CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Debbie Dingell (D), Michigan
Interview
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SCIUTTO: This morning President Trump going after G.M. threatening to cut all of the company's government subsidies. This after the nation's largest automaker announced that it is cutting more than 14,000 jobs, closing five plants in North America, four of them in the U.S., including two facilities that will have a critical impact on the heart and soul of the U.S. auto industry.
Our next guest not only has the brute with General Motors, she represents the Motor City in Washington. Joining us now is Democratic Congressman Debbie Dingell.
Congresswoman, thanks for taking the time with us this morning.
REP. DEBBIE DINGELL (D), MICHIGAN: Good morning, guys. It's good to be with you.
SCIUTTO: First I want to ask you about the effect on these communities particularly the community around Detroit there. They've already seen so many job losses through the years. How devastating are these cuts now?
DINGELL: So first of all let me just say that I have been warning a lot of people including my colleagues that we're going to see a softening in the industry. This is a cyclical industry. And they've had the longest run of good sales that really has occurred since the industry became an industry. But these people were not prepared for these announcements. They were quite frankly stunned.
But let me -- I want to clarify some things because we don't know of the total impact right now. The Canadian plant is going to close. The four other plants that were announced this week are idled with no product designated for them. What's going to become critical is what happens next year in the UAW negotiations.
So, you know, I have no facts. This is not factual. I'm just dealing in grapevine. But the grapevine says that -- when they go into UAW negotiations product will likely be put back into one of those plants.
The other thing is, so other companies, by the way, are doing some things similar. I don't want to announce anything that's not announced. But the companies in the UAW agreement is putting people who may not be at that plant to work in other plants. So how this really gets dealt with is going to matter because I will not -- I will make sure that G.M. does not locate one more plant in Mexico. They'll never ever get my support on anything.
SCIUTTO: I understand, it's a good point, because some of these workers could be re-allocated as G.M. changes in effect its product lines to respond to a changing market. The president, however, has made this, as you know, a very political issue and the president benefitted from his promises that he is going to keep jobs like this. This of course counters that message. But he's now threatening to take away G.M.'s subsidies.
Now I know you have ties to G.M. --
DINGELL: So let me tell you --
SCIUTTO: Former president of General Motors Foundation.
DINGELL: I agree with the president.
SCIUTTO: What's your reaction to that?
DINGELL: You know --
SCIUTTO: Do you agree with penalizing the company?
DINGELL: I'm going to say this to you. We need to get a far better understanding of what G.M. is up to. I don't like what I'm hearing on the grapevine which is that they're going to move production to another country. We need to understand what their product plans are, what they're benefitting from. They want things that the other companies don't want.
I will tell you something, this company has done something that nobody else has done for the last two years. Republicans and Democrats united. This has to be the most thoroughly disliked company in Washington, D.C. right now. And I have always said to you that I will work with the president. If it helps the working men and women of my district I will work with him.
I want facts. I'm not -- I will tell you, I will never support a NAFTA 2.0 if they're going to be shipping and putting more jobs in Mexico. Period.
SCIUTTO: Let me ask you, you're saying, though, you support the president's threat in effect to take away subsidies from G.M. if you learn for instance that these jobs are going outside the country?
DINGELL: That is correct. I mean --
SCIUTTO: Fair enough. DINGELL: We need to be supporting companies that are creating jobs
here. Supporting jobs here.
SCIUTTO: Right.
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