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

Interview

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BALDWIN: All right, Jennifer Rodgers, thank you very much.

Let's go to Capitol Hill.

With me now, Republican Senator John Kennedy. He is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

So, Senator Kennedy, welcome back. How are you, sir?

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): I'm well, Brooke. Thanks for having me.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

So, all right, Congress is at this standstill. Your colleague, Senator John Thune, a member of Senate Republican leadership, feels essentially like your hands are tied.

Do you think that the president's making a mistake by shutting the door on working with Democrats?

KENNEDY: Yes. And I don't think he means it.

I think the president is very frustrated. I heard the -- was listening to your show while I was waiting, Brooke. I heard the comments from Speaker Pelosi. I don't think those will help.

Now, Speaker Pelosi is entitled to her opinion, and I respect her opinion. I try to cut her some slack, because she's in a tough spot. She's -- I think her Democratic majority would like to impeach -- impeach the president.

I think the speaker is against it because she knows it wouldn't be very popular with the American people. And the other problem the speaker has, to be frank, she kind of has a shadow speaker in Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez.

So she's in a tough spot. But, having said all that, the right course of action is not for each side to go to its corner, respective corners and, as I said yesterday, not for both sides to act like 8-year-olds fighting in the back of a minivan, but sit down and work it out.

And here's why. If this ends up in court, it as it looks like it will, it becomes a zero sum game. One of two things are going to happen. If Trump wins, the oversight of authority of Congress is undermined. If the House leadership wins, then, in my opinion, anybody with a brain above a single cell organism wouldn't want to run for president, because Congress could take a look at everything, even the most intimate detail about your life, even before you were president.

BALDWIN: But, in the meantime, because of both the president and the Democrats and this -- the fact that nothing's moving right now, according to the leader of your party, the truth is, none of this -- we have got a whole list of things on the docket, pieces of legislation.

None of it's getting done now.

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BALDWIN: This feud is having a real-world impact on America.

KENNEDY: But that is on us.

BALDWIN: It is on you all. It is.

KENNEDY: That's on us.

And I said yesterday. I went to floor of the Senate. And some of my colleagues are a little miffed at me, but I spoke the truth. We don't have to wait in Congress for the president's permission to legislate.

There are plenty of issues in the Senate on which the Democrats and the Republicans have more in common than they don't, prescription drug costs, reforming the National Emergency Act, net neutrality.

Now, since I gave that speech yesterday, today, we have already had one vote. So, I talked yesterday about the need for us to vote on spam robo-calls. Well, they did it this morning. And guess what? We only had one no-vote, one no-vote.

And I'm proud of my colleagues. This afternoon, we're going to vote on a disaster recovery bill.

BALDWIN: Good.

KENNEDY: I think it's going to pass. We don't have to wait on the president. The Senate needs to -- we need to be senators.

BALDWIN: Yes.

KENNEDY: We need to debate and decide, not stall and re-stall.

BALDWIN: Yes. No...

KENNEDY: And I'm proud of my colleagues today.

BALDWIN: You are saying precisely what Americans want to hear, that...

KENNEDY: Yes.

BALDWIN: ... they elected you all for a reason, to do the job.

But let me take you back, Senator Kennedy.

KENNEDY: OK.

BALDWIN: You mentioned Speaker Pelosi.

KENNEDY: Right.

BALDWIN: And there seems to be this pattern. Speaker Pelosi sure can push the president's buttons.

And what do you think it is about Nancy Pelosi and this president? Why does she so get under his skin, do you think?

KENNEDY: I don't -- I really don't think that it's Mrs. -- or Speaker Pelosi in particular.

I...

BALDWIN: You don't?

KENNEDY: I don't. I really don't.

I think the president's just very frustrated. I think he feels like the House leadership is in bad faith.

And I will give you an example. The House Ways and Means chairman said, I need to see Trump's tax returns. The press, doing its job, said, why? He said, well, it will help me evaluate how well the IRS is auditing people.

[15:10:03]

Now, nobody believes that. There's no American that believes that. That's very disingenuous.

And I think the president feels like the House is in bad faith. The House feels like they're in good faith and they're just doing their job.

The answer is not to hold everybody in the Western Hemisphere in contempt and go to court. The answer is to do what Bill Barr did with the House Judiciary Committee, sit down and try to work it out.

This is not a new circumstance we find ourselves in. What's different this time is that both sides seem to be a little too close and it's gotten a little too personal. And everybody just needs to calm down, take their meds, and try to work it out.

BALDWIN: OK. OK, Senator Kennedy.

And let me just also say, I haven't -- I haven't heard those remarks. But most Democrats say that they do want to see the tax returns -- back on your point about House Ways and Means, they do want to see the tax returns to see if the president is compromised. Senator John Kennedy, I thank you very much.

KENNEDY: Thank you, Brooke.

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