Transcript: Rep. Robert Garcia on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," Feb. 15, 2026

The following is the transcript of the interview with Rep. Robert Garcia, Democrat of California, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Feb. 15, 2026. Face The Nation Transcripts Transcript: Rep. Robert Garcia on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," Feb. 15, 2026 February 15, 2026 / 1:00 PM EST / CBS News Add CBS News on Google The following is the transcript of the interview with Rep. Robert Garcia, Democrat of California, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Feb. 15, 2026.ED O'KEEFE: Welcome back to Face the Nation. We turn now to the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, California Congressman Robert Garcia, who joins us this morning from Long Beach, where he used to be the mayor. Congressman, good to see you. Thank you for being with us.REP. ROBERT GARCIA: Sure thing, thank you.ED O'KEEFE: I want to start real quick because you are on the committee that essentially has oversight of the entire government. You're Democrats. You don't have control of the panel. You've held some unofficial hearings on ICE operations nationwide. I'm curious if you're talking to the Republicans at all about doing anything to investigate allegations of wrongdoing of ICE and the Border Patrol as they continue to carry on immigration enforcement operations.REP. GARCIA: Look, I think it's just been very recently we actually see more and more Republicans actually speak out and begin to show some level of courage. ICE, CBP, DHS is completely out of control. We have heard, not just in hearings, but certainly in looking at what's happening across this country and folks talking and telling their stories. We're talking about U.S, citizens that are being shot. We're talking about U.S. veterans that are being detained for no reason. Children that are being deported as young as four or five years old, sending to detention in other cases, as we've seen. And so I think you're beginning to see some Republicans actually show concern. But, right now, DHS is causing terror across this country, and Donald Trump has turned not just DHS, but ICE specifically, which we now know is larger than it's ever been, into his own personal police force. ED O'KEEFE: But you know of no Republican committee chairman currently planning to investigate all these allegations, right? Is that what you're saying? REP. GARCIA: Oh, there's no chairmen out there that have come out publicly. Now, you begin to hear some Republicans show some concern, but they need to show more courage. I mean, Mike Johnson, at the end of the day, does whatever Donald Trump wants him to do-- ED O'KEEFE: --Yeah--REP. GARCIA: --and Republicans need to go out there and start speaking the truth of what's happening on the street. ED O'KEEFE: So the big reason I wanted to speak with you this morning is, of course, you're now trying to conduct a pretty aggressive review of the Epstein documents, as they've now been released by the Justice Department. There have been about three and a half million documents released, and based on a CBS News review, so far there doesn't appear to be enough evidence to criminally charge anyone else. Saturday night, the Department of Justice released this legally required list of all government officials and politically exposed persons in the Epstein files. More than 300 names on the list which they acknowledge are people who are here listed in a wide variety of contexts. DOJ says they're doing this ask because it was part of the law. It lists everyone from Beyonce to Joe Biden, George W. Bush, Princess Diana, Michael Jackson, Barack Obama, Mike Pence, the Trumps, Mark Zuckerberg, among others, because they came up in one way or another in the documents. A few questions, why was this asked for? And are you aware yet of any names being not on this list that should be on the list?REP. GARCIA: We're reviewing that list, of course, but let's, let's be really clear, this is a massive cover up being led by the White House and the DOJ. The fact that 50%, half of the Epstein files have not been released to the public and to the Congress, and of those that have been released, the actual files that have been out in the public or that we've seen, they're overly redacted. Many of the survivors and victims, their names are actually appearing with where there's no protection for the survivors. Yet, the names of billionaires, the names of folks that could be co-conspirators that helped fund Jeffrey Epstein, that could have actually been involved in the terror and rape, as we know, abuse of women and children, some of those names continue to be redacted and protected. Why won't the DOJ actually follow the law? Not just of what was passed by Congress but the subpoena that was put in place by the Oversight Committee during the summer. And so this continues to be a cover up, and the American public understands that they continue to hide and protect and deflect. Why does Donald Trump, the president continue to, in our opinion, to protect these powerful men? We're not going to stop until we get justice for the survivors. ED O'KEEFE: The Justice Department says they released everything they can, and the r