CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with Mazie Hirono (D-HI)
Interview
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BLITZER: Yes, I don't remember a time when a president has ever canceled a congressional delegation trip along these lines, especially one led by the speaker of the House.
All right. Barbara, thank you.
Manu, thanks to you, as well.
Joining us now, Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii. She's a key member of both the Judiciary and the Armed Services Committees.
Senator, thanks so much for joining us. So what's your reaction to this stunning decision from the president today?
SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D), HAWAII: I agree with Adam Schiff that the president is acting like a fifth grader. Although that insults fifth graders. But clearly, we do not have an adult in the White House.
So let's not forget who started this trainwreck of a shutdown that is hurting 800,000 families and the ripple effect. It is the president who began the shutdown. He has the power to end it, but he won't because he's a child. Which insults children. So I'm sorry about that.
So the other person who can end the shutdown, as I've been saying for a while now, is Mitch McConnell. He has the power to bring these House-passed bills to the floor. And that's why more and more people are coming and saying, you know, "Where are you, Mitch?" And I know that there are billboards going up in his state, asking, "Where are you, Mitch?" And that's the question.
BLITZER: Yes. He says he won't bring anything up on the Senate floor that the president won't support. You know how --
HIRONO: So does that mean that -- you know what? It's almost like saying what do we need the Senate for? We can just have a president.
BLITZER: You know -- you know how these congressional, these CODELs, these congressional delegations work.
HIRONO: Yes.
BLITZER: The lawmakers were going to visit troops in a war zone. Was there any legitimate security reason -- and you're a member of the Armed Services Committee --
HIRONO: Of course.
BLITZER: -- to cancel this -- to cancel the trip?
HIRONO: No. It's very clearly the president being in a snit. And I'm sure he's very proud of himself, because he's very child-like; and his view of the world, it's all about him.
So certainly, I have gone on congressional delegations to Afghanistan, to Iraq, to China, to all of these places. And this is, as Barbara says, serious business. It takes a lot of work to put these trips together.
And when the president just calls it a P.R. event, that's because that's how he views this kind of trip. And that's not how the rest of us, who are adults in the room, view this very important effort to touch bases with our troops and also to reassure our allies that this getting out of NATO is not something that most responsible -- I would say most of us in the House and the Senate do not support, because NATO is very important to our own national security.
BLITZER: What about the precedent, Senator, this might set? Do you worry about this president and future presidents using congressional travel as a bargaining chip for all sorts of political disagreements?
HIRONO: I think it's a very bad move, but one hopes that whoever is the next president is not a child and will act responsibly. That is my hope.
But I have no expectation of that sort from this president, and this is why the adults in the room, which would be right now, since the House already did their job to keep government running. The adults in the room are the senators, starting with Mitch McConnell.
Where are you, Mitch McConnell? Do your job. Use your powers to end the suffering of 800,000 people and their families and all of the contractors.
BLITZER: What's --
HIRONO: It's inexplicable, really.
BLITZER: What's it going to take to finally end this shutdown? Do you believe Nancy Pelosi and the president, they can split the difference between, let's say, $1.3 billion for border security, $5.7 billion for border security, come up with a number somewhere in the middle, and get the government back up operating?
HIRONO: At this point, I am still of the mind that Mitch McConnell should do his job, and more people are coming to that recognition. It would be very easy for Mitch McConnell to bring these bills to the floor, and we should ask, "Why the heck aren't you doing it?"
So it could be that, you know, the adults in the room are going to have to come up with something. But if this results in the president using these kinds of childish tactics to hold people hostage at every turn, which I know he will, that -- this is not the end of the president using what he would call -- I would call misusing his powers to have his way, because we have a child who is the president. BLITZER: Senator Hirono, thanks so much for joining us.
HIRONO: Thank you.
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