CNN "Erin Burnett Outfront" - Transcript: Interview with former Governor John Hickenlooper
Interview
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BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much. Congressman, I appreciate your time. Keith, thank you.
And next, the former governor of Colorado, John Hickenlooper, says he can beat Trump. He's running in 2020, he's OUTFRONT.
And Jeanne on the world's greatest expert on everything.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'd be really good at that. That's what I do.
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[19:48:27] BURNETT: Now to fight for 2020 and an issue that's crucial for all Americans and the big fail at the White House today, where today, President Trump called the Democrats to meet and work out a plan to save America's failing infrastructure, the president storm out immediately.
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TRUMP: I said, let's have the meeting on infrastructure. We'll get that done easily. That's one of the easy ones. But you know what? You can't do it under these circumstances.
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BURNETT: OUTFRONT now, Democratic presidential candidate John Hickenlooper, the former governor of Colorado.
Governor, you were governor, you were mayor of Denver. One of your biggest achievements was a bipartisan massive infrastructure project that really changed the entire area and has created a place a whole lot of people want to move to. So, you know how to do this and you've done it well. But do you understand what happened today when you have Trump and Democrats and he storms out? Do you as a former executive of a state, whether he staged it today or not, understand his frustration and why he stormed out?
JOHN HICKENLOOPER (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I see his frustration. But what I keep saying and see President Trump is fueling this crisis of division. We're going backwards, not forwards. And at a certain point as the chief executive, he has to step over that and something like infrastructure that should be non-partisan. Republicans, Democrats all agree to it.
I mean, you've got to be able to bring people together like we did in Colorado. Colorado, we got to almost universal background checks. We became the number one economy in the country. We beat the NRA with some tough new gun laws. But that was all by bringing people together.
BURNETT: So bringing people together, when you look at both sides of this -- and I don't like both sides-ism, but sometimes people make mistakes.
[19:50:07] Trump -- what he did today seemed to be completely staged and a farce, but Nancy Pelosi did call -- say he was engaging in a cover up before she went to meet with him after she went to meet with our caucus on impeachment.
So, she should not have said that? Was that also part of the problem?
HICKENLOOPER: No. I think she's in a position she's talking about accountability, she's talking about a cover up. She's got to do that. But I think this is a problem of how divided we've become.
And it's kind of -- what I keep saying is we're seeing the fundamental nonsense in Washington and we have to get back to common sense, one way or the other.
BURNETT: All right. So, you know, you have said very clearly on this issue, and your party is so divided right now, that you want to wait for Mueller to testify before you make a decision on impeachment. Now, we hear Mueller doesn't want to do it in public. We don't know how it's going to go because the Judiciary Committee Chairman Nadler is saying it has to be in public.
If Mueller does not testify, where do you stand? Is there a path forward for Democrats that is not impeachment proceedings?
HICKENLOOPER: Yes, I think there's other ways we can get to the root of these issues. But again, what's happening is, President Trump is -- he's actually fuelling this crisis of division. And he is -- he's part of the problem, not the solution. And I think that ultimately, we will get to those facts and I think Speaker Pelosi is exactly right, that there is clearly got to be accountability and there seems to be evidence of a cover up.
Now whether he was, meant to do it or didn't mean to do it, he should encourage and provide the information so that we can actually see what happened.
BURNETT: So I want to ask you about your plan that you have just unveiled today. You referenced it, you mentioned background checks in Colorado. Obviously, it's a personal issue to you. You were the governor of Colorado when the Aurora Theater massacre happened.
But, look, the reality is this country has failed at gun reform for a long time. I mean, we all remember the Obama administration, 20 children, 6 ix and 7 year olds were killed in Newtown and yet, there was no meaningful gun reform. And they said, if you couldn't do it then, then when? And that still is the truth.
What would you do to actually get something done?
HICKENLOOPER: Well, I think Newton was, in a funny way, a transition point. And that -- I mean, we're at a new normal now, right? We have mass shootings, that's four people or more being shot, almost every day. There's more than six a week. And, you know, we've got, as you said, as a purple state, we were the first purple state to get universal background checks, to get limits on magazine capacity.
But what I suggested today is we go one step beyond and just as we require our kids when they want to learn to get a driver's license, they have to learn how to driver and pass a test. And I'm suggesting when I'm president, we'll not only roll out universal background checks and magazine limits, but we'll also require, you know, 21 year olds, if they want to buy a gun, they'll have to pass a test and demonstrate that they know how to handle weapons safely and responsibly, and at the same time, that they're able to store weapons safely and responsibly.
You know, we've got to change our culture because, again, one mass shooting a day, that's not America.
BURNETT: Well, it shouldn't be America. Unfortunately, as we all know, we're sick to our stomach, it is America and it cannot be. Thank you --
HICKENLOOPER: And I think -- I just was going to say, because one last part of that is that we do have hunter safety classes in most of the states and so, kids are used to taking these classes.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Governor. I appreciate your time.
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