CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Mazie Hirono
Interview
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BLITZER: Kaitlan Collins, thanks very much for that report.
Joining us now, Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii. She's a member of both the Judiciary and the Armed Services Committees. Thanks so much, Senator, for joining us.
SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D), HAWAII: Sure.
BLITZER: Let me get your immediate reaction to this breaking news on the citizenship question. The Justice Department now says it has been instructed to examine whether there is a path forward consistent with the Supreme Court's decision that would allow us, this statement says, to include a citizenship question on the census. What's your reaction to this complete 180-degree flip by the Department of Justice and the Department of Commerce?
HIRONO: Chaos and confusion continue to reign, emanated from this President. And he continues to think that he can do whatever he wants and force his various departments, including the Commerce Department and the Department of Justice, to bend to his will regardless of the Supreme Court's decision on the census case. So once again, we see the spectacle of the President acting like he's the dictator of our country. And you know, you had your previous guest talking about how he
acknowledges that there is a humanitarian crisis at the border, but they are doing everything they can to change that. At the same time, you have the President saying that these people are living in better conditions than they've ever had in the countries that they live in. So where is the incentive for improving the situation at the border?
You have a president who runs amok -- and also, I have to say, the picture of all of these people, children, locked up behind the cages and the tanks rolling in for the Trump show for the Fourth of July, is that our country?
BLITZER: Yes.
HIRONO: That's not the country that I think is a great country that people want to come to.
BLITZER: It's a huge, huge embarrassment for the United States of America. And the President claimed in that tweet just in the past hour or so that these migrants and border patrol custody are actually, in his words, living far -- in far safer conditions than where they came from.
HIRONO: Yes.
BLITZER: What do you make of the President's claim?
HIRONO: And what is that -- and what is that, Wolf, but a signal that why change anything? Why improve their conditions? Why pay any attention to the number of Democratic bills that would improve the -- what's going on in the border, including a bill that I introduced that would provide a level of humanitarian assistance to the children in these facilities?
So, you know, this is what Trump always does. He really reveals the dark underbelly of our country. And the cruelty that his language and what he says, which in my view -- you know, if you're a border patrol person who participated, one of 7,000 or so in this secret Facebook that makes fun of the migrants and their hardships and their deaths, you know what, what kind of message is that? I think that these people who participated are totally on the same page with the President of the United States.
BLITZER: Let me get your reaction also to the President's decision to change the Fourth of July celebration here in Washington. You're a member of the Armed Services Committee. What message does it send to have the President speak tomorrow flanked by tanks and military leaders?
HIRONO: The message is that the President is so enamored with the military and the fact that, you know, he closes up certainly to all of the totalian (ph) type of leaders -- the most recent being Kim Jong-un and Putin -- that a show of military force is what he thinks is going to make him look strong.
Quite the opposite. It makes him look, in my view, pretty pathetic and someone who has totally wrong priorities. The Fourth of July is supposed to be a national holiday. He's making it not only political, but he's making it all about himself. It's the Trump show, folks.
BLITZER: Senator Hirono, thanks so much for joining us.
HIRONO: Thank you.
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