CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) on the Impeachment Trial
Interview
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
I'm joined now by Massachusetts Democratic Senator Ed Markey. He also serves on the Foreign Relations Committee.
[09:15:00]
JIM SCIUTTO, CO-ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Senator, we appreciate you taking the time this morning --
SEN. ED MARKEY (D-MA): Thank you.
SCIUTTO: So, the emerging argument from Republicans both behind closed doors, but also in public, is that to call witnesses, would somehow challenge executive privilege, weaken the office of the president for some time to come. What's your response to that argument?
MARKEY: Well, my answer would be that the president would then say, you can't investigate me, you can't indict me, you can't impeach me. That I'm immune. That I can do whatever I want. And that the Congress is powerless. No matter how great the abuse of power that I engage in as a president, cannot, in fact, be called into question by the United States Congress which, of course, is a complete and total upside-down interpretation of the United States constitution.
We are supposed to be the check-up on him. We are the ones who are supposed to ensure that he is not a monarch, that he cannot act in a way that is not accountable to the American people. So, it's a crazy argument. It's a, A, historical argument, and it's one that we're going to continue to contest extremely vigorously.
SCIUTTO: You hear -- and I've heard some of this from Republicans in private crucially, not in public, that the president's behavior here, yes, inappropriate. I wouldn't have done it. I wish he hadn't done it. But does not rise to the level of being an impeachable offense. I wonder what you say to your Republican colleagues when they make that argument.
MARKEY: I guess the question to them is, if this is not impeachable, what is impeachable? If somebody as a president goes to a foreign government, and says that I want you to investigate my political rival, my principal political rival at that time, in return for $391 million of American taxpayer money, and that's not impeachable, then nothing is impeachable. I mean, absolutely nothing.
And no president can ever be held accountable. And so, ultimately, this sets a precedent for the future. All presidents, henceforth --
SCIUTTO: Yes --
MARKEY: And forever, if the Republicans do not make Trump accountable, will have pretty much carte blanche. They'll be able to do whatever they want because the standard for impeachability will have been absolutely eliminated.
SCIUTTO: It strikes me, the score of this argument by Democrats, right, is not just that the president pressured a foreign government to investigate a political rival. But also pressured a foreign government in effect to interfere in a U.S. election. It strikes me that as this is happening, even as the president is being tried on this allegation, his personal attorney is still going to Ukraine. He's still meeting with shady folks over there, gathering information on Biden.
Are you concerned that the president, perhaps emboldened, is still attempting to get a foreign government to interfere?
MARKEY: Absolutely. I mean, what Adam Schiff and the house managers laid out was a blistering, scalding indictment of Donald Trump, of Rudy Giuliani, of all of his political henchmen to try to steal the election of 2020. There's no question about it. And if he's allowed to go scot-free here, then we should just expect --
SCIUTTO: Yes --
MARKEY: That there are no rules. That Giuliani will be overseas, that it will be something that emboldens him to go even further in terms of breaking of the traditions in our country because the Republicans will say there are no rules. You can do whatever you want and I'm afraid for what that means this year. The Russians will be able to feel more freedom to come into our elections and to -- and to interfere with them.
So I just think that what the Republicans decide to do in terms of allowing the Senate to hear from Mick Mulvaney, from John Bolton, from the other witnesses, the other documents is going to be the moment --
SCIUTTO: Yes --
MARKEY: Of accountability for an entire, traditionally respected party to determine whether or not they want to ensure that our elections are free and fair.
SCIUTTO: It'd be difficult to pick the least polite moment in this whole process, but there was a particularly impolite one yesterday when one of your Republican colleagues, Senator Marsha Blackburn, took a very pointed attack on Alexander Vindman, of course, who had testified in the house impeachment, a serving U.S. Army officer, a purple heart honoree from his time in Iraq. I don't need to quote her tweet again, but it was a very personal
attack, questioning his patriotism. What do you say to your colleague, Marsha Blackburn?
MARKEY: Well, no matter which country our forbearers come from -- mine are Irish. Once you're here, you're an American. Once you swear an oath to our country, you're an American.
[09:20:00]
And otherwise, every one of us is subject to question with regard to our patriotism. So this man and apparently every member of his family that was born here in the United States, who was raised here in the United States, served in our military.
SCIUTTO: He served the Soviet Union --
MARKEY: There aren't -- there aren't many families which can say that. His father is giving him instruction that he lives in a special country --
SCIUTTO: Yes --
MARKEY: And asked -- and telling him that he should be proud to be able to serve in a country where you can speak up without fear that the government --
SCIUTTO: Yes --
MARKEY: Can, in fact, suppress you. So, any impugning of the reputation, the honor, the dignity, the patriotism of Vindman or anyone else who comes from another country, but then pledges loyalty --
SCIUTTO: Yes --
MARKEY: To our country is absolutely wrong.
SCIUTTO: Senator Markey, we appreciate your time and look forward to hearing from you after the proceedings end.
MARKEY: Thank you --
SCIUTTO: Take care --
MARKEY: Thank you for having me on --
SCIUTTO: Poppy, back to you.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source