CNN "Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Kennedy

Interview

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SCIUTTO: Right, he may relish that veto. Sunlen Serfaty, thanks very much. Let's discuss now with Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana. Senator, thanks for taking the time this morning.

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R), LOUISIANA: You bet, Jim.

SCIUTTO: So first, on the national emergency declaration, you and I have talked about this before. I know it's not your preferred option, but you say you will support the president here. You've noted that there's a law in the books giving the president such a power and that other presidents have declared emergencies.

But you're also a lawyer, you know, the Supreme Court has set a standard here. Kind of three categories, you know, where Congress has voiced approval for a particular action or has not stated an opinion on the action or as in this case, where Congress has explicitly opposed an action here.

Since this is in that final category, legally, and again, you're a lawyer, how do you justify this? Congress, they had a chance to approve -- to approve this funding, but the government was shut down for it, they didn't approve the funding. So how do you justify the president declaring a national emergency?

[09:20:00] KENNEDY: I am a lawyer, I'm not a judge, I do have a legal opinion. The president is not exercising any authority that, in my judgment, Congress hasn't given him. Presidents in the past have used these statutes 60 times.

SCIUTTO: Yes, but not -- as you know, this is a different category where Congress has explicitly said, no, we're not spending that money, we're spending $1.3 billion, that's what we're doing. And that's Republicans and Democrats. That's a different category from many of the past emergency declarations that you've cited.

KENNEDY: And I suspect the Democrats will make that legal argument. I don't agree with it. Again, this is authority that Congress has given the president. Now should Congress have given the president this much authority? That's a separate question.

But the fact is that it has, he has decided to use it, it wasn't my preferred option, he's having decided to use it, in my judgment, will not mean the end of western order. I happen to believe we do have a crisis at the border. It's different than it was in the past. Now, we have thousands of unaccompanied minors and families coming in --

SCIUTTO: Right --

KENNEDY: But, look, it will be litigated. My guess is that both the house and the Senate will vote to override -- not override, that's the wrong term, but vote to --

SCIUTTO: Oppose it.

KENNEDY: Oppose it and then both sides, or at least the Senate, but probably the House will sustain his veto.

SCIUTTO: You cite Democratic opposition here, but as you know, four of your Republican colleagues, including Senator Rand Paul, the latest --

KENNEDY: Right --

SCIUTTO: He's saying that Republicans are hypocritical to have opposed President Obama's executive orders in the past, virtually unanimously, but to let this one pass here, why isn't he --

KENNEDY: Right --

SCIUTTO: Wrong?

KENNEDY: Well, I have great respect for Rand, I just don't agree with him. The argument that's always made to me is that, well, President Obama was wrong to issue an executive order without congressional consent on DACA. Well, the president then, President Obama didn't have any legal authority that he was basing his executive order on.

In this case, the president has not only statutory authority given to him by Congress, but he has the precedent of 60 past declarations of national emergencies. So to me, it is a distinction with a difference.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you on another exercise of presidential power. "The New Yorker" is reporting this morning that the president ordered the Department of Justice to attempt to block the merger between AT&T and Time Warner over the objections of his Chief of Staff then, John Kelly, but also his chief White --economic adviser Gary Cohn.

In your view, is that an acceptable use of presidential power, a president trying to block a merger because he doesn't like the coverage by a news station, this one, owned by one of the companies involved?

KENNEDY: Well, number one, I don't know if it's true. I think the report, yet again, was based on anonymous sources. Number two, I think it's perfectly acceptable for the president of the United States to have an opinion on some --

SCIUTTO: To block a merger -- to block a merger, to punish what he considers a critic?

KENNEDY: I don't think that it's been established, I know it's been alleged that, that was what his mental perspective was at the time. And I think it's all anonymous sources. I don't know what the president thought, but if your -- and either do you, frankly, none of us did. I mean, it's an anonymous source once again talking to the "New York Times".

SCIUTTO: Well, if -- well, it's "The New Yorker", I should say. But if the president were to do that, would you consider that an acceptable use of presidential power? KENNEDY: Well, if -- I don't think that's a fair question because

they hadn't been proven that he did it. I mean, if any public official committed murder, would I think that's wrong if he committed murder? Yes, he'd be a murderer.

SCIUTTO: Well, the president also -- the president also even in campaign statements said publicly that he opposed the merger. So this is -- this didn't come out of the blue --

KENNEDY: Yes, and whether --

SCIUTTO: But I'll take your point, I'll take your point --

KENNEDY: Yes, OK, fair enough --

SCIUTTO: Yes, but let's -- if we can, just move on to another topic because I just returned, as the president did, from Hanoi, from discussions between --

KENNEDY: Right --

SCIUTTO: The president and the North Korean leader. It's the second time the president travelled to Asia to meet face-to-face with the North Korean leader. He's returning with no discernible progress on North Korean denuclearization, no new commitments. Were the talks a failure in your view?

KENNEDY: No, they didn't end in an agreement, but I was reading a columnist this weekend, Jim, I don't remember who it was, but he or she made the point that walking away is better sometimes than giving away. Kim's demands were unrealistic.

[09:25:00] He wanted us to lift all sanctions in return for him --

SCIUTTO: That's right --

KENNEDY: Shutting down their nuclear facility at Yongbyon. There were other nuclear facilities. North Korea as best we can tell, has 37 nuclear weapons. Mr. Kim didn't offer to get rid of those, he wanted us to take off all pressure in return for him shutting down just one facility. It would have been a bad deal, I'm glad the president didn't take it.

SCIUTTO: Well, why did the president then give a concession from the U.S. side, which is to end large-scale military exercises with South Korea? Which is of course, John, as you well know of the U.S. South Korea agreement. Why is the U.S. making concessions if North Korea is making no concessions in return?

KENNEDY: I can't answer that, I mean, I haven't talked to the president about it. I think the president would like to keep the negotiations going. I would like to keep the negotiations going. I feel like the world is safer today than it was a year ago when Kim Jong-un was threatening -- was testing missiles and testing warheads and threatening China and -- I'm sorry, Japan and South Korea and the United States. SCIUTTO: Understood, better to be talking than shooting. I hear you

KENNEDY: Sure --

SCIUTTO: Senator Kennedy, we appreciate you coming on this morning.

KENNEDY: Thanks, Jim.

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