Fox News "Fox News Sunday" - Transcript: Interview with Senator Dick Durbin

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

GRAHAM: Thank you. Thank you so much.

Joining me now from Illinois, another member of the committee that will be questioning Judge Kavanaugh, Dick Durbin, the Senate's number two Democrat.

Senator, Democrats have tried a variety of efforts to upend and derail the confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh. I want to put some of them up.

The argument that there is a midterm election. The argument that President Trump is under investigation. If you want to see millions of pages of documents from when he was staff secretary for President George W. Bush, and the White House has no invoked executive privilege to withhold 100,000 pages from when he worked for the White House counsel.

I think it's fair to say that none of that has worked and the question is, why is it the Democrats have so far been unable to gain any traction against Judge Kavanaugh, and in the public debate, you don't seem to have laid a glove on him?

DURBIN: Let me say at the outset before we get into that and I will address it -- I joined with Lindsey Graham, every word he said John McCain John McCain. I respect John McCain so much and yesterday was a great display of the respect so many people across this country had for this great American. I was lucky enough to be with Lindsey and John involved in some very important negotiations for more than a year on comprehensive immigration reform. So I back up every word.

So let me start with Brett Kavanaugh in this way. He is the most unpopular Supreme Court nominee in the last 40 years. How did he reach that point so quickly? Well, I think there were a number of reasons for it.

You look at first and foremost is the fact that this president said I'm not going to put a man on the Supreme Court unless he is going to overturn Roe versus Wade and the Affordable Care Act. The president is never at a loss for words and he was very explicit in terms of what he wanted in a Supreme Court nominee. Those positions may be popular with his Republican base. They're not popular with the American people.

WALLACE: Wait, wait --

GRAHAM: An issue that you have raised --

WALLACE: Wait. I mean, he said he was going to appoint pro-life judges. He never said that he asked him or on a litmus test about that. And also, I have to say, I'm a little surprised that you are saying he's the most unpopular. When did we nominate and confirm Supreme Court justices based on public opinion polls?

DURBIN: Well, we shouldn't be. But you started off with the premise you've never laid a glove on him. The fact of the matter is the American people have gone through this nomination and come to the conclusion that he's not the right person for the job.

Let me go a little bit further here. He comes before us at a time when people are concerned about whether this president or any president is above the law. Think about his role, Kavanaugh's role, when it came to Judge Ken Starr going after President Clinton. He was the aggressive prosecutor in that respect and a few years later after working in the Bush White House said that completely reversed my position. A president should not be subject to the subject of prosecution while he's in office.

WALLACE: Can I -- can I let me just ask you about that because as Lindsey Graham brought up, and I was going to ask you anyway, in 1994, Bill Clinton was under investigation by an independent counsel on Whitewater and he nominated and the Senate confirmed Stephen Breyer and that was also in a midterm election year. That relate directly contradicts two of the arguments that you're making against Kavanaugh.

DURBIN: Let me just say that I was not a member of the Senate when Justice Breyer came before that body, but it will tell you at the time the investigation was underway, there was no suspicion at that moment that Clinton was going to brush it aside and say, you have no authority to even question me. It went forward. He was subpoenaed, he was deposed, he was tried in the House -- and I should say indicted under the impeachment clause and tried in the Senate. I was at the Senate at the time.

And now, we have a different situation completely. There is a serious question as to whether this president, given the opportunity, will end the Mueller investigation, something which most Republicans and the overwhelming majority of Americans say would be a serious mistake and we ask, of course, Judge Kavanaugh, what do you think, and he says it's hands off when it comes to a president during his term in office.

I think that's a mistake and it's one of the major reasons people had misgivings about his nomination.

WALLACE: Let's look at some specific issues. As I pointed out, Kavanaugh has told some pro-choice senators that he views Roe as settled law, he was asked about Obamacare, there's a Texas case that would try to take it all down because of the fact that the individual mandate has been repealed. He said that he was very skeptical of that.

Obviously, these aren't confirmed commitments. You wouldn't expect that from any judge.

Isn't it the real problem that this is a conservative judge, Donald Trump went to the country and promised to nominate conservative judges, originalists who would -- who would interpret the Constitution as written, it hasn't healed well within the mainstream, yes conservative, but within the judicial mainstream?

DURBIN: Well, you overlook one of the most important elements of his nomination, and that is the fact that there has been more concealment of documents concerning his public service and his position on issues than ever in the history of the United States.

WALLACE: He's given you half a million documents, sir.

(CROSSTALK)

DURBIN: Let me just make my point here, Chris. The assertion of executive privilege by the White House to take 100,000 documents and say the American people will not get a chance to see them as they reflect on Kavanaugh's background is the first time in history. This denial of access to documents violates a role that we thought was a tradition of the Senate under Senator Sessions and Senator Leahy, time and again when it came to Obama nominees.

They are suppressing these documents. If we are lucky we will see 6 percent, 6 percent, of all of the documents that have been produced -- that could be produced to reflect on Kavanaugh's true position on issues. He saying and the White House saying the American people have no right to know.

So, if he so proud of his conservative credentials show us the record, stand before us, trust the American people and they will trust you. I would say that to Judge Kavanaugh.

WALLACE: I -- and you will have the opportunity to do that starting on Tuesday. Let me just say as a point of saying goodbye, they have turned over half a million documents and the issue, part of it is about 3 million documents when he was staff secretary and every document that went to the president went to his desk.

But, Senator Durbin, thank you. Thanks for joining us. We look forward to your questioning of Judge Kavanaugh starting this week.

DURBIN: Thanks, Chris.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source