the Republicans in the House to stick together to pass this through the House with no Democratic votes. That’s what they’re counting on. That’s why they’ve conducted themselves this way. Then it goes to the Senate. In the Senate, you need 60 votes. You don’t have 60 votes with the Senate Republicans. So it’s going to become a challenge for the Senate Republicans and the Senate Democrats to decide who’s going to get blamed for this thing. And wouldn’t it be better if we all just work together to try and find common ground the way- this is not normal what we’re doing. The idea of a full year continuing resolution is not the normal process. And there’s a lot of bad stuff that I see in this bill that I don’t like.

REP. FITZPATRICK: And I will add Margaret, I’ve lived through government shutdowns as an FBI agent, and it’s horrific. Title Three wire taps get shut down. Surveillance teams get shut down. It has massive implications that most people don’t realize. You never, ever want to shut the government down. It should never happen, and it’s a symptom of a broken system that we’re even talking about this. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Let me follow up with you on that. You are the only FBI agent who- now turned Congressman. On Monday, the top agent at the New York office, James Dennehy, said he was forced out of his job due to clashes with Justice Department officials over a directive. He had been supportive of Bureau leaders who resisted turning over the names of those agents assigned to carry out investigations related to January 6, 2021. Are you concerned about all this political pressure? 

REP. FITZPATRICK: I’m very concerned. I’m a huge defender and supporter of the Bureau. It’s the best job I ever had in my life, and the most honorable job I’ve ever had in my life, keeping America safe. And I care very much about the agent population and the professional support staff that work there. They are tremendous people. They are completely nonpartisan. In 14 years in the FBI, I never heard any political talk whatsoever, which is pretty remarkable, so–  

MARGARET BRENNAN: — directly contradicts what the Homeland Security secretary said at the top of this program when she talked- she went at the FBI- the FBI director– 

REP. FITZPATRICK: — Well, there are problems at the top. I want to differentiate. So there have been problems on the seventh floor of the J Edgar Hoover Building that they did politicize things, things like- people like Jim Comey, for example, who tweet out, you know, to vote single party during an election. You can’t do that as an FBI director. That’s terrible. He did it as a former director, but it undermines everything he did leading up to that point. The FBI needs to be completely non-partisan, completely apolitical. Personally, I think that part of the polygraph testing that comes in- so when you’re an agent coming through the process, you get tested on drug history, foreign contacts, financial vulnerabilities. They also ought to test political bias as well, just to give the public the assurance that people are coming into the bureau, checking their politics at the door.

REP. TOM SUOZZI: This all comes down to a busting of norms and things that we’ve been used to for years are all trying to be disrupted. And I think in some ways, very dangerously. We can’t see this politicization of the FBI. It’s a dangerous thing for our country.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Are you going to talk to the FBI director about any of this? 

REP. FITZPATRICK: — Absolutely, absolutely–  

MARGARET BRENNAN: — About the firings of the–  

REP. FITZPATRICK: — Director Patel he worked on our committee. He was a staffer on the House Intelligence Committee, which I sit. And I look forward to having a conversation with him. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Congressman Suozzi, illegal border crossings, as we just discussed, they are at a historic low. President Trump made that point when he was addressing Congress this week. Was he right that- that he didn’t need to wait for Congress, that it was really messaging from the White House beyond? 

REP. SUOZZI: Well, obviously we’ve seen a reduction in crossings. We saw it under the end of the Biden administration as well, after he did his executive order to say no asylum applications in between the ports of entry. But we need to make a permanent law, and Congress has not done its job for 30 years. So we need to secure the border. We need to fix the broken asylum system, and we need to treat people like human beings by fixing our legal immigration system. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you have an opening to do any of that, though? The two of you together? 

REP. SUOZZI: I was working on this before I became the co-chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus for about a year with a guy named Morgan Luttrell from Texas. Very conservative, former Navy SEAL guy, talking about the details, trying to build a coalition of business, badges, and the Bible to work together to support an effort like this. Now, Brian and I, as co-chairs of the Problem Solvers Caucus, are taking those efforts and others and trying- and we have a working group as well to say, as soon as that opening arises, we’re ready to make a deal.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I know, but you guys are talking about- you can’t even agree to keep the lights on, right?–  

REP. SUOZZI: — Okay, but we–  

MARGARET BRENNAN:– you’re talking about really hard, substantive thing– 

REP. SUOZZI: Well what’s going to happen is the Homeland Security is going to need money. They’re spending money like crazy, and the CR is not going to fix the problem and– 

MARGARET BRENNAN: But that’s going to go to reconciliation, a party line vote, right? 

REP. SUOZZI: You can’t fix everything through reconciliation, and you’re going to need- and you can’t- certainly can’t fix asylum, and you can’t- certainly can’t fix the Dreamers and a whole bunch of other stuff through reconciliation. There’s going to be an opening that’s going to come when they need Democratic votes. And my argument to my Democratic colleagues is we should be looking to finally fix this broken immigration system once and for all. Secure the border, fix asylum, Dreamers, farm workers, essential workers and other people that we need to keep our economy open.

REP. FITZPATRICK: If I may add, one of the reasons why I’m so excited about Tom being the co-chair is he shares my passion and the passion of so many people about this issue that there is a border security piece and there is an immigration piece. And we’re a country of immigrants. All of our families came in to this country through other places, Italy, Ireland–  

REP. SUOZZI: — My father was born in Italy. And for Brennan and Fitzpatrick I got Irish as well.

REP. FITZPATRICK : You know, that’s the- that’s the huge advantage that we have over our adversaries. It’s- we have an endless supply of brilliant people coming into this country. Nobody wants to move to Russia or China or North Korea or Iran, everybody wants to come here. That’s a huge economic advantage. It’s a huge national security advantage. So we can combine border security and the rule of law with being- bringing the best and brightest people into this country, and also people that are truly fleeing oppression. That’s what America is about. 

REP. SUOZZI: Margaret, every problem we face in our country is complicated. You know this as well as anybody, everything’s complicated. You can’t, why don’t you just? There’s no why don’t you just anything. Anybody who says that– 

MARGARET BRENNAN: –That’s an entire political campaign–

REP. SUOZZI: –Right 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Why don’t you just

REP. SUOZZI: Which doesn’t make sense. And so what you need is people who may disagree with each other on certain issues, to sit across from each other say, well, I think this, well, I think that. Well, how about this? Well, how about that? And you try and find a compromise somewhere in the middle. Compromise is not a dirty word, and we have got to figure out how to start moving our country forward, not with this all my way or the highway. You guys are no good because you’re one of those. No you’re one of those. That’s not working for our country. People want us to work together to solve problems.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Let me ask you, Congressman Fitzpatrick, I know you feel very strongly about supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia. Ben Hodges, who’s a retired general who commanded US Army Europe, said he’s having a hard time understanding how withholding intelligence and military support from Ukraine advances strategic interests or helps make America great. Can you explain that? 

REP. FITZPATRICK: Well, I will say this. We’re going to get a briefing, a full briefing, on this, this coming week, but I will say this key in on what’s not being said here, what kind of intelligence and who can’t share it, right? So what I suspect, and I will get confirmation of this next week, is that it’s the over-the-horizon intelligence striking into Russian territory. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: It’s also satellite. 

REP. FITZPATRICK: Possibly, but second– 

MARGARET BRENNAN: –Maxar technology–

REP. FITZPATRICK: We have seamless intelligence sharing with the UK. To give you one example, there’s no restriction on the UK sharing that intelligence with Ukraine. So what I suspect is happening here, and I could be proven wrong, is that this is an escalate to de-escalate tactic by the administration, to bring these parties to the table and to come to a conclusion, a just conclusion, which means success and victory for Ukraine. And I want to emphasize that, and I get asked, well, what does that mean? Yep. Vladimir. What victory means for me is Vladimir Putin regrets his decision to invade Ukraine, that he wishes he did not do that, and that’s really going to be the test here, right? Because if we reward dictators for invading sovereign, freedom loving democracies, we are sending a message to every other dictator and aspiring dictator across this planet that if you do do that, you will be rewarded. That cannot be the message coming out of this 

REP. SUOZZI: Trump has been wrong in the way he’s handled this. I want to give Brian credit, as co-chair of the Ukrainian caucus, for standing up and saying, you cannot reward a dictator. Zelensky was elected by 73% of the Ukrainian population in a free and fair election that’s dictated by the European Commission that oversees free and fair elections. Putin is the dictator. Putin invaded. Zelensky is democratically elected. We cannot reward the guy responsible for murdering, for kidnapping, for raping, for all the awful things that have happened to the Ukrainian people. We all need to stand up for the Ukrainian people. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, we know that the Secretary of State, the national security adviser and President Trump’s envoy are all meeting with Ukrainian officials Tuesday. One of the things that I took note of Congressman Fitzpatrick, you tweeted that you have an outcome determinative number of members of the US Congress who are ready, willing and able to do whatever it takes to prevent Putin from being rewarded. That sounds like you are threatening leverage with votes. How would you use it?

REP. FITZPATRICK: It’s not a threat. What this is is us making very clear that we view this issue to be existential to world peace. These are the lessons of World War II, when we had- when Germany invaded Poland in 1939 and you had leaders, including Neville Chamberlain and many other leaders around the world, saying it’s not our problem. We don’t want to provoke. We don’t want to escalate, and a problem that could have been could have been nipped in the bud early, because it was not, turned out to be the costliest and deadliest war in world history, where we had to send our young, our youth in our country, to fight on Omaha Beach. We should never get to that point. We should learn from the lessons of history. These dictators want to relitigate the outcome of World War II. In World War II freedom won over dictatorships. They want to relitigate that. So we just have to be mindful of history and how we approach this. 

REP. SUOZZI: And if Putin gets away with this just because Ukraine is a smaller country, think about Latvia and Lithuania and Estonia and Moldova, and think about Poland, right? They’re all next, and we have to stand up against this.

REP. FITZPATRICK: And Putin has said that he’s telegraphed this punch.

MARGARET BRENNAN  

Right, well, President Trump says that it’s all different when he’s in charge, but Congressman, I need to ask you before you go because of the district and the unique characteristics of it, the one you represent. Earlier this week, we saw guidance from the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee urging members to hold virtual town halls, suggesting that holding them in person was not a good idea. Will you still hold town halls with your constituents? 

REP. FITZPATRICK: Yeah, we, we–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –Because some of them have gotten quite heated recently.

REP. FITZPATRICK: Oh, I know. No. I think every member needs to find the best way to communicate with our constituents, and there’s a number of ways to do that. I think what Chairman Hudson is referring to are the what’s turning out to be a circus, a three-ring circus, where you go to a high school gymnasium. The protesters show up. They hold signs up, and you have legitimate concerns from some other people that are never heard because they’re getting shouted down by people that are there to make a spectacle, oftentimes that are funded by some of these dark money groups. So there’s- it’s about communicating to your constituents in a way that you can get your message out, that you can hear their concerns. And every single district does it different, depending on- on where they’re at. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: You, Congressman Suozzi, during the address to Congress this week, you did see Texas Democrat Congressman Green be disruptive. He was pulled out of the chamber because of that later censured with the votes of nine Democrats, including yourself, and 214 Republicans. Why did you take that vote against a fellow Democrat? 

REP. SUOZZI: Because if it was a Republican doing the same thing to a Democratic president, I would have voted for that as well. And the bottom line is it was a strategic mistake on the on our behalf as well. Because instead of talking about Social Security cuts and talking about Medicaid cuts and talking about Medicare cuts and talking about the things that the President said in his speech that we disagree with, especially things like Ukraine or firing people in these different departments that make no sense whatsoever. We instead focus too much time on disruptive behavior and the conduct of the Democrats. That was a strategic mistake, as well as something that just is not appropriate for the decorum of the US House of Representatives–

MARGARET BRENNAN: –Was the message from Democratic leadership not clear, then?

REP. SUOZZI: –I think that it was pretty clear. I understood a clear message, let’s not make the story about us. Let’s make the story about what President Trump says and how we disagree with it. And we squandered that opportunity. All right.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Thank you, gentlemen for doing this in a bipartisan fashion as well. 

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