CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: "Interview with Rep. Jim Himes"

Interview

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BLITZER: We're following all the breaking news on the back-to-back shooting massacres in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas.

The FBI revealing just a little while ago that the Dayton gunman had a history of what the FBI is now saying exploring violent ideologies. The bureau is now taking a central role in the case.

We're joined by Congressman Jim Himes. He's a Democrat who serves on the House Intelligence Committee. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

And let's get right to the specifics. Officials now say the Dayton gunman was obsessed with mass shootings. And the shooting in Gilroy, California, last weekend is also now being investigated as another incident of domestic terrorism.

Do you believe this is a turning point in how the country thinks about these attacks?

REP. JIM HIMES (D-CT): Well, that's a good question, Wolf.

And I will and I will answer that question by saying no and yes, and no, in as much as, once again, we see an American doing a uniquely American thing, which is ending the lives of lots of other Americans with a firearm.

And I don't -- I want to start with that, because it was just enraging to see the president yesterday blame the media and then in his talk to the nation blame the Internet.

Other countries have a fractious media. Other countries have the Internet. Other countries have mental illness. No other country makes it a piece of cake for somebody to buy a weapon that should be in the hands largely of law enforcement and the military.

And, no, sadly, as you know, Wolf, we have had this conversation before. It is going to -- this is going to be a sadly predictable thing, where Mitch McConnell is not going to act on the House bills. And we will have this conversation again a week or two weeks from now.

Yes, however, on the question you asked, which is, I sense a little bit of a sea change, where people are waking up to the fact that domestic terrorism, that terrorism committed by alienated, often far- right anti-immigrant -- and this is not just a U.S. thing, this is an international thing -- people is more of a risk to all of us in our country than the terrorism that we have been fighting since 9/11.

More Americans by far have been killed by extreme nationalist, white nationalist terrorists in this country since 9/11 than have been killed by the kind of Islamic extremism that we have reconfigured our government to fight.

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And so I do think that, in Washington, people are starting to say, hey, this is a very serious problem, and we better start thinking about it systematically.

BLITZER: We did see, Congressman your Republican colleague Mike Turner, who represents Dayton, by the way, now says he supports what he -- what he describes as preventing military-style weapons sales to civilians, magazine limits, and red flag legislation.

And another one of your Republican colleagues, Peter King of New York, supports HR-8. That's the background check bill that you passed in the House, has just been sitting in the Senate right now.

So do you see any real opportunity here for change?

HIMES: Well, Wolf, if I can sort of amend what I was saying earlier, in the years I have been doing this, we have made very real progress. So we have actually even made some tangible progress.

The federal budget for the first time in decades is providing funds to the Center for Disease Control to study gun violence as a public health issue. That's pretty small beer up against the massacres that we see almost every day in this country.

So -- and, politically, look, it used to be that the Democratic Party was divided on these issues. That is no longer true. It used to be that nobody in the Republican Party would support something even if it had 90 percent support, like universal background check.

As you point out, there are a few out there doing it. What's enraging about this is that it is moving so, so slowly, at a time when every day or every other day there is yet another massacre.

And, Wolf, look, one of the things we need to dispense with right off the top here is that, yes, universal background checks, supported by 90 percent-plus of Americans, red flag laws, and limiting the kinds of military hardware that people have access to, that's not going to fix the whole problem.

Oftentimes, people say, well, this shooter wouldn't have been caught in a background check.

It's -- none of these things are going to fix the whole problem. But when children are being mowed down in the streets, the objective has got to be not to come up with the perfect solution that fixes the whole problem, but to save a few children's lives.

And that's why we need to keep the pressure up on Mitch McConnell and on others to begin to move this legislation, consistent with Second Amendment rights, that will keep Americans alive.

BLITZER: Congressman Jim Himes of Connecticut, thanks so much for joining us.

HIMES: Thank you, Wolf.

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