CNN "Newsroom" - Transcript Interview with Tammy Duckworth

Interview

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I'm now joined by Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth. Senator, thanks for joining us today. And I wonder, having listened to that, where she was saying "a free and fair election," I think the question might be, is whatever the outcome, will Trump consider it to be free and fair? What are your concerns as you hear the White House press secretary clarifying, but maybe still leaving some questions out there?

SEN. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-IL): Well, I'm appalled that President Trump would say what he has said. You know, this is the kind of think that tin-pot dictators and authoritarian regimes do: They sow confusion and distrust in the democratic process, and they don't participate in peacefully handing over power when they lose, and they don't accept any results unless it's one where they win.

You remember, Saddam Hussein used to make people prick their fingers and then bleed for him quite literally, that's not the kind of nation that we are. And it's shameful that the president would speak the way he did last night and that they are now putting all sorts of caveats up, which means we just all have to work that much harder to get our mail-in ballots turned in and to go to vote at the polls, whichever works best for you.

KEILAR: What power does Congress have to ensure a peaceful transfer of power if Trump loses the election?

DUCKWORTH: Well you know, let's cross that bridge when we get to it. What we need to do right now is focus on the issues at hand. You know, he is doing this -- and the things that he is saying is really to distract the American people from the fact that he is trying to ram through a new Supreme Court nominee when the majority of the American people believe and feel that the winner of the presidential election should be the one who picks the next Supreme Court nominee.

And part of what they're trying to do is if they can seat this justice, he or she will be able to influence the outcome of the election if it does go to the Supreme Court the way Bush v. Gore went to the Supreme Court.

KEILAR: It seems clear now that whatever the outcome of the election and whenever we get that, there's going to be this large chunk of the country that does not accept the validity of the outcome. What are your concerns about that?

DUCKWORTH: Well, that's a real concern. We need to come together as an American people, and I spent 23 years in the military, safeguarding our democracy. It's shameful that right now it's the commander in chief who is trying to tear down our institutions, something as sacred as voting.

Remember, this is the same administration that has taken mail sorting machines offline and tried to cut off the Postal Service at the knee so that they can't process our mail-in ballots as well.

Well, we can fix that, we can all go to the polls and we can vote. And if you want to mail in your ballots, mail in your ballots. But we will win, we will win overwhelmingly in November. KEILAR: If the president does not cooperate with a peaceful

transition of power, what does that signal to you about the state of our democracy?

DUCKWORTH: Well, it signals to me that President Trump is a flawed president. He -- this -- he's the one, right? He is the one person who's saying this, he's the one person that is fomenting this -- the distrust in our system, and we can't allow him to continue with that.

You know, we need to cut this cancer out of our democracy, and let's -- you know, let's take it to the polls and let the American people decide.

KEILAR: When you heard -- or it was a written statement, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said there will be an orderly transition of power, he basically said there always has been one, there will be an orderly transition of power. There are other Republicans -- Congresswoman Liz Cheney among them, Senator Mitt Romney -- who have come out and said this as well.

I wonder, when you look -- of course, you know, they're not using the language the Democrats are, but they did come out and say something and say there is going to be this orderly transition. What do you expect though from them if it comes to the point where they may have to weigh in if Trump refuses?

DUCKWORTH: I've wanted the same thing for my Republican colleagues I've wanted all along: put the needs of the nation and the will of the American people above their own personal ambitions. This is not something this president has done, he's always put his own personal gain above that of the American people.

[14:20:02]

And I would ask my Republican colleagues -- not just one or two, but all of them -- to step forward and say it is wrong. It is wrong for this president to try to sow discord and distrust in our electoral process, it is wrong for him to say that he won't accept the outcome of the election. And I need all the Republicans to say that, not just one or two of them.

KEILAR: I want to turn to the politicization of the coronavirus, because the president said that he has the power to short-circuit the FDA's approval process. And there are a majority of Americans who are worried, they're hesitant about taking a vaccine that he has politicized. Would you take a vaccine if it is available to take, if it's on the market?

DUCKWORTH: If the vaccine was properly researched and if it was properly developed according to all of the existing protocols that we have for developing vaccines, then of course I would take it.

But let me just make it clear, the vaccine alone is not going to be able to combat coronavirus. What we need first is widespread and low- cost or free testing and contact tracing. The vaccine, we know -- and scientists have told us -- the vaccine alone can't solve this problem, and it's not going to make coronavirus magically disappear the way this president keeps wishing that it would.

He's the one that botched the response to this pandemic, we now have 200,000 dead Americans, this is on his hands. And millions more Americans -- over 6 million Americans -- have also tested positive for this virus.

We need to have testing, we need to have contact tracing, and then we can start to open our economy. All of these things, this president has failed to do.

KEILAR: A former senior military advisor to the president, retired General Paul Selva, has endorsed Biden for president, and he's joining 500 other officials and national security experts in that. How significant is that to you and do you think it signals anything to the rank and file? Because the president has been very clear about trying to draw a wedge between leadership and the rank and file.

DUCKWORTH: The president has tried to do that, but because he has politicized the military, used them against peaceful demonstrators who are out exercising their First Amendment right here in Washington, D.C., he has lost the support of the military.

"Military Times" just did a poll a couple of weeks ago that showed that for the -- that if the election were now, over 50 percent of currently serving military men and women would not vote for Donald Trump. So it's not just the leadership, it's rank and file as well. They are disappointed in him, they don't particularly care for being called losers and suckers.

And he has shown himself to not carry any of the values that the military values so much, such as discipline, honor, integrity, selfless courage, loyalty: none of these values that our military men and women practice every single day are practiced by Donald Trump.

KEILAR: The president went to pay his respects to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg this morning, and he was booed. Let's listen to this.

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(BOOING)

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KEILAR: What is your reaction to that?

DUCKWORTH: It's sad. It's sad that our democracy has come to this, that the president of the United States would have so wrongly treated the American people that he would be booed. It's bad for our democracy, but it is fitting for this president. He has earned those boos, he's earned those jeers and he is going to earn losing the election on November 3rd.

KEILAR: Do you think there's any disrespect there? I mean, I just look at this scene -- right? -- and it's sort of jarring to hear the boos while you're looking at -- DUCKWORTH: Yes.

KEILAR: -- the late justice lying in state. Is it disrespectful to her as you see it?

DUCKWORTH: I don't think it's disrespectful to her, but it is very sad. It is very sad that our democracy -- that she upheld for all of those years of service, for those decades of service -- that we're at this point because of one man. One man has gotten us to this point. But you know, he's been aided and abetted by my Republican allies -- colleagues, his Republican allies in the Senate and in the House.

And it makes me deeply disappointed that we're here now, which is why more than ever we must elect Joe Biden to be president, to restore the dignity and the values to the White House that the American people, you know, embrace.

KEILAR: Senator Duckworth, it's good to see you. Thanks for being on.

DUCKWORTH: Thank you.

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