Fox News "Sunday Morning Futures" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Debbie Dingell
Interview
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
BARTIROMO: Griff, thanks so much. Great job on the ground there in Mexico. Griff Jenkins is live with us.
And joining me right now is Michigan Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Dingell. She's the co-chairwoman of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee.
Congresswoman, it's good to see you this morning.
First, give me your reaction to the president's plans, which he laid out yesterday.
REP. DEBBIE DINGELL, D-MICH.: You know, I'm going to say several things.
One, he didn't say a word about any of the workers that have been furloughed, about getting the government open again. And I'm just meeting with so many workers who are desperate. They're about to have a second -- next Friday, they will miss their second paycheck.
BARTIROMO: Yes.
DINGELL: We have got to reopen the government.
(COUGHING)
DINGELL: I'm sorry, Maria. Too much speaking outdoors.
BARTIROMO: Yes, no -- no problem. Maybe have some water, if you can, while you're there. I know the feeling. I have had a cough in the last couple of days.
But, Congresswoman, let me ask. You say that he didn't mention the workers. Isn't that the whole point of this proposal that he put on the table? The whole point is to open the government and get his -- get his border security money for the wall...
DINGELL: Well...
BARTIROMO: ... because this proposal that the president put on the table yesterday extends the temporary protective services for DACA recipients, helps DACA recipients, funds disaster relief, funds humanitarian aid for migrants, and, of course, in all of this, it ends the government shutdown.
That was the point of it, Congresswoman.
DINGELL: Well, first of all, what he did was put on the table things that have already been rejected by both the House and the Senate before.
BARTIROMO: Well...
DINGELL: We're going to next week actually -- but they have been rejected. They're the same old proposals.
BARTIROMO: Yes. What about the BRIDGE Act? What about the BRIDGE Act?
Because I believe the Democrats voted for the BRIDGE Act. And many of these proposals were part of the BRIDGE Act, Congresswoman.
DINGELL: You know what's going to happen next week, Maria?
We're going to put on the House floor six bills which have been negotiated by Senate and House conference committees to reopen the government, reopen those six other agencies. Then let's get in the room and have a real discussion about how we keep this nation safe.
I don't know any Democrat that doesn't care about keeping our nation safe. We do need to have border security. And we need to...
(CROSSTALK)
DINGELL: It's not just the wall.
BARTIROMO: Let me stop you there, Congresswoman, because you say that you don't know any Democrats who don't want border security.
And yet none of them voted for Kate's Law. None of them voted to end sanctuary city status. None of them voted for the DACA plan that the president put on the table.
So can you really say that, that they're for border security, when they haven't voted for any of the above?
DINGELL: Yes, I can say that.
And I'm going to talk about how we need to support actual policy that works. How do you keep our border safe? How do you make sure -- we have 3,000 open positions right now for Customs and Border Patrol? We need to fill those positions.
If you want to talk about drugs coming into this country, which the president talked about yesterday...
BARTIROMO: Yes.
DINGELL: ... 90 percent of cocaine, 88 percent of opiates, and 80 -- 88 -- and of opioids -- and 80 percent of fentanyl comes in at the ports.
BARTIROMO: Yes.
DINGELL: We're doing nothing to keep our ports safe.
BARTIROMO: Congresswoman, we're going to take a quick break.
But, with all due respect, everything you're saying, we have heard from the president. And that's the reason he put the proposal on the table.
I want to take a short break. I want to show you when we come back the map of the wall that separates Tijuana and San Diego, because it's real compelling.
DINGELL: OK.
BARTIROMO: Stay with us.
More, as we get your thoughts on also special counsel Robert Mueller's statement disputing BuzzFeed's report that claimed the president directed his former personal attorney Michael Cohen to lie.
We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARTIROMO: And we're back with Congresswoman Debbie Dingell.
And, Congresswoman, I want you to talk to me a bit about why the speaker and your colleagues are so against some kind of fencing or barrier on our southern border. In fact, Nancy Pelosi has a border wall right in her own state.
We're going to look at this map right here of Tijuana and the wall that separates Tijuana and San Diego. We have got about three million people in Tijuana and three million people in San Diego.
Why wasn't one of her first points on the agenda to tear down this wall, if it's immoral?
DINGELL: So, what I want is border security, which I think means -- and I think most Democrats mean -- let's all get in the room and talk about what that border security is.
There are many parts along that border that a wall doesn't even work. There's rivers, et cetera. We have new technology out. We have drones.
BARTIROMO: Yes.
DINGELL: We have sensors. We should be using all of it, Maria.
BARTIROMO: Absolutely.
DINGELL: So, why do we have to close six other departments?
And why -- let's get in regular order. Let's get in the room.
BARTIROMO: Yes.
DINGELL: Let's all agree on border security, a package that will truly keep us safe.
BARTIROMO: Sure.
DINGELL: And let's reopen the government.
BARTIROMO: I think you make a lot of good points, because there are areas of the country where we don't need a wall probably, like near the Rio Grande, where there's this open space, where, if a migrant, if an illegal immigrant comes and tries to hide in that area, he will probably or she will probably be found pretty quickly, because it's miles and miles of open space.
But I want to get your take specifically on the southern border, and specifically this wall in Tijuana, because this is a very tense -- dense area, rather, with three million people in one -- outside and another three million on the other side.
If you were to tear that wall down, do you think that eventually those people would just assimilate and those three million people in Tijuana would basically just become citizens in the U.S.?
DINGELL: First of all...
BARTIROMO: I mean, not citizens legally, obviously, but just assimilate into the population? Would that happen?
(CROSSTALK)
DINGELL: First of all, nobody is saying we don't need border security.
Why don't we...
BARTIROMO: No, no, Congresswoman, I'm specifically asking you about the border in Nancy Pelosi's state.
(CROSSTALK)
DINGELL: Right now, they need more -- they're not -- haven't even filled all the positions to keep that border -- that border safe.
(CROSSTALK)
BARTIROMO: Should that wall be torn down?
DINGELL: We need more technology.
BARTIROMO: Should that wall be torn down?
DINGELL: No, I don't -- I haven't been to visit the site. I don't know all the specifics of it. And I'm not stupid enough to comment.
BARTIROMO: Well, let me give you some specifics. Let me give you some specifics, Congresswoman...
DINGELL: All right, go ahead.
BARTIROMO: ... because we have got the border apprehensions just from that wall just in the month of November 2018.
And, in California, there were 7,764 apprehensions, nearly 7,800 border apprehensions in California alone just for the month. November last year, total Southwest border apprehensions for November, nearly 52,000.
I guess that tells you that that wall works. Would you say that wall in Nancy Pelosi's state is working?
DINGELL: There are places that it is appropriate.
BARTIROMO: How about that wall, that specific wall in Tijuana and San Diego?
(CROSSTALK)
DINGELL: Because I haven't visited, I'm not going to say for sure. But I'm not going to say it should come down either.
I'm -- one thing I have learned about, when you are seasoned, don't comment when you don't have all the facts, and don't know if you're walking into something you shouldn't say.
But I'll tell you what. The next time you talk to me, I'm going to study it and have the answer.
(CROSSTALK)
BARTIROMO: I just wonder why Nancy Pelosi is so against it and your colleagues are so against it, when we know that there's a wall in her own state.
Do you find that hypocritical?
DINGELL: You know, I...
BARTIROMO: Let me ask you. Let's take a step back, Congresswoman.
Let's take a step back and just try to understand better whether or not this is all politics, because we know that many of your colleagues voted for a border wall twice. That includes Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, in terms of the need to protect the American citizens.
We know that. Now Donald Trump has the idea. He made it a campaign promise. And he said all throughout the campaign build that wall a number of times.
Is that the reason that you're against the wall and your colleagues are against the wall? Because it was now Donald Trump's campaign promise?
DINGELL: First of all, I have been really clear I don't think compromise is a dirty word. And I have always said that.
I do believe that we need to have a conversation about border security and that border because security is a much larger topic.
BARTIROMO: Right.
DINGELL: Do I think we're political right now? I absolutely do. And I think it's ridiculous.
I think that there are -- we need to reopen the government. There are so many services that aren't getting done now, from the people that need help, and the people that aren't being paid.
I get -- I mean, I had a mother this week call me who's been deemed an essential service employee. She doesn't have -- hasn't been paid in a month, can't pay for her child's take day care. Day care is kicking her out. She's losing the space.
BARTIROMO: Yes.
DINGELL: She can't take time off because she's been deemed essential.
She is working Denny's at midnight. That's not right either.
(CROSSTALK)
BARTIROMO: You just said it moments ago. We have to have a conversation.
Isn't that what we're doing? Isn't that why the government is shut down?
DINGELL: Well, you and I are.
BARTIROMO: No, no, no.
But, I mean, that's why Nancy Pelosi is in Washington. The president has put something on the table yesterday. This is what they're doing, right? They're having a conversation.
DINGELL: Well, what I hope...
BARTIROMO: And, moments ago, you said that the president hasn't spoken about the thousands of people who are not getting paid.
The president signed a bill that will provide hundreds of thousands of government employees with back pay after the shutdown ends. He just signed that bill last week.
DINGELL: OK, but can I give you some real world?
I'm talking to these people every single day. They can't -- the TSA guys in Detroit can't pay for the gas to go to work. I talked to a Secret Service agent...
BARTIROMO: Yes.
DINGELL: ... who is putting his life and willing to take a bullet, and his kids are suffering. He can't explain to his kids why both and mom and...
(CROSSTALK)
BARTIROMO: I think we both agree on this.
DINGELL: I think we absolutely agree.
BARTIROMO: I think the bigger issue...
DINGELL: And I hope we get people -- what we need to do is get regular order.
We have six bills that have been negotiated, agreed to by Senate and House Republicans and Democrats. Let's reopen that.
BARTIROMO: You know what I think people get frustrated with?
I think, no matter what side you're on, you just want to see some honesty. And you want to see honesty, whether it be at the border wall, or whether it be in terms of what went on in the 2016 election, or, this past week, BuzzFeed coming out with a report saying that the president directed Michael Cohen to lie for him to Congress.
And then the special counsel, in a very rare move, had to come out and say that report is inaccurate. What did you think about that?
DINGELL: I don't know what to think.
And I'm -- you know me. I am someone that's very blunt. He didn't totally deny the report.
BARTIROMO: No, he said it's inaccurate, is what the special counsel said.
DINGELL: He said it was inaccurate.
BARTIROMO: Inaccurate.
(CROSSTALK)
BARTIROMO: So, should we continue with all of this stuff going out there in the zeitgeist to make people think, on the one hand, the president said to lie, on the other hand, the president said that he just wants the wall and doesn't -- and the Democrats want border security?
I mean, honesty, I think, is what we all want...
DINGELL: We...
BARTIROMO: ... on both sides of the aisle.
(CROSSTALK)
DINGELL: You know, one of the reasons I think -- one of the reasons I think Donald Trump got elected was because the American people were tired of partisan bickering.
And they thought that it would bring a change.
BARTIROMO: Yes.
DINGELL: Unfortunately, it hasn't brought a change.
I think you're exactly right. They're tired of seeing this.
BARTIROMO: Yes.
DINGELL: We got to get in a room.
BARTIROMO: Yes.
DINGELL: And we got a new brand-new class with a lot younger....
(CROSSTALK)
BARTIROMO: We will see.
(CROSSTALK)
BARTIROMO: There's a lot of division there. We have got to talk more about that when you come back.
Congresswoman, good to see you.
DINGELL: Bring people together. Work together.
BARTIROMO: Thank you.
Congressman John Ratcliffe...
DINGELL: Thank you.
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