CNN "Anderson Cooper 360" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Tim Kaine

Interview

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Joining us now Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia and a member of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committee. Senator, thank you so much for being with us. I want to know what you make of this report and the fact that it did not consider the role of the former President in the events of January 6th. SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA): John, this report was a report about sort of

symptoms, but not about causes. And so, it was narrow from the start. On the symptoms, they did a very good job, they were charged with looking at what the Capitol security did or did not do on January 6th, and how we need to correct it.

So the shocking and sad thing about it when I read it was the leadership of the Capitol Police really let down even betrayed the Capitol Police members who worked so hard to protect the senators and staffers and House members, at head cost of their own physical security.

So we learned some things from the report about how Capitol security should continue, but it was not on any of the root causes. It was, again, it was symptoms, not causes and that's why we need to look deeper, and sadly, the Republicans want to bury their heads in the sand, but the Democrats control both Houses.

BERMAN: I mean, CNN is reporting that in order to have bipartisan agreement on this report on just the symptoms, the word "insurrection" had to be excluded. It was in quotes and in footnotes, but they couldn't make it part of the report. I mean, what does that tell you? Why would Democrats ever agree to that?

KAINE: Well, I'm not on the two committees in the Senate who worked on this and remember, the Department of Justice was not part of this. D.H.S. was not part of this. The House was not part of this. But I give my two Democratic Committee Chairs, Amy Klobuchar and Senator Gary Peters, Homeland Security Government Affairs, I give them great credit because they needed to bring everybody along.

But it was a very, very narrow report. It was a report on how do we need to plan our Capitol Police and others to secure the building. This was not a report about how to secure the democracy. It was just a report about how to secure the building.

BERMAN: I've got you.

KAINE: And how to secure the democracy, squarely on the shoulders of (AUDIO ISSUES) we can't let it stop here. We've got so much more to do.

BERMAN: Well, but how is it going to get done? Right? I mean, the Republicans just blocked a bipartisan commission. Right? So, if you're only going to look at the symptoms, who is going to look at the causes? How do you think that's going to happen?

KAINE: Well, what we'll see is when the Republicans blocked the bipartisan commission, how far we've fallen since 2001. The attack on the Capitol in 2001, the parties joined together to analyze why there was an attack and what we could do to stop it.

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KAINE: The Republicans have decided, I don't want to help stop the next one. That means that the adults in the rooms are the Democrats and we've got to do it. And I think that means either in the Senate or House or both, Democrats have to use our majorities and the key committees to look at root causes.

The President's perpetuation of lie, who were his aides in perpetuating, including some in our own chamber, media organization that others, and I'm confident that Democrats having been rebuffed a bipartisan version, we will set up a Democratic led version with people involved who will establish independent bona fides that the American public can trust the outcome we are studying.

BERMAN: Very quickly because I am a little concerned about losing the connection right now, the bipartisan talks between the White House and Shelley Moore Capito, Republican of West Virginia broke down on infrastructure today. How discouraging do you find that? And do you feel that without getting rid of the filibuster, without Republicans coming on board on key things, how imperiled is President Biden's agenda?

KAINE: You know, John, I'll give you the punch line. First, I don't think it's imperiled because Democrats are motivated to move forward we want to do bipartisan if we can, if we talk to Republicans, they give us good ideas so that we can come up with, say, an infrastructure bill that will serve all 50 states.

But if at the end of the day, they don't want to participate, we're going to move forward using tools at our disposal, reconciliation, regulatory processes that the administration can invoke. And we're going to do things that matter to everyday people in every zip code in all 50 states, and if the Republicans decide they don't want to engage, we're going to move forward anyway, with tools at our disposal.

BERMAN: Senator Tim Kaine from Virginia, thanks so much for being with us.

KAINE: I am so glad to be with you, John. Thanks.

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