CNN "Wolf" - Transcript: Sen. Maize Hirono Interviewed

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

BLITZER: This coming in to CNN. U.S. Senate will work overtime. The Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is cancelling the scheduled August recess. He is in the process blaming Democrats. In a statement, McConnell says, quote, "Due to the historic obstruction by Senate Democrats of the president's nominees and the goal of passing appropriations bills prior to the end of the fiscal year, the August recess has been canceled. Senators should expect to remain in session in August to pass legislation, including appropriations bills and to make additional progress on the president's nominees."

That is the statement from Mitch McConnell. No recess in August for the U.S. Senate.

Other news we are following, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is hosting a working lunch with the foreign minister of Singapore as preparations for the U.S. and North Korea move full speed ahead. John Bolton may be side lined from the process. CNN has learned that tension with Pompeo and Bolton have reached a boiling point, we're told. We are told that there was a heated exchange with the two men following Bolton's Libya model comments which angered North Korea and Kim Jong- Un. Bolton was not invited to Friday's meeting where North Korean top official delivered a letter from Kim Jong-Un to President Trump over at the White House.

You see the picture. Both men smiling there. That was Friday in the Oval Office.

Joining us from Capitol Hill is the Hawaii Senator, Mazie Hirono, a democrat. A key member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Judiciary Committee.

Senator, what do you think of the behind-the-scene drama, the tension with the national security adviser and secretary of state over North Korea? [13:40:17] SEN. MAZIE HIRONO, (D), HAWAII: This does not set a

reassuring stage for any diplomatic resolution and agreement with North Korea. This is the kind of diplomacy that takes months to set up and you have two key people at odds with each other which is typical for this administration. Not to mention that you have a president who is about to engage in negotiations ill prepared and who changes his mind every other day and you have on the other side Kim Jong-Un who already is known to not keep his promises. This is not a great setting of the stage for fruitful negotiations.

BLITZER: Do the tensions between Pompeo and Bolton, who keep players in the national security realm in Washington, will it impact the potential for progress in the talks a week from today in Singapore?

HIRONO: I would think so. You would want to have the national security adviser engaged and involved and on the same page. To the extent of conflict with Pompeo and Bolton, two key players in the administration, that has got to not bode well for the president's thinking on this strategy and most of us have serious concerns about the president's ability to concentrate and to be focused on what we really need to do with regard to North Korea. We have received very little by the way in terms of how he will approach the negotiations. Heaven forbid he thinks he can go in and have a chat with Kim Jong-Un and use his powers of persuasion. Are you kidding me? This is not reassuring at all.

BLITZER: What would you like to see emerge from the meeting with the president and North Korean leader?

HIRONO: There has to be a complete and verifiable denuclearization of the nuclear program and domestic missile and chemical weapons programs. It has to be verifiable at all times. If North Korea doesn't live up to the agreement, sanctions should come back. Those agreements we should have. Not to mention that I would say South Korea and Japan are interested in particularly Japan with the ICBM missile program. If North Korea denuclearizes, they need to be aware. We need to keep our allies in the loop. Russia is getting into the situation as well as China. This is a complicated circumstance and environment. Yes, we would all like peace in the Korean peninsula. As I said, we have a president who is likely to change his mind at any moment and we have Kim Jong-Un who cannot be relied upon to keep his side of the promise. You know, you need to have some level of assurance that these two leaders will negotiate in good faith and come out with something that can be verifiable and leads us to a peaceful North Korea. We are not reassured that is what's going to happen.

BLITZER: Let me get your thoughts on a couple of issues. Senator, the president keeps attacking the Attorney General Jeff Sessions, including once gai again today, including the Russia probe again. What is your reaction?

HIRONO: It shows the president is desperate as to what his concerns regarding the Mueller investigation. For him to come out and say that he could pardon himself and some of the other outrageous statements he is making. He should put a crown on his head because he is acting like a king and that is not our country. He thinks he is a dictator and king. He says all of these outrageous things. It shows he is really afraid what the Mueller investigation will show with regard to his own actions and particularly, of course, with his efforts to side track the investigation. His continued attacks on Jeff Sessions is just another example of fear that he is expressing.

BLITZER: Very quickly. Finally, the announcement made by Mitch McConnell to keep your Senate in session in August. He is blaming the Democrats. You guys, he says, are not doing what you are supposed to be doing.

[13:45:01] HIRONO: That is ridiculous coming from the person who stopped the hearings from going on and kept open the Supreme Court seat open for a year. Mitch McConnell will do anything to keep all of us from going back to the constituents and touching base with them. This is a politically motivated action on his part. It is totally not true that we have not been voting on the president's nomination. If anything, there have been more confirmations fast tracked by Mitch McConnell to lifetime appointments to the judiciary. Appointments of people by people who fit the ideological conservative right-wing Federalist Society perspective that Trump wants on the judiciary for lifetime appointments. That is where Mitch McConnell is coming from today.

BLITZER: Senator Hirono, thank you so much for joining us. Please convey our best wishes for the Hawaiians who have been is suffering on the big island in Hawaii.

Thank you so much. Good luck to all your fellow Hawaiians.

HIRONO: I'm very much in touch with our people there. Thank you.

BLITZER: I know you are.

Senator Hirono of Hawaii.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source