'This Week' Transcript 1-13-19: Sen. Dick Durbin, Rep. Steve Scalise, John Delaney
'This Week' Transcript 1-13-19: Sen. Dick Durbin, Rep. Steve Scalise, John Delaney
A rush transcript of “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” airing on Sunday, Jan. 13, 2019 on ABC News is below. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. For previous show transcripts, visit the “This Week” transcript archive.
STEPHANOPOULOS: This morning, we're going to hear from two legislators who have been in the room for those negotiations, starting with the number two Democrat in the Senate, Dick Durbin. Senator Durbin, thanks for joining us this morning.
I do want to get to the shutdown, but first those new stories from The New York Times and The Washington Post that the FBI was so concerned, said The New York Times, about president's dealings with Russia that they opened up a counterintelligence investigation while he's in the Oval Office; and the Post report detailing how the president has concealed his private conversations with Vladimir Putin.
We now know that all the relevant House Chairman say they're going to investigate these stories, think its worthy of investigation. What's going to happen to the Senate? And do you believe it's possible that President Trump has been compromised by Russia?
SEN. DICK DURBIN, (D) ILLINOIS: The senate is controlled by Republicans. We found in the last two years, they were unwilling to hold investigative hearings. The only exception, I might add, was a crime subcommittee in Judiciary, which was chaired by Lindsey Graham. Lindsey has now ascended into the position of chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. It's within his power to hold these investigations, and he should.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And what about the idea that President Trump might be compromised by the Russians?
DURBIN: You know, there's so many questions raised. Why is he so chummy with Vladimir Putin, this man who is a former KGB agent, never been a friend to the United States, invaded our allies, threatens us around the world, and tries his damndest to undermine our elections, why is this President Trump's best buddy? I don't get it. And when he takes the interpreters notes and wants to destroy them so no one can see what was said in written transcript, you know it raises serious questions about the relationship between this president and Putin.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You also sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, they’re going to open the confirmation hearings this week for the president’s nominee for attorney general, William Barr. Of course if confirmed, Mr. Barr will oversee the Russia investigation. What do you need to know about how he’s going to oversee that investigation and can you support him?
DURBIN: Well, the most interesting part of this, George, is the number one question on everyone’s mind -- will Bob Mueller be allowed to complete this investigation without political interference from the attorney general or president and will the results of it be made public so America can see for itself exactly what happened. Real serious questions arise because Bill Barr volunteered information in the past -- volunteered it, basically saying the president shouldn’t be subjected to this kind of investigation.
And I’ll just tell you, that’s the first line of questioning you can expect from most of the people on the panel.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you think he can oversee the investigation in a fair way?
DURBIN: Well, I’m worried about it. I mean, clearly he’s a good lawyer. No question. But when it comes to this delicate political situation, the power of the presidency, whether this investigation is warranted (ph), Bill Barr had better give us some rock -- ironclad rock bottom assurances in terms of his independence and his willingness to step back and let Mueller finish his job.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let’s talk about the shutdown. The president says it’s all on you now, all on the Democrats, it’s time for you to compromise. You prepared to make any new offers?
DURBIN: I can tell you this, George. Back in 1984, Senator Mitch McConnell was running for election in Kentucky and sent out a bloodhound looking for the Democratic senator. It’s time to send out that Kentucky bloodhound and look for Mitch McConnell. This week there’s Senate Republicans, the centrists who were trying to find some solution were shut down by the White House. It’s time for those centrists to speak up in their own Republican Senate caucus and tell Mitch McConnell the party’s over. We want this to end, there’s no excuse for the shutdown. The Republican-controlled Senate and a handful of senators will make that decision.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So could you support some kind of an overall compromise that would include more funding for the wall in -- say, in return for protections for the DREAMers?
DURBIN: Let me tell you, George, remember a few years ago when we had comprehensive immigration reform? We sat down, Democrats and Republicans, worked for six months with Job McCain and Chuck Schumer and others in the room, we came up with a package that dramatically invested in border security. Democrats believe in border security. We do not believe in government shutdowns as a threat to innocent federal workers and as a tool for the president to use over and over again to pressure Congress. Put an end to the shutdown and put everything on the table. We were willing to talk about more border security when we were talking about DACA and DREAMers and coming up with a border security plan that made sense, not some median (ph) wall.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But if you’re for border security, then why not make some moves now? You know one of the things the White House says is that the president in those meetings has accepted specific proposals from the Democrats, including one from you on detection technology at the border.
DURBIN: Well of course. And we offered $1.3 billion at the start for border security. But the president’s numbers have been wildly different. $25 billion, $11 billion. Mike Pence two weeks ago offered us $2.5 billion, within an hour the president said no, I won’t take that, it’s got to be $5.7 billion or nothing. We asked him how are you going to spend it. Well, we can’t give you the details on this. Is it a national emergency? Oh, of course it is. Well how soon could this wall of yours be built? Two years? That’s a national emergency? Come on, let’s get down to business here. Open up this government tomorrow.
The president can do it and one phone call from Mitch McConnell can get it started. M
STEPHANOPOULOS: One way the president can do it is to declare a national emergency. Is that the most likely way out?
DURBIN: I don’t know if it is a way out or not. Presidents have been very careful in using that. When George W. Bush faced 9/11 he asked us for national emergency powers, we gave it to him on a bipartisan basis, united as a country to fight off terrorism. But if this president is going to turn to national emergencies every time he disagrees with Congress, I’m against it. Let’s make sure the branches of government are bound by the same Constitution.
STEPHANOPOULOS: How does this end?
DURBIN: I think it ends when the Senate Republicans say we’ve had enough. We're not going to stand here and be blamed for this. We believe the government should be opened. There should be timely negotiations on border security after the government is open.
Once the president realizes he’s lost the Senate Republicans, we can roll up our sleeves, open the government and get down to business.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Durbin, thanks very much for your time this morning.
DURBIN: Thank you.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let’s bring in the number two Republican in the House now, Steve Scalise. Congressman Scalise, thank you for joining us this morning. You just heard Senator Durbin right there. He says this is all up to Senate Republicans; if they make a move this can get solved. What do you think?
STEVE SCALISE, (R-LOUISIANA): Well, good morning, George, good to be with you. And first of all, Senator Durbin was in the room. Clearly you’ve seen a number of offers put on the table by President Trump to try to resolve this issue.
In fact, when the Democrats asked for a detailed breakdown of what that $5.7 billion would go towards, the Department of Homeland Security gave a very detailed breakdown and it includes border security, it’s wall funding, it’s more border agents, it’s more tools for our border agents who are being attacked at the border by the some of the criminals in this caravan. But ultimately, when President Trump looked at Nancy Pelosi and said, look, you’re stalling, you’re stalling, you’ve yet to put a single counter-offer on the table to all the various offers the president’s put on the table.
Nancy Pelosi said no when the president said, if we go another 30 days, keep everything funded even the things we disagree on, but at the end of that 30 days will you be willing to negotiate on these areas where we disagree, like the wall? And Nancy Pelosi said no emphatically. Ultimately, they don’t want to reach a solution.
Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer in every meeting I’ve been in -- we’ve had three meetings in the Situation Room, George, with all the principal negotiators, many times I’ve seen the president willing to negotiate on the definition of a wall. He even said he’d be willing to let them ban cement wall structures. They say -- he said he’d be willing to negotiate on how much it would cost but he’s got, from our security experts, a detailed breakdown of what it will take to secure America’s border. Not one single time, George, has Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer put a counter-offer on the table except a dollar. Nancy Pelosi said a dollar. That’s not serious, we all know that.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Congressman is …
SCALISE: It’s time for them to come to the table.
STEPHANOPOULOS: … One of the -- one of the arguments they make, as you know, is the president promised again, and again, and again during the campaign -- I think some 212 times -- that Mexico would pay for the wall. So why should taxpayers foot the bill?
SCALISE: Well, they -- they’ve never been concerned about whether or not Mexico would pay for the wall. They’ve just been against the idea of a wall. The president talked about what Mexico’s going to pay for in the new agreement that we’ve got, the new renegotiated NAFTA if you want to call it that, USMCA.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But that doesn’t include any provision for Mexico to pay for the wall, you know that.
SCALISE: Well, first of all, it hasn’t come to Congress yet. The president’s going to be submitting that. That’s never been the issue in any of the negotiations, George, it’s whether or not they would agree to any physical structure. And let’s keep in mind Chuck Schumer voted in 2006 for the fences act, which, by the way, the language that Chuck Schumer voted for according to Homeland Security would give them most of the abilities and tools they need to build that physical structure.
You can call it a wall. You can call it steel slats. The name’s not important. It’s the strength and ability to secure the border in between our ports of entry. Right now, we can control who’s coming in at ports of entry, it’s those hundreds of miles where there’ no border, there’s no wall to differentiate between the Mexico and the United States border. And we’re seeing -- by the way, we’re seeing over 90 percent of the heroine that comes into our country comes in through the Southern Border. There’s 17,000 …
(CROSSTALK)
STEPHANOPOULOS: Yes, but most of that, as you know, comes through …
SCALISE: … criminals, George.
STEPHANOPOULOS: … Most of that, as you know, comes in through valid points of entry.
I want to move on now. The president also …
SCALISE: That’s the areas we know about. We don’t know about what’s come across in the areas where we have no security.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, that’s where the 90 percent figure comes from.
SCALISE: Well, but look at the 17,000 known convicted criminals, people with prior convicted criminal background that came across our southern border just last year. Those are only the ones we know about, George. So we know what’s coming across our border. There’s human trafficking, there’s crime, there’s hardened criminals, gang members coming across our border. We need to protect it.
If they say they’re for border security, which they say, but they’re yet to be willing to put a dollar offer on the table for what it’s going to cost to secure the border. We all know there’s a cost to this. They’ve got to put a counteroffer on the table.
STEPHANOPOULOS: The president tweeted out yesterday that he has a plan to end this. Do you know what that plan is? And would you support a declaration of national emergency?
SCALISE: Well, the ultimate plan is for Congress to solve this. And the president’s been very clear, Congress needs to solve this. The only people that have been unwilling to put any kind of offer on the table have been Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. The president’s put multiple offers on the table. We don’t want it to come down to a national emergency declaration. Clearly the president’s got authority under law but he’s said he doesn’t want it to come to that.
He wants Congress to solve this problem. Congress needs to solve this problem.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You heard Senator Durbin’s response to those news stories in the New York Times and the Washington Post about the Russia investigation and the president. We do – we do know that the new House chairman of Foreign Affairs, of Intelligence, Judiciary, all going to be investigating these questions. And you heard Senator Durbin just say he has real questions about President Trump’s entire approach to Putin. What’s your response?
SCALISE: Well, look at the facts. And again, I mean, it seems like Democrats have this massive infatuation with Russia and Putin. Now, they didn’t seem to be concerned about Russia when Barack Obama was president and letting Russia run roughshod over Eastern Europe. President Trump has taken more steps to stand up against Russia than anybody we’ve seen in a long time.
Look at what he’s done with the Ukraine. Russia was running through the Ukraine when Barack Obama was president. Ukraine asked for help from America. They didn’t ask for troops. They said, look, send us some of the tank-busting missiles that you have so that we can stop Russia. Barack Obama said no. Donald Trump said yes and helped the Ukrainians to push back Russia out of the Ukraine. Look at what he’s done with Iran. And you’ve seen this partnership between Russia and Iran. President Trump has stood up against Iran, the bad deal that allows Iran to get a nuclear weapon.
You’ve seen time and time again with sanctions, with other things, President Trump standing up against Russia. This whole idea of collusion, they’ve investigated this, the Mueller investigation’s gone on for over a year, they found no collusion between Trump and Russia. The House did its own investigation and found no collusion. And so at some point, as they meander on looking for something, it looks like a witch hunt if they don’t put facts on the table. Have they found collusion? I’ve seen none, George.
They’ve put no facts on the table to show there’s collusion. There’s a strong record of President Trump standing up to Russia and pushing back and supporting our allies in Eastern Europe who’ve been looking for that for a long time.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Before we go, I want to ask you about your colleague, Steve King. He’s caused quite a controversy with those comments he made to the New York Times saying white nationalists, white supremacists, western civilization. Has that language become offensive? I know you’ve condemned remarks, we’re seeing stronger calls from the Democrats in the House. Speaker Pelosi says she’s going to take action. The Congressional Black Caucus says that Congressman King should be denied his committee assignments.
Will Republicans take any action against Congressman King?
SCALISE: Well, you’ve seen all of our House leaders from Kevin McCarthy, myself, Liz Cheney, rejecting what Steve King said, pushing back and calling on him to come back and denounce it. I would recommend that Steve King go and read the op-ed by our colleague, Senator Tim Scott, which was very poignant. I will say, George, as they talk about Steve King on the Democrat side, we’ve pushed back against his comments.
There have been many Democrats who have said not only highly offensive things, align themselves with anti-Semites, have called on physical violence, they haven't pushed back on any of that language.
We've got to raise the bar on civility, George. We need to call it out on the Republican side and the Democrat side. I've been willing to call it out on both. It's time those Democrat leaders you just mentioned call it out when it happens on their side as well.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But yes or no, will Republican leaders call for any action against Congressman King?
SCALISE: I would imagine we're going to continue talking about this. This just popped up on Friday. We were very quick to reject those comments. There is no place for hate, for bigotry, or anybody who supports that ideology. It's evil ideology. We all ought to stand up against it.
But it's easy when the Democrats condemn a Republican. I don't see the Democrats condemning Democrats on their side who are doing this kind of thing and using this kind of language, George.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Congressman Scalise, thanks for your time this morning.
SCALISE: Great being with you.
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