CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Senator Dick Durbin

Interview

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SCIUTTO: Whatever your view of the midterms and to be clear, both parties racked up both big wins and disappointing losses, no one can doubt that Washington will soon be a very different place. In fact it is this morning.

Our next guest will help lead a smaller minority in the Senate for the Democrats, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, currently the minority whip.

Senator, thanks for taking the time this morning.

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D), ILLINOIS: Good to be with you.

SCIUTTO: So Democrats win against an unpopular president with enormous Democratic turnout in this election. And they lost seats in the Senate. What happened?

DURBIN: We had 10 of our seats were in states carried by Donald Trump. We won five of them. And the other five not so well. We're still waiting for some returns. But we were up against a pretty bad deal in terms of 26 or 27 Democrats with their fate on the line and the Republicans only with eight. So the odds were against us. We've held our own in many places.

SCIUTTO: Let's be frank, though. This was at the higher end of what even Democrats and even some Republicans thought would be the final math here. [10:20:04] I just want to quote a tweet from Amanda Carpenter, former

communications director for Ted Cruz, also a CNN contributor. It gets at I think an important point here. She said following, tweeted the following, "Serious lesson for Dems. I can't believe they haven't learned yet. Republicans are not going to vote against their own interests -- taxes, judges, guns, et cetera -- because President Trump says bad things. Dems have to offer Republicans something."

What is your answers to that?

DURBIN: Well, of course, it's become the Trump party. And that was pretty clear last night. It's no longer the Republican Party. And there are many Republicans who voted with us yesterday and I think may continue to. That's how realignment occurs. When it comes down to it the message is going to be clear and the House of Representatives under Democratic control I hope will move to make those definitions as clear as possible.

Who doubts that health insurance, the cost, accessibility and coverage for preexisting condition, didn't turn out to be a major issue? It did. I don't think you're going to see the extreme positions taken by the Republicans in the past. I think the House Democrats are more likely to address efforts by the Republicans to kill off the opportunity for insurance.

SCIUTTO: Do you see any ground for cooperation across the aisle and with the president legislatively? Again we hear infrastructure. But we've heard that before. Opioids, and there has been some progress on addressing the opioid crisis. There is some meeting of the minds on drug prices.

But on the flip side, Senator, there is enormous incentive or disincentive for both parties to work with the other side. Do you see any work getting done with this makeup?

DURBIN: Well, I can tell you it will have to come from Capitol Hill exclusively. This White House has time and again shown that they are unwilling to sit down and come up with any bipartisan compromise. I mean, I sat next to the president on January 9th of this year and he said send me a bill on DACA, the Dreamers and immigration. You pass it, I'll sign it, and I'll take the heat. Forty-eight hours later he completely reversed his position and has never come back to it.

So he's a very difficult man to sit down and deal with. I think some Republicans will want to work with Democrats in the future. I'm counting on it.

SCIUTTO: One possible offer of compromise or at least has been talked about, does mean that it's concrete. It is Democrats give Trump the money he wants for the wall and exchange -- in exchange for a DACA legislation. Is that a deal that the Democratic Party would be willing to make?

DURBIN: It's a deal we offered and was rejected by the White House. And many of us thought it was hard to explain why it would be for this crazy wall, 19th century answer to a 21st century problem. But the president was demanding it. And so we said, all right, to really deal with immigration reform, we need to do it. We're willing to suck it up on the Democratic side and stand with you. He rejected it.

He is virtually impossible to bargain with. Particularly on the issue of immigration. He has people around him who are very hateful, and they are unfortunately color his judgment.

SCIUTTO: Senator Durbin, you have an emerging dispute over Florida coming here with Rick Scott now saying -- we heard earlier and we reported earlier that Senator Bill Nelson calling for a recount there. Rick Scott just responding to that by saying the race is over. You see it is within 0.4 percent there. What is going to happen in Florida with this recount in your view?

DURBIN: Well, it's hard to say and there are races around the country that are really hanging in the balance here. And Florida is one that is extremely, extremely close. The circumstances down there I don't know. But, you know, we want a fair count. And we also want to put an end to this voter suppression.

For goodness sakes, why does the Republican Party think their fate is tied to reducing the number of people who show up to vote? That democracy, if it works, has more and more participation, makes it easy for eligible voters to come forward. Yet the Republicans time and again have found ways to impose I.D. cards, limit the early vote, try to make it as hard as possible for people to vote.

Clearly they believe this is a way to overcome the demographics which are not headed their way.

SCIUTTO: Senator Dick Durbin, thanks very much for taking the time. We look forward to talking to you in this new playing field in Washington.

DURBIN: Thanks.

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