Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss President Trump becoming the first president to be impeached twice.

Video Transcript

ZACK GUZMAN: Of course, the House voting to impeach President Trump for a second time yesterday-- the first time that's happened for any president in the history of the United States. But there remain some big questions over how the trial process might proceed in the Senate, as Democrats stress the importance of holding President Trump accountable for his actions in that insurrection in the Capitol building, even if he is no longer president.

Joining us now for more on that is Democratic Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney from the state of New York who called into Yahoo Finance last week while on lockdown during that deadly insurrection on the Capitol. And, congresswoman, appreciate you joining us once again here. As we're watching this process move to the Senate, of course, Mitch McConnell has made it clear he doesn't-- he hasn't made up his mind yet on how he'll vote. But what are the odds in your mind the Senate moves to convict President Trump? And in your estimation, I mean, is that the best place right now to be putting the Democratic Party's effort once Biden takes office?

CAROLYN MALONEY: Well, the House did our job. We impeached him. It was the highest vote in history to impeach a president. We convinced 10 of our colleagues on the Republican side of the aisle to join us. And now it's in the Senate. So it's really out of the House of Representatives' hands. It's in their hands now.

I hope they do convict him. And they will have a trial, and they will move forward. They are not moving on this until after President Biden has been sworn in. And it's really going to be handled by the Senate. And I'll be watching how they handle it and where they go with it.

AKIKO FUJITA: Let's talk about the timing of that--

CAROLYN MALONEY: [INAUDIBLE] being impeached and convicted is higher now, because there is a bipartisan effort. And you hear Republicans and Democrats speaking out for it.

AKIKO FUJITA: I mean, the timing of that-- now that we're talking about the potential of convicting President Trump at the point where he is now an ex-president-- how are you looking at that from a Constitutional standpoint? And what would be the message of that? Why go for that conviction in the Senate? Obviously, the House has already passed articles of impeachment. But why move in that direction after the president has left?

CAROLYN MALONEY: Because there's no question that he planned, incited, and led an insurrection of our Capitol which resulted in the loss of life for five people, which was the first time in the history of our country-- I'd say one of our darkest days, that the proceedings of the independent legislature was disrupted. And we were doing our Constitutional duty to have a debate and certify the electoral college.

All of our proceedings were halted, and we resumed once we regained the control of the capital. But for most Americans, it was a shocking and devastating experience to see the symbol of our democracy, of our country invaded by domestic terrorists. And people should be held accountable and responsible.

The FBI has been briefing us. They have arrested a number of people. We want to know who financed this, who was behind paying for the buses, and the social media, and the organization that made this happen. And we have to take steps that this never happens again.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah. And it was obviously a terrifying ordeal, as you shared with us while you were experiencing it. Your colleagues have obviously talked about that as well. But you're also the chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. You've stressed the importance of finding answers to those questions you're raising there.

Of course, what's going to happen with President Trump, as you said, now passes to the Senate. But when it comes to your colleagues in the House and in the Senate as well, for their roles in this, what do you think that the committee that you lead here-- what's the responsibility to get those questions, and what does that process moving forward look like to you?

CAROLYN MALONEY: Well, there are a number of investigations taking place now. There are investigations really focusing on members of Congress who may have participated. There was one member of Congress that was tweeting out the location of where you can go get Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House.

So Cory Johnson has put in legislation to initiate a ethics committee investigation. That is going forward. We have an investigation with the FBI that my committee's conducting. We are planning hearings, and the FBI is giving us a report on what they did to prepare in advance, because many people were notified-- and also, what they did that day, and then what they're doing now to hold people accountable that are responsible for aiding and abetting this insurrection of our Capitol.

AKIKO FUJITA: I want to talk about what we're expecting this evening with President-elect Biden speaking specifically about the response to the downturn pending from the pandemic, but also the vaccine distribution. The numbers certainly don't look good right now when you consider 29 million doses have been distributed, but just 10 million people inoculated. What specifically do you think the Biden administration needs to fix?

You put out a statement today talking specifically about how the vaccination process should be rolled out in New York. But when you look at nationally, where was the breakdown on the federal level? And how do you fix that?

CAROLYN MALONEY: Well, throughout the crisis, Democrats have called for a centralization-- for the federal government to take more of a role through FEMA, the military, put someone in charge that coordinates this. The former administration decentralized it-- every state on your own, go out and do whatever you want.

You had states competing against states for PPE. It wasn't coordinated. I believe it will be coordinated and federally run. He has called for 100 million vaccinations in the first 100 days. It's the most important thing we need to do.

We're in a race now with the virus, and the virus is winning. The virus is spreading faster than before. We know that there are two mutations that are even more contagious than the one that we are experiencing now. Doctors tell me the longer that this disease is out there, the more people infected, the more mutations you get that then you have to respond to and make sure that our vaccinations work.

So nothing's more important in our country now than getting those vaccinations out, making sure we have enough people to put the vaccination into the arms of our citizens. We are getting better at it. Sites are using up all of their vaccinate. We are moving now to distribute all of the vaccines we can, knowing that we'll get more vaccines for the second shot just to try to help as many people as possible.

But right now in this race, the virus is winning. We have to do much, much better. It will be priority number one of the Biden administration. And they have already started implementing some of the suggestions that his team is putting forward.

ZACK GUZMAN: And, congresswoman, one last question in terms of that effort there, because, obviously, when you're dealing with issues of distribution, once you get those solved, you move on to the next phase, which is whether or not Americans are going to want to get this. We've talked with a lot of doctors on the show when it comes to the side effects of the vaccine-- fatigue, fever among some of those most commonly reported here.

We saw the Dollar General, the dollar store here, that company come out saying that they're going to be paying employees to get the vaccine. I wonder what the current discussions sound like in the House or among your caucus when it comes to paying Americans to get the vaccine to ensure that once it is available to all Americans, that there is an incentive to actually have people, you know, weigh the side effects here and move forward with it. Because, obviously, it's a public good, but when it comes down to individual decisions, what more needs to be done on the stimulus side of the debate to support that happening?

CAROLYN MALONEY: Well, right now, it's 95% effective. I've been vaccinated. We were ordered to in Congress, because so many of us are sick. We're traveling back and forth. I had no side effects-- nothing-- absolutely nothing.

I had a sore arm like you have for any vaccination or any shot. So most people don't have side effects. The problem we're confronting right now is that we're not vaccinating everybody who wants to get a vaccination. I think that problem has to be taken care of right now as quickly as possible.

Right now, they moved from the 1a to now it's the 1b-- people that are 65 years old and older. I know so many people that are younger than 65 that want desperately to get the vaccination. So I think we should take each step at a time. First, we should get every single person who wants to be vaccinated, vaccinated. That is a huge challenge. And that will take the collective work of all of us.

AKIKO FUJITA: Representative Carolyn Maloney, Democratic congresswoman from New York, it's good to talk to you. Hope to have you back on the show soon.

CAROLYN MALONEY: Good to talk to you. I always learn so much watching your show. Thank you.

ZACK GUZMAN: Thank you.

AKIKO FUJITA: Great to talk to you.