CNN "Erin Burnett Outfront" - Transcript: Interview with Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham

Interview

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BURNETT: All right. Kaitlan, thank you very much.

So let's go now to the co-chair of the Biden transition team, the Democratic Governor of New Mexico, Michelle Lujan Grisham. And, Governor, I appreciate your time. So, you heard Jeff Zeleny reporting that in fact what you're all experiencing is more resistance here as the hours have passed and this outcome is now clear. How difficult are you expecting this to get?

GOV. MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM (D-NM): Well, I will tell you that this is a team with incredible expertise, both in the co-chairs and in the advisory team members who certainly didn't want this but expected it. So I think that they are, as a group we all are, productively prepared, but it does really speak to a void in leadership, which is the result of the election.

We want to leader in the White House. We want a federal government that can respond to any number of opportunities and catastrophes, including this pandemic. And as a Governor, if I didn't have access to the transition budget and to get into each of these departments to deal with just things like contracts and making sure the budgets work, it's a disaster. And that is really is again, it's more evidence of malpractice at the federal government level.

BURNETT: Governor, are you concerned about Trump's personal role here? This is this is him, right? He is not accepting this. He is now impacting the transition of power.

GRISHAM: Yes, absolutely. I mean, look, on day one we've got the Vice President-elect and the President-elect announcing a COVID task force. You got 13 physicians who are both the researchers and academicians are also on the ground working with each of their states, so that you can see this national framework to deal with the pandemic.

And right before the election, we had the guy in the White House who was super spreading, you can't manage the infections in the White House, who was telling I can tell you that members in New Mexico constituents and citizens here don't worry about mask, don't participate in any of the public health orders. He can really make an impact both negative and positive.

What the President says what the President-elect says it matters and to have him continue to defy the end results of the election means that he is giving up on every single opportunity and addressing every single challenge that every single voter said they want attention. We want that resolved, so you bet it matters.

BURNETT: So Jeff Zeleny was laying out that George W. Bush said that issues in the transition, I'm sorry, he didn't say it, the 9/11 commission said issues in the transition, right, impacted what happened on 9/11. I mean, the implications of this are not just the logistical or administrative, that this is very significant. So what recourse do you have as the days go on here?

GRISHAM: Well, I will tell you, I think that one of the strategies that I'm hearing about certainly isn't a strategy I've participated in. But to make sure that we've got our assets on the ground and in Congress to really get the President, he needs to hear from his colleagues and his supporters that they expect him to do the right thing on behalf of this country.

He has an obligation to do that and we can't be doing that by ourselves in a vacuum. The entire country needs to weigh in.

BURNETT: All right. Well, I appreciate your time, Governor. Thank you very much.

GRISHAM: Thank you, Erin. It's pleasure as always.

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