CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Maxine Waters (D) California

Interview

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WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. Live pictures right now out of San Ysidro Port of Entry which is the world's busiest land border crossing there between the U.S., and Tijuana, Mexico. This after hundreds of migrants outnumbered Mexican authorities as they made their way toward the U.S.-Mexican border. And as a result we understand that Customs and Border Patrol have closed the San Ysidro Port of Entry north and southbound. And you're looking at these pictures right now as we're all trying to decipher what it is we're seeing. You see gatherings of people there.

Let's try to extrapolate a little bit further of how we have come to this and what is happening. Joining me right now, House Representative Congresswoman Maxine Waters is the ranking member on the Financial Services Committee. And you representing the 43rd Congressional District there, South Los Angeles county.

Good that you could be with us. So what are you deciphering here as you're seeing all of this transpiring with reports that migrants have outnumbered Mexican authorities and that this busy port of entry has been closed to all vehicular and pedestrian traffic?

REP. MAXINE WATERS (D), CALIFORNIA: Well, I am very saddened to see this situation with desperate people and all of this has been the political plow of the president of the United States of America. He made this the central part of his platform, that he was going to do something about these migrants who were coming here. He called them killers and rapists, and he certainly did stoke a lot of fear about these migrants who are trying to get in and so he promised the American people that he was going to make Mexico pay for it all, that we would not have to pay a dime for it. And now we have this chaos. That's what he wants. He wants to stoke fear. The American people --

WHITFIELD: Has this added to his -- has this added to his narrative? Has this fueled his argument?

WATERS: I believe so because these migrants who now are facing a closed border and who are rushing, you know, and storming the border certainly that looks bad and that looks as if they are at fault for all of this. And so what we need is comprehensive immigration reform led by the president of the United States in an effort to deal with this problem. But we're not seeing that from this president. He's not interested in solving the immigration problem. He's not interested in credible reform.

This, what you see today is exactly what he wants to happen so that he can continue to build up a constituency, a thread of migrants talking about migrants who are dangerous and who are going to take over this country. And so it's unfortunate, this is his kind of leadership, failed leadership, that's what it is.

WHITFIELD: Do you believe that initial "Washington Post" report that Mexican authorities on the incoming administration and the Trump administration had worked out, you know, the framework of a deal that would be a "Remain in Mexico" deal where asylum seekers --

[16:20:08] WATERS: No.

WHITFIELD: You don't believe that?

WATERS: No. WHITFIELD: And --

WATERS: No.

WHITFIELD: What part don't you believe? You don't believe that --

WATERS: Well, first of all, I don't believe the president.

WHITFIELD: That there was an agreement? OK.

WATERS: I don't believe that there is an agreement. I do believe that there may be attempts to get an agreement, but Mexico can't easily do that. They have a poorly performing economy. You have a crisis now. They cannot -- it's a humanitarian crisis. They can't afford to take care of those people and feed those people and have them used as a waiting room, you know, as this president had wanted them to do. And so, no, I don't believe an agreement has been worked out.

I think the president has jumped the gun in talking about there is an agreement. But I think he's trying to get an agreement.

WHITFIELD: If there were an agreement like that where it would mean they would just, you know, remain in Mexico agreement, asylum seekers, their cases would still be processed in the U.S. Your colleague, Congressman Elijah Cummings, said this morning that that is against the law. They would have to be in the U.S. for their cases in which to be processed.

Would you see that Congress would have to be involved in shaping an agreement like that?

WATERS: Well, I think Congress is going to have to stand behind the law. The law says that they can seek it in this country, but the law does not say anything about not allowing them to seek asylum, that somehow they have to remain in Mexico. And so I think the members of Congress are going to have to support the law.

This president is trying to break the law with his own initiatives. It does not work that way. And if it ends up in the courts even with him having favorability in the courts, I think we win on this issue.

WHITFIELD: With a new Congress, you know, come January, what are you looking forward to with this Democratic majority? Is this going to be an opportunity in which to check the president, further investigate the president, or propose or push forward new ideas that are representative of a more unified Democratic Party?

WATERS: Well, as all of the chair persons of our committees have the responsibility to do oversight, and that oversight requires them to look at any number of issues in their jurisdiction. And we're all going to do that. We're not going to all stop and do one thing or the other. We can walk and chew gum at the same time. And we don't want people to mix up oversight with investigation.

This president would like to have people believe that our regular order of business of doing oversight is somehow some unfair investigation of him. We're going to do our work. And wherever our work carries us, that's where we're going to be.

WHITFIELD: The president is in Florida right now. Soon he will be in Florida heading back to Washington and then he'll be going to Mississippi, you know, to help campaign for a Senate candidate.

You know, what are you hoping to hear from the president before he leaves Florida if he is to address what's taking place in Mexico along the U.S. border.

WATERS: Well, since I have no faith in this president, I don't believe that he is capable of doing the right thing. This is about politics for him. This is about his election in 2020. This is about keeping his constituents, you know, in tow. This is about the kind of games that he plays all the time. And I know he's talking about maybe closing down the country if in fact he doesn't get what he wants, the $5 billion that he's asking for from the Senate. He was given 1.6 billion in the last budget. I don't believe he's going to get $85 billion.

Now I want you to understand, all the members of Congress believe that we have a right to secure our borders. We have laws that dictate what we do and how we do it, and so this president is disregarding all of that. I don't know what he's going to say. I don't believe that he's going to be credible in whatever he says. Whenever he steps out on this issue it's all about whether or not he's going to basically live up to the commitments that he's made to his constituency, saying that he's going to stop all of these harmful people from coming across the border. That's what he's all about.

WHITFIELD: And again we're seeing competing images of Air Force One there in Florida. At the same time we're seeing images of people gathered there at the Mexican-U.S. border. The president tweeting last night, "All will stay in Mexico. If for any reason it becomes necessary we will close our southern border."

Is it your view that this was, you know, promise kept today?

[16:25:03] WATERS: Well, you know, he's done that. No, this is not promise kept. This is a part of it. This is one of the big bluffs that he's basically, you know, putting out there to say, I'm coming at them, I'm not going to let them get across this border. And so this is one thing. It will be over with soon, but he'll keep trying things and keep bluffing and trying to get the Senate to give him more money and so that he can live up to the promise that he's made to build that wall.

But I want the American people to remember, he said he was going to make Mexico pay for that border. He's given a big tax cut to the richest people in this country, the richest 1 percent, and now instead of using the taxpayer's dollars on many of our domestic and foreign issues he is now wanting us to come up with the money to do what he promised to do.

WHITFIELD: OK. WATERS: Americans ought to be sick of this president by now. I've

been sick of him for a long time.

WHITFIELD: All right, we'll leave it right there.

Congresswoman Maxine Waters, thank you for your time. Appreciate it.

WATERS: You're certainly welcome.

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