CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Congresswoman Debbie Dingell
Interview
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WHITFIELD: All right. It gets more interesting by the day, doesn't it? Kristen Holmes, thank you so much. With me now is Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, she is Democrat from Michigan and a Senior Whip for the Democrats in the House.
Congresswoman, good to see you.
REP. DEBBIE DINGELL (D-MI): Good to see you.
WHITFIELD: All right, so your response on all of this that possibly one Republican Board Member of this Canvassing Board may not certify. What would happen if that is indeed the case?
DINGELL: So, I'm not surprised by any of this. I have been expecting every trick in the book to be perfectly frank that could happen. First of all, there won't be a constitutional crisis in the country. I do want people to pay attention to the fact that the Speaker of the Michigan House met with President Trump on Friday night said that.
But the fact of the matter is, you just talked about what is happening in Pennsylvania, what's happening in Georgia. The electoral votes are there in the other states.
What is being done now is directly aimed at undermining people's confidence in the election process, the integrity of the elections.
[15:25:24]
DINGELL: These certification tomorrow is simple math. They look at the certification that's been done by 83 counties, they certify that it's done. Then you can do audits.
You are not allowed to do audits until that certification takes place. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. It's one thing I have told everybody to be prepared for, you don't know what is going to happen, but do be prepared for it if the vote is three to one, the vote will be certified.
We have got lawyers looking at things. I'm not part of that legal strategy because I don't want to be part of the legal strategy. I'm trying to build people's confidence in the election worked.
WHITFIELD: So based on that reporting, if it's the case that this Board member says, you know, he believes that there ought to be an audit and won't certify until there's an audit, you're saying the order is in reverse. You certify in order to, you know, grant an opening for any kind of audit, so it just doesn't make sense in your view, that sequence of events.
Now, is it the case that the Governor would appoint a replacement if for some reason this Board member were not to certify, were not to involve him or herself in the certification?
DINGELL: You need a vote of three to one. At least you need a majority of the canvassers. It is not clear -- we're all doing a lot of speculating. I'm not surprised by this report today because we've been reading what Norm Shinkle has been saying for the last few days, he has been laying the groundwork to show people why he might not do it.
His job isn't to do that. His job is a math job: certify what the other counties did.
And I want to be clear, people are using a lot of statistics that aren't correct. The fact of the matter is in Wayne County which is where the City of Detroit is, there were out cities like Livonia, with is called balancing, when you look at precinct numbers that the balance was more off. There were more precincts than Detroit.
So someone sends an absentee ballot in. You register it in. You have gotten the envelope, but you opened it and they forgot to put the ballot in.
None of those precincts that are off, I am told are off by more than one, two, or three. It's not the significant problem they are trying to cast.
And we all need to be careful. Every vote needs to be counted. I said we need to be slow, deliberate and count these votes, but we cannot undermine people's confidence of people in the voice of the people and the people have voted and we need to count every vote.
WHITFIELD: And this presidential election saw the largest voter turnout, and we already heard from so many agencies that this was also, you know, problematic free. This was the safest U.S. presidential election.
You're concerned now about the sowing of mistrust that even this continuous challenging, the President has a right to challenge, but it is not bearing any fruit. If anything, it's sowing more confusion.
What are your concerns about the sowing of mistrust in the U.S. elections by virtue of what's happening right now?
DINGELL: We have seen this country divided by fear and hatred for four years.
You know, I want to say this. When Donald Trump got elected four years ago, I had said I'd listen to the people and said it could happen. I was one of the very first people to say he was elected President. He is our President. We need to stand and support him.
That is something. The smooth transition of government that has happened from the beginning of this country. People need to know that their vote matters, their vote counted and it's accurate.
And this sowing of confusion, trying to undermine the integrity, it's attacking the fundamental pillars of our Constitution and our democracy and it's not okay.
WHITFIELD: One of your fellow Michigan Representatives Republican Fred Upton was on CNN this morning, discussing the Michigan election results and this is what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. FRED UPTON (R-MI): The voters have spoken, and here in Michigan, the 154,000-vote margin by President-elect Biden. No one has come up with evidence of fraud or abuse. All 83 counties now have certified their own election results. Those will be officially tabulated or they should be tomorrow.
We expect that that process move forward and let the voters, not the politicians speak.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: What are your thoughts?
[15:30:10]
DINGELL: I think Fred just said it eloquently. Fred and I are a Democrat and Republican work together frequently because we know that we are the United States of America.
And I even want to tell you, "The Detroit News" which is traditionally a conservative paper today said they need to just certify the votes tomorrow.
There's a group called the Michigan Freedom Fund which, quite frankly, is a significantly funded conservative group by the DeVos that has acknowledged and said in an op-ed piece this weekend Donald Trump lost Michigan.
They are encouraging an audit. They are encouraging the Secretary of State to look at things, but they said there are not enough votes, even if there were mistakes to make up the wide margin that Joe Biden won Michigan.
Look, we need to move on. We need to look to the future.
We have a COVID crisis that we're watching on the show. We've got everybody who knows somebody at this point. We need to be working together in this country to attack all COVID and make our country strong. That's what we need to be focused on, not attacking the roots of our democracy.
WHITFIELD: Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, thank you so much. Always good to see you. Appreciate it.
We'll be right back.
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