Fox News "The Story" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Joni Ernst

Interview

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MACCALLUM: So, my next guest was just appointed to the Senate judiciary committee and met with Mr. Barr. There's the video there, they met earlier today. Senator Joni Ernst is a Republican from Iowa. Senator, welcome.

SEN. JONI ERNST, R-IA.: Thanks, Martha.

MACCALLUM: Good to see you again. Nice to have you here.

So, you met with Mr. Barr today. Did you ask him if he would protect the Mueller investigation?

ERNST: We spoke very little about the Mueller investigation because I've long said that if there are leads that would show Russia collusion, then those should be followed. But we did focus on where more of the aspects of is he going to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law? Will he work with me on important topics to me such as immigration and violence against women? And all of those he affirmed.

MACCALLUM: So, what are -- you know, he called in this memo that he sent in June of '18, the Mueller special counsel probe legally unsupportable and potentially disastrous. Basically, he believes that this part of the investigation is based on sort of an insupportable reading of the law. But he has also said in comments since then that he would not do anything to get in the way, but you just said you just talked about it a little bit. What did he say?

ERNST: Right. Well, I believe, and what I believe he will do is actually follow any leads that are valid, and again, going back to the fact that the original intent of that investigation was to discover if there was any collusion with Russia in that presidential election cycle.

So, if we see evidence of that, certainly that investigation should continue. And I believe that he would be supportive of that.

MACCALLUM: Lindsey Graham is the incoming chairman of the judiciary committee on which he now sits here. He is talking about Bill Barr earlier. Watch this.

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SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, R-S.C.: His opinion of Mr. Mueller is very high in terms of ethics, and care doing professionalism. I asked Mr. Barr directly, do you think Bob of -- Mr. Mueller is on a witch hunt? He said, no. Do you think he would be fair to the president and the country as a whole? He said yes.

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ERNST: Yes.

MACCALLUM: You know, we played a clip of the Kavanaugh hearing on the way in.

ERNST: Yes.

MACCALLUM: And I think that, you know, when people watch that they still get sort of shutters because it was such a brutal experience, I think on all sides of the aisle watching all of that play out. Do you think we are in for something along those lines with his confirmation process?

ERNST: I would hope not. I would hope that Senate democrats would understand that this is a different situation. And we need to take every confirmation and vet them separately.

So, what we experience through the Kavanaugh hearings I hope is part of our past and I hope that the Democrats are objective as they look at William Barr's qualifications. He's very qualified to be our attorney general, obviously, and has been confirmed three times previously by the United States Senate.

MACCALLUM: So, you know, I mean, obviously there's a lot of focus on the Mueller report. So, you know, in terms of transparency and the question of that, there will be a decision to be made when Robert Mueller files that report --

ERNST: Yes.

MACCALLUM: -- whether or not it should be made public. Do you believe that it should be made public? There are some indications that the White House might perhaps seek to delay it or to redact sections of it under executive privilege. What's your opinion on that?

ERNST: I do think that the public has the right to know what Mueller has been doing through the investigative process and whatever comes up comes up. And we have invested a lot of time and dollars into this. I think our taxpayers deserve the opportunity to know what the federal government has been spending his money on.

MACCALLUM: You know, you and Marsha Blackburn are two -- the first two GOP women to sit on the judiciary committee.

ERNST: Yes.

MACCALLUM: Is that important? Does it matter, you know, that there are women who represent your party on that panel?

ERNST: Well, absolutely. There are a lot of issues that women care very much about. And I do think that we need to be reflective of our constituency. So, I'm excited about the opportunity. And I know that Senator Blackburn is as well. And I look forward to moving through these committee hearings and the number of the nominations that are going to come forward.

We have a lot of judges yet to confirm and I think having conservative women and our voices on that committee will be very important.

MACCALLUM: I think that the previous panel was sort of imprinted on the American consciousness and the last one. It's going to be interesting to see some new faces there as we watch this confirmation process play out. Thank you very much, Senator Ernst.

ERNST: Thank you, Martha.

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