CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) on Warren's Campaign.
Interview
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BALDWIN: Senator Elizabeth Warren is hoping for a boost this Super Tuesday, and today Warren, whose delegate total is far behind that of rivals Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden shrugged off questions about her campaign's struggles after voting in her home state of Massachusetts and said her campaign is for the future.
With me now Democratic Congresswoman Katie Porter of California. She has endorsed Senator Warren for President. So Congresswoman, welcome.
REP. KATIE PORTER (D-CA): Thank you.
BALDWIN: Out of the gate here, I just have to play this quick clip. This is what Mike Bloomberg said about Senator Warren this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mayor Bloomberg, how do you expect to do tonight?
MIKE BLOOMBERG, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think we're going to do very well. Looking forward to it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are your expectations? Would a third-place finish be good?
[15:40:00]
BLOOMBERG: You know, there's only three candidates, you can't do worse than that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, there is Elizabeth Warren also.
BLOOMBERG: I didn't realize she's still in. Is she?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: You wa him nt to respond to that?
PORTER: I think it's really rude of former Mayor Bloomberg to show that kind of disrespect to Senator Elizabeth Warren. She's been in this race for many, many, many months, over a year now working hard, building support. She had a third place finish in Iowa.
Pete Buttigieg has now dropped out, so Elizabeth really is in the second position in Iowa. For him to dismiss her candidacy is disrespectful in a race in which I think a lot of Democrats, independents, and Republicans that were going to have to win in order to defeat President Trump in November want to see civility, and they want to see people debating on the issues.
For him to dismiss and erase her existence like that is incredibly disappointing. It's disappointing to me in particular as part of a huge group of women who came out and ran for office in 2018 and were part of the reason that we're able to flip the House and hold the House today. To hear former Mayor Bloomberg dismiss a sitting Senator, a leading
candidate like that I think is really disappointing.
BALDWIN: You mentioned Buttigieg. He's out, Klobuchar is out, do you think that Senator Warren's chances improve now with a narrower field?
PORTER: The race is absolutely very fluid, particularly with different candidates exiting just in the last 24 to 48 hours. And so I do think here in California Elizabeth Warren has a lot of support. She's done a lot of work here over the years, not just in the last couple of the days, but in the long-term. This is a state that has progressive values, and so I expect to see Elizabeth make a strong showing here.
You know, if I were going to worry about sort of where former Mayor Bloomberg was going to end up, I certainly would get comfortable with the idea that there are four candidates in the race, since I fully expect him to be getting fourth here in California.
BALDWIN: Why do you think Senator Warren hasn't done better in the first four contests?
PORTER: There were just huge numbers of candidates in the race, and she got third in Iowa, which was a strong showing. You know, there were lots of interesting dynamics, Senator Klobuchar who got fifth in Iowa which was quite a distant fifth, then picked up momentum in New Hampshire. We then saw a different dynamic in Nevada and a different dynamic yet in South Carolina.
So I think each of the four states we've had so far have their own flavor. I think Super Tuesday today is incredibly important because we're going to see so many more states with so many different kinds of electorates, and so many different kinds of voting that's going to go on.
Here in California, I would just tell people what you see at 8:00 or 9:00 when they start to release results will not be what we'll see here in a couple of days when all of the votes are counted.
BALDWIN: Congresswoman Katie Porter, thank you very much.
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