CNN "Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Cicilline

Interview

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SCIUTTO: A little rhyming there by the president.

Just today the House Intelligence Committee is voting on releasing Russia investigation transcripts. On Friday the president's former attorney, Michael Cohen, is testifying in a close-door hearing and Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, he will be facing lawmakers in a separate, very public hearing. Lots of questions for him.

Joining me now, Democratic Congressman David Cicilline. He's a member of the House Foreign Affairs and Judiciary Committees. Very much involved in these investigations.

Thanks very much for joining us.

REP. DAVID CICILLINE (D), RHODE ISLAND: My pleasure.

SCIUTTO: I want to ask you about the president's comment there, because I -- because I'm sure you do not agree with him that these investigations are flawed or unnecessary. That said, I wonder if you're concerned that your constituents, do they say to you, listen, guys, don't get too in the weeds on the investigations. Bring something home to me. Work on infrastructure. Work on drug prices. Are you hearing any of that kind of implications?

CICILLINE: Well, I mean, what we're hearing is, you know, Democrats ran on a very specific agenda to drive down the cost of health care, particularly prescription drugs, to raise family incomes by investing and rebuilding the infrastructure in our country, the bold infrastructure (INAUDIBLE).

SCIUTTO: And the president mentioned infrastructure.

CICILLINE: And taking on the pervasive corruption in Washington and reducing the influence of money in our political system. We're going to deliver on those promises. We can do that and we should do that. At the same time, we have a responsibility to do our constitutionally required oversight. That requires investigations and hearings.

It was sort of shocking to hear the president of the United States use this moment in the State of the Union to deliver an address to the people of this country and to talk about, like, don't do investigations.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

CICILLINE: It was very peculiar. It is not going to dissuade Democrats from doing what we're required to do. Our Republican colleagues haven't done oversight for the last two years, so we have a lot of work to do. But we're going to do both things. The American people expect us to hold this administration accountable and they expect us to deliver on the urgent challenges facing their families.

SCIUTTO: Your reaction in a statement last night to the State of the Union speech. You said, the president's speech was long, self- absorbed, divorce from reality. It was short on details, long on hypocrisy. The American people deserve better.

He did, however, call for compromise. We noted, because I was fact checking the speech last night, that he left many of his more egregious lies -- for instance about terrorists coming across the border -- he didn't repeat those.

Are you willing to at least give him a chance to deliver on (INAUDIBLE)?

CICILLINE: Look, I think the challenge we face is, it's very hard to take the president seriously when he talks about unity. I mean here's a president who has behaved and spoken in such divisive ways that it's hard to take him seriously. He says I want to, you know unite the country. I don't think he's capable of doing that as a result of the last two years.

But I think what was really striking is, you know, he talked about protecting pre-existing conditions. And my Republican colleagues cheered him.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

CICILLINE: Yet the president put forth Trumpcare that took away coverage for pre-existing conditions. All the Republicans voted for it. If the president's serious about that, this morning he should call on the Republican attorneys general who are litigating and try to take away pre-existing condition coverage and tell them to stop that lawsuit. He should direct his Department of Justice to reverse their position and defend coverage for pre-existing conditions. Show us that he really means it.

So that kind of hypocrisy, I think, was hard to take and it's hard to take the president seriously. But, look, we're committed to getting things done for the American people on that agenda I just described. If the president's serious about driving down healthcare costs, we're going to give him a bill to do it, to drive down the cost of prescription drugs. If he's serious about a bold infrastructure plan, we're going to give him a bill to do that. And if he's serious about taking on the corruption in Washington, which he didn't mention last night, but we think is a really important party (ph), we're going to pass HR-1 to do that and the president should sign it.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you about the thing that's going to precede all of that discussion. That's keeping the government open on February 15th and coming to an agreement on whether there will be money for the president's border, barrier wall, fence, et cetera. You have these 17 Democrats and Republicans working on this. You have a vision inside that conference. Does it look like Democrats are going to give money for a barrier on the boarder?

[09:45:03] CICILLINE: I think what you're going to see is the conference committee do what appropriators do, come to an agreement. Democrats have always supported border security. We think it's important to use taxpayer money in a wise way that actually achieves the objectives so there will be rebuilding the infrastructure at the ports of entry where most of the drugs come into this country, making sure we're building 2,000 border patrol positions which are unfilled. Why? Because we can't retain folks because of the quality of infrastructure at these facilities. Making sure we're using satellites and drones. And I'm sure it will include some fencing, some barrier, maybe a repair to some existing wall. There already is 700 miles of wall.

So I think it will be a combination that will actually achieves the objective. I hope the president will sort of stays out of the way and let the appropriators do their work. I think if he does, they'll reach an agreement that will keep the government open.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you this, though, because you know that a lot of folks in the Democratic caucus, both up on The Hill, but also Democratic voters, they don't see the necessity for the wall. What are Republicans offering in return? And if you give money, a couple billion dollars, whatever the figure is for the wall, will your constituents say, well, you caved to the president here and didn't get anything back?

CICILLINE: No, I think -- you know, look, it's a -- it's a myth to think that Democratic voters or Democratic members of Congress don't support border security. We do. And we always understood that that meant making investments in securing the boarder.

SCIUTTO: But you could have that, could you not, and say demand permanent protection for dreamers?

CICILLINE: Look, I think we are going to have a comprehensive immigration bill and we're going to protect dreamers and we're going to do that. It -- I don't think it's appropriate to do it in the context of this negotiation. This is about one specific issue, securing the borders for a limited purpose, we have a limited period of time to do it before February 15th. But there is no question Democrats are going to move forward on fixing our broken immigration system, taking care of our dreamers, taking care of those with temporary protective status. And we don't need to be given anything to agree to secure our borders. We've always believed that. We just think we should do it in a way that makes sense and that actually works and not to respond to the president's campaign pledge of this big, huge wall from sea to shining sea, you know, $70 billion, a thousand miles. Oh, and, by the way, Mexico's going to pay for it.

SCIUTTO: Well, you know he'll declare victory, right, even if he gets (INAUDIBLE).

CICILLINE: Look, the president is going to mischaracterize --

SCIUTTO: $50 for the wall.

CICILLINE: Right, mischaracterize the results of the negotiations. What I think is most important is we prevent the president from shutting the government down. My guest last night was Jamie Green (ph). He was an air traffic controller from Rhode Island. Her husband is one as well. She has two young children. They went for a month without an income. We can't allow the president to do that to people again.

SCIUTTO: Congressman David Cicilline, thanks very much, as always.

CICILLINE: Thanks for having me.

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