NBC "Meet the Press" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Michael Bennet
Interview
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CHUCK TODD:
Welcome back. So what do you do, if you're a Democratic presidential candidate looking to spend as much time as possible in Iowa and New Hampshire, but at the same time, you're a senator, and you have to be in Washington for what is among our first trials of this century, well, President Trump's impeachment trial? Well, if you're any one of these people, you're going to have to figure that answer out very soon. And if you're my next guest, Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, who remains in the race and who joins me now from Manchester, New Hampshire. Senator Bennet, welcome back to Meet the Press.
SENATOR MICHAEL BENNET:
Thanks, Chuck, great to be back.
CHUCK TODD:
So other than scouring airlines for finding out how many nonstops exist at 7:00 p.m., 7:30 p.m., after these impeachment trials, how disruptive do you expect the impeachment trial to be on the campaign? And should it be?
SENATOR MICHAEL BENNET:
I think it is going to be disruptive. And there's nothing I can do about it. So I choose not to worry about it. We have, all of us, a constitutional responsibility that we have to fulfill, here. And I take my oath seriously. And I will. And in the meantime, I'm spending every single second I can in New Hampshire, trying to fulfill my commitment to hold an additional 50 town halls here. I've already spent more time here than any other candidate. And I'm just going to continue to do that.
CHUCK TODD:
You're a guy that spends -- has spent a lot of time reading Federalist Papers, unlike many U.S. senators. So, what do you believe? What power do you believe you have, even though your party's in the minority, at a Senate trial, in order to force a fair trial?
SENATOR MICHAEL BENNET:
You know, I think the stakes could not be higher here. Because I've been listening to the program, Chuck. And this is a president whose holding the American people in contempt and holding the Constitution in contempt. When it comes to war powers, the decision to provoke a war, potentially, with Iran, his stonewalling of the House, and now, his stonewalling of the Senate. So I think the stakes are really high. And I think the framers of the Constitution would demand of the people that are sitting in judgment that they put the Constitution in front of the president, and that they use this as an opportunity to remind the American people why the rule of law is so important and why nobody, including the president, is above the law.
CHUCK TODD:
Where does public opinion fit into this, as far as you're concerned, after the trial? And the reason I say this is, at the end of the day, he was a democratic elected, small-d democratically elected president by our rules, okay, the Electoral College. If the public -- if the two-thirds of the public isn't there, right, does that matter to you?
SENATOR MICHAEL BENNET:
I think it's important for public opinion to at least understand that what we are trying to do is hold the president accountable. And we may not have gotten, in the end, a conviction of the president. But maybe what we did was reestablish the standard of ethics that we expect out of a president and the standard of constitutional law that we expect from a president. I think that's important, in and of itself.
CHUCK TODD:
Do you expect to find four Republicans to join with the Democrats, to get a John Bolton to testify?
SENATOR MICHAEL BENNET:
I don't expect anything. But I don't think it's impossible. I've seen -- I've been in rooms, where people have heard somebody say something. And they say, "You know what? I want to hear more about that. Let's bring the witnesses." And I hope my Republican colleagues will be open to having witnesses. The American people want witnesses. And they want to see the records from the White House, as well.
CHUCK TODD:
I want to talk a little bit about the presidential race and Iran here, a bit. The way the president made his decision and the way it's had an impact, I think, on the Democratic electorate, are you concerned that, in some ways, the president's actions have inadvertently strengthened the Sanders wing of the party over, say, the Biden wing or the moderate wing, where you reside?
SENATOR MICHAEL BENNET:
Actually, I'm much more concerned that what he's strengthened is the hardliner wing of the Iranian government. That is what he has done since he became president. I think that's what he's done, again, with the action that he's taken. And Rand Paul mentioned it. You know, the Afghanistan papers, that the Washington Post have now published, demonstrate that after the first six months of that war, we not only didn't accomplish the objectives we told the American people we were accomplishing, but we may have made matters worse on a whole range of dimensions, from corruption, to drugs, to the rise of the Taliban. In Iraq, our own war college tells us that there was a winner of the Iraq war, and it was Iran. So Chuck, I think this is a moment where heightened congressional scrutiny of the president, no matter who the president is, is critical. But when you have a president who's as lawless as this one seems to be, on the international stage and the domestic stage, I think it's important for not just Democrats to come together, but Americans to come together and say, "We're going to put the Constitution ahead of this president."
CHUCK TODD:
Is it harder to unite the Democratic Party if you voted in favor of the Iraq War?
SENATOR MICHAEL BENNET:
I think it is much harder to unite the Democratic Party if you voted in favor of the Iraq War. And I think it's much harder to take on Donald Trump, who takes every single position, including a position that the Iraq War was a mistake.
CHUCK TODD:
Well, I just described Joe Biden. Does that make him less electable than, say, a Bernie Sanders?
SENATOR MICHAEL BENNET:
I think that many people would say that was not his finest hour. And I think that, from my vantage point, there's a real question, in my mind, about whether any of the leading candidates can take on Donald Trump, which is why I've stayed in this race. Chuck, voters in New Hampshire are more undecided today than they were six weeks ago or six months ago because they know how much is at stake. And they know we need to nominate somebody who can beat Donald Trump. I think I come from the right kind of state, with the right kind of agenda, to do that. And by the way, I would invite congressional participation in these foreign policy decisions. I would invite congressional participation in evaluating whether my work was consistent with the Constitution, as previous presidents have done.
CHUCK TODD:
Let me ask you this. Is there a point, not only for your own campaign, but for a lot of campaigns, that you have to coalesce around a leader, if there is an obvious leader at, say, the end of February or the end of March?
SENATOR MICHAEL BENNET:
Yeah. I definitely think that's the right timeline. I think we will have to coalesce around somebody. My hope, Chuck, is to come in in the top third in New Hampshire. And I'm slogging it out, in a venerable tradition of people that have put one foot in front of the other, trying to get to storefronts and get to town halls and see if we can make progress here. But at some point, the most important thing for us is to come together and make sure Donald Trump is a one-term president
CHUCK TODD:
Well, Senator Michael Bennet, you are right about history. There's plenty of people who have been in your position, who have taken off like a rocket in New Hampshire. We will be watching.
SENATOR MICHAEL BENNET:
Well, I'm still waiting. Thanks, Chuck.
CHUCK TODD:
You got it, buddy. Thanks for coming on and sharing your views. I appreciate it.
SENATOR MICHAEL BENNET:
Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for having me.
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