CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview With Rep. Katie Porter

Interview

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And joining me now to discuss all of this and more is Democratic Congresswoman Katie Porter of California. And she is also a co-chair for the Elizabeth Warren campaign.

Congresswoman, thank you for joining us.

REP. KATIE PORTER (D-CA): My pleasure.

KEILAR: OK. So, not only are we learning more from John Bolton, but, also, we're learning about these new documents from OMB as well. Was it a mistake, do you think in retrospect, for Democrats in the House to pass this to the Senate so quickly and to not have subpoenaed John Bolton?

PORTER: The Democrats worked really hard to collect the best and most evidence that we could at the time. We tried to subpoena additional people. Those subpoenas were routinely ignored. And we know the president directed people to defy those subpoenas. We made document requests that were ignored.

So, I think, with the information that we had, we made repeated requests to get more information. When we weren't successful, we ultimately built the strongest case we could. And, then, sent it over to the Senate, where I think the House impeachment managers did an excellent job of making it clear to the American people why additional evidence was necessary. And we see that reflected, 75 percent of Americans wanted to understand more about what the president's conduct was. And I think the Senate should have honored that, the will of the people.

KEILAR: If the House had subpoenaed John Bolton, do you think, in retrospect, there would have been a better case to be made in the Senate, that might have been tougher for Republicans to, say -- some Republicans, at least enough Republicans, to say no to?

PORTER: It's hard to look back at that kind of thing and second guess it, particularly when we're seeing Republican senators, essentially, saying it doesn't matter what he did. We just aren't going to impede -- we're not going to remove the president. We're not going to take that vote. It's an election year. We're just not going to do it be.

And they're, basically, saying to this president and setting a very dangerous precedent for this country that it doesn't matter what the president does. If you do it close enough to election, they'll look the other way.

KEILAR: I wonder -- since we are close to the election, I wonder, since President Trump is the first impeached president to run for a re-election, do you worry that you may have handed him a powerful weapon that he can be on a campaign trail and say, look, I've been vindicated. This was all a hoax. Is that a concern of yours?

PORTER: I'm part of a historic class of people that were elected in 2018, precisely because of concerns about the president's conduct. I represent a majority Republican district and the first Democrat to represent this area in several decades. And so many of my colleagues are in the same situation. And so, we were sent there to be a check on the president. To do our job of making sure that the checks and balances of the government are working.

And so, I think we can and should expect, in this upcoming election, the president's conduct will be part of the election process. And it should be. The American people should ask themselves, is this the kind of leader that they want for the next four years?

KEILAR: You are gearing up for this next week. You, actually, are originally from Iowa, even though you represent Orange County, California, which is my home county I should say. You are campaigning in Iowa for Elizabeth Warren. And, as you've been doing that, I wonder -- in these final moments going into the caucuses, I want to play for you one of them. This happened during a campaign event, actually, for Senator Sanders. This is your Democratic colleague, Rashida Tlaib, when Hillary Clinton was brought up. Let's listen.

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We're not going to boo. We're classy here.

REP. RASHIDA TLAIB (D), MICHIGAN: I'll boo. Boo.

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KEILAR: This is revealing a huge split in your party. Is this concerning to you?

PORTER: It's really important and incumbent upon me, as one of the national co-chairs for Elizabeth Warren, to make clear that this cycle of criticism, this cycle of revisiting 2016, rather than putting your eyes squarely ahead on 2020, has to stop. I've been on the ground in Iowa.

I've been on the ground week after week here, of course, with my constituents in Orange County, California. And they want to talk about the future that this country is going to hold. They want to talk about what someone is going to do in 2020 to beat Donald Trump. What somebody is going to do in 2022 to help their family make ends meet. They want to talk about reform in Washington.

[17:15:00]

They want to talk about prescription drugs and health care. They want candidates that can unify the Democratic Party, and Elizabeth Warren is that candidate. And, in her own remarks, she made clear, today, that she has felt a key lead (ph), some of her tremendous Senate colleagues. Folks like Senator Kamala Harris and Senator Cory Booker, that she's been sad to see them leave the race, because they've each made an important contribution.

So, I'm proud to be part of the campaign that is going to make sure that we're laying a foundation that unifies the Democratic Party and gives us the best chance to beat Donald Trump in November.

KEILAR: Congresswoman Katie Porter of California, thank you so much for being with us.

PORTER: Thank you.

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