CNN "Wolf" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Van Hollen

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

[13:41:41] BLITZER: A rather conciliatory tone from North Korea. The government seeming almost apologetic in the wake of president's decision to cancel the June 12th summit with Kim Jong-Un in Singapore.

Joining us now, Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen. He's a Democrat. He's on the Appropriations Committee as well as the Banking Committee.

Senator, thanks for joining us.

What do you think? Can the change in tone can be seen as positive step, a sign that the president may have made the right decision, and maybe the summit will still take place?

SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, (D), MARYLAND: Well, Wolf, it's great to be with you.

Look, the issue with the summit has always been that this is something that North Korean leaders have wanted to have happen for a very long time. There's no surprise that Kim Jong-Un wants to meet with American president. His father wanted to meet with American presidents. And having that meeting elevates him on the world stage and is a win for Kim Jong-Un. That doesn't mean we shouldn't have a meeting or summit. What it means is we better make sure that whenever we have a summit that we get what we need out of it. And my greatest concern is what we have seen so far is a lot of chaos, not a lot of preparation. And we don't want a summit that ends up with a photo-op. I mean that just helps the North Koreans. Doesn't do us any good. So we better be sure we have a plan. And Donald Trump better understand he's not dealing with some New York City subcontractor that he was able to bully in the past. That is my biggest concern. I mean, having a summit, fine, but remember North Koreans have wanted this for a long time. We better be prepared to get what we want out of it.

BLITZER: The president tweeted, and I'll read a line from the tweet, "The Democrats are so obviously rooting against us in our negotiations with North Korea."

Senator, are you rooting against the president in his negotiations with North Korea?

VAN HOLLEN: Wolf, I am rooting for success. If we can achieve the goal of getting North Korea to denuclearize the Korean peninsula and do that in a verifiable way, which is what the president said he wants, that would obviously be good for our country, be good for the world, and it would be good for our allies. In order to accomplish that, you can't just show up at a meeting and expect that you can persuade the North to do what it never has before. And that's my biggest concern. In the last year and a half, I have not seen the supposed great negotiating powers from this president. In order to be successful, you need to have a team that really knows what's going to come out of this summit in advance. So whether the summit is it on or off, from my perspective, is less important than making sure the homework has been done to get the right results, and always remembering that North Koreans want this to happen. I mean, it puts their leader on the world stage across from an American president. So let's make sure we get what we want out of this so it's just not what Kim Jong-Un wants out of this.

BLITZER: Let's talk about ZTE, Senator. That's the huge Chinese telecom company that's now been sanctioned by the United States government. They are losing a lot of jobs in China as a result of that. President Trump, he spoke about his desire to try to save the company. And now the "New York Times" is reporting that a deal has been made to keep ZTE in business. You actually, and correct me if I'm wrong, introduced a ZTE amendment as part of the National Defense Authorization Act. What do you hope to achieve?

[13:45:14] VAN HOLLEN: Well, yes, there's strong bipartisan opposition in the Senate, in fact, in the whole Congress to the president letting ZTE get off the hook here. And we passed an amendment, 23-2, in the Banking Committee. That will go to the floor as part of the defense authorization bill shortly. That says the president can't union laterally do that. That the president has to come to Congress and make certain certifications. And, Wolf, this is a company that not only poses a national security

threat but has violated our sanctions against North Korea repeatedly. So it totally undermines our effort to put maximum pressure on North Korea to say, oh, we just caught ZTE cheating and lying about selling goods to North Korea, but you know what, if you can cut a deal with the president of the United States on some other trade-related issue not related to our security, we'll let you off the hook. That sends a terrible message to everybody else with respect to our seriousness about our sanctions on North Korea.

BLITZER: Senator Van Hollen, thanks for joining us.

VAN HOLLEN: Thank you.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source