CBS "Face the Nation" - Transcript: Federal Shutdown and Immigration Policy
Interview
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MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to FACE THE NATION. We now go to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. She's a Democrat from New York. And the newest contender in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. She joins us this morning from Des Moines. Senator, welcome to FACE THE NATION.
SENATOR KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (D-New York/@SenGillibrand): Thank you, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You have said that you are a no on the President's proposal here to end this shutdown. Why isn't the offer of three years of protection for DAC-DACA on TPS recipients enough of a start for you?
SENATOR KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND: Well, he's the one who got rid of DACA protection in the first place, and to offer a temporary-- temporary respite, it doesn't-- if you talk to any DACA recipient in America today, they-- they're anxious. They're worried. They're concerned, they might be at school. They don't know if they can finish school. They might be getting married. Their lives are being upended and this President has no compassion. So I don't think you should even consider this because it's three years it's just DACA. Why not all the DREAMers? Why not a permanent pathway to citizenship so they actually could have certainty about their lives. What it really shows is is lack of compassion and empathy for people that are suffering. And I think it's a nonstarter.
MARGARET BRENNAN: The President said this morning in a tweet that amnesty could be part of a broader deal down the line. Do you take him at his word on that?
SENATOR KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND: No I don't. I don't take him on his word on anything. If he really cares about this, he would open up the government, stop the eight hundred thousand people that didn't get a paycheck last week, stop their suffering. Some people can't pay for medicines, food, heat, mortgages, rents. It's-- it's just shows a callousness that is unacceptable. And so open the government, pay the people, pay our public servants, and then get to the business of talking about a comprehensive immigration reform. But to-- to-- start just-- to offer him a three-year DACA deal is just not-- it doesn't accomplish what we need to accomplish. It's not enough. And I think it's cynical.
MARGARET BRENNAN: An RNC spokesperson issued a statement after you declared your candidacy saying, "If you looked up political opportunism in the dictionary, Kirsten Gillibrand's photo would be next to it from jumping on the abolish ICE bandwagon to turning on the Clintons. She always goes where the political wind blows." How do you respond to that?
SENATOR KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND: Well those are political attacks, so not rooted in any truth. But you know I am who I am, and I will fight for other people's kids as hard as I fight for my own. My heart has never changed, and I will fight for people, the way our community--
MARGARET BRENNAN: But some of your agenda has, which is what they're attacking there.
SENATOR KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND: Ten years ago when I became senator of New York state, a state of twenty million people, I recognized that my focus on the concerns of my upstate district were not enough. I needed to focus on the concerns of the whole state, and so on immigration I spent time at immigration-- immigrant communities. Nydia Velazquez took me to her district in Brooklyn, and I met with families whose lives were being torn apart because of policies that I did not have enough compassion, empathy for. So I recognized I was wrong.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You sit on the Armed Services Committee. If you are Commander-in-Chief, would you continue the diplomatic talks with North Korea that the President has started?
SENATOR KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND: So I think it is helpful that President Trump is focused on diplomacy and not bombing North Korea because one of his earlier thought processes were that he needed to have military action, which caused grave concern in my mind and those of many other senators. So I do think diplomacy and engagement is the right approach. Unfortunately, President Trump in his first efforts I think it was much more of a political stunt than effective diplomacy and-- and political dialogue. But I am grateful.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So you don't support this second summit?
SENATOR KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND: No. I am grateful because he is choosing a path of diplomacy even if he's not good at it or even if it's not more than a political stunt. I'm still grateful that that is his choice as opposed to bombing North Korea.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You have spoken about your agenda which would include expanding Medicare for all, you had been a co-sponsor on a bill--
SENATOR KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND: Yeah.
MARGARET BRENNAN: --with Bernie Sanders previously--
SENATOR KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND: Yeah.
MARGARET BRENNAN: --that would, essentially, nationalize health care. That would require an estimated 1.4 trillion dollars a year. How do you finance that?
SENATOR KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND: The biggest worry almost every family in America has is the cost of health care and that it will be out of reach for them because the insurance industry doesn't care. So the reason why I believe in Medicare for All is I think any family should have access to at least one not for profit public option so they can compete with the for profit insurance industry that just has to make their quarterly profits and pay their shareholders value and make sure their CEO is make millions of dollars. That is not aligned with the goal of universal coverage that's good and affordable. And so--
MARGARET BRENNAN: How do you pay for it?
SENATOR KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND: If you-- so let me explain. If you buy into Medicare in the same way you buy into your Social Security as an earned benefit it is far less expensive for every American than the amount of money they are paying now to the insurance industry. So it will be paid for by each person who wants to invest in their health care at a far lower rate they are paying today. And so the-- the bill that Senator Sanders and-- and I and many others introduced, I wrote the part about buying into Medicare because that's what I ran on in 2006 as an upstate New York House candidate in a two to one Republican district. It made sense to my voters then, it makes sense to voters across America now. Let them buy in, let them just invest four percent of income, which is what our bill says, to get access in the same way they invest six percent of their income into Social Security. It's the same earned benefit. If you make it a right in this way, if you create it as a social safety net, people will get higher quality care that is less expensive, and they will always be covered. No insurance company can deny them because of preexisting conditions.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator, we'll be watching your campaign. Thank you very much for joining us.
SENATOR KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND: Thank you.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And we'll be right back.
SENATOR KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND: Thank you. I'll see you soon.
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