CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview With House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

ACOSTA: OK, Sara Murray, thank you for that update. And we will get back to you for more on the Russia investigation coming up ahead.

But, first, let's get reaction to all of this from a major player in Congress.

Joining me now is the second highest ranking Democrat in the House, Congressman Steny Hoyer.

Congressman, thanks for joining us. We appreciate it. Happy holidays to you.

REP. STENY HOYER (D-MD), MINORITY WHIP: You bet.

ACOSTA: Your conclusion to... HOYER: It's not a very happy holiday, unfortunately, for so many of our federal employees and for so many people who do business with the government.

I just had a meeting with a representative of federal employees and representatives of the small business people doing business with the government, and they are traumatized and very worried about their situation.

ACOSTA: And I know you're very worried about it.

HOYER: Yes.

ACOSTA: A lot of them are your constituents. We will get to that in just a moment.

But I want to get your reaction first to this conclusion reached in this Republican-led review of what happened in the Hillary Clinton investigation, what happened at the beginning of the Russia investigation, a lot of this directed at the former FBI director, of course, Jim Comey, and so on.

[18:10:12]

What is your reaction to that, essentially that your colleagues, Trey Gowdy on the House Oversight Committee, Bob Goodlatte on the Judiciary Committee, are both saying they were too tough on Donald Trump, not tough enough on Hillary Clinton?

HOYER: It's ironic, and they must have amnesia, because they conducted some eight investigations just about Benghazi, and they came up -- these are Republican-led, Republican-chaired Republican majorities, and they came up with the same conclusion. There was no fire there.

They made a lot of smoke, but there was no fire, so that when they are now, as they leave positions of power, saying that not enough was done, well, they had the opportunity to do it. Why didn't they do it? Why didn't they move forward?

They controlled the House, the Senate and the presidency. So it's a little ironic that now, sort of like that fish that keeps flapping after you have caught it and put it in the bottom of the boat, it seems to me, but it's unfortunate that we can't have a more positive start of the new year than that.

ACOSTA: Well, it seems there's a lot of flailing going around on the government shutdown as well.

As you know, Congressman, the House has unable -- been able to come up with a compromise with the Senate and the White House. The White House trying to shift the blame over to Nancy Pelosi, as you saw, the incoming speaker, saying she's refusing to negotiate until she secures the speakership.

Mick Mulvaney, the budget director and the incoming White House chief of staff, was saying that it's because she doesn't have the votes over there.

What is your response to that accusation?

HOYER: Well, it's -- he's inaccurate.

Now, Mick Mulvaney is somebody who not only voted to shut the government down in 2013. He then voted against his own speaker, Speaker Boehner, Republican speaker, and refused to vote to open it up.

Now, we opened it up because we had a minority Republicans and all Democrats that voted, so we had the majority. But my answer to that is, look, you had a deal here. We weren't flapping around. We had an understanding. The Senate passed a bill. They passed that bill on the understand that the president of the United States would sign that bill.

And every Democrat would have voted for that bill, except for the fact Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House, would not put it on the floor. So we got no opportunity to vote on that bill.

And it will not surprise anyone that Paul Ryan was one of those with Mick Mulvaney that voted against opening up the government. It is a strategy that they have employed over the years, whether it was for education funding, eliminating the Affordable Care Act, or getting a wall that the overwhelming majority of American public thinks is a bad idea.

So, we're not flailing. We have the votes in the House, in my opinion, and they obviously had the unanimous vote in the Senate on a proposal that Mitch McConnell put forward. It's a shame that it wasn't put on the floor. If so, the government would be open.

Of course, that accepts the premise that the president would have done what he told the Senate he was prepared to do. But he changed his mind. And that's -- it's tough to deal with a president who on an hourly basis changes his mind.

ACOSTA: Well, let me ask you this, because you mentioned earlier all of your constituents who are dealing with this, federal workers who are dealing with the shutdown and facing the prospect of working without pay or not -- not working at all in some cases.

And Senator Jeff Flake, who was just on our air in the last hour, predicted that this shutdown could last until the middle of January, which I haven't really heard people make that kind of prediction.

Could it really last that long? And what is going to be done about all these federal workers who are going to be basically without pay for that one?

HOYER: Well, as you know, I'm going to be the majority leader of the House as of January 3. And I intend to put a bill on the floor on January 3 that, if the Senate approves it and the president signs it, will open government. And it will agree to all of the bills that are Republican bills. These are not our bills. When we talk about compromise, we are prepared to vote for the Republican bills that passed the Senate committee, passed the Senate. There have been conferencing on those bills. We're prepared to pass those, send them to the Senate.

And then I think the Senate ought to pass them and send them to the president. And he will have a decision.

ACOSTA: But if it doesn't have any wall money, he's not going to sign that, right? He's not -- he's just not going to do it.

(CROSSTALK)

HOYER: But then...

ACOSTA: He will veto it.

HOYER: That's not compromise. That's not working together to accomplish an objective.

And, very frankly, he made a promise that was an ill-informed, ill- advised promise. And he said the Mexican people were going to pay for it. That was baloney. Hey he should have known it was baloney.

We don't believe the wall is a good technology. The American people don't think it's a good technology. There are other ways to keep our borders secure. We're prepared to discuss those.

[18:15:07]

And, in fact, over the last 10 years, there have been very, very substantial increases in border security.

ACOSTA: And could he get a fence, though? If he's coming down from his wall, maybe he will settle for a fence or steel slats. Could you give him steel slats?

(CROSSTALK)

HOYER: I don't want to negotiate on television with you. And we have the four principals negotiating, speaker-to-be Pelosi, who's going to be reelected on January 3 as speaker of the House, Mr. Schumer, Mr. McConnell, and, at that point in time, I suppose Mr. McCarthy.

But -- so I'm not going to go negotiate here. But we are for keeping our borders secure. We're for keeping America safe. We're for keeping Americans safe.

And the misrepresentations of the president on a regular daily basis as to who's coming into this country should not confuse the American people. In fact, he says these are terrorists. We have had no terrorist act from somebody coming across our southern border.

Does that mean that we don't want to make sure that we know who's coming into our country? Of course not. We want to have secure borders. But the wall is not an option. We have -- we have made that very clear.

But we have also made it clear we're prepared to vote for the Republican bills that the Senate sent to us unanimously.

ACOSTA: Let me ask you something else on the Russia investigation.

New job postings have been shown, and it appears to show House Democrats are looking for lawyers with one posting, seeking executive branch, investigative counsel experience.

It sounds like you're gearing up for battle on the Russia investigation, for these various investigations that are going to be launched when you come into power in the House. How is this hiring process going and how do you prevent this from just becoming a big circus with investigations going on everywhere?

HOYER: Well, hopefully, you will help on that regard, because we intend to pursue a lot of substance. We want to pursue making sure that American people have health care, that their drug costs are affordable for them.

We want to make sure their jobs pay well, and they have access to good jobs and good wages. We want to make sure that we have a government that is above-board, transparent, honest and serving the people's interest, not the special interest.

We hope you will cover that. Yes, there will be some oversight. The Congress under the Constitution has the responsibility to make sure that the administration is acting in a way that is consistent with the law and with the policies established by Congress.

But we're going to be pursuing a lot of substance. We want to make sure the Violence Against Women Act gets passed. We want to make sure the DACA and TPS individuals, those with temporary protective status, are in fact protected.

We want to make sure that education is a high priority for us.

ACOSTA: Will Russia hearings be on camera? Will they be on TV? Will there be Russia hearings on TV?

HOYER: Well, I would think that is up to probably the TV stations. But I would think that we're going to be open. And if the TV stations want to cover oversight hearings as to what happened in terms of Russia trying to compromise our democracy, our election, for whatever reasons, then I think it will be on television, and properly so ,to let the American people know what happened.

ACOSTA: And finally, sir...

HOYER: Unfortunately -- let me just add, unfortunately, over the last two years, a Republican-led Congress that had so much energy to investigate and oversee that the Obama administration lost that hunger for doing so when their -- when President Obama became president -- excuse me -- when President Trump became...

(CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: I understand, yes.

HOYER: Yes.

ACOSTA: Let me just quickly end on this.

You put out a new statement announcing that the North Carolina Republican Mark Harris will not be seated on January 3, citing -- and this is a quote -- "the now well-documented election fraud that took place in the 9th District in North Carolina."

Why are you speaking out about this now?

HOYER: Well, because we're about to take over.

And, of course, he was elected not in a special election. But this issue will come up on January 3, when the swearing-in ceremony occurs. To my knowledge, he has -- his election has not been certified. And in light of that, and in light of the fact that so many Republicans in North Carolina admit and observe that there was fraud obviously conducted in the general election in North Carolina in that district, that he should not be seated unless the cloud is lifted.

As you know, this is in a court case that's continuing to go on to determine what happened and what effect it had on the election.

My own view is, we probably ought to redo the general election, because there wasn't...

(CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: So, the folks there in that district will just be going without a congressperson, without a representative in Congress for a while, it sounds like.

[18:20:03]

HOYER: Well, you know, the Republican governor in Michigan, when John Conyers left the Congress, left it open for like five or six or seven months.

So, that's not unusual.

ACOSTA: All right, Congressman Steny Hoyer, thank you very much. Happy holidays. Happy new year. And thanks for coming on.

HOYER: Thank you.

ACOSTA: We appreciate it. Thank you, sir.

HOYER: Good to be with you. Bye-bye.

ACOSTA: All right.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source