CNN "The Lead with Jake Tapper" - Transcript: Interview with Dick Durbin

Interview

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SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL), CHAIRMAN, SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: The sequencing of these measures is still to be worked out. We had a good constructive Democratic caucus lunch today. I believe there is a lot of strong feeling for both measures. What we need to do now is to work on the details and sometimes they turn out to be the hardest part.

This is a high wire act without a net. And we're working every single day to keep everybody together on the Democratic side.

I hope that the Republicans are making a good faith effort. I believe they are in this part of the infrastructure bill that they are going to join us on. I've looked at the bill, I sat in on these meetings and the amount of money that's being spent and where it's being spent.

[17:30:02]

I don't have any argument with it. It's basically reflects what Joe Biden asked for, in infrastructure, a part of it, a part of it. But I think that the Republicans in the room know the likelihood of what we call reconciliation following. And I think the Democrats who were supporting the infrastructure bill do as well.

TAPPER: Well, that's when I don't -- that's why I don't even understand why Democrats are talking about this publicly. I mean, you have 50 votes to do the budget reconciliation package, you have control of the House, you have control of the White House, why link them? You don't need to publicly link them. If you want the bipartisan infrastructure deal, just do it and then you can do the budget reconciliation package afterwards. But by publicly linking it, you're undermining the entire process. Not you, but Democrats are undermining the entire process of having a bipartisan achievement.

DURBIN: Well, I don't want to put it in speculative or even negative terms. I just want to say that there's a constructive attitude on the Democratic caucus side to get the job done. I hope we can find the package that does it. And in the coming days, we're going to work out efforts to find that and I hope that the Republicans will stick by the original infrastructure bill, the bipartisan bill. I know they worked hard on it and continue until to this day.

TAPPER: Senator Bernie Sanders, the Senate Budget Committee Chairman said yesterday that he and President Biden are on the same page when it comes to infrastructure. But when it comes to the budget reconciliation deal, Sanders has said he ideally would want a $6 trillion package. The President has not said he's in favor of something that large. We've heard from more moderate Democrats in your caucus about something that's 2 trillion, 2 trillion or 3 trillion. Are Democrats on the same page on that one?

DURBIN: Well, I can tell you that Bernie, of course, is Chairman of the Budget Committee, is striking a bargaining position and no surprise, he wants a much larger bill than we're likely to see at the end. But the exact dollar amount has not been agreed to. It's still being negotiated among Democrats. It will be a substantial sum of money, but it is doing substantial things for America, addressing some issues that we've had on the back burner for decades, if not generations, that we got to take care of.

TAPPER: President Biden gave an impassioned defense for voting rights today calling efforts by some Republican lawmakers to limit voting rights, to restrict voting, undemocratic. I just had Senator Joni Ernst on the show and I asked her about a new law in Iowa, in her home state of Iowa, which restricts voting to a degree and she pointed out accurately that I was still has more expansive early voting and other measures than do Delaware, which is President Biden's home state, and New York, which is Senate Majority Leader Schumer's home state.

Doesn't that continue to undermine the idea of -- the idea that voters -- it should be as easy as possible for legal voters to vote. I know Illinois, your home state has very expansive voting rights.

DURBIN: That's right.

TAPPER: But New York and Delaware don't. Isn't that problematic, too?

DURBIN: I'd say to Joni, in all fairness, if you feel that we ought to have higher standards for people to make sure that the ineligible folks don't vote, that make it easier for the eligible folks to vote. You want to support this For the People Act, because we're establishing those national standards. Every Republican including her, voted against it. So if you want to go to a higher standard and apply it to everybody, red states and blue alike, you would certainly have supported that legislation.

TAPPER: Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Majority Whip, thank you so much for your time today, sir. We appreciate it.

DURBIN: Thanks, Jake.

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