CNN "Erin Burnett Outfront" - Transcript: Interview with Sen, Mike Rounds (R)
Interview
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BURNET: Of course. Even with his wife, it comes down to the polls.
OK. Manu, thank you very much.
And I want to go now to Republican Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota, who's on the Armed Services Committee. He was in that lunch today with President Trump.
All right. Senator, it sounds like he tried to filibuster you guys and there's a monologue going on. Let me give you the benefit of the doubt there. But let's just start with John McCain.
Why didn't the White House's apology come up today in the lunch when so many of you all said you thought he needed to step up and it was going to come up?
SEN. MIKE ROUNDS (R), SOUTH DAKOTA: It's a very serious for a lot of us. You talk about duty, honor and country, you think about John McCain. Today, honesty is the best policy. We ran out of time. We were talking about other issues.
The president in this case, he could have been a member of the United States Senate. He was on a roll today. He had a number of issues he wanted to talk about. He touched on a number of very important issues.
He talked about where we're going with the economy. He talked about North Korea. He talked about Iran. He talked about China. He talked about Israel and what's going on there. He hit like a number of items --
(CROSSTALK)
BURNETT: So, was it like a stream of consciousness? He didn't take a breath for anything else?
ROUNDS: He was on a roll. And but he was also touching some things that we're very important to us. NAFTA is an example, in the Midwest, we're concerned about NAFTA. And he got into the NAFTA discussions. He talked about the direction he wanted to go, talked about his desire still to get a better deal in what he thought was already on the table. He shared that with us.
He talked about the concerns with China. He didn't talk about ZTE, but he did talk about the concerns about what they've been doing to us as an economy. He talked about his desire to make a better deal. He was very sincere in his efforts. But it was also, as Manu has indicated earlier, it was a very lighthearted atmosphere for a lot of the meeting, and some of the issues that I think some of my colleagues had talked about, bringing up, we just ran out of time.
BURNETT: I mean, look, I understand, but, you know, as you just said, honor and duty and it's a serious issue when you talk about John McCain specifically. You know, earlier today, Senator, you said to reporters and I quote you, I know it's probably not their style to make apologies, but I can tell you that the vast majority of Americans would say John McCain deserves our respect. That's from the top to the bottom.
ROUNDS: That's absolutely correct.
BURNETT: If that was so important, I'm just trying to understand, right, one or two questions. Did you get intimidated by him and I don't mean just you but everybody? I mean, why wouldn't this come up?
ROUNDS: No, the two questions that we did have time for were direct, they were specific to him about what his plans were with regard to coordinating and working with us in the future. One had to do with his timing. And what he was going to do with regard to immigration, when he was going move forward on that.
And the second part was we've done a lot of good things in the United States Senate and in the House. We've passed a tax bill which we think has been one of the leading issues and one of the reasons why the economy is so good, and the president had a lot to do with that. We're talking about regulatory issues.
BURNETT: OK.
ROUNDS: And the fact is, the president is continuing to push forward on the regulatory redesigned. And we talked about the number of circuit judges. We've got one-eighth of all the circuit judges in the United States today are now Trump appointees.
When we started lying all that out in front of him, we're just saying look -- (CROSSTALK)
BURNETT: John McCain, again --
ROUNDS: And whether or not we're actually getting anything done and we need your help to get the message out.
BURNETT: Right. Do you have any regrets, though, that you didn't bring something up that was clearly so important to you?
[19:35:02] ROUNDS: There were hand up as quick as he could get done with one question, there was another question in it. But remember, he also was on a roll. He did more than 45 minutes straight discussing the issues that he thought was important and when you --
BURNETT: And then he allowed two questions.
(CROSSTALK)
ROUNDS: -- got the president of the United States in front of you, deferential treatment still says the office of the president will lay out the timeline.
BURNETT: OK, on ZTE. You said he brought up China trade. But you heard Senators Cornyn and Flake, your colleagues, right? They said specifically, we're going to have questions at lunch. Are you planning on addressing this with him? Absolutely. Obviously, didn't come up. ZTE, specifically.
I want to ask you, though, Senator, what the Chinese government reportedly agreed to loan half a billion dollars to a major development in Indonesia that includes a Trump hotel and golf course, and just three days after that deal, the president tweeted about wanting to save ZTE. Are you concerned that there could be a relationship there?
ROUNDS: Let me share wit you, first of all, I'm not familiar with the timing and I'm not familiar wit the facts surrounding that. We heard about this for the first time yesterday. So, I'm not going to suggest that there's anything wrong at the stage of the game, but I will tell you that in the United States Senate and in the United States House, when those types of accusations are made, we do our due diligence, we do come back and we do ask the questions, and there are appropriate places to do it.
In this particular case, when he gave us the opportunity after he was completed with his message, we ran out of time. The questions that were out there were valid questions. We weren't wasting time.
BURNETT: Do you think he was avoiding it though? I mean, I guess my bottom line question to you then is, he talked for 45 minutes. He takes two questions then runs out of there. He didn't want to talk about John McCain or ZTE, right? I mean, we're just clear, right? He didn't want to talk about it.
ROUNDS: Look, I'm going to lay this out right now, that's not -- that's not a fair way to put this thing.
The president came in. He talked about number of different issues. He laid things out.
He gave us a good insight as to what his thought process was with regard to immigration and his thought process with regard to NAFTA. And his concern about China and the direction he wanted to go.
He talked about North Korea and the focus that he had on North Korea and the critical issues and he gave us a history going back to why his logic was the way it was with regard to getting involved with North Korea.
He talked about Iran. He went into great detail with his concerns about Iran, which really interested us because we understand how critical that is and the fact that we've got European allies who have a different point of view. He shared with us his conversations there.
He went into real detail with us. And that takes time. So, when we got all done --
(CROSSTALK)
BURNETT: I'm sure it did. It sounds like you're making excuses considering what you all said you cared about, but you know, it didn't come up. I understand what you're saying, you thought what happened was important. But it does sound --
ROUNDS: We ran out of time.
BURNETT: All right. All right. Well, I understand. I appreciate your time. Thanks so much.
ROUNDS: Absolutely.
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