CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Democrats Drafting Articles of Impeachment; Interview With Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA)
Interview
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We're joined now by a House Democrat on the Judiciary Committee who is drafting articles of impeachment, Congresswoman Madeleine Dean. Congresswoman, thanks so much for joining us.
REP. MADELEINE DEAN (D-PA): Good evening, Wolf.
BLITZER: And, as you heard, the White House says the impeachment inquiry is completely baseless, as it turns down your committee's invitation to participate in the hearings.
What's your response to the administration's criticism?
DEAN: Well, I'm not surprised that the administration is not participating, because they have not been able to deny a single piece of the evidence that is so damning against this president.
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We have the evidence, sadly. This is an extraordinarily difficult week and time for our country. It is about the president's words. It is about the president's behavior when he betrayed his oath and he betrayed our country, asking for interference in our elections.
BLITZER: There's clearly some division, though, emerging within your Democratic Party over whether to include Mueller's findings in the articles of impeachment.
What about you? Are you in favor of including that evidence, as well as the Ukraine evidence?
DEAN: I will tell you, Wolf, as a member of the Judiciary Committee, because of the work that I know I'm going to participate in, I'm not going to prejudge the articles.
But I don't think this is about special counsel Mueller. I think it's about the president. He abused his own office. And it's a pattern of behavior. When he was a candidate, he welcomed the interference of Russia in our 2016 election.
And then, the day after special counsel Mueller testified to our committee and to the Intelligence Committee, he learned nothing from that, and in fact himself asked, demanded, implored Ukraine to interfere in the upcoming election.
Remember what it's about. It's for his personal political gain. It's not about us. It's not about the safety and security of our country. In fact, it makes us less safe. It makes our elections less safe. This is extraordinarily and entirely about the president's behavior.
BLITZER: Well, I just want to press you for a sec.
Should the Mueller conclusions also be included in articles of impeachment?
DEAN: I haven't decided that. I'm actually in conversations with the members of Judiciary, with the chairman of Judiciary.
And I'm pretty certain that much of our input is being taken. But we have leadership who will finalize the articles of impeachment. What must be included is the damning evidence of the president's corrupt behaviors that violate the impeachment clause of our Constitution. That's what I want included.
BLITZER: Because alienating moderate Democrats, clearly, that could be a risk that party leadership certainly doesn't want to take right now. They'd like to see a unanimous decision the part of Democrats.
We saw some of that a division emerge in the last hour here in THE SITUATION ROOM, Congressman Max Rose, a more moderate Democrat, vs Congressman Steve Cohen. They clearly disagree on a lot of this.
DEAN: I think they may disagree. I didn't see that coverage. And I know and admire both of them, to be very honest.
What I thought this week's hearing with the professors proved is that this is not about those kinds of political disagreements. This is absolutely about the words of our founders, the things that they worried about. They reminded us that we depend upon our Constitution, but our Constitution depends upon us.
If we don't uphold it, if we don't protect the precious nature of our Constitution and of our democracy, then where will we be? We will be suffering a monarchy. We will be suffering one person who believes he is above the law.
We can't tolerate that.
BLITZER: Do you expect to discuss the framing of specific articles of impeachment with House leadership this weekend?
DEAN: I hope to, yes, frankly.
BLITZER: When will a decision about the scope of the articles, do you believe, when will it be made?
DEAN: I don't know. I'm not in charge of that calendar. You know me, Wolf. I'm a freshman member of Judiciary. I'm one of the worker bees. And I take my oath very, very seriously.
And I'm with Speaker Pelosi in terms of the way she has framed this. This is an extraordinarily sad and sober time for our country. But I believe our country is up to it. And I believe and I have the confidence that our Constitution is up to it.
In terms of the calendar, I can't help you.
BLITZER: There will be a very important House Judiciary Committee hearing Monday morning. Intelligence Committee lawyers will be appearing. They will be testifying before your committee.
What questions do you still have? Are we going to learn anything new?
DEAN: I'm not certain of that.
I certainly hope to be a useful member of that hearing. It's an evidentiary hearing to bring forward in greater detail, in greater frame for the American public the sad corruption and abuse of office and betrayal of an oath by the president of the United States.
Remember, this is an extraordinarily tough time. When I go home to my constituents, Wolf, they're so worried. They're worried for our country. They're worried for our democracy. They believe that we're on the right course, though they know it's really difficult.
They also wonder, what are we doing about the other things that we're legislating about? And I remind them, we have passed 400 bills, two important bills today. And yet 80 percent of them sit dead in the Senate.
So we're going to keep working. We're going to do this important task of impeachment. We are charged by the speaker, because she wants to uphold and knows that she has an obligation to uphold our Constitution. We're going to write those articles of impeachment. We're going to debate them.
We're going to make them as precise and thoughtful as possible. And then we will bring them to the floor for a vote.
BLITZER: Congresswoman Madeleine Dean, thanks so much for joining us.
DEAN: Good night. Thank you.
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