CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. John Garamendi

Interview

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COOPER: Democrats and a number of Republicans are not thanking him. They're angered by the $3.8 billion diversion of funds that were intended for military equipment.

I want to bring in Democratic Congressman John Garamendi from California who sits on the Armed Services Committee.

Congressman, thanks for being with us. First of all, isn't it the job of Congress to decide what gets funded and by how much? Is the Trump White House taking fund from the Pentagon legal under the Constitution?

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D-CA): Well, the constitution's quite clear. It is the power of the purse given to Congress, not to the president. That's absolutely clear. However, the President did find a loophole in two places. The first is that he was able to use what is known as the counter-drug interdiction money and move it around.

The fact is that this $3.5 billion is going to come out of the taxpayers' pocket and also out of national guard units all around the nation that will not have $1 billion, $500 million of necessary equipment so that they can help our citizens with fires, floods, tornados, hurricanes, and the other disasters that befall us.

And for the U.S. marines, they're going to lose $1,400,000,000 of 94 new assault ship from which they can launch their helicopters and they will not have two F-35 vertical takeoff fifth generation fighters. This is just really a horrendous problem. Not only with regard to the constitution but even more so with regard to the necessity of maintaining a strong national defense.

COOPER: And -- I mean, is there anything, at this point, that Congress can actually do about it?

GARAMENDI: Yes, there is. Unfortunately, last year, the Senate would not let the House version pass. In the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act, we prohibited these transfers. Unfortunately, the Senate refused to go along with that. The Republicans there, once again, kowtowed to the President and they allow -- they took that particular provision out. I will assure anybody that cares to watch what happens this year that there is going to be a monumental fight in the National Defense Authorization Act that will, ultimately, hopefully, culminate in removing the President's power of the purse and restoring the power of Congress, the power of the purse, the power of appropriations.

COOPER: This is not the first time the administration has redirected funds from other military projects to go to the wall. NPR last month I think citing numbers from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. They put the cost of the wall at like $11 billion, which is a far cry from what Congress has authorized. You're on the Armed Services Committee. Doesn't the pentagon need that money for other things? I mean $11 billion. Is it all going to be coming from the Pentagon?

GARAMENDI: Thus far, almost all that Congress did appropriate, last year at the end of that 40-some day shutdown of government, did appropriate about a billion and a half dollars for border security, some of which was available for the wall. The President immediately turned around in 2019 and stole $7.5 billion using some very -- really stretching the law.

[20:55:06] And set about to build his wall. Most of that money, more than 50% of that money, has not been spent. It's sitting in some account someplace. And now, this year, he's at it once again to the tune of at least $3.5 billion. And we expect $7 billion total. That's some 7 -- $15 billion of taxpayer money that's going to the wall. That's money that was specifically appropriated for necessary military projects all around the world for equipment and planes and tanks, as well as ships.

COOPER: It's so interesting because obviously the President ran not only on this wall, but that Mexico was going to pay for it. There is obviously no mention of that now. And certainly, the idea that it's taxpayers paying for it, which is what a lot of -- frankly, a lot of Republicans said at the time, you're not going to do this and have Mexico pay for it.

GARAMENDI: Well, here's what happened. The Congress decided to spend a billion and a half dollars. The President just went around the power of Congress and did it. Unfortunately, the Senate Republicans refused to stand up once again. We saw that in the impeachment. They refused to stand up to their constitutional obligations to carry out the Article I powers given to them in the constitution. And here we are, the President running wild, once again, running over the constitution and usurping the power of Congress.

COOPER: Congressman, I appreciate your time.

GARAMENDI: Thank you.

COOPER: Reminder, don't miss full circle. It's our digital news show that gives us a chance to dig into some important topics and having depth conversations. You can catch it streaming live weekdays 5:00 p.m. Eastern at cnn.com/fullcircle. You can watch there anytime on demand, cnn.com/fullcircle.

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