CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Exclusive Interview With California Congresswoman Maxine Waters

Interview

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WHITFIELD: All right. Boris Sanchez, thank you so much at the White House.

All right. Joining me right now, Democratic congresswoman, Maxine Waters. She is also the ranking member on the financial services committee.

Good to see you, congresswoman. All right. So what will be the focus for the next 19 days? Do you see that there will be an agreement to avoid another government shutdown?

REP. MAXINE WATERS (D). CALIFORNIA: Well, I'm certainly hope that we can get an agreement. It's been too long. Too many of our federal employees have suffered. We saw the suffering, we saw federal employees standing in food lines, and so I'm hopeful that this is a serious and credible negotiation, and particularly on the President's part.

You know, the President changes his mind. We don't know if he is going to, you know, abide by any rules of negotiation. As a matter of fact, I was stunned after he came out and announced that he was going to participate in opening up the government. He started to do the attack again. And basically he was saying --

WHITFIELD: He started to threaten, yes, the emergency wealth.

WATERS: That's right.

WHITFIELD: And even you heard from, you know, Mick Mulvaney who said once again, while the President wants to keep the government open, they are exploring places where they can extract money to help justify this emergency declaration. So which is it? What is the sense you get from the White House in terms of how it will be participating in any negotiations where there is wiggle room?

[14:05:19] WATERS: It's hard to believe that he is prepared to seriously negotiate when he is making his demands outside of the negotiation already. First of all, he is talking about he has got to have a certain amount of money. He is also talking about how terrible it is with the rapists and the drug dealers and on and on and on. That's not how you enter a negotiation. You shut up, and you shut down, and you get into the negotiation and you legitimately lay your concerns on the table and people are prepared to talk about what they can and cannot do.

WHITFIELD: So then, does that tell you that it's going to be a repeat experience?

WATERS: I hope not. We believe in border security. And we have offered, you know, how we think it can be done. We want to make sure that he understands that it's not simply about a wall. I want him to think about, and we want him to think about technology. We want him to think about drones. We want him to think about all of those things that go into having a secure border.

And so I just don't know -- I don't trust him very much, because he has agreed to something and then backed off of them, and I just hope that he understands, he put this nation in danger. Just think what is happening to our air traffic controllers. Many of them are under a lot of stress because they didn't get their pay. They had to come back to work because they were considered among those employees that must work despite the fact that they are not getting paid. They are under stress. Many of them are working long hours. Some of them are working in towers with only one individual there, one air traffic controller, and so I don't know if he understands that he was about to shut this nation down.

WHITFIELD: Except is that the imagery and are those the sentiments from air traffic controllers and flight attendants that actually got the President's attention, seeing how commerce, how the economy was being disrupted because of these, you know, ground stoppages? Because we heard from federal workers for, you know, five weeks who talked about their personal hardships, but it was another thing to see those images perhaps on television and then you had the President saying, government back open again.

WATERS: Well, I think that the air traffic controllers sent us a serious message. They sent out a letter that talked about the dangers that were possibly involved in what was going on and said it was so awesome and so huge the possibility of the risk that was being, you know, put into effect by this President, they couldn't even tell you how bad it was going to be. I think that had something to do with it.

But the most thing is Nancy Pelosi had made a legitimate offer. Nancy Pelosi had also employed a legitimate strategy. So it's a combination of those things that made him back down. He had to back down. He had no choice. So he should not come into this negotiation with threats.

WHITFIELD: So there was really unity demonstrated by the Democrats, you know, perhaps by a representation of the President's thinking, this go-around with 19 more days, this is what the acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney had to say this morning about the White House, the President's persistent demand for the wall.

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WHITFIELD: So again, hours after, you know, the President made his announcement, you know, he was tweeting about this option of an emergency declaration. And so, how is Congress preparing for President Trump to try to establish that there is a national emergency, a crisis that so these pots of money as Mulvaney was referring to, you know, would be available?

WATERS: Well, let me just say this. I think the American people and our federal workers, including the air traffic controllers, we have all made everybody understand what a dangerous situation we are in. And I don't know where they are talking about getting this money from. But I know this. I know that even if they were able to find money that was not in the control of the congress, they will have all other kinds of issues to deal with, imminent domain issues. They don't even know about the terrain.

WHITFIELD: You are talking about the land mostly privately owned along the Texas border.

WATERS: That's right.

WHITFIELD: And there was an inference that perhaps from Mulvaney money would come from treasury or perhaps even the defense department, and you don't see those as viable options?

[14:10:03] WATERS: No, I don't. I don't have any idea what they are talking about. I have heard all kind of thing that he was going to take money from housing, that he was going to get money from places where there is no money.

And so, again, this President starts out bluffing and threatening all over again. I would just hope he would settle down and come to his senses, because he doesn't understand the role of the three branches of government. He thinks he can just run over the House and the Senate, but we're proving that he can't do that and it won't work.

And so I hope that he would have sense enough or his advisers would have sense enough, to send him into a negotiation in a legitimate way. We don't play threats. We are together. The Democrats are solid. And we're not going to be intimidated by him. We want legitimate negotiations to try and make sure that we never put the American people or our workers into the situation that we put them in, threatening the entire economy of this country.

WHITFIELD: So, congresswoman, you for a very long time have led this charge for impeaching the President. You are the chair of the House financial services committee, you know. And a recent "Washington Post" polling is supporting Democrats, you know, opening a range of investigations of Trump, you know, including suspected ties between foreign governments. However, that same poll shows that only 40 percent believe Congress should begin impeachment proceedings. So how are you prioritizing that whole idea this go-around?

WATERS: Well, let me just say this. I am pleased that I started the conversation early. I believe that the President early on had defined himself as someone who was incapable of being a legitimate President. And so I started the conversation, of course we got a lot of criticism. I got a lot of criticism, but he has been defining himself ever since. And you will hear impeachment being talked about more and more.

Eighty percent of Democrats believe that he should be impeached. I know that the Congress of the United States is slow and reticent to do it, you know, without having all of the facts. And we are waiting - they are on Mueller to come back with the information that will either say he colluded with the Russian government or he obstructed justice or he committed some other kinds of crimes. We want to hear what Cohen has to say. He's been subpoenaed. He has additional information. And so we have a ways to go, but I believe that I have been right all along, that I was able to understand what he is all about and his allies, their connection to the oligarchs of Russia. The intent on being able to lift those sanctions. And I believe that was part of the agreement with sending Manafort there to help run the campaign. That if this President was elected that he would lift those sanctions so that Putin and the oligarchs would have their way and moving forward with drilling for oil and other kinds of things that they want to do to continue to enrich themselves.

WHITFIELD: So you are still intrigued by the idea, but are you kind of slowing the role on pushing for impeachment proceedings?

WATERS: I'm never going to change my mind on it. I said what I believe in. I'm going to move forward as the chair doing legitimate work of the financial services committee. That doesn't stop me from doing that. We have got a lot to do. We have got to be concerned about predatory lending and all those issues. Housing, homelessness, et cetera. I'm going to work on that.

WHITFIELD: OK. And then real quick, you know, the field for Democrats, you know, throwing their hats into the ring, or at least launching exploratory committees for 2020 is widening. Today Senator Kamala Harris has her launching of a campaign rally in Oakland, California, your fellow Californians. So do you have any favorites thus far? Who are you supporting or backing?

WATERS: Well, you know, I have not announced anything at this point. And Fredricka, when I do it, it won't be, you know, on national TV this way, it will be getting with the candidate and helping to understand how they are going to direct the issues of this country. It will be helping to understand where they stand on progressive issues, et cetera. So I'm watching, I'm looking, I will be talking with them, and at some point I certainly will make a decision. But we are going to have a lot to choose from, aren't we?

WHITFIELD: So far, yes.

All right. California congresswoman Maxine Waters, thank you so much.

WATERS: Thank you so very much.

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