CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Congressman Ro Khanna

Interview

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[10:41:48]

HARLOW: Well, welcome back. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is defending her willingness to reject the White House's latest stimulus proposal and to hold out for more money. She slammed the $1.8 trillion package. Some Democrats though, including California Congressman Ro Khanna, say it is time to make a deal. Here's how Nancy Pelosi responded to that.

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: -- members of your own caucus --

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: -- if you ask me a question --

BLITZER: Even members of your own caucus, Madam Speaker, want to accept this deal, $1.8 trillion. Congressman Ro Khanna, for example --

PELOSI: Wait a minute, wait a second -- BLITZER: -- let me just -- let me just quote Ro Khanna, a man you know well, I assume you admire him, he's a Democrat. And he just said this. He said, "People in need can't wait until February, $1.8 trillion is significant and more than twice the Obama stimulus... Make a deal and put the ball in McConnell court." So what do you say to Ro Khanna?

PELOSI: What I say to you is, I don't know why you're always an apologist. And many of your colleagues, apologists for the Republican position. Ro Khanna, that's nice, that isn't what we're going to do and nobody's waiting until February.

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HARLOW: Well, Congressman Ro Khanna joins me now. Congressman, it's good to have you. I'd like you to respond to that, but also more about what the speaker said about you. Roll the tape.

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PELOSI: Ro Khanna, he's lovely. They are not negotiating this situation. They have no idea of the particulars, they have no idea of what the language is here.

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HARLOW: Well, Congressman, I know you want a deal. I also know you worked at Commerce, you have a degree in economics, you actually taught economics at Stanford. So do you have no idea of the particulars here?

REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): Look, I have great admiration for Speaker Pelosi and her skills as a negotiator. I'm just talking about people I hear in my district.

I represent Silicon Valley. In Cupertino, where you have Apple computers, we have food banks, lines of thousands of people who don't have enough food to feed their kids. We have working families who can't pay the rent, we have people who are struggling with small businesses, immigrants who have restaurants and they're concerned 20, 30 years of work is going to go down the drain.

I'm speaking for them, that's my job as a member of Congress, to say we've got to help them get something done.

HARLOW: Well that's exactly your job, is to represent the people in your district. You've called it a moral obligation to do something, and your message was really clear. Speaker Pelosi, take this deal. She's not going to take this deal.

I wonder how many other members of your caucus have told you they agree with you but maybe they're just too scared to say it?

KHANNA: Poppy, a lot of members want a deal. And look, the speaker is right that there have to be some things that need to be amended. We need to get $75 billion for testing, we need a full comprehensive testing plan (ph), we need to make sure there's no violation of the ADA.

I believe we need to come to a spirit where we say we can get those done. We're not as far apart as the people may think, and we have an obligation to be constructive and get this done, and there are a lot of members who believe that.

HARLOW: But I'm confused. It really read in that tweet like you said, take this deal. Are you now saying don't take this deal?

KHANNA: What I said is we should make a deal. I'm not saying that we should take exactly the language of what the White House offered. What I have said is, we ought to be able to -- we're close and we should be able to make the deal. And I think we can.

[10:45:10]

I think we can say to the White House -- in I think subsequent tweets, I've put this out -- let's have $75 billion for testing, let's have the language correct. And I think we're very close. Most people believe we're close. And then put the ball in McConnell's court to pass it.

HARLOW: OK, but the speaker was clearly saying in that interview that you guys aren't that close.

There is the fact that the president's top economic advisor, Larry Kudlow, told Jake Tapper on Sunday that the Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, may even offer more above the $2.2 trillion that Speaker Pelosi wants.

So what about Democrats who would say to you, no, no, no, listen to what Kudlow said, you know, Mnuchin and the president may go higher, we've got to wait for that? Is it wrong to wait? Is it -- like people in your district need this now.

KHANNA: Yes. Look, if the speaker has a way of saying, in one week, we're going to get a $2.2 trillion deal, then I'm not putting that -- ruling that out, great. I'm just saying, we've got to do something. We can't not do anything and just have back-and-forth partisan politics. We've got to help people who are in need.

If she believes that waiting a few days is going to get us $2.2 trillion, more power to her and I support that. What I am trying to say -- and a lot of members believe -- is that what is unacceptable is for us to go away with no deal.

HARLOW: Well, yes. I think it's a complete abdication of responsibility, duty. It is your job to make a deal on something that actually both sides agree need to happen, and you guys need to be able to agree on something for the American people.

But you brought up the food lines, right? In your district. And we looked, and Second Harvest, a food bank in your district, says that they are seeing an average of half a million people each month, that is double where you guys were pre-pandemic. And I wonder if you think part of the problem here is that so many

members -- most of the members of Congress -- are actually millionaires? The median income for people in Congress who filled out the financial disclosure forms is a million dollars. So are most members of Congress so rich that they don't really get what it's like?

KHANNA: Poppy, I don't think that's -- sure, I mean, look, I came from a middle-class family, but I've done very well. My district is one of the most affluent districts in the nation, in Silicon Valley. And yet the point is being in Congress, you have to represent everyone.

And if you listen to people in my district -- one of the most affluent places -- people are basically in tears that they're going to lose their restaurant, that they're going to lose their small business, that they can't make rent. FDR was wealthy, but he heard (ph) people. And I just think, I don't think this is rocket science.

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HARLOW: You don't think it's at all a problem -- and I'm not speaking to you specifically, I'm just saying the fact that there is such wealth in Congress, you know, many have reported over the years that that contributes to the disconnect.

KHANNA: I'd love to -- if your point is, should there be more working-class Americans in Congress? Absolutely, and we should talk about campaign finance reform, we should talk about the problems of incumbency, we should talk about why those roadblocks are there.

But given that we're not going to have an influx of working-class folks in the next two weeks, what we need to do, those of us who are in Congress have to say, why did we want to serve? We wanted to serve to help people. People are hurting out there, they're suffering out there.

We have a (INAUDIBLE) election, and people are going to get to vote for that. Let's just, on this one thing, in helping the American people, take that out of politics, get something done and do our duty at the time of crisis. And I really think that sentiment is actually widespread amongst the caucus.

HARLOW: Let me ask you one final thought -- and we should have that conversation about more working folks in Congress, at another time. But you repeatedly, over the spring, had been calling for $2,000 a month direct cash injections to average Americans, so much so that you and Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan even, you know, put forward a bill calling for that.

That's not in this, so what changed? Did you find that that was just untenable, it wasn't going to happen?

KHANNA: No, that's what I would love. And I voted for the original HEROES Act, which was $3.4 trillion. I voted for the $2.2 trillion that the House Democrats have. I believe our House plans are better than what the White House is proposing. But the point is, I'm one of 435 members of Congress. There are two

chambers of Congress. The Republicans control the Senate, Trump is in the White House. And the point is I could say, well, let's have a Khanna-Ryan plan or nothing, or I can say, constituents of mine are hurting, we have to compromise, we have to get something done.

And I'd rather they get some stimulus check and some rent assistance than nothing, and that's really what we're talking about, is get something done, let's all compromise at a time of a national crisis.

HARLOW: That would help a lot of Americans, to have a little more compromise. Thank you. Thanks so much, Congressman Ro Khanna. Appreciate the time -- Jim.

KHANNA: Thank you.

[10:50:04]

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