CNN "Anderson Cooper 360" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Pramila Jayapal

Interview

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COOPER: Well, joining me now is Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Congresswoman Jayapal, thanks for being with us.

You were not targeted directly by the president, but you are naturalized citizen. You're a woman of color in Congress. You tweeted in support of your colleagues who were attacked by him. How do you -- what do you make of how this continues to unfold?

REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): Well, first of all, Anderson, I think all of us are attacked in personally in some way, because he said progressive Democrat congresswomen. It was clear he was talking about those four, but I will tell you, I got calls today from friends of mine who are naturalized citizens, Americans who have been in this country for many years, who said, I don't know what to tell my children. They see the president saying terrible things about their parents, and therefore about them.

And I think the impact of his words are deeply felt across the country, and they are also felt by people who remember their own connections to their immigrant history. So, this is a racist, vile, xenophobic ploy to speak to, I think, a small part of his base.

But this has been his playbook all along -- personalize, attack, and now he's even saying if you dissent, that somehow you should go back to your country, if you criticize the country, I think dissent is patriotic, and I think I was listening to my friend Mr. Khan earlier, I mean, this is a man a naturalized citizen whose son gave his life for this country.

And Donald Trump in his tweet is undermining everything that we hold dear in our Constitution and in our founding values.

COOPER: You know, I mean, if you look at what he said, it frankly echoes what mobs of people said to Irish Catholics who came to this country, you know, at the turn of the century to people from China who helped build this country and it's railroads.

JAYAPAL: That's right.

COOPER: To the generations of people who came from ghettos and from places all over the world. You know, time after time, they were told they weren't welcome here, go back to where they came from. And, you know, I mean, in this case the four women, three of them come from the United States.

The whole thing is -- it just -- it harkens back to a dark period in Americas past.

JAYAPAL: Yes, it does, and let's be clear that we know that history very well. And I think people still remember it from their parents and the grandparents, even if it is removed.

But also this is not something that doesn't happen today. I mean, I represent the Seattle area, and I hate to tell you but I've been told to go back to my country, particularly after 9/11 when I was defending the rights of Muslim Americans and Arab Americas who are being secretly detained and deported, particularly during that time I was told all the time to go back to my country, I was -- you know, got lynching threats and racist threats.

But now, it's coming from the White House. It is coming from the person who is the president of the United States. And I think that is so deeply terrifying and horrific, and I think what you said in your opening comments about this is Trump being Trump, and, you know, he almost wants us to not pay attention to it, but, of course, we have to call this out.

[20:25:06] I will just say I talked to a couple of my Republican friends because I couldn't sleep last night just thinking about all of this, and I thought about them and I won't name them right now, but I thought about a few Republicans across the aisle who I couldn't believe hadn't spoken out.

And I went on the floor just now and I found one of them and said, why have you not spoken out? And he said to me, you know, I even looked at my kids, we saw the hot, my kids looked at me because we had just gone to the Trump Christmas party, not Christmas party, the Trump whatever 4th of July party, and they got their picture taken with him, and they were looking at me, like dad? Is this OK? And I said, are you going to speak out?

And he tells me he is going to speak out, but the fact that there has been deathly silence, now a couple of people, but even from Lindsey Graham's attempt to just brand everybody a socialist and these terrible people, without really recognizing -- yes, he called the president to a higher ground, but he didn't say this is wrong. And we are going to put a resolution on the floor for a vote tomorrow, condemning the president's racist tweets, and I certainly hope that Republicans will join us in the great tradition of Democratic and Republican presidents who know that this country would not be here but not for the work of immigrants who came from all over the world.

COOPER: Yes. I mean, if memory serves, Lindsey Graham had called the president --you know, had called Trump bigoted and xenophobic I think a long time. Now, I mean, he's certainly no profile in courage to these days on this issue.

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much.

JAYAPAL: Thank you, Anderson.

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