CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Senator Dick Durbin

Interview

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[10:15:37] HARLOW: President Trump right now in the air and Midwest bound. He is set to make a few stops as part of an effort to calm concerns over his controversial tariffs. He will be in Iowa and Illinois. And this trip comes as the administration reaches its deadline today to reunite families separated at the southern border.

With me now is Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois. Thanks for being here. I appreciate it.

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D), ILLINOIS: Good to be with you.

HARLOW: You are the minority whip. You are one of two Democrats in the Senate leading negotiations on immigration. And as I said, today is the deadline for these families that were separated to be reunited. I mean, beyond that, big picture, when it comes to an actual long-term solution on immigration in this country, has the Senate hit an impasse?

DURBIN: Well, it has under this administration. Just remember five years ago, we passed a bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform bill. I worked on it with John McCain, with Jeff Flake, with Lindsey Graham, with Marco Rubio. It was a bipartisan effort. It passed on the floor with 68 votes and the Republicans in the House refused to even consider it. There's not even an opportunity now with this administration to do what needs to be done, comprehensive, bipartisan immigration reform.

HARLOW: You've said only three meetings in five weeks. I mean, what should the American people honestly expect? Nothing?

DURBIN: Nothing. All the work is being done by a federal judge in San Diego. And thank goodness it is. He is putting -- holding the feet of this administration to the fire when it comes to reuniting these children. Just think about this, a month ago the Department of Health and Human Services put out a press release and said, well, we know where all these kids are. This is a very well-coordinated response.

Earlier this week, they admitted there are hundreds -- hundreds of these kids that they still don't know how to reunite with their parents. Some of their parents have been deported. And the 37 kids that they just can't even find the parents. These kids are adrift in a bureaucratic sea.

HARLOW: And we will have a live report from the border a little bit later.

Let me ask you about the president heading to your home state Illinois today. He's going to tour a granite city steel factory there, where some jobs are being added, and that's good news. But you've also talked about the soybean farmers in your state whose crops are down 20 percent. They're being hit very hard by these tariffs. Hopefully things will get better for them. We just saw the deal to make a deal with the president and Jean Claude Juncker yesterday from the European Commission.

I mean, what is a win for the people of Illinois on trade?

DURBIN: Well, I stand with the steel workers. For 20 years, they've been exploited by dumping of cheap steel in the United States, Brazil, Japan, Russia, China, the list goes on and on. And we have not responded as we should have. I'm glad the steel workers are back at work. But make no mistake, this scorched earth policy when it comes to trade has gone way beyond fixing the obvious problems, the Chinese problems and the like. And what we have now is a threat to our export markets in many different areas.

Who would have identified Canada as the culprit as this administration has when it comes to the trade war? I wouldn't. We have our differences, but Canada is a major export country for the state of Illinois.

HARLOW: Let me ask you about Russia. So we heard from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo yesterday. And there was a bipartisan outrage at him for what senators believed was not getting answers to what the president and Vladimir Putin discussed behind closed doors. But here's is how Pompeo responded.

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HARLOW: Does he have a point that the president, given his office, does have the right to conduct foreign policy as he sees appropriate?

DURBIN: Of course he does. But the obvious question raised by that committee over and over again, what do we do when the president's foreign policy is different than the administration or the nation's foreign policy?

HARLOW: Right.

DURBIN: And that was Pompeo's dilemma. Time and again --

HARLOW: I mean, he says it's not. But I hear you.

DURBIN: Well, it is. It clearly is. And just listen as the president was mesmerized by Putin, stood up and talked about his strong and powerful denial that he was involved in our last election campaign. We know better. And we know better because our intelligence agencies, Department of Defense and others have told us not only the Russians did it in the last election, they're going do it again.

I believe Dan Coats, my fellow Republican Senate colleague, he said the red lights are blinking. And I think they are. And this administration is not taking it seriously.

[10:20:06] HARLOW: Are you relieved to learn that summit 2.0, if you will, with Vladimir Putin is no longer happening at the White House in the fall as was discussed? If so, when is an appropriate time for Vladimir Putin to come to the White House? DURBIN: Of course I'm relieved. After that performance in Helsinki,

we better think long and hard about the next meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. The president has to come into these meetings prepared. I can tell you, Vladimir Putin is prepared. The first meeting Putin had with Obama when he was elected as president, the first meeting, Putin opened the meeting with a 58-minute soliloquy. He didn't give the opportunity, the president, to even speak for 58 minutes. He is a domineering force at these meetings. And Donald Trump was bowled away in Helsinki. We can't let that happen again.

HARLOW: Let me ask you about the president's pick for the Supreme Court, Just Kavanaugh. And the pickle that some of your fellow Democrats in the Senate in red states are in right now. Would you advise your fellow red state Democrats to oppose Judge Kavanaugh's nomination even at the expense of their own seat, even if that cost them their Senate seat, even if it means a smaller Democratic minority in the Senate? Is that something that you believe they should stomach in order to oppose him?

DURBIN: It isn't a question of what have I believe. It's a question of what they believe. They believe this is an historic choice for the future of the Supreme Court for more than a generation. At issue is not only the future of "Roe versus Wade" and a woman's right in America to have access to the health care that she and her family need, it goes to more basic issues. We have a nominee in Brett Kavanaugh who has said things about the power of the presidency that are frightening at this moment in history. He needs to answer the hard questions.

HARLOW: Speaking --

DURBIN: And I can --

HARLOW: Speaking to them, speaking to Senator Heitkamp, speaking to Senator Manchin, speaking to Joe Donnelly, I mean, do you believe that they will oppose him even if it is at the expense of their own seat?

DURBIN: I can tell you, for sure, because I know each one of them. I respect them. They're going to vote their conscience. They're not going to be listening to the political pundits or even their colleagues. They understand this is an important moment in history and they're going to do what they think is right.

HARLOW: Senator Durbin, thank you for being here today.

DURBIN: Thank you.

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