CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) is Interviewed on Coronavirus Response
Interview
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
SCIUTTO: As we speak, health officials in California trying to track down where a new coronavirus case there originated. The CDC says it could be the first example of what's known as community spread here in the U.S. That would mean no direct tie to someone who travelled to China. There are now a total of 60 coronavirus cases around the country.
Joining me now, Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell of California. He serves on both the Intel and Judiciary Committees.
Congressman, thanks for taking the time this morning.
REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): Of course. Good morning, Jim.
SCIUTTO: So, first question, the simplest one, the president's now appointed Vice President Pence to lead on the coronavirus response. Is the administration doing enough, and if not, what more do they need to do to lead on this?
SWALWELL: Well, we want the administration to succeed, and we're rooting for the president's success. His success is all of our success. So if Vice President Pence is going to lead this, well, I hope he brings on board experts in disease and infectious, you know, control.
But, Jim, the president's budget did cut by $700 million funding for the CDC. He's asking for a number much lower in his $2 billion request to take this on. So I hope he works with Congress. We have a shared interest in making sure that we get this right.
SCIUTTO: We had a remarkable moment in the White House yesterday during the president's press conference in which the president said, listen -- seemed to downplay the risk of the spread. Also seemed to exaggerate how fast a vaccine could come, whereas the head of the NIH, the infectious diseases experts, says, actually it's going to be many months before there's any sort of vaccine and that the danger of spread here in the U.S. is very serious.
Is the president misleading the American people about the virus and the outbreak?
SWALWELL: Again, Jim, I don't want to attack the president on this. I want to work with him and educate him and be a part of the solution because we can't afford a crisis, whatever his motives are to avoid one, we want to get this right.
So it's not just developing a vaccine, which I believe is about a year out from the health experts I've spoken to, but making sure locally that our hospitals are ready, making sure that we are able to not only have a cure in a year but early detection is critically important. So we want to give the administration the resources they need to do this and give the president the best experts that he can have to make sure that he's informing the public in an educated way.
SCIUTTO: Right, and I'm sure that's what the public wants.
On to the 2020 race, if I can. Of course, we have the important primary coming up in South Carolina, then Super Tuesday. Senator Bernie Sanders leading in most of those races. Is Sanders too liberal to win in November?
SWALWELL: No, but I think it's early. And, you know, I think there are a number of people who could beat Donald Trump and also unite the country. And I'm most concerned about, what is the day after Donald Trump look like? Do we have a president who can bring Republicans, Democrats, independents together, pick us up out of this deep, dark hole that the president has taken us into and move us forward? And so I think it's early, Jim, and I wouldn't -- I wouldn't count, you know, any of the major campaigns out just yet.
SCIUTTO: Let's talk about down ballot races because some of your Democratic colleagues have expressed genuine concern, even fear that with Sanders at the top of the ticket, Democrats would pay a price down on the ballot. And as you know, in 2018, a lot of the seats that Democrats picked up, as you flipped the House, were in moderate districts, were in districts that, for instance, voted for Trump in 2016.
Would Sanders hurt or help Democrats like yourself running for congressional seats in the fall?
[09:45:00]
SWALWELL: Well, again, I think this is largely going to be a referendum on the president. And when you look at the head-to-head matchups in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Sanders is beating the president in many of those contests.
But when it comes to health care, I saw this when I ran for president. It was only a cup of coffee, Jim, if you remember, but people across the country, they want to see greater access to health care and much less costs when it comes to health care. But they want to have the choice to decide on their own.
If a public option gives them Medicare, they want to have that choice. But if they like their private insurance, they want to be able to keep that, too. And that's a sentiment we saw in those races that we picked up that you alluded to.
SCIUTTO: Right. And that's obviously a position that differs with that of Bernie Sanders.
SWALWELL: Yes, it is.
SCIUTTO: I want to go on, since you're a member of the House Intelligence Committee. The president's consideration of a new director of national intelligence, the senior most intelligence official in the country. It's CNN's reporting that he's talking to a number of names that have come up in the past, including John Ratcliffe, one of your Republican colleagues on the Intel Committee. But that his key measure seems to be, or that the president is looking for loyalty in whoever he chooses for the post. Is that the correct criteria for choosing the DNI?
SWALWELL: Yes, if you're looking for loyalty to the facts, loyalty to our national security, loyalty to the integrity of our elections. And there's no shortage in our country of people who are qualified to do that job. But if you're looking for loyalty to the president's personal, political and financial interests, that's going to be a problem. And we are already seeing that play out as he clears the decks and gets rid of people who are coming to Congress and telling them -- telling us, you know, information that the president doesn't want us to hear.
SCIUTTO: Yes. And some of that information the president did not want to hear, as you well know, reporting in the last couple of weeks, is about Russian interference again in 2020. And as to whether there's evidence that Russia again prefers Donald Trump as the candidate in 2020.
Since, as we're seeing the interim DNI, Rick Grenell, making a lot of heads roll, right, fining (ph) senior intelligence official who he does not believe are sufficiently loyal to the president. Do you have confidence that someone in this administration is focused on protecting this next election, or are they more interested in protecting the president's personal interests?
SWALWELL: No, I have all the confidence in the world in the line deputies at the U.S. Attorney's Office, the FBI agents, the CIA officers who are out there. But they're not behind the steering wheel. And the person behind the wheel controls the direction and the pace at which we go. And right now the president is not giving the directives that we need. So they can only do so much.
But, Jim, I don't want people to panic about the outcome in 2020 because we can't control it as far as what the president does. What we can control is we can overwhelm the ballot boxes in a way that our votes will not be denied.
SCIUTTO: Do you have any concern that the results could -- are under threat at all from foreign interference in 2020, or have steps been taken, necessary steps, to protect the election process?
SWALWELL: We have taken all the steps we need to in the House with the bills we've passed for election security. Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell won't take up those bills. So the next best thing we can go is to go to the courts to protect the right to vote, but also, as I said, just move with our feet to the ballot boxes so that the outcome cannot be denied. Otherwise, if we, you know, create panic or, you know, say the outcome may be in question, people may not go out and vote at all. And we don't want that result.
SCIUTTO: We do not.
Congressman Eric Swalwell, a pleasure to have you on the show.
SWALWELL: My pleasure. Thanks, Jim.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source