CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: "Interview with Rep. Al Green"
Interview
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SCIUTTO: Joining me now to discuss is Democratic Congressman Al Green from Texas, one of the first to call for the president's impeachment.
Congressman, we appreciate you taking the time this morning.
REP. AL GREEN (D-TX): Thank you, sir.
And I greatly appreciate this opportunity. And if I may say so, I still send my sympathies and condolences to those who have been harmed as a result of the mass killings.
SCIUTTO: Well, I'm with you. I was down there. The people need that. They do. And they'll need it for some time.
GREEN: Yes.
SCIUTTO: On Congressman Nadler's statement there, was that notable to you? And do you -- do you agree with him that in effect an impeachment inquiry has already started?
GREEN: Well, I think that impeachment should not be esoteric. I think it should be open and notorious. I think that it is a meaningful, significant step that Congress takes when we embark upon such an adventure and I think that we ought to say it in clear and concise words such that there is no question as to what we're doing because it is a meaningful step that the Constitution has accorded us when we have an unfit president who's causing harm to society.
And if I may say this, I appreciate what he's doing, but it is not enough. It's not enough because we are pursuing impeachment for obstruction. And I did call for impeachment for obstruction, but I've since learned now that it would be more important and worthwhile to impeach him for the bigotry that he's imposing upon society that is harming people. We now know that bigotry kills. The manifesto from the person who went some 600 miles to El Paso to take the lives of people clearly indicates that there was a connectivity between the presidency and his actions.
SCIUTTO: Let me ask you this because, as you know, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has been skeptical of moving to formal impeachment inquiry. You've introduced legislation to impeach President Trump three separate times going back to 2017.
In your view, are House Democratic leaders dragging their feet on this?
GREEN: Well, this is not about any one person. This is about Democrats in the main. And I think Speaker Pelosi would be the first to say that she is but one person with one voice. Democrats have to make up their minds. The radical Republicans impeached Andrew Johnson for his bigotry. We can do the same thing for this president. He is the Andrew Johnson of our time.
[09:35:01] So I would call upon Democrats to invoke your consciences and do not assume that the speaker speaks for you. I don't think she speaks for you or in the sense that she's telling anyone what to do. In fact, she said every person should vote their conscience when it comes to these issues. So I think this is bigger than the speaker. It's about all of us.
I also think this, if I may say so --
SCIUTTO: OK.
GREEN: And this I say from my heart, we're making a mistake by being at home and watching these things on television. We meaning the Democratic members of Congress. We should be in Congress. We should be on the floor of the House. We should be debating gun violence. We should be debating bills to deal with assault-like weapons that are killing people across the length and breadth of this country.
SCIUTTO: Right.
GREEN: The optics of that can impact public opinion. They need to see Democrats doing the right thing and passing it onto Republicans in the Senate who will do the wrong thing.
SCIUTTO: OK. OK, hold on that thought because I do want to ask you about gun control measures. But before I get there, and these are numbers that Nancy Pelosi certainly conscious of. A majority of Americans, and we'll put those up on the screen, oppose impeaching the president, 60 to 32 percent. That's two to one. Do -- are Democrats out of step with the American public on this question?
GREEN: The question is, are Democrats and others in sync with righteousness? Are we in sync with what the Constitution allows and what duty mandates? The question is, will we do what Dr. King said when he indicated that the time is always right to do what is right?
This is clearly the right thing to do given the harm that this man is causing to this country. We will bring the public along as we do our jobs. Dr. King said, you can either drive public opinion or be driven by it. We ought not to be driven by public opinion when we know that this is the right thing to do.
SCIUTTO: OK.
GREEN: This president must be impeached. He must be.
SCIUTTO: OK, back to gun control.
GREEN: Yes, sir.
SCIUTTO: As you know, certainly Republicans have stood in the way of gun control measures in the past. But Democrats as well have been loath to anger the NRA, loath to face challenges from Republicans in their districts, and some of them look back to 1994, the crime bill, which also had the assault weapons ban, as part of the reason the Democrats got soaked in the '94 midterm elections here.
What are Democrats going to do differently this time to make sure something happens?
GREEN: Well, I'll tell you what we should be doing. We should be letting the world know from the floor of the House of Representatives that we're taking up the assault weapons ban. These weapons have to be banned. And if Democrats don't want to vote to do this, then let them vote and let history judge us all. But those of us who believe it should be done ought to have the opportunity to let the optics of it be presented to this country.
The people in this country want to do something about these assault- like weapons that are killing people and we cannot sit on our hands at home and watch television while people are being murdered, slaughtered, if you will, and simply say it's the Republicans fault. We have a duty, a responsibility and an obligation to go back to Washington, D.C., and take up assault weapons. That's what people are crying for, some efforts to deal with these assault weapons.
By the way, I support the background checks. I support red flags. All of these things are important. But the weapons that were used are an instrumentality that will impose great lethality and we ought to deal with them.
By the way, we need to deal with these gun manufacturers. They ought not have the immunity that they have. Congress (INAUDIBLE) immunity upon them. We need to take that immunity from them so that they can be civilly sued and I guarantee you you'll see some changes in the way guns are manufactured. You'll probably see some smart guns on the market as opposed to these dumb guns that create violence by virtue of the lethality that they impose, create death and destruction would be a more appropriate way to say it.
SCIUTTO: Well, we will see if those measures get through Congress and crucially does the president, this time, he hasn't in the past, backed them.
Congressman Al Green, thanks so much for joining us this morning.
GREEN: Thank you.
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