CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Pramila Jayapal

Interview

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MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. From Pramila Jayapal over here, speaking with her, the House -- member of the House Judiciary Committee, Democrat from Washington. Thanks for chatting with us.

So of course, these two articles of impeachment now just advanced to the House floor on a party-line vote. Are you worried at all about the ramifications of doing something so historic, so significant, so rare in American history, but being done along party lines.

REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): Well, there's no question I wish that wasn't the case. I think we laid out an incredibly clear set of facts. We contested every lie or mistruth that the Republicans put out there, with a set of facts that were delivered by patriots, by the way, some of whom were appointed by Donald Trump, the witnesses that came before the Intel Committee.

And so I had hoped that there might be a couple of Republicans that would vote their conscience, that would vote the Constitution, that would vote for their oath of office. And that didn't happen. I don't think that necessarily means we won't see that on the -- you know, we'll see that on the House floor. I hope that some Republicans in the House are willing to put country over party, and then ,you know, we'll send it on.

But I think the importance of this moment, when a president of the United States invites a foreign government to interfere in our elections and uses the office of the president, a White House meeting and taxpayer military aid that was approved by Congress? If that is not impeachable, I do not know what is.

And to hear John Ratcliffe say that the answer that I asked -- of all of my colleagues, forget about President Trump -- is it OK for a president to invite a foreign country to interfere in our elections? He said yes. Now, he said "involvement" instead of "interference," I understand that. But that is the same thing, to involve a foreign government, to request their assistance in our election, takes away the vote of the American people.

RAJU: So when this goes to the House floor, we do -- we don't expect any Republicans to vote for this. At the moment, they seem completely in line with the president on this. We do expect two Democrats to defect, and potentially a handful more. Does that worry you, that the perception will be -- could be that this was bipartisan opposition to these two articles of impeachment when the vote ultimately comes next week?

JAYAPAL: I think everybody is going to have to vote their conscience. And I think that if somebody votes no on these articles, I have a hard time understanding how they could look at the facts and do that. But we all have to wake up and go to bed with ourselves every night. And we will be remembered in history for this vote.

And so that's what I would ask all of my Republican colleagues and any Democrats who are looking at this, that aren't sure what they're going to do, to think about the effect on history. This is going to go down in the history books.

And this idea that democracy can be saved or preserved without any effort, without any courage from us, is an affront to the people who fought in the revolutions on the battlefields to create this democracy.

RAJU: Do you think that Democrats -- your case would have been even stronger, had you have fought this out in court to try to get those Mick Mulvaneys, John Boltons of the world to come and testify and provide what their direct interactions were with the president?

JAYAPAL: Well, of course, we would have loved them to come. But the president was obstructing us at every single step, this is what is unprecedented. And I hope that the American people understand this. In every other impeachment of a president, the president -- Nixon, Clinton -- they did not give a blanket denial of witnesses, of documents.

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This president has obstructed us every step of the way. So, yes, we don't have those people. You know why? Because he would not let them come and testify. And so that is outrageous. This is not -- we are not accountable to the courts -- I think Madeleine Dean did a great job of explaining this yesterday -- the Constitution says the sole power of impeachment is given to the people's house. We are not just a coequal branch of government, we are actually Article I.

RAJU: Congresswoman, thank you so much for chatting with us. Wolf, back to you.

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