CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview With Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono

Interview

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BLITZER: All right, thanks very much, Jessica Schneider up on Capitol Hill.

Joining us now, Senator Mazie Hirono. She's a Democrat. She serves on the Judiciary Committee that is questioning Judge Kavanaugh right now.

Senator, thanks so much for joining.

SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D), HAWAII: Aloha.

BLITZER: All right, I want to get to all of that. But let me begin with the anonymous op-ed in "The New York Times."

Do you believe, Senator, that this unnamed Trump administration official should come forward publicly?

HIRONO: Of course.

And, by the way, that the fact that there are a group of them, there's a group of them trying to save this country from the worst of the Trump impulses, it makes me wonder, how bad could it be, because even as overt things, such as the $1.5 trillion tax breaks to the richest people in our country, separating children from their parents at the border, undoing environmental laws, as though kinds of overt things are bad, are not bad enough.

So I would want these people to come forward, because they are not accountable to anybody. They're not voted in. Why don't they come forward and tell us what's going on in the White House? We do know that it's chaotic.

BLITZER: Well, we did hear from this anonymous official, what this official believes is going on in the White House.

Their argument, Senator, is that they're trying to protect the American people, protect national security from the commander in chief himself, from the president of the United States, and they can only do that if they stay on the job.

HIRONO: I think that's really trying to justify how they're wanting to make sure that certain of his programs gets through, such as separating the children at the border, such as these huge tax cuts, such as some of the other things I mentioned.

They're not even defending the Affordable Care Act protections for those with preexisting conditions. So, basically, they're picking and choosing what things that they want to protect us from, the president's worst instincts. I shudder to think what else could be coming down the pike but for these unnamed people.

I think it is time for people to come forward and have us face certain facts about this president. He is unreliable. He lies every single day. This is a serious threat to our democracy.

BLITZER: So do you believe the president is unfit for office?

HIRONO: This is what -- you know what? Do I want a president who lies every single day and who has the kinds of policies?

I think it's the lying that bothers me the most. And as this unnamed person said, he has no -- he's amoral. He has no moral compass. And that is dangerous for our country, because I have said before that, with this president, it's all about himself every day, every moment.

BLITZER: I want to show you -- put up on the screen all those Cabinet members, the vice president of United States, truly extraordinary. All of these people -- and you see them, all the pictures up there -- they have issued public statements, either directly or through a spokesperson, denying that they were the one who wrote that article in "The New York Times."

This is pretty extraordinary, what's going on right now. Have you ever seen anything like this before?

HIRONO: Of course not.

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And they're sending out all their denials and everything else, but they are closest to the president. They should know. Obviously, they're not ready to come forward and let the public know and our country know what's going on inside the White House.

But we have a pretty good idea. It's chaos.

BLITZER: Do you believe it's time for members of the Cabinet to start discussing the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, which could potentially lead to the ouster of the president?

HIRONO: Apparently, some discussions along those lines had already occurred.

And I'm just saying that the people who should know, so-called adults in the room, they need to step forward. And they're not prepared to do that as yet.

BLITZER: Because in that article in "The New York Times," there was this line: "Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president."

But they thought it would lead to a constitutional crisis. So they backed away.

Let me get your thoughts on what's going in the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, the president's nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court.

As you know, Democrats on your committee, the Judiciary Committee, including yourself, released documents this morning that were said to be committee confidential, confidential documents. But the chairman, Chuck Grassley, says those documents had already been cleared, were released earlier overnight. So why did you imply those documents were being suppressed?

HIRONO: Well, they were suppressed.

And, in fact, this is a perfect example after the fact trying to cover their, as we say in Hawaii (INAUDIBLE).

The process of -- as laid out by the chairman, was that we had to clear documents that we intended to use. I did not request that this document be cleared. And they're trying to say that they had actually cleared it this morning, or they have proposed different times that they so-called cleared my document.

I refer to the document last night. The fact of the matter is that they don't want to be confronted with an idea of having to expel some of us because they cannot justify why these documents should have been confidential in the first place.

BLITZER: Senator, we're going to get back to the hearing right now.

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