CNN "State of the Union" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Rashida Tlaib

Interview

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TAPPER: My next guest has been a very vocal supporter, to say the least, of impeachment since the day she was sworn in earlier this year.

That's gotten the attention of President Trump, who told Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and three of her colleagues to go back where they came from.

Well, Congresswoman Tlaib came from here. She was born and raised in Detroit. We're actually sitting in her congressional district.

And she joins us now to talk about her message and Michigan voters.

Congresswoman, thanks so much for joining us.

REP. RASHIDA TLAIB (D-MI): Well, thank you for having me.

TAPPER: I know you want to talk about Michigan. And I will ask you that in a second.

But I do want to get your reaction to a couple things in the news.

First, you just heard Chairman Nadler talking about impeachment. You have been in favor of impeaching President Trump since you were inaugurated.

Why do you think so many House Democrats are not with you? Why do you think you're in the minority among Democrats on that?

TLAIB: Well, I know, in my district, in the 13th Congressional District, very much rooted in what they're thinking and how they're feeling in regards to a lawless president, especially one that hasn't divested in his businesses. And they feel like what they call here is upgraded version of pay-to-

play. If you want to do business with the federal government, go stay at the D.C. hotel -- Trump's hotel in D.C.

So that is very alarming to a lot of my residents, who don't want any kind of corruption, right? They don't -- it's something that we fight against all the time, even on different levels of government here. And they don't want to see people being able to pay into mergers that he just approved that hurt working families, increase cell phone bills when he allowed the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint.

And I tell people all the time T-Mobile spend over like $200,000 alone at the D.C. Trump Hotel. And that kind of tainting of the process and not upholding the United States Constitution, which requires -- every single president prior to Donald Trump has divested in their businesses.

Even President Carter sold his bean farm.

TAPPER: But are you saying you're more sensitive to issues of corruption than other House Democrats are?

TLAIB: No.

And I think -- look, I think they are worried. But they're also more -- I think there's always this -- cautious of whether or not they're going to win, right?

But I always remind people the Watergate class -- and this is the largest incoming class since Watergate, ironically -- did not rely on whether or not this was going to go through the Senate, right? They did what was right for the country. They put country before political strategy, before polling.

And they said, is this right now a crisis, a constitutional crisis? Do we need to move forward? And they did. And they did right by the country. And I think, and, very much, it was something that benefited all the American people.

TAPPER: I want to get your response. You're on the House Oversight Committee with Chairman and Congresswoman Elijah Cummings of Maryland.

The president obviously referred to Cummings' district in Baltimore as -- quote -- "disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess," said that -- quote -- "No human being would want to live there."

I don't want to project, but he very easily could have said those same things about Detroit, it seems to me.

TLAIB: Absolutely.

And he continues to say things about American cities all across this country. I mean, look, our president has a hate agenda. He doesn't have a policy agenda. And that's what he falls down on, right?

He -- right now, as people are in my district every single day, I talk to folks that are losing their jobs, not getting paid what they need. Their pay -- they're literally working three or four jobs just to make ends meet.

So many folks at the front line are really suffering. And they want somebody that's going to follow through on reducing prescription drugs and all this.

But, Jake, I mean, this hate agenda is now seeping into policy-making. You see the deregulation in EPA. And you hear from my residents in downriver here in Ecorse, Rouge, and Melvindale tell me constantly and even in Southwest Detroit, we have a right to breathe clean air. There's something going on here. We don't feel like our government is protecting us.

And it's because of the corporation is seeping in. I mean, this is a crooked CEO in the White House that is making decisions based on profits, based on where his friends and based on what his Trump Organization, his for-profit industry would benefit from, vs. what is best for the American people.

This hate agenda is not -- we're not going to get played here, especially in the 13th Congressional District. We can see it from far away that he's incompetent, that he hasn't been able to follow through on the promises he made.

And people are hurting more and more, from farmers to autoworkers, to the mother that is trying to provide for their children.

TAPPER: So you talk about the hate agenda. And you know you have heard there's -- there have been criticisms of you from even your fellow Democrats, especially for your support for the BDS movement, which stands for boycott, divest, sanction.

It's an anti-Israel movement, or it's...

(CROSSTALK)

TLAIB: No, it's anti -- it's criticizing the racist policies of Israel. And it's a boycott, right?

I mean, I think folks don't know, when you say BDS -- especially in around the country, when you say BDS, they don't -- they know not sure what it means.

TAPPER: Boycott, divest, sanction.

TLAIB: Yes.

TAPPER: I want to get your reaction to something that Senator Schumer said about BDS, which is a movement you support.

[09:35:03]

TLAIB: Yes.

TAPPER: He said -- quote -- "When there is such a double standard, when the world treats everybody one way and the Jew or the Jewish state another way, there's only one word for it, anti-Semitism. Let us call out the BDS movement for what it is."

And I think one of the questions that Senator Schumer and other supporters of Israel might have is, why focus on just Israel? Why not also call for sanctions against other countries where you might have issues, such as Egypt or Pakistan or Saudi Arabia?

TLAIB: Oh, absolutely.

And I think, if there was an economic boycott movement around Saudi Arabia, I will be the first to sign up for it.

I can tell you, they're -- all around college campuses, there are Jews, Muslims, Hindus, all different kinds of backgrounds who are pushing back against racist policies in Israel, because they see that -- the human rights violations of children being detained, the fact that my grandmother, who lives in the West Bank right now, does not have equality, she doesn't have freedom of travel.

She is someone that right now, under occupation, is feeling less than.

And I grew up in the most blackest, beautiful in the country, where every corner in Detroit here, you will see a reminiscence of the civil rights movement, of the labor rights movement. And we did it through economic boycott. It is a form of freedom of speech.

But people want to dismiss it because they're trying to say it's anti- Semitism. That's the way they're trying to discredit the fact that we all know, under Netanyahu's regime, human rights violations have gotten worse. And we need to be able to...

TAPPER: Well, why not -- why not boycott Egypt? They have human rights...

TLAIB: Oh, I would boycott Egypt, of course. I'm very critical.

TAPPER: But you keep saying you would -- you would boycott Saudi Arabia, you would boycott Egypt, but you're not.

TLAIB: Oh, let me tell you, but there -- right now, there is not a bill or resolution the floor that is saying, stop boycotting Egypt.

TAPPER: But you could invite one.

TLAIB: Of course.

And I would absolutely oppose any sort of oppression of freedom of speech, of First Amendment right in this country. It's a slippery slope, Jake, because, tomorrow, if folks want to protest -- boycott Saudi Arabia, and there's a movement, and it's got a name, they're going to go ahead and pass a resolution saying, you don't have freedom of speech, you don't have a right to First Amendment?

You can't be double standard. But, of course I would oppose any kind of oppression of that sort of freedom -- of dismissing somebody's right, First Amendment right.

And we have cases around the country from teachers who don't even know what's going on Israel who do not feel like they should wipe away their First Amendment right to be able to speak out through economic boycott.

TAPPER: I know you want to talk about Michigan, so just last question on this.

Do you think the Jewish people have the right to a state in the area where Israel exists now?

TLAIB: Look, I truly believe the state of Israel exists, correct.

But, understand, does it exist in the detriment of inequality for the Palestinian people, detriment of not really moving forward in a peaceful resolution? We're never going to have peace, I truly believe, if separate but equal is the way they want to go.

And I can tell you, I learned that from my African-American teachers in Detroit public schools, who showed me what the pain of oppression looks like. We're not going to have peace if we don't understand that we are dehumanizing Palestinians every single day when we choose Israel over their rights.

TAPPER: But, yes or no, does Israel have a right to exist?

TLAIB: Oh, of course.

TAPPER: OK.

TLAIB: But just like Palestinians have a right to exist. Palestinians also have a right to human rights.

We can't say one or the other. We have to say it in the same breath, or we're not going to actually have a peaceful resolution.

TAPPER: So President Trump's -- I know you want to talk about Michigan.

TLAIB: Yes.

TAPPER: President Trump's win in Michigan is one of the main reasons he's president.

TLAIB: Yes.

TAPPER: And when it comes to pitching voters here on his reelection, the economy is better in Michigan now than it was in 2016.

TLAIB: Really? Because GM is leaving.

TAPPER: The unemployment -- well, OK. I'm sure you can point to individual cases.

But the unemployment rate has dropped from 5.1 percent to 4.2 percent. The GDP of Michigan has increased by nearly 8 percent. Why should Michigan voters turn over control of the economy to Democrats, when it is doing better under President Trump?

TLAIB: Look, it's not handing over to anybody. It is making sure that they come priority before anybody else.

Look, the numbers that come out, that's not what's felt here, because, yes, there are low-end, low-wage jobs. Some have multiple jobs. Some are part-time jobs.

TAPPER: But wages are going up.

TLAIB: Their wages are going up because the people are demanding it go up, not because Donald Trump wanted them to go up. Does that make sense?

Because the movement of Fight For 15 is growing. The movement to hold the corporations accountable is growing. And it's because of movement work, not because of who is president of the United States.

Transformation, from the civil rights movement to the labor rights movement, didn't happen because somebody introduced a bill or whoever was president at the time. It happened because people on the ground here, especially in Wayne County, in Detroit, I have seen it over and over again, they demanded it change.

And so you see a movement of saying no more. One job should be enough, that we should be pushing back against this kind of form of putting corporations and giving them the tax giveaways vs. putting it in the pockets of American people.

TAPPER: But the economy is doing better in Michigan under President Trump.

TLAIB: But I don't put President Trump as the reason.

It's because of the people demanding it. If you don't think the labor rights movement is growing, especially in the service industry, there was just the strike downtown from security officers saying, we deserve health care.

If you haven't seen what's happening at airports right now across the nation, thousands just showed up at Reagan. We're going to have tons of folks down at the Delta terminal here at Wayne Metro Airport.

[09:40:07]

And you see that is happening, is that they're demanding it, not because they're relying on who's president of the United States.

TAPPER: So, very quickly, we have the debate coming up.

The mayor of Detroit just endorsed Joe Biden. Do you think that Joe Biden or do you think one of the more progressive candidates has a better chance of turning Michigan blue in 2020? TLAIB: Look, this might be controversial, but I have an amazing,

incredible attorney general right now, Dana Nessel. And I wish she was running, to be honest, because -- no, let me tell you...

TAPPER: But she's not.

TLAIB: She's not, but let me tell you why I need somebody like her that's fearless.

Every single time you turn around, she doesn't hesitate. She puts people first. And I want folks to know, and especially the listeners to know this. Don't watch -- and the performance of someone's debate.

Watch what their previous votes were. Watch their previous policies. That is more important than how they perform and debates, how they're answering questions, because all of us can perform.

TAPPER: Nessel 2020 is what I hear, yes.

TLAIB: But how are we voting? How are we voting?

How did the person in their previous roles -- and every single one that's running has been in some sort of role where they're making decisions, where either they chose people or they chose profits for the corporations.

And pay attention more to that...

TAPPER: Yes.

TLAIB: ... than pay attention to how they perform in debates.

TAPPER: Congresswoman Tlaib, thank you so much. And thanks for welcoming me to your beautiful city here. I appreciate it.

TLAIB: Thank you so much. I really appreciate -- you're welcome.

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