CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Senator Chris Van Hollen

Interview

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SCIUTTO: Yes. By the way, the biggest Defense budget in the world as well. No money for those members of the Coast Guard.

Rosa Flores, thanks very much.

Joining me now to discuss all of this is Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen from Maryland.

Senator, thanks very much for taking the time this morning.

SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D), MARYLAND: Jim, it's good to be with you today.

SCIUTTO: First I'd like to get your reaction to the news just into CNN that the speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is asking the president to delay the State of the Union address due to security concerns resulting from the shutdown. It's quite a remarkable step to take for a speaker of the House even from the opposing party. What's your reaction? Do you support that move?

VAN HOLLEN: Jim, yes, I do support that move, both for the security reasons that Speaker Pelosi outlined. But also, look, the president of the United States should reopen the government before he has a big show and a big State of the Union address here on Capitol Hill.

[10:20:07] We should be focused all our energy on ending the shutdown. You just heard the pleas from a spouse of one of the folks who's serving us in the Coast Guard. And we have it in our power to do it just by voting on two bills that Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats passed on their very first day that have overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate. So the Senate also has to do its job here and step up.

SCIUTTO: But is it politics or security? I mean, he's a sitting president of the United States. He was elected. It's a constitutional requirement to report on the State of the Union to the Congress. It sounds in your answer there like the motivation here is as much political as security related.

VAN HOLLEN: No. The reality is that the Secret Service that Speaker Pelosi indicated is furloughed. I mean, some of them are furloughed. Some of them are there without pay. We just heard from folks at the FBI the other day that said even those who were still on the job and in the line of duty at the FBI are being put at risk because their whole support team that conducts investigations and supports those who are currently on the job, by their going missing, they put at risk everybody else.

And so really what we should be doing is making sure that those folks in the Secret Service and others around the country get paid on time and all of them can go back to work.

SCIUTTO: To do that, it appears that either one side is going to have to blink or they're going to have to compromise. I mean, I was up on the Hill yesterday. I spoke to Democrats and Republicans yesterday. Everybody threw their hands up in the air when I asked them what's the way out of this.

Would you support an exchange that looks like this, more money, perhaps billions of dollars, for a barrier on the border in exchange for long-term protection for what are known as Dreamers?

VAN HOLLEN: Jim, the first thing that has to happen is reopening the government because what's happened here is the president has taken all of these federal agencies who have nothing to do with homeland security and held them hostage. I'm going to a hearing after this for the person who's going to be -- proposed to be the new head of the EPA. That has nothing to do with homeland security. So stop holding all these federal agencies hostage. Let's open them up.

Absolutely, let's have a discussion over the most effective way to provide for border security. Everyone here wants secure borders but we need to do it in a smart --

SCIUTTO: Yes.

VAN HOLLEN: In a smart way. Lindsey Graham, Senator Graham, who's an ally of the president proposed just the other day, let's reopen the government. Let's take a three-week period to try to resolve some of the issues you've just raised which we've tried to do with the president in the past, you know that, last summer. The president pulled the rug out from under a bipartisan effort to deal with all these issues.

So -- but the key thing here is, as Lindsey Graham, said, let's reopen the government and then we can figure out how to resolve the issues.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

VAN HOLLEN: When it comes to most effective border security.

SCIUTTO: Listen, I hear you and it is true and I've challenged Republican lawmakers by saying, listen, both parties, you know, supported measures as recently as a month ago to reopen government. But the fact is you hear messages. Chuck Schumer just told members of his caucus stick together. Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, she has said I won't give the president one dollar for his wall.

What's to keep Americans from concluding that the goal here for Democrats is primarily to deny the president a victory on the wall here rather than come together and find a solution?

VAN HOLLEN: Well, Jim, we've always been here to find a solution, but I think people know well that the notion that you're going to take the entire government hostage, parts of the government that have nothing to do with homeland security, in order to extract what he wants on one item is not the way to conduct business in the most powerful country in the world. And it's not -- do you know what the president actually requested this year for border security in their budget? It was $1.6 billion.

SCIUTTO: Yes. VAN HOLLEN: The Senate appropriations committee gave that to him.

Then it's 5.7. But it will be $30 billion at the end of the day. The president will just keep threatening to shut down government every time he doesn't get something he wants. That's a very dangerous game to play. We're already seeing the negative consequences.

Let's come together, let's resolve the homeland security issues. We can have a big and constructive discussion on that issue. But for goodness sakes, why are you shutting down the rest of government when in fact as you know Senate Republicans supported by 92-6 a bill to open many of these agencies just a short while ago.

SCIUTTO: It's a fair point. I know that the one thing two parties agree from what I've heard is that people are suffering, and the people who are suffering don't deserve to suffer.

VAN HOLLEN: And that's why Lindsey Graham's proposal, I mean, coming from an ally for the president, is a good one.

[10:25:01] I'd like to reopen the government for the rest of the year, but for goodness sakes, let's at least reopen it for a period of time and have a serious discussion about the way forward.

SCIUTTO: Senator Van Hollen, thanks very much for joining us.

VAN HOLLEN: Thank you, Jim.

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