CNN "The Lead With Jake Tapper" - Transcript: Interview with Congresswoman-elect Abigail Spanberger

Interview

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JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: The blue wave in the House of Representatives swept over even more territory today with another congressional district falling into Democratic control.

[16:30:02] Democrats now officially picked up a net gain of at least 34 seats and in the six races that remain uncalled, all were held by Republicans before Election Day. Democrats currently are ahead in five.

Joining me is one member of the new Democratic majority, Congresswoman-elect Abigail Spanberger, who will be representing Virginia 7th district, which is basically the Richmond suburbs.

So, I know this is the question everybody is asking you and I hate to be cliche, but your very first vote is going to be about who should be the speaker. You met with Nancy Pelosi today. And you told her that you were still going to vote against her as you told your constituents you would.

Why? What's wrong with Nancy Pelosi?

ABIGAIL SPANBERGER (D), VIRGINIA CONGRESSWOMAN-ELECT: Nothing is wrong with Nancy Pelosi. Nancy Pelosi has done tremendous things for this country as speaker, as minority leader, and I have tremendous respect for her. Among the reasons that there are so many women entering Congress now is because she paved the way for us.

But one of the things I talked about frequently on the campaign trail was the need to have new voices in Congress. The need to turn a new page and the way we engage across the aisle and really to be able to work on the priorities that were most important to the people in my district.

TAPPER: But is anyone even challenging her? I mean, I don't even know -- is there a candidate running against her? I don't think so.

SPANBERGER: Currently, nobody declared. But so --

TAPPER: So no one is better than Nancy Pelosi? I don't understand.

SPANBERGER: Yes. So I will be voting for someone. When I was talking with my constituents, I said I wouldn't be voting for her, I would be voting for new leadership. And so, really my first vote is about making sure that I am from day one --

TAPPER: So whoever runs against her, you're going to vote for, Marcia Fudge, Seth Moulton, whoever.

SPANBERGER: It will depend wholly on who runs against her.

TAPPER: You've told CNN you have your eyes on lots of plum committee assignments, Ways and Means. I saw this list. I thought, to be a freshman again. Ways and Means, Intelligence, Education, Foreign Affairs, Veterans' Affairs -- those are all great committees.

Do you really think you can get your chosen -- desired committee assignments when going against Nancy Pelosi, who probably will be the next speaker of the house? I mean, you're crossing her.

SPANBERGER: Well, so I have additional committees on the list of committees I would like to be on, beyond even those.

You know, I don't -- I -- at the end of the day, I think she wants what's best for Congress and for the country. And I'm requesting the committees that I will be requesting, a couple of them, are, in fact, on that list once I pare it down for my final letter of request. Those are committees where I would be able to best serve the people of my districts, where I would be able to bring my skill set and my background of knowledge to Congress.

And so, I fully expect she's going to make the best choice for the members of Congress and for the country and put people on committees where they'll be able to bring other own background and perspectives in a viable, important way, and where they can best serve the districts that elected them, because I know at the end of the day, her priority and priority of I hope every person in the Democratic caucus, is to make sure we're doing a lot of good things that new members are able to deliver on the things they discuss with their constituents, so that we'll be there again in 2020.

TAPPER: So you represent the Richmond suburbs, has not been represented by Democrat in Congress since 1968. How are you planning on breaking from your party? What are some issues where you plan to be more moderate? It seems like the center of gravity for the Democratic Party will be to your left. What are some things you'll work on that might appeal to swing voters, independents, who voted for you this time?

SPANBERGER: So, I think across the board, the things important to people and voters in my district, whether they identify as Democrats or middle of the road independents or even Republicans who decided to cross party lines in this connection, number one issue is health care. Beyond that, the rural communities that are part of our district, as well. It's broadband Internet infrastructure. It's education and career and technical training. It's ensuring that the economy is working for everyone.

And so, you know, among those priorities, those are pretty broad brush priorities. They're important to people. TAPPER: They're kind of governance issues there, right? I mean,

they're not necessarily, you know, I supported this project of the president, which might be stereotypically considered to be conservative.

SPANBERGER: Exactly. So when we're looking at places where we can find some level of real positive forward movement, I think it's incumbent upon us as a broad Democratic Party to find places where we can create impactful legislation and where possible, work across party lines so that we're not volleying back and forth in this kind of division that we've seen so frequently in recent years.

TAPPER: I just want to get your response to this. I know you don't know details about it, but the House Ethics Committee just released the report sanctioning two of your male colleagues. An outgoing Democratic congressman, Rubin Kuhn, who made sexual advances towards women in his campaign; and current and the future Republican Mark Meadows who is accused of not firing his chief of staff after he was accused of sexually harassing his female co-workers. He instead made him a senior adviser.

I don't want to get into specifics of these charges. But more broadly, there are now more than 100 women in Congress. Having a woman in Congress doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to be more sensitive to these issues as we saw with a -- and now ex- Democratic congresswoman from Connecticut.

[16:35:07] But do you think more women in Congress will mean less of this kind of affair?

SPANBERGER: Well, I think there's probably a couple of different things that will mean less of this ideally in the future. One, you know, as a member-elect who sat through orientation this week, among the topics that we discussed at length was the responsibility that each member of Congress has to ensure that his or her office is a positive working environment and one where any allegations of any sort, be it sexual in nature or others, are taken incredibly seriously and moved on quickly.

With so many women coming into Congress, I do think that we will bring with us experiences and in some cases first-hand perspectives of what certain work environments are like. And I think many of us, and I can't speak for everyone, but I know myself, I'm going to do everything possible to ensure we have a positive working environment, that expectations of zero tolerance are well-known. And that we are able to focus again on the issues that my constituent sent me to Washington to focus on.

And those are policy-related issues, and those are about, you know, health care and education and infrastructure issues.

TAPPER: I'll just say, good luck to you and just a tip on the sexual harassment stuff, there are a lot of pigs on Capitol Hill, Democrats and Republicans. It's a bipartisan affliction. So I hope you guys -- you take care of that to a degree.

Thanks so much for being here --

SPANBERGER: Thank you.

TAPPER: -- and good luck to you.

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