CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Congresswoman Debbie Dingell

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

WHITFIELD: Whitmer was the target of an alleged plot by domestic terrorists to kidnap and kill her. Whitmer called the rhetoric dangerous and said it needs to stop.

I'm joined now by Congresswoman Debbie Dingell. She is a Democrat from Michigan.

Good to see you, Congresswoman. So today, the Trump campaign is saying the President was just having some fun. Did that sound like fun to you?

REP. DEBBIE DINGELL (D-MI): No, it wasn't fun. And quite frankly, having been the target of some of his, quote-unquote "fun" in the past. You have no idea what it sets off.

I just left the Governor. She is one tough, steady woman. But what happened yesterday is just totally unacceptable. We have to stop this fear and hatred in the country, Fredricka, and what he did last night. It's just after he knew there had been a militia threat is unacceptable and quite frankly for me, unforgiveable.

WHITFIELD: And do you feel like, all right, it's one thing that he was using that language when he was a citizen running for President, but now he is a sitting President, and using that language coming from his 2016 playbook. Is that what makes it more -- all the more shocking to you?

[15:30:12]

DINGELL: Well quite frankly, it's more shocking to me, because when he was using that, in 2016, which I didn't think was appropriate either, but at least he was targeting for a crime. Right now, we have a pandemic that has turned the world upside down. And quite frankly, the way that he has handled it has many questioning whether it was made worse or not. There are Republican and Democratic governors doing exactly what my

governor is doing, and they are feeling the responsibility for the citizens of their state. They are trying to keep them from getting sick, and they are trying to keep them from dying.

And for him to just -- what he has been doing from the beginning, if he would just wear a mask, he is a leader. He does -- people follow him. If he would just wear a mask, does he know how many thousands of lives he would save? And instead of wearing the mask, he talks and makes fun of, and encourages fear and hatred. He pits us against each other.

The leader of the United States of America is supposed to pull us together, not tear us apart.

WHITFIELD: This pandemic has led to, you know, unbelievable pain and hardship. And the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi says the White House needs to make a deal on a new stimulus package within the next 48 hours for it to be done by Election Day. Do you think that's a realistic timeline?

DINGELL: Well, I think a realistic timeframe was months ago when we passed the first Heroes Bill, and they could have at least have come to the table and tried it, if they didn't agree with what we did, okay, well, can you agree? But now we're down to that election politics for the Republicans that are playing here.

And this is about people's lives. I very carefully mask, physically distance out, talking to people.

My Saturdays for 12 hours just talking and hearing what's on people's minds. They are scared. They are worried about winter. They are worried about their jobs. A lot of them are hungry.

This is -- we need to do something. You know, I pray she can get something done in 48 hours. But Mitch McConnell doesn't sound like he wants to do anything, and the President could tell his Republicans we need to get this done and it would happen.

WHITFIELD: And so what are the sticking points? What do you want to say what must be in a stimulus package in your view?

DINGELL: Well, first of all, we've got to have a testing and tracing plan -- we put one together. They were looking at language, apparently they can't -- why they can't come to some kind of simple language on being able to test people and try to diminish the impact of community spread by tracing is beyond me.

But since the White House themselves didn't trace, I guess, you can lean to that.

We also need to get aid to state and local governments, which are really hurting. There are people laying off frontline workers, which is our firefighters, that ambulance drivers, the school teachers. That's absolutely got to be in it. We should have more support for PPP for our businesses. It's all got

to be there, though. We can't just help out Wall Street and not help out working men and women across the country who are really hurting. One in four in Michigan doesn't have a job.

People have lost their health insurance because it was tied to their jobs. A lot of people are just plain scared with the food insecurity problem in this country. It's not -- it's not those that we always worry about, it's a lot of people's neighbors that are worried about these.

WHITFIELD: This pandemic is the driving force behind the voting, the importance of the voting this year, and the early voting. Your state is among those that is seeing a sizable increase of early voters, already 1.2 million.

However, are you concerned about Election Day and potential voter intimidation, especially on the heels of the President encouraging people to be vigilant about watching people at polling stations?

DINGELL: So we're all going to be very vigilant. Our Secretary of State this week has made it clear that guns cannot be present at the polling places. We've got an election protection plan in place, everybody. I don't care who you're voting for. I do care.

But what's most important is that you do vote for the person that you think will do the best job, and you need to not be afraid to go vote. I've got a meeting this week with all of my law enforcement and my churches and my faith-based groups and civic groups who want to talk about Election Day.

We're not going to let anybody be afraid. We're all going to work as a community bringing disparate people together so that everybody feels safe.

But also encouraging people to vote now because we are seeing an increase in COVID, so that's another problem. We don't want to -- our numbers have gone up greatly in the last three or four days and we don't want people not voting on Election Day, because they're worried about COVID, too.

They can vote now.

[15:35:20]

WHITFIELD: Right. Lots of concerns. Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, good to see you. Thank you so much. Be well.

DINGELL: Good to see you, Fredricka. Thank you.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source