CNN "Erin Burnett Outfront" - Transcript: Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) Is Interviewed About The Impeachment Probe
Interview
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He doesn't work for Trump anymore and that's the other big thing. He could stand up and stand up and speak and defy the president as nearly a dozen others have chosen to do and testify publicly. OUTFRONT now, Democratic Senator Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
And I appreciate your time today, Senator. Thank you so very much. What is your reaction to John Bolton weighing in on Twitter, talking about National Security at risk and under attack from within and tweeting stay tuned, but so far refusing to testify.
[19:30:03]
SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D-HI): Uh-huh. This is serious business, and Twitter doesn't do it. So, as you say, he should step forward as the other courageous testifiers have stepped forward to tell the American public and Congress the truth of what the president did.
BURNETT: Do you believe he will eventually testify? And will that happen in front of you in the Senate? It doesn't look like it's going to happen in the House, obviously.
HIRONO: One can only hope that these people will finally figure out that they should think about America and national security and not loyalty to a lying president who only cares about himself.
BURNETT: Now, it's not just John Bolton, obviously, who is obeying the president. Bolton doesn't even work for him anymore so he can really step up at any time.
HIRONO: Yes.
BURNETT: He's not the only one, right? There's Mick Mulvaney and there's the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also not speaking out. And here's Mike Pompeo today when he was asked about testifying.
He played coy and sort of made a joke of it. Here he is.
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MIKE POMPEO, SECRETARY OF STATE: When the time is right, all good things happen.
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BURNETT: I don't know if you could see, Senator, there, his little smile and as the audience there and as reporters were chuckling back at him. What do you think he means by that?
HIRONO: Who knows? And at this point, he's very deeply involved and all of these, what I would call these shenanigans that the president put everybody up to, and so, he's not coming clean and so what else is new with Pompeo?
BURNETT: So Republicans -- (CROSSTALK)
HIRONO: You know, everybody -- I'm sorry. The people that come close to the president they enter what I call the moral dead zone and it takes a lot for them to break out of the dead zone, and come clean and tell the truth.
BURNETT: So, Republicans are seizing on comments made by Democratic Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence. You know, she -- she has said censuring Trump in the Senate instead of trying to remove him from office, it's the right thing to do because she doesn't think that the Senate will vote to do that because, obviously, you've got majority Republicans. Here's how she explained her thinking on this show just a few moments ago, Senator.
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REP. BRENDA LAWRENCE (D-MI): Privately, the Republicans are saying, yes, it's not right. He's done something wrong, but it's just not impeachable.
We have to put a marker down. So I'm going to do my job in the House and when it gets to the Senate, I was putting out there that this is a way for history to reflect that this president and any president from now on, this is unacceptable.
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BURNETT: Do you think a vote to censure the president is the way to go in the Senate, that Republicans will onboard with that when they will not vote to remove him from office?
HIRONO: I don't know what the Republicans will get onboard with and that's why it's very important for this impeachment process in the House to continue and, you know, we shall see, but the expectation is that the Judiciary Committee will also engage in a process, and they will either come up with articles of impeachment or not. But I suspect they will come up with articles of impeachment and that's what we're supposed to do and that is our job under the Constitution.
And it is not for us to say, well, you know the Senate's never going to convict and we shouldn't do it. So, I obviously have a different viewpoint as to what should happen. I think we should proceed with what is the appropriate thing to do.
BURNETT: And therefore, have your -- have your trial on removal or not. You know, I want to --
HIRONO: If the articles of impeachment come to us? Yes.
BURNETT: OK. So, some of your colleagues, you know, I've spoken to recently, a couple of them, the Democratic colleagues in the Senate, and they have been pretty down on their private versus public conversations with Republican senators. Here are two of your colleagues.
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SEN. SHERROD BROWN (D-OH): What they say privately is very different from what they're doing publicly and saying publicly.
SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): I have a number of friends in the Republican caucus in the Senate and when I try to bring up the subject of the testimony of this week, the striking developments in the House, all of them have either changed the subject or simply said they'd really rather not talk about it.
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BURNETT: Senator, does that reflect your conversations with Republicans, your colleagues right now as well?
HIRONO: It certainly reflects what the Republicans are doing and, frankly, what does it matter what they're saying in private if it doesn't comfort with what they're saying in public. And so, there is a huge chasm between what they really think and what they're saying in public.
So this is why, until the Republican senators pay attention to what the president did which was to shake down the president of another country for his own political purposes using taxpayer money as leverage. They don't want to face that. And so, they just engage in all kinds of what-about-this or what-about-that.
[19:35:05]
Well, we should be focused on is on the president's actions and they're not able to do that.
BURNETT: All right. Senator Hirono, I appreciate your time.
HIRONO: Not yet.
BURNETT: Thank you so very much.
HIRONO: Thank you. Aloha.
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