CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: "Interview with Rep. Tulsi Gabbard"
Interview
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JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Ahead of the next Democratic presidential debate, another candidate is calling it quits. New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand made the call after failing to meet the donor or polling requirements to make the September debate.
About half the field has qualified, and several more missed the cut after they qualified by donor numbers, but not by the polling numbers as well. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, she is in that group. She is continuing her fight for the nomination. She joins us now, live from Iowa.
Congresswoman Tulsi, always good to have you on the air.
REP. TULSI GABBARD (D-HI), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Good morning, Jim.
SCIUTTO: I just want to ask you about this very briefly, because the news just came out that the DOJ has cleared -- well, we knew they cleared James Comey, the former FBI director, of any criminal wrongdoing. They do say he set a dangerous precedent here, but they did clear him of releasing any classified information in the memos that he wrote, documenting his conversations with President Trump.
Just based on that -- and I know you haven't read the full report --
GABBARD: Yes.
SCIUTTO: -- what's your reaction?
GABBARD: Yes, no, I'd like to take a look at it and see what the DOJ report has said.
SCIUTTO: OK, fine. Well, we'll set that aside. As you know, you did not make the next debate. You're staying in the race. How do you break through without that debate platform, as we get closer to Iowa, where you are, and to New Hampshire in January?
GABBARD: Yes. Yes, no, obviously, the debates are great platforms to be able to reach a lot of people across this country, but it's not the only way to be able to talk to voters, and to be able to spend time with them. And that's exactly what I'm doing, here in Iowa, and I'll continue to do across the country.
Being able to get out into these small towns and big cities, get into people's, you know, living rooms and sitting around the kitchen table, really talking about the issues that are important to them, is the kind of people-powered grassroots campaign that we are running, and I look forward to being able to continue to have the opportunity to do that.
SCIUTTO: OK. You told "Fox News" last night that the debate qualifying process lacks transparency, and that people deserve more transparency because the people will decide the nominee.
GABBARD: Yes.
SCIUTTO: I mean, the fact is, as you know, the polling standards, they've been public since the beginning here. Why is that not transparent?
GABBARD: There's a lot of questions that have been and are continuing to be raised, around those qualifications. There's no explanation or transparency around why certain polls are qualifying, while other very credible, recognized polls are somehow not qualifying.
The frequency and who they're -- I mean, there's a lot of different questions here. And, frankly, the DNC has not provided any transparency to voters about how they're making these decisions. And that's my point here, is that this should be a very fair, transparent process so that the people, voters in this country, have the best information to make their decision about who they want to be their nominee.
SCIUTTO: But I guess I just don't understand what you base that transparency argument on, when they've been out there, they make judgments about particular polls, as to whether they meet their standards. But they have -- they have advertised what those polls are for some time. So how is that -- how is that not transparent?
GABBARD: Well, we could get into a whole bunch of details about, you know, demographics and where exactly these polls are taking place and, more importantly, where they're not taking place. I don't think we've got the time to get into that here.
But I'll tell you, there's a lot of questions that have come up, just as we're going through this process, and are continuing to come up, that point to a lack of transparency beyond what the DNC put out, which was just a simple saying, "Hey, we're only going to recognize these polls, but we're not going to recognize a whole slew of other polls." That's a problem, in my view.
SCIUTTO: Let me ask you this. Some folks at home might not be aware that you just completed two weeks of service, completing your service commitment.
[10:35:04] As you're aware, the Trump administration has introduced a new policy that makes it more difficult for service members, deployed abroad, for their children to automatically get citizenship in the U.S. They have to go through an application process, et cetera. This will also affect State Department employees, for instance, who are serving their country abroad. As a member of the military, do you find that change acceptable or warranted?
GABBARD: It's deeply troubling. This is deeply troubling. And I'm gathering more information about exactly how this will, in a practical way, impact our service members as well as civilians who work for the United States federal government, who are in these posts they're assigned overseas, continuing to do their job in serving our country.
Again, looking into more details. But on its face, I think it is -- it's offensive to them, as they're serving our country in these different ways, to -- if they have a child overseas, during that service, to not have that child be born a U.S. citizen, just as they would be if they were doing that service here at home, is a very big problem.
SCIUTTO: No question. You spent time during your two-week deployment just recently, with members of the military. And I'm curious --
GABBARD: Yes.
SCIUTTO: -- as you're speaking to them, as a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, what are they telling you their priorities are, going into 2020?
GABBARD: Looking for strong leadership. Understanding that the most important responsibility that the president has, is to serve as commander in chief. And, you know, we as service members across all branches of the military, are the ones who experience directly, firsthand, the consequences of the decisions that are being made by the president of the United States and, yes, by Congress as well.
I think one of the things that we really focused on, just during this training exercise where we had both soldiers and airmen there, we were working with the Indonesian military. But it was really focused on a problem-solving mindset. That's essential for military operations, it's something that's drilled into me over 16 years as a soldier.
But it's something that's really essential for leaders in our country to have, as they're making decisions, both about our foreign policy as well as our domestic policy.
And we can see the failure of that problem-solving mindset, which is really -- look, you've got to understand the situation, you have to define the problem, and you've got to come up with an achievable objective or goal. And we see how many times this has not happened in our country's past, especially as it relates to us as service members: Vietnam, Syria, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan.
And the consequence, the result of this is that --
SCIUTTO: OK.
GABBARD: -- our brothers and sisters in uniform are killed in combat, needlessly, because leaders have failed to do this.
SCIUTTO: Yes. They pay -- the deployed service members often pay the price for that. Final question -- GABBARD: Exactly.
SCIUTTO: -- you didn't make this debate, you may make the next one, you're sticking in the race. But the fact is, you're well behind was is a pretty established group of frontrunners in this race, including the former vice president, Joe Biden.
If you don't win the Democratic nomination, will you run as an independent?
TEXT: August 21-26, Quinnipiac University Poll: Choice for Nominee, Registered Dem/Dem-Leaning Voters: Biden, 32 percent; Warren, 19 percent; Sanders, 15 percent; Harris, 7 percent; Buttigieg, 5 percent; Yang, 3 percent
GABBARD: I will not, no. I've ruled that out. I'm going to continue to focus on moving our campaign forward, continuing this grassroots campaign, continuing to deliver our message to the American people, and ask for their support.
SCIUTTO: Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, we wish you the best of luck. Thanks so much for taking the time this morning.
GABBARD: Thank you, Jim.
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