CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with Congressman Jim Himes

Interview

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ACOSTA: President Trump's hopeless bid to hold on to power grew even more desperate today, as he demanded president-elect Joe Biden prove he was really elected with more than 80 million votes.

Let's discuss with Democratic Congressman Jim Himes of Connecticut. He sits on the House Intelligence Committee.

Congressman, thanks for joining us.

It seemed like President Trump was committing to leaving the White House. We saw that yesterday. But now he's saying president-elect Joe Biden must prove that he got the votes in order to enter the White House. It sounds like some sort of reality TV show game requirement for a contestant.

[18:20:02]

But what are the implications of this rhetoric?

REP. JIM HIMES (D-CT): Well, Jim, there's absolutely no implications to this rhetoric.

Our founders were smart enough 240 years ago to not give the currently sitting president anything to do with validating or ratifying or agreeing to the naming of his or her successor.

So, as usual, Donald Trump can and will make all kinds of noise, but it will amount to nothing, because, on January 20 -- and if we didn't know this the day after Election Day, we sure do know it now, now that we have seen the numbers and now that we have seen every court in the land basically laugh his cases out of court -- on January 20, Joe Biden will become president of the United States, regardless of what President Trump says or tweets.

ACOSTA: And where are your Republican colleagues on this, your colleagues in the House on the GOP side?

They are not in any mood, it seems, to push the president along, to accept reality and move on.

HIMES: No, they're not. And that's -- this is actually sort of the sad thing.

Nobody's surprised by Donald Trump's behavior. We have seen this from the moment he became president, when he claimed to have won the popular vote back in 2016 or claimed to have the biggest inaugural in human history.

It is sad, though, that more Republicans can't find the courage that Mitt Romney found to just say, look, this is really pretty clear.

And I understand why. I'm in politics, right? These Republicans understand that, if they make a statement of the obvious -- and, by the way, it's an obvious statement that would also go a long way to sort of re-cementing the foundations of our democracy.

They know that, if they do that, and they pop up on President Trump's radar screen, he can end their career. And, sadly, too many of my Republican colleagues would rather perpetuate their career than maybe strike a blow in favor of our country's democracy.

ACOSTA: And a federal appeals court said the Trump campaign's push to challenge the results in Pennsylvania has no merit.

As these court losses pile up, are you concerned -- the Trump campaign, some of their folks were saying today -- the fact that they still have folks is something to behold, but they were saying today that they may take this all the way to the Supreme Court.

Does that worry you at all that this may go to the Supreme Court?

HIMES: It doesn't worry me a bit, not one bit.

Again, the court cases that the president's campaign have brought haven't been bad cases. They have been laughable. They have been clown-like. They have literally been laughed out of court. Read the decisions.

The Pennsylvania case that you were just talking about was decided by Trump-appointed federal judge. And that judge basically did the judicial equivalent of laughing the campaign out of court.

So, no, I have no worries whatsoever that this Supreme Court will tolerate any of the games or shenanigans that no other court has tolerated.

What does worry me, Jim...

ACOSTA: Even with Amy Coney Barrett there? Because there are people who will say and there are supporters of Joe Biden who will say that they're concerned that, now that Amy Coney Barrett is on the court, the court has a different character to it now and makeup to it now.

HIMES: Well, of course it does. And we saw that, of course, in the ruling that was handed down on the

question of whether Governor Cuomo could put restrictions on houses of worship. So, of course it is.

But it's radically different saying that the court is more conservative, which it undeniably is, and saying something very different, which is that the Supreme Court is going to ignore every other court in the land and act in favor of an autocratic and deluded president.

I'm not -- if I'd been a senator, I wouldn't have voted for Amy Coney Brian (sic), but I'm not about to say that I think she's going to be a -- conspire to help an autocrat remain in office. Those are pretty different propositions.

ACOSTA: OK, Congressman Jim Himes, thanks so much for coming on during this holiday weekend. We appreciate it. Happy holidays to you. We will see you soon. Thanks so much.

HIMES: Thank you, Jim.

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