CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: "Interview with Sen. Mazie Hirono"

Interview

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BLITZER: Well, that is significant. And also Jim Acosta, thank you for the update.

Let's get some more on all of this. Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii is joining us. She's a member of both the Judiciary and the Armed Services Committees. Senator thanks so much for joining us. And let's get to the breaking news right away.

You heard Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman testified this week, that the National Security Council's top lawyer John Eisenberg directed him not to discuss what transpired on that controversial July phone call between the president and the president of Ukraine with anyone. What does that tell you?

[17:10:11]

SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D-HI): That says to me that Eisenberg was very concerned as to what this phone call would look like. So he didn't want Vindman to talk about it. So this is why Eisenberg needs to testify.

BLITZER: He's supposed to testify as early as next week behind closed-doors. Do you anticipate he will or will he fight that?

HIRONO: I don't know. So if he's like some of the other people who have already testified doing their jobs for our country, I hope that he will testify. But the way things go with this administration, they're just trying to block everything and stonewall everything so I don't know. However, the House's impeachment process will continue.

BLITZER: As you know, the impeachment inquiry is now moving towards public hearings.

HIRONO: Yes. BLITZER: Presumably later this month. Lieutenant colonel Vindman is willing to testify publicly. So what questions do you hope he answers? And these hearings of course will be televised.

HIRONO: I think - well, he'll be asked many of the same things that he already testified to behind closed-doors as to what he heard and this is first-person. He was actually listening in on the phone call. So he will verify that to him this was a very troubling phone call where the president is trying to shake down the president of another country for his own political ends and using by the way our taxpayer money as leverage. That is what he'll testify to.

BLITZER: We also could see the official transcripts of those closed- door depositions, maybe a hundred hours of depositions released as early as next week. What will you be looking for from those documents?

HIRONO: I will be looking for evidence that basically corroborates what we already saw with our own eyes. With the release which was not of the transcript but a memo of this July phone call. So it is really important that in this impeachment inquiry that we gather as much evidence as possible because as Speaker Pelosi says, she wants a very -- a lot of evidence. Whatever evidence they could get before they will vote on whether or not to proceed with articles of impeachment and I think that is the proper course. We just want to get the facts out, Wolf.

BLITZER: If the House does vote to impeach, the Democrats at the majority, presumably that will happen assuming there is articles of impeachment that are formally filed and it comes to the Senate for trial. Will you vote to convict?

HIRONO: I'm certainly going to listen to all of the evidence. And you know let's not jump the gun here because right now what is happening is for the House to disclose in a public setting all of the evidence that they can bring to bear on the impeachment inquiry and that is what we ought to be focused on and we should be focused on the president's actions and what he did and that is the shakedown the president of another country for his own political ends to get political dirt on his opponents.

And this is what I have been saying for the longest time. That you can't explain a lot of what the president does if you know that he cares maybe about two things, one, is to protect himself and the second is money. And we see this playing out on practically a daily basis with this president. Those are the two motivators of what he does.

BLITZER: The president continues to argue that there was absolutely nothing wrong with his July phone call with the Ukrainian president that he may even wind up reading that rough transcript that the White House released aloud in a so-called fireside chat to prove that -- will that strategy make it harder for your Republican colleagues to defend him or what will be the impact from your perspective?

HIRONO: The Republicans may be left with trying to say, yes, so the president did shake down the president of another country for his political ends, so what. Get over it. You know they're going to be reduced to defending this action so who else is the president going to shake down next. That is the question that we should ask the Republicans. So you know I hope that they'll do the right thing and up until now we haven't seen much evidence of that from the Republicans, particularly the Republicans in the House.

BLITZER: Well, let's talk about the Republicans in the Senate for a moment. The president clearly over the past several days has been stepping up his outreach to Senate Republicans. How likely is it from your perspective and you speak a lot of them behind the scenes, how likely is it that any of your Republican colleagues in the Senate will break from the president?

HIRONO: It is hard to predict. As I say, we would like to see all of the evidence and presentation of the evidence. And the president will be able to defend himself. Not just in the Senate but in the impeachment proceedings in the House. So we shall see. I certainly hope that they will -- all I can say is they will do the responsible thing in terms of what we're supposed to be looking at.

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We are supposed to be looking at the evidence. We're not supposed to be making a decision on a constitutional process based on our political affiliations. And right now that is kind of what is playing out.

And of course the president has already sending money to those senators he thinks will stick with him. And this is what the president does. He thinks that he can just throw money to different people or in the case of the Ukrainian president, withhold money to get what he wants.

BLITZER: Senator Hirono, thanks so much for joining us.

HIRONO: Sure.

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