CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: "Interview with Rep. Adriano Espaillat"
Interview
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JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: With me now is Democratic Congressman Adriano Espaillat of New York. He serves on the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Congressman, we appreciate you taking the time this morning.
REP. ADRIANO ESPAILLAT (D-NY): Thank you, Jim. Thank you so much.
SCIUTTO: So among Democrats, you're nearly at half of your caucus supporting impeachment. What is your message to Nancy Pelosi? Is now the time to proceed?
ESPAILLAT: Well, I -- as Poppy said earlier, I think our leader can count. I think more will come. By the way, I think that if we get access to the testimony in the -- in the Mueller grand jury and if we are able to subpoena them again before the Judiciary Committee, we will hear -- we will have a greater insight into what happened. I think more will come our way.
I think our leader has been very fair, even handed. I think she will listen to the caucus. I think more members will come towards impeachment. But she also recognizes that we need additional facts and evidence.
I'm already there.
SCIUTTO: OK.
ESPAILLAT: I was there last year. I think that we're getting closer.
SCIUTTO: So question, though, where are the American people? An NBC News/"Wall Street Journal" poll just a couple of weeks ago found that support for impeachment, this among registered voters, dropped to 21 percent in July, down already from 27 percent. Are you out of step with the American people here?
ESPAILLAT: I think that if we -- if you want to take impeachment for -- from a perspective of politics, you know, then -- then, of course, you will have to consider polls. But --
SCIUTTO: But it is. It's a political question. It's --
ESPAILLAT: Well, it's also --
SCIUTTO: Do you have the support of the American people to impeach a sitting president? It doesn't appear you do.
ESPAILLAT: I think that the House of Representatives has a responsibility granted to us by the Constitution and I think that eventually good government results in good politics. And if we see that we have to act and there is sufficient evidence that we must go in one direction, we must not abdicate our constitutional responsibility.
Good government is good politics. We could look to this from the political perspective and try to score political points or we can look at this from the constitutional perspective and try to do what's right. I believe in the latter.
SCIUTTO: Well, your jobs, of course, depends on politics. As you know, Democrats swept back to a majority of the House in 2018 by winning a lot of swing districts. And those candidates ran on issues other than impeachment. And I'm curious, I know that the Democratic House has passed a lot of bills, but without the Senate, a lot of those bills haven't gone anywhere.
In 2020, what are you going to have to present to voters, particularly in those swing districts, to say, hey, makes a difference, give us another couple of years in office?
ESPAILLAT: I think we've been successful in passing very important legislation. The minimum wage legislation. We passed --
SCIUTTO: But it's not going to get through the Senate, man. It's not -- it's not going to become real -- law.
ESPAILLAT: Well, you know, but then that's -- that's on the Senate that we're fulfilling our responsibility. We have a host of pieces of legislation that I think are historical in scope. We did LGBT legislation. We've done voter protection legislation, gun reform legislation. We've done -- we've basically gone through the whole list of legislations that we promised the American people.
[09:35:17] Now, it's up to the Senate, obviously.
SCIUTTO: But what does all this mean if it doesn't become a reality? It's nice, it looks good on paper, but it's not making guns any more difficult to be bought, it's not, you know, it's not enshrining any of this stuff into law. It's all aspirational at this point.
ESPAILLAT: Well, I think that we should engage the Senate and insure that they -- they know the full scope of our legislation. But we are fulfilling our responsibility, both politically and governmentally. I think that the fact that you see many Republicans stepping down, like Will Hurd did this week, it shows that the American people understand that we are passing those pieces of legislation. And those Republican Congress members also understand that they're not -- they're not sitting, looking pretty for this next election.
So we still have a long way to go until next year. I hope that we can pass an infrastructure bill. I think an infrastructure bill is a bipartisan bill that the American people want. SCIUTTO: We'll see. Afghanistan, the president, the White House
negotiating a deal with the Taliban. As you know, the Taliban has killed hundreds of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, killed thousands of the Afghan people, and the president has telegraphed that he want to reduce U.S. forces here on an election timetable by the 2020 election.
You sit on the Foreign Affairs Committee.
ESPAILLAT: That's right.
SCIUTTO: Are you concerned that this deal would represent surrender to the Taliban and Afghanistan?
ESPAILLAT: No, I think that we should pull out of Afghanistan. I think that our soldiers, the men and women of our armed forces, have been there for far too long. Obviously, Afghanistan is still in major chaos. Should we be a policeman of the world? That's the question that we must answer. Or should we address those national issues that are bread and butter issues for the American families. I think it's a -- we have to approach those bread and butter issues of the American family. And, by the way, when we engage militarily, we have far less money to invest domestically.
I think we should pull the troops out. We've done the best we could in the region.
SCIUTTO: All troops? Pull all troops out? Al Qaeda still has a presence in Afghanistan and, as we know, al Qaeda plotted the attacks on 9/11 from Afghanistan with the Taliban's welcome.
ESPAILLAT: I think that we should -- we should incrementally pull them out. I think that they should be eventually out of Afghanistan and the region for that matter. You know, we've given our blood, sweat and tears to that region. We're not happy where Afghanistan is right now. But we've done the best we can to stabilize the region. Let's bring our soldiers back home. Let's invest in the development of America.
SCIUTTO: Congressman Espaillat of New York, thanks very much for joining the broadcast, sir.
ESPAILLAT: Thank you so much. Thank you so much.
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