NBC "Meet the Press" - Transcript: Interview Rep. Steve Scalise

Interview

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CHUCK TODD:

All right. Thanks for coming on. When we come back, I'll talk to the House Minority Whip, Republican Steve Scalise of Louisiana.

CHUCK TODD:

Welcome back. Republicans have found themselves in a politically awkward position this week on the subject of election interference. You might think stopping foreigners from meddling would be an easy vote. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked a bill that would require campaigns to report any attempt at foreign interference to the F.B.I. And on the House side Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy took pains to avoid criticizing President Trump's, "I'd take it," comment. So joining me now is the House Republican whip. Number two in the House leadership on the Republican side, Steve Scalise of Louisiana whose book, by the way, Back in the Game: One Gunman, Countless Heroes and the Fight for My Life is now out in paperback. Congressman Scalise, welcome back to Meet the Press, sir. Nice to see you.

REP. STEVE SCALISE:

Good morning, Chuck. Good to be back with you.

CHUCK TODD:

All right, let me start with this election interference bill. I know you voted against what the House Democrats billed as HR1, this large voting rights bill that they put together. But if they carved out the parts just on election security, there was an election security portion requiring paper ballots, establishing better cybersecurity standards. Also would include, I think, what Mark Warner wants to see which is immediate reporting the F.B.I. Could you vote for that bill?

REP. STEVE SCALISE:

Well, I had a lot of concerns with HR1, not the least of which were the first amendment violations. You had everybody from the ACLU all the way to National Right to Life come together against that bill because of what it did to limit the free speech rights and religious freedom rights of millions of Americans. So that bill is riddled with problems. It puts tens of billions of dollars of taxpayer money into political campaigns, something I don't think most Americans want to see their tax dollars used for. So that bill had massive problems. Interesting that it was the very first bill Nancy Pelosi chose to move through the House was a bill that far left. But it's been an example of how she's run the House, not addressing real problems --

CHUCK TODD:

But let's go to --

REP. STEVE SCALISE:

-- of the American people.

CHUCK TODD:

-- election security.

REP. STEVE SCALISE:

We've got a crisis at the border --

CHUCK TODD:

I understand. Let's talk -- I'm just asking about -- just the election security. This was not a small event. And this seems to be not unreasonable ideas here when it comes to the cybersecurity portion of this bill, what Mark Warner's calling for. Could you support that?

REP. STEVE SCALISE:

Well, there's a lot on cybersecurity I think we can come to an agreement on. I'd like to see details on how she'd work with us on some of the things we've tried to get through Congress in the past that are bipartisan, dealing with cyber security. Because there are concerns not only for election security but also on the corporate side. You've seen millions of Americans private data, personal data stolen through attacks primarily from foreign state operators, whether it's Russia, China, North Korea or so many others.

CHUCK TODD:

I want to -- there's a new story in the New York Times today that highlights a more aggressive tact that the fed -- U.S. government is doing now against Russia implanting potential essentially forms of malware into the Russian power grid, taking a more offensive approach rather than just doing this on defense. Do you support that new policy?

REP. STEVE SCALISE:

Look, you've got to take every step possible, first of all, to make sure what happened in 2016, what the Russians attempted to do to meddle with our elections when Barack Obama was president, doesn't happen again in 2020 or any other election. And so I'm glad that the administration has been taking aggressive actions including, if you saw in the executive order the president issued a few -- over a year ago, allowing DOD to be more aggressive at making sure they can protect not only our grid but go after anybody who's going to try to mess with our election security.

CHUCK TODD:

It was interesting though, I want to point out one little nugget in that story, apparently the president was not fully briefed on this operation. I want to show you one part of this New York Times story about that. It says, "Pentagon and intelligence officials describe broad hesitation to go into detail with Mr. Trump about operations against Russia for concern over his reaction and the possibility that he might countermand it or discuss it with foreign officials, as he did in 2017 when he mentioned a sensitive operation in Syria to the Russian foreign minister." The president obviously was very upset about this story even getting in the public domain as he tweeted about it last night. Do you believe that these officials made a mistake not briefing the president about this operation?

REP. STEVE SCALISE:

Well, Chuck, the president and the White House have already pushed back against a number of elements of this story. But the bottom line is the president's taking aggressive action against Russia. I wish that would have happened in 2016 when they were trying to meddle with our elections. But I think the message is being sent right now. If the Russians try to take some action against our elections or any other country we are already ready to go after them. And it should have happened in 2016. I'm glad that the president's being aggressive against any foreign country who's going to try to meddle with our elections.

CHUCK TODD:

By the way, do you think that Republican campaign arm of the House ought to pledge not to use any stolen material, hacked material. I know that there's been some attempts to get both political parties to sign these pledges. There's been some hesitation on the House side.

REP. STEVE SCALISE:

Well, I'm sure they'll look at that too. I think it's real interesting that the entire basis of the Mueller report was information that the Democrat Party got from Russia. They solicited it using foreign spies, of all people, and used that to turn it over to the F.B.I. And then unfortunately you had some people in the F.B.I. with a political agenda against President Trump who used that as the basis for an investigation to spy on, then candidate, President Trump. There are a lot of concerns I think and things that need to be rooted out within the F.B.I. to make sure that doesn't happen again either.

CHUCK TODD:

Let me turn to Iran here a minute. At what point do you think the president needs to go to Congress to approve any sort of escalation with Iran? Where is your comfort level on what you believe he has the ability to do now and what he needs to come to Congress for?

REP. STEVE SCALISE:

Well, the White House has been briefing on Congress on what's happening in Iran and how this has been building up. But, of course, this does go back to the Iranian deal that was agreed to in the previous administration. And Donald Trump when he was a candidate expressed his real concerns with that deal, as so many of us in Congress opposed it back then. And even our allies like Israel opposed the Iran deal when it, when it went through Congress. You saw Prime Minister Netanyahu come to Congress and give a very compelling speech against it back before it was agreed to. So what President Trump's been doing to make sure that we're going to stand up to Russia -- our sanctions, by the way, have been very effective. I think that's why you're seeing Iran take action. But this shows you, Chuck, do you really want a nuclear armed Iran? I think this is why the world, not just America, but our allies in the Middle East are concerned about Iran having a nuclear weapon. This is what they did without one. Imagine if they had one.

CHUCK TODD:

Do you think the president has the authority now due to the AUMF from back in 2002, does he have the authority now to conduct a military operation against Iran?

REP. STEVE SCALISE:

Well, we don't want to see it escalate to where it is a military operation. But you're seeing the president take action and make sure that we have protection against American interests in the Middle East and including in the strait there where you saw this explosion where the bomb was detonated. So the president is making sure that he's protecting American interests. I don't want to see it escalate just like I don't think anybody else does. But we have to stand up to Iran. This is one more example of why we need to be concerned about their actions.

CHUCK TODD:

Before I let you, I want to ask you one thing about your book. You wrote about the issue of social media. Talking about the person that shot you. "His post dripping with scorn and hatred toward the Republican Party and the President Trump and the responses to his post fueled him even more. He was living a kind of double existence while quiet and unassuming in person he was angry and confrontational online. A digital flamethrower, a combatant when provided the anonymity of an online avatar." It's practically the same biography of the synagogue shooter on the right hand side of the aisle. Same thing, this same idea, social media sort of taking over this man's life. How do you not violate the first amendment and have these social media companies purge these folks before they commit violence?

REP. STEVE SCALISE:

Well, Chuck, what I've always said is we can all have political disagreements. And, you know, that's what makes our country great. But when you cross the line and start inciting violence against other people that's where there's no place for that in politics. And so we saw in the case of the shooting, in my case with the baseball field shooting, as with others, you saw somebody trying to not only disagree with people politically but then take it to that one step further where they took action and tried to take out in our case people because of our political beliefs. Fortunately Capital Police were there on the scene, law enforcement made sure it didn't happen. And thank God they were there. And so many other heroes and miracles that I talked about in the book Back in the Game.

CHUCK TODD:

Social media companies though, can they get rid of these people before they commit violence? Or do you think that's a violation of first amendment rights?

REP. STEVE SCALISE:

Well, that's up to each of them. And you're seeing social media companies take action to try to stop people from inciting violence or in cases even like the Florida shooting where they saw the kid say, "I want to be a school shooter," and that gets turned over to law enforcement. And unfortunately they dropped the ball on that case. They should have been able to follow through more.

CHUCK TODD:

All right, Steve Scalise, the number two Republican on the House side. Thanks for coming on and sharing your views. And tell you, you look as good as ever two years later. Nice to see you.

REP. STEVE SCALISE:

Feeling great and a happy Father's Day to you, Chuck.

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