CNN Newsroom: Interview With Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) About Legal Dramas Looming Ahead Of Election Year 2024

Interview

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Well, I think Republicans in the

House are absolutely desperate to do anything to distract from the fact that, you know, former President Trump has been indicted three times, and, you know, is likely about to be indicted a fourth time.

Your breaking news uncovered that in Georgia President Trump's team as well as likely President Trump actually breached or attempted to breach a voting system. In order to gain those votes that he was pressuring the secretary of state to try to find so that he could win Georgia when he actually lost.

So the desperation on the part -- and the abuse of the legal process on the part of the Republican Party is really stunning. And on the other hand, you have the Biden Justice Department, A, initially appointing a Trump appointed U.S. attorney to do -- handle the investigation of Hunter Biden, and now ensuring that there is a special counsel. So it's just so clear, the contrast between the two approaches to the legal system and that Republicans are just obsessed with doing anything other than focusing on trying to take care of the American people as President Biden has done throughout his time in office.

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I mean, because they want -- look, let me go back in September, Jessica. They're likely going to start up a baseless impeachment process for President Biden when Comer has admitted there is absolutely no evidence that they've come up with that President Biden did anything wrong and that they -- I mean, there's just -- they want to distract from President Trump's really serious legal jeopardy and the fact that President Biden has been the most successful president in modern times.

I mean, the fact that we have record job growth, that we've passed, you know, bipartisan legislation, most significant gun safety reform in 30 years. That wee been making sure that we make investments in infrastructure by passing the infrastructure legislation. The Inflation Reduction Act. We brought inflation down and really tried to make sure that we focused on getting the American people back to work and this economy healthy again. And that's bad news for Republicans. So they want to distract from all of that good news.

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Abortion rights in Florida is a 70 percent plus issue. More than 70 percent of Floridians support a woman's right to make her own reproductive choices and having autonomy over her own health care decisions. What Ron DeSantis in Florida and Republicans across this country are focused on doing is banning abortion nationwide. They want to take women's rights away.

That's the extreme MAGA Republican agenda. And I mean, 15-week ban that they passed last year wasn't enough. Now they've passed a six- week ban. So in our state, thankfully, voters have the opportunity to get signatures and amend our constitution and that is where voting abortion rights supporters are headed. And it is likely going to drive people to the polls who want to make sure that we don't have extremism ruling our state, and that women's bodies are not taking over by government and those decisions made for them instead of them being able to make those decisions themselves.

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What I make of his decision is what the majority of Floridians have made of it, and that is that it's an abuse of his power. It's a gross abuse of power to replace his judgment from the voters' judgment, the prosecutor in Orange and Osceola County was overwhelmingly elected 65 percent of the vote. Ron DeSantis removed her because he doesn't agree with her policy decisions even though that's what she campaigned on and the voters elected her to execute those.

And it's just outrageous that he thinks that he has the right to replace voters' judgment. And it's very clear he's an autocrat, he's an authoritarian, and he doesn't understand following the rule of law and making sure that people have the ability to elect -- to select elected officials based on their point of view, and he doesn't get to replace their point of view. And that's obviously the kind of president he would be.

He's clearly been a horrendous governor, banning books, he's tried to -- he's adopted an education program for African-American history focused on suggesting that slavery have some benefits and that that has to be taught. He's caused chaos and confusion with banning AP psychology then not banning it. This is a governor who doesn't know how to govern. Only knows how to be an authoritarian, and that's the last thing that this country needs. It's certainly the last thing Florida needs.

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Sure.

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