CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: "Interview with Rep. Ami Bera"

Interview

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REP. AMI BERA (D-CA): -- listening to career foreign service officers, career national security folks kind of lay out what they saw, what alarmed them, et cetera.

I do think moving this to a public phase and letting the public and the media kind of hear that testimony and hear the witnesses, will start to shift some of that.

I don't think we should jump to the conclusion that this will lead to articles of impeachment. Obviously, it looks like it's heading in that direction, but we're still in that investigation, now it's a public investigation.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: You're saying, you've been -- and I don't want you to violate any confidential testimony that you've seen or heart -- have you heard sufficient evidence today for an article of impeachment against this president for abuse of power?

BERA: Sure. I there's plenty of evidence in the public domain as well, that suggests he's committed impeachable offenses.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you this. Because Tim Morrison, a -- President Trump's top Russia and European expert, served in this administration -- he testified yesterday. And there's been some back-and-forth as to whether his testimony helped or hurt your case.

The Republicans are saying it helped their case, and I think they're zeroing in on a line from his opening statement, after which he said, listen, a lot of stuff I heard wasn't right, politically dangerous et cetera, but not illegal.

Based on what you heard in there, does he stand up the argument that there was abuse of power, or undermine that argument?

BERA: Well, he corroborated a lot of what we heard previously from Ambassador Taylor, from Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, et cetera, and corroborated that this was a president who is withholding funding in order to push Ukraine to do an investigation into political --

SCIUTTO: So you're saying --

BERA: -- appointees (ph).

SCIUTTO: -- he corroborated the charge that there was a quid pro quo?

BERA: Yes, so. And in my mind, that is an abuse of power. Now, do we proceed with articles of impeachment on that? Do we move in that direction? You know, we'll see after we do these public hearings.

SCIUTTO: OK. I want to ask you on a different topic. Because you have Elizabeth Warren, one of the leading Democratic presidential candidates -- of course, a Democrat like yourself, although you have not endorsed yet -- coming out with a proposal to pay for a $20.5 trillion Medicare for All plan here, without any taxes on the middle class.

You look at that plan, do you think it's a viable plan?

BERA: Yes.

SCIUTTO: You're a doctor, I should point (ph) to viewers.

TEXT: Warren's Plan to Pay for Medicare for All: $20.5 trillion price tag. Employer contribution: $8.8 trillion; Taxing additional take-home pay: $1.4 trillion; Cracking down on tax evasion and fraud: $2.3 trillion; "Targeted taxes on the financial sector and large corporations": $3.8 trillion; Beefing up the wealth tax: $1 trillion

BERA: As a doctor, we all want America's patients to have coverage and, you know, be able to just go see a doctor if they get sick. But we've already got this massive deficit. Another $22 trillion or so? I'm not sure how you're going to pay for that.

And, frankly, I don't think you could get 218 votes in the House of Representatives, let alone 60 votes in the Senate. So, yes. I would go back to strengthening the Affordable Care Act, building off of hard-fought gains that we've made. You know, in California, we are getting to almost full coverage.

And then, yes, there's still ways to get the rest of the people into the system.

SCIUTTO: By staking out positions like this -- and again, this was a position that was way out there in previous election cycles. Now, two of the leading candidates, Sanders and Warren, are on this. You know, they're on this page, the same page now. Does that risk alienating independent and moderate voters in the 2020 election?

BERA: Well, I think it's a tough position to defend in a general election. Because you're going to have to go into great detail and, again, I don't know how you pay for something like that without raising taxes. And, you know, that's worrisome.

SCIUTTO: A trillion there, a trillion there. Eventually, you're talking about real money. Although that quote, I think, used to be just a billion. Anyway.

BERA: Right.

SCIUTTO: That's where we are today. Congressman Ami Bera, thanks very much for taking the time.

BERA: Thanks, Jim.

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