CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: "Interview with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz"

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Right now House Democrats are pressing forward, planning for the next phase, the public phase of their impeachment inquiry into the president. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not given an exact timeline about when those hearings will go public. But last night she did tell Stephen Colbert she expects them to happen soon.

I'm pleased now to be joined by Florida Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. She serves on the Oversight Committee, of course one of the committees that has been investigating the president and hearing witnesses these last couple of weeks.

Congresswoman, we appreciate you taking the time this morning.

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D-FL): My pleasure, Jim. Thank you.

SCIUTTO: So you're well aware of the vote yesterday. Republicans voted in lock step against these rules here. Two Democrats voted with Republicans against them. I'm wondering, are you concerned that Republicans were able to stick together here but Democrats were not?

SCHULTZ: What I'm concerned about is that Republicans seem to be shrugging their shoulders at the president's gross violation of his oath of office and his massive abuse of power. I mean every American should be asking their own member of Congress, you know, whether they think it's OK that the president broke the law, used his position of power to pressure the president of Ukraine to withhold -- by withholding foreign aid and trying to insist that he initiate investigations against the president's political opponents. That that is unacceptable and not OK, and the Republicans have sanctioned it.

SCIUTTO: I get that argument, but the fact is, for this impeachment inquiry to proceed to the possibility of removal in the Senate, you, Democrats, have to convince some Republicans, several Republicans, that that's true. And I thought there was a telling sign in this new ABC News/"Washington Post" poll just out today that shows independents crucially split down the middle, and, actually, if we can put the numbers up on the screen, leaning against impeaching and removing the president. Those are the independent numbers down there, 49 say no there.

Is that a sign that you're not convincing folks outside the Democratic Party in sufficient numbers to support impeachment and removal?

SCHULTZ: We're going through a process, Jim. And we will, as we've approved -- as we approve the rules for the road of the impeachment inquiry yesterday, we'll move into the public phase of the inquiry. I think, as the transcripts are released, and the American people hear the evidence that I've been able to hear over the last number of weeks, and a spotlight is shown on the witnesses that come before us and corroborate each of their own testimony that the president abused his power and pressured the president of a country that vitally needs our assistance to keep our foreign enemy, Russia, at bay and withheld foreign aid and demanded investigations, pressured him to initiate investigations against his opponent in the public light that will, I think those numbers will change.

And the polling right now shows that more than 50 percent of the American people do believe that the president should be impeached and removed. And so we're going to -- that will play out. But no one comes to Congress to impeach a president. You know, I'm focused on lowering prescription drug costs, ending gun violence, but we have to hold the president accountable because no one is above the law.

[08:35:10]

SCIUTTO: You were in the room when Tim Morrison, the president's top adviser on Russia and Europe, testified under oath.

SCHULTZ: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Of course we were not in the room. We do have the benefit of having seen parts of his opening statement where he does say that what he heard on that call, he was worried about the political implications of it, it coming out, how that might affect the relationship. But he said not illegal in his view.

Can you tell us anything about how, you know, how he detailed that position and do you -- do you believe that his further testimony backed up that statement?

SCHULTZ: You know, I can only generally talk about the deposition that we heard that -- yesterday from Mr. Morrison. And that is to say that he most definitely corroborated, particularly Ambassador Taylor's testimony, and really virtually every witness that I have heard's testimony that the president did indeed use the authority of his office to pressure the president of Ukraine to initiate investigations against his opponent. And the leverage that he used was withholding foreign aid and a vital meeting that President Zelensky needed to be able to advance his efforts --

SCIUTTO: His agenda.

SCHULTZ: To keep Russia at bay and reduce corruption and his agenda, exactly. SCIUTTO: So you're -- you're saying his -- you're saying his private

testimony corroborated the quid pro quo, that there was a quid pro quo here?

SCHULTZ: What I'm saying is that throughout the testimony, each witness has subsequently confirmed the direct line that the president's own words in the transcript of the call confirmed that he used the power of his office to try to get the -- as in his own words --

SCIUTTO: Right.

SCHULTZ: Zelensky to do us a favor, though, and initiate these investigations.

SCIUTTO: OK.

SCHULTZ: And he withheld foreign aid. And dangled the meeting that President Zelensky vitally needed to be able to make sure that we can keep our enemy at bay.

SCIUTTO: OK, made that connection there.

SCHULTZ: Exactly. Yes.

SCIUTTO: OK, I want to ask you about another -- you're well aware of the fiery exchange you had in a hearing earlier this week with Ken Cuccinelli.

SCHULTZ: Yes, I certainly am.

SCIUTTO: I want to play that exchange just for folks at home who may not have seen it and then also get your reaction to Ken Cuccinelli's response to it now.

SCHULTZ: Sure.

SCIUTTO: Have a listen and then we'll -- then we'll come back.

SCHULTZ: Sure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: You and Mr. Trump don't want anyone who looks or talks differently than Caucasian Americans to be allowed into this country.

KEN CUCCINELLI, DIRECTOR, U.S. CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION SERVICES: That's false.

SCHULTZ: I'm sorry. Please don't interrupt me and I'd like the time added back.

CUCCINELLI: That's defamatory.

SCHULTZ: Excuse me. It's -- there's nothing defamatory about it. And the time -- UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The gentle lady controls the time and the witness will get a chance to respond.

SCHULTZ: Thank you very much.

You want to block all immigration and make life harder for immigrants and you have demonstrated that you will pursue this heinous white supremacist ideology at all costs, even if it means making critically ill children your collateral damage in the process.

CUCCINELLI: I am not a white supremacist, as you alluded.

SCHULTZ: You have -- you have had white supremacist policies.

CUCCINELLI: Nor is the president.

I'm under oath and she is literally protected to lie by what's called the speech and debate clause of the Constitution. I'm not even sure she's aware of it, but it allows legislators, for good policy reasons, to be able to say anything. It's to leave them uninhibited.

I don't think the founders ever intended it to be a shield for lying and trying to plant narratives out in the public. And that was what she was doing. You know, she makes her speech. She wasn't at much of the committee hearing. She came in late on her smears, both me and the president, all completely false and then wasn't there much longer, got on her broom and left. It was just -- it was a fly-by for her, and to get her little sound bite.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Do you stand by your accusation of Cuccinelli, that the policy, the immigration policy led by him and the president is white supremacist in nature?

SCHULTZ: What I stand by is that Ken Cuccinelli is the tip of the spear of the president's immigration policy that has persecuted and gone after people of color since day one of his presidency and that, yes, I used my ability on -- as a member of the Oversight Committee to call that out and to insist, rightfully so, that Ken Cuccinelli has advanced a white supremacist ideology that I think is a thread through the president's immigration policy. He started his presidency by initiating a Muslim ban that was repeatedly thrown out by the courts. The subject of the hearing itself was the separation, the persecution of sick children who have been allowed into the country that he sent a letter to and they had to -- they were demanded to leave initially in 33 days until our Oversight Committee stopped that from happening by shining a spotlight on it.

[09:40:04]

You know, he's -- that he advanced the policy of separating children from their parents at the border who were fleeing persecution. We've now required, through this -- through this policy political applicants for asylum to stay in another country, living in tent cities and in horrible conditions. Yes, Ken Cuccinelli is the tip of the spear of a white supremacist ideology that is the thread of the president's immigration policy targeting people of color. And I'm a member of Congress on the Oversight Committee and I had an opportunity to call it out, and I did, and I don't regret it.

SCIUTTO: Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz --

SCHULTZ: What I don't appreciate is his patronizing comments about me, but that's not surprising either.

SCIUTTO: Understood. Thanks for explaining your position.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, hope you have a good weekend.

SCHULTZ: Thank you so much.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source