CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Michael Bennet

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

BLITZER: We're counting down to tonight's CNN presidential debate. The first of two debates, each featuring 10 of the Democratic presidential candidates. One of them is joining us right now, Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, who will be on the debate stage tomorrow night.

Senator, thanks for coming in.

SEN. MICHAEL BENNET (D-CO), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: What are you going to be looking for tonight?

You're going to watch it on TV, I assume.

BENNET: I will watch it on TV with my wife and our kids, who are here. And it will be fascinating to watch. I think how people up there litigate Medicare for All, I think that is really important. BLITZER: Tell us about your position. You disagree.

BENNET: I disagree. For 10 years I believe we should have a public option.

BLITZER: So if you were on the stage tonight with Bernie Sanders, what would you say to him?

BENNET: I would say the American people do not have an appetite for raising taxes on the middle class by trillions to take insurance away from millions of other people who get it at work. I get Bernie's ideological commitment to that. But that is not where the Democratic base is.

I spent today with union pipe layers in -- right here in Detroit. And they want to know why the Democratic Party is threatening to take away their health care because they are self-insured.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Elizabeth Warren supported Medicare for All, too.

BENNET: I understand.

BLITZER: Do you see a difference between the two of them when it comes to health care?

BENNET: I actually don't. Elizabeth said I support Bernie's plan. And I don't fault Bernie. This is his ideological commitment he's had since 1973. But I don't think it should be the Democratic Party's commitment going into the election.

BLITZER: And you have said, a direct quote, "Colorado would be at risk if Bernie Sanders is the nominee."

BENNET: And that raises a important point as well. We need to nominate somebody who can beat Trump and also deliver a Democratic majority in the Senate. And I don't believe you can run on that health care bill and win in states like Colorado or Arizona or Maine or North Carolina.

These are the places we need to win if we want to have the Democrat control.

BLITZER: Give us your vision of health care.

What would you do?

BENNET: My view is we should finish the job we started with the Affordable Care Act. Give every American, trust every American family with the choice to decide, do I want the private insurance that I have, if I have it?

Or do I want a public option?

And if I want a public option, then I can have that. It just seems so --

BLITZER: So it sounds like you and Joe Biden are on the same page.

BENNET: We're completely on the same page on this.

BLITZER: So he's going to be on the stage with you --

BENNET: He will be.

BLITZER: -- tomorrow night.

Any significant area where you and he disagree?

BENNET: Obviously we have big disagreements on foreign policy. He voted for the Iraq War. I think that was a terrible foreign policy mistake that he made.

[17:30:00] And I think more broadly that his view that somehow, if we just get rid of Donald Trump, which we desperately need to do, that Washington will go back to normal, as he said. And we're going to be able to strike the kind of bipartisan deals he struck before.

I don't think there's deal from particularly good to begin with. But I think that era is long past and we need to be looking forward with that.

BLITZER: Your polling right now about 1 percent. Is it do or die for you tomorrow night?

BENNET: I don't think -- I'm not going to say it is do or die tomorrow night. I think this is one step in front of the other. I've won two really tough national races in the state of Colorado, which is exactly a third Democratic, a third Republican, and a third independent. And I won those races just putting one foot in front of the other and that's what I'm going to do.

BLITZER: Because tomorrow night it's not just Joe Biden who's going to be at the center of that stage, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris. How do you differentiate --

BENNET: I know half of the Senates could be there.

BLITZER: I know a lot of senators will be there.

BENNET: Well, I think the American people need somebody to tell them the truth and you just tell them the truth about how far we've -- you know, how much time we've lost as a nation because of Donald Trump, the fact that we can recover our balance and we can move forward and once again start building for the future.

We can't be the first generation of Americans to leave less opportunity not more of people coming after us and I think that's really what's at take. When you make claims, you know, political claims that sound great, but you can't deliver, to me that's just more politics.

BLITZER: Another hot-button issue, immigration. Where do you differ with some of the other candidates?

BENNET: Well, you know, I was the only one that didn't put their hand up last week with the last debate for open borders and maybe that's because I was part of the Gang of Eight that wrote the immigration bill in 2013.

That bill, with John McCain, that bill had a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million people that here. It had the most progressive dream act that it ever been conceived, but it also had $46 billion of border security, 21st century security, not the -- not Trump's medieval wall.

Every single Democrat in the Senate voted for that. That should be our position. Don't open us up to an attack from Donald Trump that were for open borders when we've supported real border security as well as a pathway to citizenship for the people that are here that are undocumented that need a way out of the shadows and back into our economy.

BLITZER: Senator, good luck tomorrow night.

BENNET: Thanks for having me. I look forward to talking again after this is over.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source