CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview With California Congressman John Garamendi

Interview

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BLITZER: Yes, they could override a presidential veto with, what, 67 votes in the Senate. They got a unanimous vote the last time, if they really wanted to go with that temporary measure and continue negotiations for a month while the government reopens.

Phil Mattingly, good report. Thank you very much.

Joining us now, Democratic Congressman John Garamendi of California. He serves on the Armed Services Committee.

Congressman, thanks, as usual, for joining us.

So, the president said today he's going to continue the shutdown, in his words, as long as it takes. If the president refuses to budge on that $5.6 billion request he wants for border security, including funding for a wall, what are the Democrats going to do?

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D), CALIFORNIA: Well, we're going to pass legislation tomorrow.

Really, moments after we begin the new session, after we have a new speaker, after we have the majority, we're going to pass bills to fund all of government for the remainder of this fiscal year.

That's until next September -- or this coming September, actually. And we will leave the Department of Homeland Security in which the border issue is found open for further in negotiations until February 8, with the continuing resolution for that.

BLITZER: But if Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, refuses to allow what you will pass -- it will clearly past the House of Representatives with the Democratic majority -- if he refuses to even allow that to come up for a vote because he fears the president could veto it, what do you do then?

GARAMENDI: Well, the ball is on his side of the tennis court. It's up to him.

Now he gets to deal with it. We're ready to fund the government. We're ready to do that. The issue is not the national parks. The issue is not the Department of Transportation. The issue is the Department of Homeland Security and the question about a wall. Now, let's keep one thing very clear here. The president has yet to

propose any specific plan about where this wall will be, what it will consist. Is it cement, concrete? Is it spikes of some sort, a cyclone fence?

Not one piece of information about that. And for the Congress to appropriate $5.6 billion so that he could have a slush fund to do something about a wall, no way.

BLITZER: The president said today -- and you heard him in that Cabinet meeting -- the $5.6 billion in his words such as small number when compared to the rest of the government, the billions and billions of dollars the government spends, including the tens of billions he says that's totally wasted on foreign aid.

GARAMENDI: Well, at one point, he would like us to think that's a small number compared to his own bank account.

But that also was a lie. The fact of the matter is, that's taxpayer money. That's $5 billion. That would fund all of the tuition for all of the students at the University of California and the state university system in California for one whole year. It is no small amount of money.

BLITZER: But if there's a government shutdown for a prolonged period of time, that's going to wind up costing taxpayers a lot more money, presumably.

GARAMENDI: No, what will cost the taxpayer money is if Trump doesn't understand that he is not the emperor. He is not the emperor of this nation.

He is the president, and he does have negotiating power. And let's negotiate. But we can't trust the man. We have seen him back away from every position that he's taken on this matter way back to the DACA issue, where he was going to do something beautiful for the DACA students. Didn't happen.

And here again, just a week-and-a-half ago, we saw the president's Saying or at least his staff saying the president we do something. The next morning, we found out the president would not do that.

BLITZER: You heard Phil Mattingly, our congressional correspondent, report that three times, the Democratic -- the Democratic minority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, asked the president why he wouldn't accept this compromise offer to keep the government open for another month, while negotiations over border security continue.

Finally, the president responded, according to Phil Mattingly's excellent reporting -- quote -- "I would look foolish if I did that."

What's your response?

GARAMENDI: This is not about ego. This is not about the presidency.

This is about the United States operating rationally, dealing with border security in a rational way, in which the money that we would appropriate is spent effectively.

We know that a border wall across 1,900 miles isn't going to solve the problem. We know that there needs be fences that need to be built. We know that there needs to be additional port of entry security and to increase that. We know that the Coast Guard interdicts 10 times the amount of drugs that the Border Patrol does.

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So let's fund this program in a way that actually provides security for Americans.

BLITZER: What did you think of the president -- and you're on the Armed Services Committee -- saying that he -- quote -- "essentially" fired the defense secretary, James Mattis?

GARAMENDI: Once again, it's about ego. He doesn't want people to quit on him. He wants to be "The Apprentice." He doesn't want to be "The Apprentice." He wants to be the boss that does the firing.

Fine. The fact of the matter is Mattis' letter stands as one of the most important letters written to the president in this administration, because it lays out very, very clearly the problems that this president has created, both militarily and with our international relations.

BLITZER: Congressman Garamendi, thanks for coming in.

GARAMENDI: Good to be with you, Wolf.

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