CNN "The Lead with Jake Tapper" - Transcript: Interview with Joni Ernst

Interview

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SEN. JONI ERNST (R-IA): Well, I am a former county auditor, Commissioner of Elections in Iowa, and I do believe that we need to make voting easier for people to participate in but harder to cheat. And so, my opinion is that many of these voter laws that have been passed by state legislatures are intended to protect the integrity of the election system.

So, we have seen various changes through the years in the state of Iowa. And you know what we have seen? Greater voter participation through each one of those elections.

So, I think there are ways that we should be working together to protect the integrity of elections, but make sure that those that are allowed to vote in elections are the ones that are voting, those not allowed to participate are not participating.

TAPPER: I guess one of the issues is that Iowa, for example, Republicans did quite well last November, right? I mean --

ERNST: Yes.

TAPPER: -- you guys won a lot of races.

ERNST: Yes.

TAPPER: Right? I don't have to tell you, including Donald Trump. And yet, Iowa just enacted a whole bunch of new restrictions, including county auditors, like the job you used to have are no longer allowed to send out applications for absentee ballots unless expressly requested. The time for early voting was reduced. The time on Election Day for voting was cut back an hour and on and on.

There wasn't a problem for the -- in the election to begin with. Why enact all -- and nor was there evidence of widespread fraud or even much fraud. So, why even -- why make it tougher to vote because that's what the law does.

ERNST: And that's not what Iowa's election law does. One, county auditors never before sent out absentee requests unless they were requested. But certainly the parties did that, other organizations did that. You can go online and print an application.

And Iowa's voter laws, even after this last iteration through the legislature are still much broader than even the states of, yes, Joe Biden's state of Delaware and Chuck Schumer's home state of New York. So, those two states much more restrictive than the current law in the state of Iowa. But I haven't heard Chuck Schumer or President Biden expressing their displeasure in their own states voting laws.

[17:05:08]

TAPPER: Yes, I'm not here to defend New York or Delaware voting laws, and you're right, they have a lot of restrictions that a lot of other states don't have. But I guess I just don't understand. If you're reducing, for example, early voting from 29 days to 20 days in Iowa.

And look, you didn't pass this law, you're a U.S. senator, you're not a state senator. But if you're doing that, or if you're saying no, you have to -- the deadline for voting is now 8:00 and not 9:00, as I would did also, you're making it tougher to vote. I mean, that's just a fact.

And I just don't know why. You just said you want it to be easier for legal voters --

ERNST: Right.

TAPPER: -- all legal voters and tougher to commit fraud. There isn't evidence of fraud in Iowa. So why even restricted at all? Why even say, OK, we're going to go from 29 days to 20 or, you know, from 9:00 to 9:00, why do it even? ERNST: Well, I think it does depend on how those stats look in the past. Certainly, when I was the auditor, we worked various Saturdays, that you would have the office open, all of your workers there and you may not get a single voter in the office all day. So, there are some things that can be cleaned up. And I think that's exactly what the legislature has done.

What we need to do is make sure voters now understand the laws that are passed against still much broader than many states across the United States. Make sure those voters understand and that they are turning out and voting in the state of Iowa. So that's what I intend to help with.

TAPPER: President Biden today pushing for the For the People Act, which is a sweeping legislation that not even every Democrat in the Senate supports. But he also pushed for the John Lewis Voting Act, which would require some states get federal approval when making changes to voting. Joe Manchin supports that, he's a moderate Democrat, who has been pushing back on a lot of other stuff that Biden's trying to do. Would you be willing to support the John Lewis Coting Act?

ERNST: Well, again, I still believe that those elections should be run by the states, the local elections officials. And this requires those states then to go to the federal government to Department of Justice and request their permission to change their laws.

Again, that's not the way the constitution established our elections in the United States. I still believe in state control of those elections.

TAPPER: Let's switch gears now because you've been working with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York on the military sexual assault issue. And you've been pushing for legislation -- on legislation that would take decisions about whether or not to prosecute rape, murder, other felony offenses out of the hands of commanders and mandate training on preventing sexual assault for all members in the military.

James Inhofe, another Army veteran, Republican senator from Oklahoma, called the measure an imperfect overly broad bill. I know you've had Republican support on the legislation. Where does it stand right now?

ERNST: Absolutely. So, Senator Gillibrand and I really want to see a vote on the floor of the Senate. Now, this would require Leader Schumer and Leader McConnell to work together and establish floor time for debate. We would love to see that.

We know that we have overwhelming support. We've got 66 cosponsors on this bill, sponsors and cosponsors. So, overwhelming support.

I don't know that that's going to happen in the time that we have this year. That's up to, again, leader Schumer to determine that. But likely it will go through the National Defense Authorization process.

Of course, it's not -- the legislation is not being supported by Reid (ph) or Inhofe, I would anticipate they would try and strip it down to a bare minimum. That is not what our survivors need in our military justice system.

TAPPER: Gillibrand, I would assume has a good relationship with Schumer, her fellow New York Democrat. Has she talked to him about getting this on the floor?

ERNST: I believe she has talked to him, but I don't think they have the details ironed out yet. And again, I think it is worthy of a standalone vote on the floor of the United States Senate. It is about making sure that survivors see justice and changes that are necessary in our military justice.

TAPPER: All right, well keep us updated. You know we care about this legislation. It was good to have you here today.

ERNST: Thanks so much.

TAPPER: And good to have you and Gillibrand here a few months ago.

ERNST: Thank you.

TAPPER: Thanks so much.

ERNST: Yes.

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