CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Hirono

Interview

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BLITZER: Absolutely correct. All right, Jim Acosta. Thanks very much .

Joining us now Democratic senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii. She's a member of the Judiciary and the Armed Services Committees.

Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D-HI.), MEMBER, JUDICIARY AND ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEES: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Let's begin with the massacre in New Zealand. The president said he doesn't believe white nationalism is a rising threat around the world.

How do you see it? HIRONO: It is another instance where the president doesn't pay attention to facts. In fact, after 9/11, President Bush went to mosques and went to see the Muslims. And hate crimes against Muslims dropped.

With this president, as he talks about a Muslim ban, we know hate crimes against Muslims have gone up.

Mr. President, are you listening?

Do you have any idea that your words truly matter?

So as he continues to act as though this is not a problem, why is it that, as a result of what happened in New Zealand, the mosques in our country are under heightened alert?

Why is that?

So I know New Zealand is in mourning right now and they're in a state of shock. I did have a chance to talk with the ambassador to the United States from New Zealand, Ambassador Banks. I expressed my deepest condolences with her. And we shared the concerns we both have about this kind of white supremacist, extremist terrorism that is on the rise.

BLITZER: Senator, several of your Democratic colleagues may have pointed the finger at President Trump, accusing him of actually emboldening right-wing extremism.

Do you agree?

HIRONO: I think the kinds of language and the words he uses just add fuel to the fire. And so for him to take absolutely --

[17:15:00]

HIRONO: -- no responsibility for the continuing divisive and hate and kind of language that he uses is a testament to the fact that we have a president who just doesn't care about the words that he uses.

He must know the words he uses are very harmful. That's why he does it. It really excites his base apparently.

BLITZER: Did you see the interview he did with Breitbart, in which he boasts that his base includes the police, the military, bikers for Trump. He was going out of his way to say if things get bad, there could be some serious problems down the road.

What did you think of that?

HIRONO: I thought of that as being appalling language. It seemed to be an invitation for people to take matters into their own hands and commit violence. That's what it sounded like to me. That's the kind of threat and language he likes to use.

To think he thinks that our military is so undisciplined that they're going to commit these kinds of violence but the fact that he even says these things shows us where he is at. Where he is at is not bringing the country together, that he wants to continue to use divisive language, particularly against immigrants, against minorities, against Muslims.

BLITZER: Amidst all of this, he just issued the first veto of his presidency.

So what comes next?

HIRONO: Let me just say, beginning that he hasn't to exert his veto because up to now, he's had the Republicans in the House and Senate totally compliant to him. Now we are at least seeing signs of the Republicans in the Senate behaving as though they believe they are a separate branch of government.

I know that the House is scheduling veto override vote. Mitch McConnell probably will not bring the vote to the floor of the Senate but we know there is litigation challenge the president.

We know if the courts, that if they let this president go ahead with the emergency declaration when there is no emergency, we are opening the floodgates for anything to be called an emergency.

I hope that everybody realizes, in order for him to make good, he is going to grab appropriations and authorized programs that the Congress has enacted. He will just grab billions and billions from programs and the military construction that are necessary.

BLITZER: We'll see what happens in the courts. There will be some serious challenges. Senator Hirono, thanks for joining us.

HIRONO: Thank you.

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