CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Elissa Slotkin
Interview
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With us now for the 360 interview, Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin.
Congresswoman, you were of the co-sponsors in the War Powers Resolution that just passed the House. I'm wondering what your message is to those who voted against it?
REP. ELISSA SLOTKIN (D-MI): Well, listen, I mean, everyone has to make their own decisions. All this thing tried to do was say that if the president is going to keep forces in the region that are focused on Iran and be in a protracted war with Iran, he's going to have to come back to Congress.
What he just said right now is factually incorrect. The president always has the right to act in self-defense. The president always has the right to act when he sees fit as long as he notifies us afterwards within 48 hours.
But after 60 days, if those troops are still there, he's got to come back to us and say, you know what, we're now not in immediate moment, we're in war. And I need authorization from Congress. And that's just the Constitution. That's not something new that we made up.
This bill today was just something to remind everybody that we should be debating things like war and peace, and we should be following the Constitution and authorizing war if that's what we're going to end up doing.
So, the president, he always has the right to self-defense. And I'm a big believer in that.
COOPER: Sara Sanders, the former White House secretary, she criticized the resolution today saying, quote, that she, quote, can't think of anything dumber than allowing Congress to take over our foreign policy. That was an end quote. She doesn't think anything can be worse for America than that.
Does that -- I mean, what you're doing, as you said, is about the Constitution.
SLOTKIN: Yes, I mean, I guess I just feel like maybe for some people this is a theoretical exercise. My husband was in the Army for 30 years. We actually met in Baghdad when I was a CIA officer. My stepdaughter is a brand-new army officer. My son-in-law is a brand-new army officer. When we're talking about sending young men and women into war, we
should be having a debate. We should be having a robust conversation. We should be talking about authorization of military force. This isn't a radical thing.
So, for me, we were just reinforcing what the Constitution says. And anyone who says, you know, all this political stuff, they either don't have skin in the game or they don't understand people's lives are involved here.
COOPER: Today, the president has said that the reason he decided to kill Soleimani was back the general was, quote, looking to blow up our embassy, and then at a rally tonight said it was actually multiple embassies. Obviously, no public evidence has been provided. A number of senators, Mike Lee and Rand Paul on the Republican side, were clearly unhappy with the briefing they received just yesterday.
Were -- is this a plot you were aware of before the president mentioned it today, if this was a plot?
SLOTKIN: Yes. So, I can't speak to what the president was speaking to. Yesterday we had a briefing from Secretary Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Esper, from the director of the CIA. The same briefing the Senate had. They just walked over to the House and gave the same classified briefing.
And I can't talk about the details. All I can tell you is that it was a bit thin. It did provide some new information, but it was a bit thin. And many of us were asking for follow-up, for more documents, for something we could read.
And, you know, I hope that that's forthcoming. That's the way things should work.
So I can't speak to the specifics of what the president is talking about, but to me, this was about looking forward, right? We have been having a back and forth with Iran seven or eight months now. The killing of Qasem Soleimani was a very new step. So were ballistic missiles fired on from Iran on U.S. forces in Iraq. That's totally unprecedented.
So, we've obviously had a really, really tough week. This conversation with Iran has been going on for a while. That's why I thought it was important to put down a marker that if you're going to get us into protracted war, you're going to have to come back to Congress to ask for authority.
[20:25:06]
COOPER: I want to play something that Republican Congressman Doug Collins said last night, attacking Democrats over their questioning of the events of the last week. Let's take a look.
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REP. DOUG COLLINS (R-GA): Nancy Pelosi does it again and her Democrats fall right in line. One, they're in love with terrorists. We see that. They mourn Soleimani more than they mourn our Gold Star families who are the ones who suffered under Soleimani. That's a problem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Obviously, you know, just factually what he said is not true. And also as somebody who was a pastor and I believe still is a pastor, it's kind of amazing that he would say that.
But when you hear a fellow member of Congress, high-ranking official on the judiciary committee nonetheless, accusing your fellow Democrats of that, I'm just wondering what do you make of that?
SLOTKIN: I mean, it's offensive. I don't know what else to say about it. I served three tours in Iraq as a Shia militia analyst. I have been in the embassy when in the embassy when we've taken incoming fire from Iranian rockets. I have watched Qasem Soleimani in particular, who has just been the architect of this horrible, horrible approach to the United States trying to get us kicked out of Iraq and trying to sow just destabilizing activities all over the region.
So, I don't -- to me, it's beyond political speak. It's offensive. And I don't know what to say other than it isn't consistent with being a leader.
COOPER: Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin, I appreciate your time tonight. Thank you.
SLOTKIN: Thanks so much.
COOPER: Just ahead, we're going to have reaction to the comments by Congressman Collins.
Also, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke today about when she will release the articles of impeachment to the Senate. Her strategy when we return.
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