CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D)

Interview

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HILL: Abby Phillip with the latest for us from the White House. Thank you.

Joining me now to discuss further, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat from New York, ranking member on the Judiciary Committee.

We know obviously these things happen in the Senate. But I just heard your reaction there to Senator Collins saying -- her take on all this when she spoke with Jake yesterday. You laughed a little bit when she said, you know, I want a justice who looks at this as settled law. The president himself has said when it comes to marriage equality, I look at that as settled law.

REP. JERROLD NADLER (D), RANKING MEMBER, JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: It's nonsense. The Supreme Court just ruled 5-4 a week and a half ago to overturn a 1977 decision that was settled law to hinder labor unions. So they can talk about settled law. Anybody on that list from the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society is going to vote to overturn "Roe v. Wade," they're going to -- they're going to vote to make abortion illegal, they're going to vote to make union organizing terrible, they're going to vote to -- probably to ban states from any kind of reasonable gun legislation.

They're going to vote to use the First Amendment, religious liberty clause to say you can't enforce public accommodations laws for gay people and others. They're going to gut much of what we have learned. They're going to use the laws we've seen on the Affordable Care Act. They started down the road of restricting the commerce clause and the spending power so that most of legislation for minimum wages and for economic regulations is going to be declared unconstitutional, too. They're going to go back before the new deal.

HILL: Those are all a lot of the concerns. The reality is, the chances of a justice not only being nominated on Monday but being confirmed in the Senate prior to the November midterm elections, very high. There's not a lot Democrats can do at this point. This is going to be very powerful for the Republicans in terms of energizing the vote.

Are you concerned that it could have the opposite effect on Democrats for November?

NADLER: No. I think it will certainly energize -- Democratic voters are very energized right now. It's energized for a lot of reasons. It's energized because of the savage brutality of the Trump administration with respect to immigrants, with family separation. It's energized because for a lot of -- because of the Trump administration's attacks on the press and all the institutions that support a free society.

So our vote I think is very energized. I think the statistics and the (INAUDIBLE) elections are bearing that out. The Republican vote, they're going to try to energize it by three things. They're going to try to energize it by saying that President Trump is on the ballot, he'll be impeached if the Democrats get elected, which is not at all certain. Number one. They'll try to energize it by the savagery at the border, by the racist -- by appealing to racist, anti-immigrant sentiment. And they'll try to energize it by the Supreme Court pick.

HILL: Right. Which -- and it will be interesting to see how they are successful or not on any of those points. When it comes to immigration, you were at a rally, in a march over the weekend here. There were chants of abolish ICE. Do you support abolishing ICE?

NADLER: Well, I think that's a distraction. I think the main point is that we have to oppose the racist and the savage anti-family and anti-immigration policy of the Trump administration. ICE is a tool which is being misused by the Trump administration. And yes, there are things you ought to reform about it. There are powers it shouldn't have and so forth. But the main -- and we can really change it. But the main thing is the policy of the administration, what they're doing.

HILL: And that as we know --

NADLER: That's where we're going to keep our -- keep our eye on ball.

HILL: And you called for more on that. But so you're saying, I just want to be clear on your answer. Do not abolish ICE.

NADLER: No, I'm not saying that .

HILL: But there's room for improvement?

[10:25:03] NADLER: I'm not saying that. I'm saying that I think frankly whether you abolish ICE is not the main question.

HILL: OK.

NADLER: You've got to change it so it can't be misused the way it's being misused. But the main thing is to change these policies.

HILL: Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez here in New York, she could join you obviously in Washington.

NADLER: She will join us.

HILL: Very progressive policies. She's much younger. She said over the weekend the Democratic Party is a big tent party. We have grown for lots of different people. And yet there is this push toward more progressive policies. Is there room for everyone in there? Where do moderates go at this point?

NADLER: Well, there's certainly room for everyone. I'm a very progressive person. I always have been. And so I'm very happy with the trend in the party toward more progressive policies. I've been a member of the progressive caucus in the House caucus my entire tenure in Congress. But yes, we have more moderate people on the caucus, too, and they have their say. And this balance shifts from time to time.

But I think the country is basically going in a more progressive direction. People want better health care. They want policies that will make sure that the increasing economic growth doesn't -- only to the benefit of the corporations and the people at the top, which is what's been going on.

HILL: Do you think your fellow leadership sees it the way that you do? That there is room for different ideas, that there is room for new blood, there is room for more progressive policies?

NADLER: Sure. I think so.

HILL: Because (INAUDIBLE). As you know, not just with the leadership in Washington but also within the party, that there is sort of stranglehold on this party that is not unified around a clear message, especially moving into November.

NADLER: Well, it's very hard to unify around a clear message when you don't have the president or the majority leader in either House.

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HILL: But is that -- that sounds like an excuse. Why can't you? NADLER: Because you can't control what people say. People will say

different things. And the press will pick up on people saying different things. So it's very difficult for a party that is out of power to be perceived as having a clear message. I think we have several clear messages. Universal health care is one clear message. Use the government to make sure that all the benefits do not go to the top is another clear message. Oppose tax cuts that -- well, the Republican policy, we all oppose to, which is basically have huge tax cuts almost all the benefits of which go to the top 1 percent. Then use the resulting deficit as an excuse to say we've got to cut back on Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security, which is what's coming, what they're doing now.

I think the Democratic Party is unified in opposing that kind of politics and in saying that we want a politics where the tax burden is less on low income people, more on high income people, more on corporations where you have higher economic growth but where the benefit of that growth is broadly distributed not only to the top.

HILL: We will be interested to see how that message works out moving forward. Always appreciate you taking the time to come in. Thank you.

NADLER: Thank you.

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