CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Blumenthal

Interview

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COOPER: This is by the way, this is a Trump campaign commercial. In fact, it was a final ad of the campaign, the closing arguments. And, yes, it could certainly be read in two ways which may or may not be intentional.

But it didn't end there. The president continued on attack George Soros, connecting him without evidence to migrant caravans in Mexico, suggesting he is using his global billions, what he calls a foreign invasion of this country which certainly has a certain ring to it, doesn't it? Joining us now is Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut.

Sir, thanks so much.

When you hear the president's accusation against your party, are you concerned that the House hasn't sufficiently repudiated Congresswoman Omar? Because it gives the opportunity certainly for the president to claim the Democrats are anti-Semitic.

BLUMENTHAL: First, Anderson, thank you for tackling this very, very important issue and a very sensitive one.

The president's comments are plainly ludicrous. They are deeply wrong and regrettable. And what he's doing is essentially trying to again divide us, seeking to distract from his own problems, resorting to demagoguery about a resolution that was overwhelmingly supported by a bipartisan majority and the majority of Republicans supporting it, along with every Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives.

And what it expressed was American values, denouncing anti-Semitism, anti-Islam bigotry, racism. What we ought to be doing at this moment in our history is trying to overcome the rising incidents of hate crimes rather than resorting to this absolutely deeply wrong and regrettable demagoguery.

COOPER: But you know -- I mean, the back story on the resolution was that it would be directed toward the comments that the congresswoman had made, Congresswoman Omar, you know, using anti-Semitic tropes. And then other Democrats didn't want that, or wanted -- I mean, you can argue they didn't want to criticize, you know, other Democrat in a resolution. And so, they made it broader. They added in, you know, other groups, all of which are understandable.

But in this particular instance, the argument is that it essentially made it so broad, it was not really a rebuke of the comments made by Congresswoman Omar.

BLUMENTHAL: What the House leadership chose to do was make it broader, and a condemnation of racism and anti-Semitism and Islamophobia and misogyny in general, rather than finger pointing and blaming based on political considerations.

And here's the important point, Anderson, in my view as a supporter of Israel, we need to avoid politicizing support for Israel. That support is always been bipartisan. I've helped to lead military support for Israel through the Armed Services Committee. The votes there have been unanimous on almost every occasion.

The last time we authorized it in the United State Senate, it was done by unanimous consent. That's a powerfully necessary condition of our support for Israel, bipartisan unity.

COOPER: Yes.

BLUMENTHAL: And what is happening here unfortunately is the president is trying to politicize and weaponize this issue on a very partisan basis.

[20:10:04] COOPER: But, I mean, in fairness, Republicans in House, pulled Congressman Steve King's assignments because of his white nationalist rhetoric. I mean, he's been spouting it for years. They finally did punish it.

Do you think what Congresswoman Omar said was anti-Semitic?

BLUMENTHAL: I think we can always be critical of our friends and sometimes our criticism is meant as very constructive. Sometimes those kinds of remarks are unfortunate. Words have consequences. But the effort here was to stop hate crimes, stop the rising trend of -- the use of the kind of terms that the president has done in saying that there are good people on both sides when he's referring to swastika-carrying neo-Nazis, using an ad that is blatant anti-Semitic, as you pointed out. I would call that very risky.

COOPER: I just got to follow up. I mean, it is -- I mean, plenty of people watching will say, look, it's very easy to blame the president when you're a Democrat. It's harder for a Democrat to blame another Democrat, perhaps.

But again, do you think what she said was anti-Semitic? Or using anti-Semitic tropes?

BLUMENTHAL: If the House leadership had begun blaming individuals, Donald Trump might well have been on that list. And the effort to broaden it, to make it about American values, I think, is very, very important to do. Rather than in effect, breaking that bipartisan support for Israel and for the denunciation of anti-Semitism in whatever form it may arise.

COOPER: Senator Blumenthal, thanks very much. Appreciate it.

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