CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript Interview with Pramila Jayapal

Interview

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Joining us now the Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal. She's a member of both the House Budget and Judiciary Committees.

Congresswoman, thank you so much for joining us. Are you optimistic there can be an agreement soon? Because, as you know, this is a matter of life and death for so many Americans.

REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): There has to be, Wolf. There really does. And you know, that story that you just covered is exactly why. That's happening to millions of people across the country who literally don't have a job, don't have health care, some of them haven't even been able to get unemployment. But at least the ones that have that are relying on that unemployment to be able to pay rent, to be able to pay mortgage, put food on the table, we are in a situation where 50 million Americans have filed for unemployment since the pandemic hit.

And, you know, the death toll 151,000 Americans who have died from COVID-19, and the Republicans have been sitting on their hands refusing to negotiate and help protect people across this country. This is exactly the moment when we need government to step up. So yes, I am optimistic that we will get a deal because all of these Republican senators have to go back to their home districts as well. And they have to deal with the devastation that they are seeing.

And, you know, and I just think that they have to stand up. They have to insist that we get this done. And Donald Trump has to recognize that the cruelty of not passing a bill is really putting people in an untenable situation and driving them further and further down to the ground. It's horrifying. I can't tell you how terrible it is for my constituents and people across the country.

BLITZER: I just want to update the numbers, now almost 155,000 Americans have so far died from this coronavirus over the past five months or so.

Although Senator Schumer said he wasn't going to negotiate in public, Congresswoman, he does say there are at least four must haves, his words, must haves for Democrats to vote for a new COVID relief bill. Let me put them up on the screen what he's talking about. He says you have to renew the $600 unemployment insurance payments, the weekly payments. Renew protections for renters, homeowners, fund state and local governments, and make sure the schools have enough money to open safely.

What do you think about that? Are there other must haves that you want as well?

JAYAPAL: Yes. I think we have to have testing and contact tracing money. I mean, this is, you know, the idea that people are going to reopen and go back to work and go back to school when we don't even have testing and contact tracing in place, it is horrendous. So that's another one. I think we also have to have support for small businesses and workers.

You know, the PPP program left particularly minority owned businesses, 95 percent of black owned businesses couldn't even get, you know -- couldn't even put themselves in line to get a PPP loan. So I think we've got to get money to those business. I would like to use my Paycheck Recovery Act as the vehicle to do that. Go straight from the Treasury and the IRS to the business, protect paychecks and allow those small businesses that haven't been able to access the PPP to get some relief because they are shuttering permanently.

I also think that we've got to make sure that we are getting more stimulus money out to people. You know, if we had, if we were covering paychecks then we wouldn't need that. But the reality is nobody has money, Wolf. And anything we give to people right now will turn around and go right back into the economy. It will build our economy and it will be good for us. But we've got to get the money out the door and we've got to get it out quickly.

BLITZER: While I have you, Congresswoman, I just want to point out, you had a very, very busy week. You were part of that House panel grilling tech executives like Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, among others. You also took part in hearings with the Attorney General William Barr. You had some heated exchanges. Let me play this clip.

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JAYAPAL: There's a real discrepancy in how you react as the attorney general, the top cop in this country, when white men with swastikas storm a government building with guns, there is no need for the president to, quote, "activate you," because they're getting the president's personal agenda done. But when black people and people of color protest police brutality, systemic racism and the president's very own lack of response to those critical issues, then you forcibly remove them with armed federal officers, pepper bombs, because they are considered terrorists by the president.

(END VIDEO CLIP) [20:35:17]

BLITZER: You also used the term henchman to refer to refer to the attorney general's relationship with the president. Tell us what your deepest concern is right now.

JAYAPAL: My deepest concern is that the attorney general of the United States, who is supposed to be the attorney for the American people, supposed to be upholding the Constitution and using the tremendous powers of the Department of Justice to do so, instead this Attorney General Bill Barr is simply there to be, quote, "activated" by the president. He is there to essentially act as the president's personal attorney and he is using the Department of Justice and all of the powers to undermine constitutional rights of Americans to not investigate the things he should be investigating, and instead using all of the power to try to move the president's personal agenda. That is unacceptable. And it's happening on many counts.

You know, he also talked about vote by mail being -- having so much fraud. That's another line that the president keeps repeating. But the reality, Wolf, is that 250 million ballots have been cast over the past 20 years and there is a .00006 percent fraud rate according to MIT and a study that they did. So this attorney general has no interest in equal justice under the law for all Americans and it is a terrible, terrible thing for this country to continue to have him there as attorney general.

BLITZER: Well, it was a very, very lively hearing. We all watched it on television. Of course he totally, totally disagrees with you.

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, thanks so much for joining us.

JAYAPAL: Thank you, Wolf.

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