CNN "Anderson Cooper 360" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Chuck Schumer

Interview

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COOPER: He gets along with Mohammed just fine, and Kim and Vlad. As for Theresa May, Angela Merkel, Shinzo Abe, well, they aren't accused killers, and it seems from the president's eyes, that means they don't have the right stuff.

[20:05:03] Joining us now, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Why do you think it is that he treats dictators one way and our oldest allies another?

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Well, he admires these strong men. He doesn't have principles about what rule of law is, what a democracy is. You know, Anderson, this was one of the worst few days in American foreign policy, in American diplomatic history.

COOPER: Why?

SCHUMER: In a long time. Praising dictators, messing up foreign policy left and right, what he did in North Korea, giving Kim Jong-un just what he wanted, calling him a friend, patting him on the back, and getting nothing, absolutely nothing in return.

North Korea is still nuclear. The president used to criticize Obama and Bush. You couldn't get rid of their weapons, I will. He said about a year ago, we don't have to worry about things.

They have ICBMs. They have more nuclear bombs than they've had in the past. They are a danger to the United States and he pats the guy on the back and gets nothing in return.

His foreign policy is erratic. It's done for the moment so he can get his little ego hit and it hurts us, hurts us in the long run.

COOPER: It seems every -- the two summits he's had with Kim Jong-un got really nothing in return for them. That was always a big carrot, oh, the U.S. will actually meet face-to-face with you. Now, it's -- I've actually gone into northern -- an American president visited North Korea and got nothing in return.

SCHUMER: It's reality show foreign policy. He wants that photo-op. He wants that little hit. He has no strategic long-range sense of where to go, what to do.

And if anyone thinks this doesn't hurt America in the short term, in the long run, they are sadly mistaken. And what you showed before telling, joking about Putin interfering with our election, it's basically saying to Putin go ahead and do it, this is our democracy. The Founding Fathers, wisest of all were worried about foreign governments entangling themselves and the first president that's come close to encouraging it. It's disgraceful.

COOPER: He did most recently say in an interview when asked what do you look at information again? He said I would look at it and came around to saying maybe I'd call the FBI.

SCHUMER: There is no principle in what he does for foreign policy except feeding his ego and not even for the long term but momentarily. He's going to look like a fool about North Korea when they do nothing or maybe worse, he changes his policy from denuclearization to saying status quo, which means let North Korea be more dangerous than its ever been. We're going to do nothing about it.

COOPER: Let me argue what supporters will say. Plenty of administrations tried all different sorts of approaches. None of it worked. They still moved forward.

Maybe this, having a personal relationship with the murderous dictator may be --

SCHUMER: That hasn't produced anything in two and a half years. And the odds of producing four more years, hopefully there won't be is very, very tiny.

COOPER: Is settling for North Korea acceptable?

SCHUMER: Well, he always said it wasn't. The American people don't want it. This is new. This is worst than ever.

He says, you know, he's doing things other people could have done. He's right. He now is presiding over North Korea not only with more nuclear weapons than they had but ICBMs, the capability of delivering to the west coast of the United States.

COOPER: I found it odd that his national security advisor isn't there. He's off in Mongolia.

SCHUMER: Well, the two hawks, in this case, we needed hawks, we don't usually don't in Iran. But in this case, they are not even there. This is, I think, these folks around the president have sort of thrown

up their hands and they say he's going to do what he's going to do no matter how much in damages the United States and North Korea are dangerous dictators with a threat over us and Iran even worse. He could bumble into war and they sort of throw up their hands and say well, that's Donald Trump.

They shouldn't be working for him if they are throwing up their hands.

COOPER: The situation on the boarder I want to talk to you about. Some members toured Customs and Border Protection facility today. They described terrible conditions, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said, one woman told her she had been told to drink out of a toilet.

I saw a border agent on television saying that's not something we would say to anybody.

Is the border funding bill that was passed this week actually going to provide enough funding to --

SCHUMER: Well, it's certainly on the Department of Health and Human Services, DHHS, provides much-needed money because everyone agrees we were running out of money. These kids don't have toothbrushes. The little babies don't have diapers. There's not enough room and there's not enough facilities. That part is good.

There are some safeguards in the bill, no more ICE beds. The money can't be used for other things. There should have been more safeguards. Leader McConnell refused to put those in. The House did their best.

But, you know, there are real answers to this policy, and we Democrats have proposed something that could really work.

[20:10:05] Namely, let these people who are not drug dealers or MS-13 or criminals as Trump seems to characterize all of them, let them -- they are fleeing for their lives. If your daughter was threatened with rape, your son threatened with murder, they said, the gang said, we'll burn down your house unless you do what we want, of course, you would try to get away and even risk an 800-mile trek through the hot desert and pay these coyotes and subject yourself to all kinds of problems. We saw that horrible, horrible, it wrenched my heart picture of the father with his little daughter clinging to his neck.

So, the answer, one of the best answers is to say let people who are going to flee for their lives apply for asylum in the three countries, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala. Let's provide more judges so they can get adjudicated quickly, and if they make the standards for asylum, they come, if not, not. And that is an answer that everyone thinks is a good answer.

COOPER: Although, administration has made it tougher --

SCHUMER: They took away the money.

COOPER: Also the qualifications for asylum are tough for you're fleeing domestic violence.

SCHUMER: They stretched those -- they stretched those incorrectly or narrowed them actually incorrectly, but they have also, there was money that was provided towards the end of the Obama administration to go after in these countries, it's not very much money in this grand scheme of things to go after the drug dealers, to go over the gang, so these people wouldn't be fleeing and Trump cut it off. He doesn't have a policy other than using these poor children as sort of pawns in the game.

Some say, I hope it's not true, that they are deliberately making the conditions miserable for the kids so more people don't flee. If you're fleeing for your life, you're going to flee period.

COOPER: That was certainly the idea behind separating children from their parents. I was -- I mean, by their own admission, it was a deterrent.

SCHUMER: Isn't that a despicable policy this use these little innocent children as pawns? Isn't that despicable?

COOPER: It does not seem to have worked given that the numbers increased.

SCHUMER: Almost nothing -- the biggest problem this administration is going to face aside from what the president's dishonesty and the president not caring about rule of law, the president being a bully and often a narcissist is they are not producing results. They are talking about solving the problem in North Korea, it's worse. They are talking about dealing with China, they are backing off, you know, with Huawei and things like that.

And they -- the border situation is worse than ever before in large part because they don't have a policy. The president each week we're going to pose tariffs on Mexico. We're going to build a wall. We're going to not do any trade with Mexico.

Each week or month he has a different policy. They don't implement it because they're so -- there was no home at the administration. But I'd say this, Anderson, even on the economy, which is their great claim to fame, the lower 60 percent part of America doesn't think they are benefitting from this economy. Go tell an auto worker there are millions, that their future is great. Go tell a steel worker their future is great.

So this administration -- one of the things that's going to become more and more apparent is aside from the mendacity and prevarication, they don't deliver on anything, whether its' foreign policy or domestic policy.

COOPER: Just very briefly because I got to go, do you believe Mitch McConnell is going to deliver for 9/11 responders? He had a meeting with them last week. He said by August, this will be brought up for a vote.

SCHUMER: You know, tonight is the wake, tomorrow night, as well, of Detective Alvarez, who I spoke to --

COOPER: Lou Alvarez.

SCHUMER: Lou Alvarez -- who I spoke to a few days before he died. What a wonderful man. He said to me, this is probably the last time I'll talk to you but please fight hard to get this money.

John Feel (ph), Alvarez and some of the others did a great job, McConnell has now said and this is a big step forward that he'll deal with it in August. Now, how should he deal with it? Fully.

When the House passes the bill, don't cut back. Don't put it on something that might not past. Just put it on the floor it has 60 co- sponsors, Democrats and Republicans it will pass and be signed into law and that's the only right thing to do.

COOPER: Do you think he can do it?

SCHUMER: I think the odds are pretty high. I wish he could do it. He would have done it a long time ago but there is so much heat on him that I think he may do it. I hope he doesn't play a little trick and only do part of it.

COOPER: Senator Schumer, appreciate your time.

SCHUMER: Anderson, great to see you. Thanks.

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