Fox News "The Story" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Mitch McConnell

Interview

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MACCALLUM: Senator Schumer said that he thinks that the State of the Union as far as the administration is concerned is in chaos.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, R-KY, SENATE MAJORITY LEADER:

SCHUMER: The State of the Trump administration is embroiled in chaos and incompetence. In some, the State of our Union is in need of drastic repair.

MACCALLUM: What do you say, the State of the Union is?

SCHUMER: I think my friend, Chuck Schumer is not paying close attention. I mean, the country is in the middle of an economic boom. Unemployment is lowest it's been in 50 years. People are finding work who couldn't before, obviously. More money in your take-home pay these days. America is doing really quite well.

MACCALLUM: You said earlier today that you are praying for the conferee is to come to some kind of agreement that will avert a shutdown. Do you think -- how optimistic are you that that's going to happen?

MCCONNELL: I'm certainly hopeful that nothing good comes out of a government shutdown. We tried this a few times in the past. This wasn't the first time we've got to shut down. One of my favorite old Kentucky sayings is there's no education in the second kick of a mule. A third kick of a mule would be even less educating.

And so, I'm hoping the president will be able to sign the bill. Conferees are working hard.

MACCALLUM: Do you think they're getting anywhere?

MCCONNELL: Well, they're working hard to try to find a place here that -- you know, most of my party, virtually, all of us support the wall, we think, president's got a credible argument.

Clearly, strong differences of opinion about that. I hope they'll split the difference somehow in the conference. Make that -- make it possible for the president sign the bill, prevent another government shutdown. And I know he's contemplating another option. So --

(CROSSTALK)

MACCALLUM: Yes, I want to ask you about that. But, he didn't sound too optimistic about the conferee is. He said, you know, if they come back with something that doesn't include a wall, I think it's a big waste of time.

MCCONNELL: Well, it could be. But my point is, by signing that bill, he will fund the remaining 25 percent of the government beyond just the wall. And he's got another option he's contemplating that may get the result that he wants on the wall.

MACCALLUM: That would be a national emergency. Are you -- but you're not in favor of that, are you?

MCCONNELL: Well, I want to wait and see what he does. All I've said to him is that there is a process where the Congress -- you know, could try to undo that. That doesn't necessarily mean that's an argument for not doing it. But it won't be without controversy.

MACCALLUM: But there's already been Senator Blunt and Senator Cornyn have both said that they don't want him to go down that route. Senator Graham, says he hopes that no matter what comes of this that the GOP will stand together in support of the president, so which do you think it will be? I don't think there are different opinions about it. And if he goes that route, we'll just hash it out.

MACCALLUM: So, what -- I mean, how do you think all this ends? Because you just laid out two different examples where -- you know, they don't get the funding for the wall in the deal that they come up with, but the national emergency is likely to be rejected by a lot of members of the Republican Party.

MACCALLUM: But the president could win anyway by vetoing the bill. And then, trying to get enough votes to sustain it. So, he may ultimately be able to prevail on the national emergency alternative. What I told him, just in giving him situational awareness is as you have stated, there is differences of opinion among Senate Republicans about whether that's the right thing to do.

MACCALLUM: Do you think that what's going on at the border is a national crisis, is an emergency of the country?

MCCONNELL: I think it's a -- I think it's a huge problem. I think the president is correct that fencing, it makes a difference. That's one of the reason the conferee is on the bill or bringing in professionals. Not political appointees, professionals who do border security.

Tomorrow to ask their advice about what works. I'm pretty optimistic they're going to say that fencing in certain places really works.

MACCALLUM: Back in January of last year, the president said in the State of the Union 2018 that he hoped that, that would be the Congress that would come up with immigration reform and border security and all of that.

And shortly, after that, he sat down at something called the cheeseburger summit with Senator Schumer. And they had discussions about 1.8 million DACA recipients being able to stay in the country, a path to citizenship. $25 billion for the wall. Should he pass that deal, so they have settled on that?

MCCONNELL: I think it's safe to say that neither side has been able to figure out how to pass something significant in this whole field. So, what the president's done is fall back here largely on trying to secure the border, something he thought and we thought would not be that controversial.

MACCALLUM: Do you think that he should lay out a new offer tonight to the American people that includes the DREAMers, includes DACA?

MCCONNELL: Well, I'm not going to give them any advice tonight. But, the fact that we're having a difficult time with immigration is not anything new, unfortunately. So, I wish we just focus on securing the border and worry about --

(CROSSTALK)

MACCALLUM: But that sounds like he's going to have to go the national emergency route then. That's what I'm hearing that he would have to go the national emergency route if you want to get the wall bill.

MCCONNELL: Well, that's an option he is weighing. He's been talking about it publicly.

MACCALLUM: In terms of Syria and endless wars which the president has spoken about, you drafted a bill that opposed the pullout that the president has suggested. Why did you feel the need to do that?

MCCONNELL: Well, first of all, I don't think we're in endless wars. We've been in Germany since World War II, Japan since World War II, Korea since the Korean War. Sometimes, American presence overseas in troubled areas or areas that used to be troubled is very important.

The troops that were pulled out of Iraq in my view by President Obama prematurely led to the re-rise, the rise of ISIS, sort of another version of al-Qaeda. We don't want to make that mistake in Afghanistan. And we don't want to leave the Kurds to be slaughtered, our great allies in Eastern Syria.

So, in this area, I don't think we've been involved in endless wars. We're there because they attacked us on 9/11 and we're trying to prevent that again. It's better to deal with them over there than to have to deal with him here.

MACCALLUM: Your colleague Rand Paul, says that you and others are supporters of forever war.

MCCONNELL: Yes.

MACCALLUM: And that -- and the president has said, we've spent $500 billion on this mission. He said, you know, the Soviet Union -- you know, became Russia over sinking money and life, and loss of life into Afghanistan. And he feels that that's a lesson that we all should learn from.

MCCONNELL: Yes, well, the loss of life for these more deployments now is very limited. It's designed to protect us from getting hit here at home. Remember the carnage associated with 9/11. How much did that cost, the aftermath of that? Not only in lives, but in cost -- financial cost in rebuilding.

Look, we can fight them over there or we can fight them here. I prefer over there. And we've done this in a way in which we're providing counterterrorism and training. The line share of the fighting has been going on, it's not being done by us.

In Syria was done largely by the Kurds in Afghanistan, large -- largely by the Afghan National Army. We're just sort of backing them up with our special expertise.

MACCALLUM: Quick couple of questions on Senate politics before I let you go. The discussion that you had with Senator Mike -- with Mike Pompeo, the Secretary of State. You would like to see him become the Senator from Kansas or that was what you suggested?

MCCONNELL: I would sure like for him to think about it. Kansas had a very late filing date. Mike's doing a great job as Secretary of State. I don't see any particular urgency for him to leave that job. The president is obviously happy with him being secretary of state.

At some point, he might decide he wants a different job and I wanted him to know we'd all be behind him if he did.

MACCALLUM: And it was he receptive?

MCCONNELL: Well, you'll have to ask him about that.

MACCALLUM: I did ask him about. He said he's happy where he is right now.

MCCONNELL: He and -- you know, I think that's something to consider down the road. There's no urgency for him to make that decision. And we'll see what happens.

MACCALLUM: How about you, are you running in 2020?

MCCONNELL: I am.

MACCALLUM: All right. Senator McConnell, thank you very much.

MCCONNELL: Thank you.

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