CNN "State of the Union" - Transcript: Interview With Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono
Interview
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
BASH: Joining me now, Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, who sits on the Judiciary Committee and strongly opposed Kavanaugh's nomination.
Thank you for joining me this morning. SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D), HAWAII: Good morning.
BASH: You heard Senator Susan Collins, your colleague, say she doesn't believe that now Justice Kavanaugh assaulted Ford.
What is your reaction?
HIRONO: She said that she thinks that -- she said that Dr. Ford thinks that she was assaulted, which is even more insulting than saying that she gave a very credible account.
I certainly believe Dr. Ford. Anybody watching her testimony would know, I would say, would conclude that she was being very truthful.
And the one thing that she recollects with 100 percent accuracy is that Judge Kavanaugh, Brett Kavanaugh, assaulted her.
BASH: Do you think that Senator Collins is insulting to Professor Ford?
HIRONO: Well, to say that she thinks that Dr. Ford thinks that she was assaulted, what is that? Is she mistaken?
She herself said that she served -- so many survivors from her state and elsewhere. All of us have been hearing stories of -- and accounts from survivors going back many, many years, where they kept all these painful, traumatic accounts to themselves.
And this is what happens with sexual assault survivors, that they do not come forward.
I also note, that in your interview, that she kept saying that there was no corroboration. There was no corroboration on Brett Kavanaugh's bald assertion that he didn't do it, because the people that the FBI interviewed, which was a -- just a small number of the dozens that they should have interviewed, they all said that they have no recollection.
That is hardly what I would call exoneration.
But, on her side, there was corroboration, because she had talked about this assault to her husband, to others before Brett Kavanaugh was ever nominated to the Supreme Court. She took a lie-detector test.
Corroboration was there.
BASH: Senator, I want you to listen to what President Trump said when he was asked about how women are reacting to this confirmation.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
BASH: What about women who don't see this the way you do, see it differently?
HIRONO: Well, obviously, there are a lot of women who think that sexual assault is not a huge problem in our country, and that the way we deal with survivors of sexual assault is not a problem.
They certainly have that view. But, believe me, I have heard and all of us have heard from literally thousands of survivors who have come forward to tell us their accounts.
And this is a under-reported crime. We know this.
BASH: But women...
HIRONO: So, I am saddened when women themselves who I'm sure they have all experienced sexual harassment, unwanted words said to us, all of that, it's all...
(CROSSTALK)
[09:25:07]
BASH: And they argue -- they argue not that -- many of them I have talked to you -- probably you have too -- and even Susan Collins said -- not that -- that the victims are making it up, but that you can't be sure -- that people who are accused of doing it should be presumed innocent.
HIRONO: This is not a court of law.
And I want to ask Susan Collins, if you were interviewing someone for a lifetime position to some company or some interest that you had, would you hire somebody with this kind of a cloud over their heads?
This is for the United States Supreme Court, nine people who are going to make decisions that impact all of our lives for life.
BASH: I want to ask you about the atmosphere. The president and Republicans, what they are saying is that Democratic protesters are -- quote -- "an angry mob."
(LAUGHTER)
BASH: And what I want to ask you about is, you know, it is one thing to protest at the Supreme Court, to do it at the Capitol. That's been done for generations...
HIRONO: Yes.
BASH: ... and, frankly, since the founding of this country.
HIRONO: Yes. BASH: It's another thing to run senators out of restaurants, go to
their homes. Is that going too far?
HIRONO: I think that it just means that there are a lot of people who are very, very much motivated by what is going on, because what is -- what happened with Judge Kavanaugh is, from the very beginning, this was not a fair process.
What the Republicans did was to telegraph -- after Dr. Ford's account came forward, what they telegraphed was, one, Dr. Ford, we don't want to hear from you. Two, if we have to hear from you, we're going to rig the hearings, so that there...
(CROSSTALK)
BASH: Should the going after people at restaurants stop?
HIRONO: Well, this is what happens.
They -- because when you look at white supremacists and all of that, this is what is coming forth in our country. There's a tremendous divisiveness in our country. But this is the kind of activism that occurs.
And people make their own decisions. If they violate the law, then they have to account for that.
BASH: One last question.
Some of your Democratic colleagues have been saying that the Democrats, your fellow Democrats' case against Judge Kavanaugh was weakened by Michael Avenatti, the lawyer representing a woman who claimed that Kavanaugh facilitated gang rape.
Did he hurt your cause?
HIRONO: There were enough other aspects and allegations and reports that we wanted the FBI to investigate, and they did not. Why? Because the White House very much limited the scope of this so-called investigation, which was a sham.
BASH: Should Brett Kavanaugh be impeached if Democrats take control?
HIRONO: I'm much more focused on the here and now, which is that we have an election coming up.
And I said to the women who are justifiably angry, but determined, and I said they should be just focused like a laser beam on the elections, because they have connected the dots.
They know that the senators who are making these confirmation decisions are the people who were elected by their voters. And so, as voters, they have a role to play.
BASH: Senator, thank you so much. Thank you for your time this morning. HIRONO: Thank you.
BASH: Appreciate it.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source