CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview With Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD)

Interview

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Joining us now, the second highest ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives, the majority leader, Steny Hoyer.

Leader Hoyer, thanks so much for joining us.

And let's get to this incredible letter from the president on the eve of this historic impeachment vote. The president is accusing Democrats of, in his words, violating your oaths of office and declaring open war on American democracy.

He says -- and I'm quoting him once again -- "History will judge you harshly," but that you will have to live with it, "not I," he says.

What's your reaction to this stunning letter?

REP. STENY HOYER (D-MD): Well, of course, I think he's correct. History will judge us. I think he's totally incorrect on what history will judge and who harshly will be judged.

[18:10:01]

The fact is, we are pursuing what we believe is our constitutional duty, which the Constitution sets forth as an abuse of power check and balance.

We believe, having voted three times, in December of '17, in January of '18, in July of '19. Over those two years, we voted against articles of impeachment because we did not believe the facts at that point in time justified such action.

However, subsequent to the July 25 telephone call, and the extensive hearings that we have had, and the witnesses that have come forward, we believe that we have no other choice but to bring these articles of impeachment, and to have them tried in the Senate, if we are going to check a president in the abuse of power.

And, of course, we believe the abuse of power was essentially a shakedown of the president of Ukraine to act on the president's behalf, not on our country's behalf, and act for his political ends, and undermine the integrity of our elections, as well as put our national security at risk.

So, we believe that we are doing what our oath of office demands that we do in protecting and defending the Constitution of the United States and opposing the abuse of power. That's what our founding fathers wanted us to do. They did not want King George to return to power. They did not want foreign governments to influence our government.

And so we think that this is exactly the action that the founders thought was appropriate when they -- when you see abuse of power.

BLITZER: The president also says this in his letter to Pelosi.

"You are the ones interfering in America's elections. You are the ones subverting America's democracy. You are the ones obstructing justice. You are the ones bringing pain and suffering to our republic for your own selfish, personal, political, and partisan gain."

You want to respond to that? HOYER: That's the president's modus operandi. It was his modus operandi when he was in business in New York.

It's been his modus operandi when he campaigned and his modus operandi now, attack, attack, attack, distract, distract, distract, undermine the truth, undermine the truth, undermine the truth.

That's what I think of this letter. This is a campaign letter. It's clearly a campaign letter. It's an appeal to his hard-line supporters that he is being subjected to a wrongful action.

My opinion is that, when you look at the evidence in a fair and balanced way, it is inevitable that you come to the conclusion that this president abused his authority, his power as president, and ought to be held accountable, because, if we don't do that, then we are subject, as so many constitutional experts have said, to losing our democracy.

BLITZER: It looks, at least right now, as if most of the House Democrats elected in Trump districts will vote for these two articles of impeachment.

You said earlier today that you expect Democrats to actually pick up seats in 2020. But do you admit that you may lose some of these seats in places the president won in 2016?

HOYER: Look, I really believe, Wolf, that the people who are showing great courage are not people in districts like mine, who I think that we have big support for the action that we're taking in our districts.

But there are so many districts with so many of our members that don't share that view. But our members in those districts are doing what they think is right, irrespective of the politics.

And, very frankly, I think their constituents are going to respect them for their courage and their vote of conscience, so that I think we're not going to be at risk.

But this is not about politics. It's not about polls. It's not about whether one gets reelected or not. It's whether one complies with their oath of office to defend and protect the Constitution of the United States of America.

And so many of those folks that you mentioned served in the armed forces, served in the Central Intelligence Agency, in our security agencies, served in the State Department, served in executive agencies in the government, and they take their oath very, very seriously.

And it was not until this July 25 phone call, and all of the evidence that flowed from that, that those members took their position that we needed to have an inquiry. After the evidence, they have concluded what they have concluded.

We have not whipped a single member. When I say we, neither the speaker nor I have asked any member to vote for or against articles of impeachment. That is up to them. That's for their conscience to direct and what they believe to be their duty.

BLITZER: As you know, amidst all of this, the House of Representatives voted today to fund the federal government through the end of the fiscal year 2020, through the end of the -- of September.

[18:15:04]

Some liberal Democrats are frustrated that this also includes funding for the president's border wall with Mexico.

Do you feel that that concession was worth it?

HOYER: Look, it's last year's funding. It was in the bill last year. We repeated that number. The president wanted a number six or seven times as high.

But, look, this is a democratic process. We have a Republican Senate, a Democratic House, and we have a Republican president. All three of those entities are important in reaching policy conclusions.

So, we compromised. Some members thought that was not what they wanted to support. I get that. But the fact of the matter is, I am very proud, Wolf, of the fact there will be no shutdown.

When this -- when we took over in the beginning of this year, the government of the United States was shut down. We hadn't done our business. We passed appropriation bills, 96 percent of government funded by the end of June. Unfortunately, the Senate didn't pass any bills.

But we did come together, Senate, House, and, yes, the White House, and reached a compromise that was overwhelmingly supported by a majority of Democrats, in one case a minority of Republicans, and in another case the majority of Republicans on the defense four bills that we had, so that I'm proud of getting that done.

I'm also proud of the fact that we are continuing to do the people's business. We're not being distracted by impeachment. What we have focused on, for instance, just recently is passing a prescription drug bill.

We think that it mirrors what the president suggested in his campaign, what he suggested recently, in terms of how to bring prescription drug prices down for people.

We have now passed the appropriations bill. So, we're doing the people's business.

BLITZER: The House majority leader, Steny Hoyer, thanks so much for joining us.

HOYER: Thank you, Wolf. It's always good to be with you.

BLITZER: Thank you.

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