CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) is Interviewed about Trump's Acquittal
Interview
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SCIUTTO: On the heels of his acquittal in the Senate, President Trump appears as emboldened as ever. That was on full display in the East Room of the White House Thursday when the president took something of a victory lap in front of his Republican allies, praising his supporters one by one and personally attacking anyone who went against him.
But, as President Trump touts his acquittal, Democrats are really in some sort of disarray following a chaotic week in Iowa.
I'm joined now by Democratic Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota.
Senator, thank you for taking the time this morning.
SEN. TINA SMITH (D-MN): Thanks, Jim. It's good to be with you.
SCIUTTO: You said something powerful at the end of impeachment, particularly about Republicans who might, in private, have expressed discomfort with the president's behavior but in public refused to and voted with him. You said, at the end of the day what matters is how you vote and what you do and what you say in public. Do you believe that your Republican allies, by acquitting the
president and even, in most cases, refusing to criticize his behavior here, have given him license to continue, for instance, to continue seeking foreign help in the election?
SMITH: Well, I think there was wishful thinking on the part of some of my colleagues who said, oh, I don't believe he'll do it again. I think he's learned his lesson. And then yesterday, in the White House, we saw a display that goes exactly counter to that.
You know, I have to tell you, I got a text from my father, who is almost 90 years old and still chops wood, and dad said, this is the worst that I have seen since Joe McCarthy. And it's -- I mean, if you think about it, what would you think if the -- your boss at your company said the things that the president said, or the principal at your kid's school, and yet we have members of Congress in the room applauding him for this.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
SMITH: I mean this is not who we are as Americans.
SCIUTTO: I hear you. And yet, 49 percent of Americans, in the latest Gallup poll, approve of the president's job here. And, again, I always look at the poll averages.
SMITH: Right.
SCIUTTO: So the average is not that high, but it has been trending up, not down, towards impeachment here.
What message does that send to you about where American voters are?
[09:50:02]
SMITH: Well, what it -- the message that I get from this is that, you know, elections are not inevitable. Elections just don't flow in the way that we think that they're going to flow. And this has got to be one of the most fluid electoral seasons that many of us have ever lived through in this country.
What I think is happening in Minnesota at least is that people are seeing that this long economic ride that we have been on starting in the Obama administration and continuing on through today, this isn't a -- this isn't a Trump recovery, this is -- this is because of American workers and American businesses that things are going well.
They're looking at that and they're also realizing, you know, this isn't for everybody. This isn't happening for everybody in my town or in my state. This prosperity isn't shared by everybody. And I think that's the -- that's where the argument is going to be made and won in the election coming up in the months ahead.
SCIUTTO: This -- so that, because I was going to ask you, what is the Democratic message to respond to President Trump, particularly on a day like today, when you have, again, job numbers outpacing expectations here, because in 2018, what worked for Democrats in those swing districts, what was a -- not just attacking Trump but a counter message.
They focused on health care. They focused on jobs, et cetera. You know, flesh that out for me. What's the selling point, particularly in Minnesota? I mean Trump wants to make that a swing state in this election. How do you sell Democratic voters to vote out the president?
SMITH: Well, Minnesota is a swing state and the president is spending millions of dollars to try to win Minnesota. So we don't take anything for granted there.
But I think the message is all about what's happening, just as it was in 2018, the message is all about what's happening in people's lives. And in Minnesota, people just want the freedom and the chance to live the lives that they want. And so they're looking at this and they're saying, you know, President Trump says the economy is doing great, but when I look at my life, what am I -- what questions do I see?
Well, I see my neighbor down the road, his farm just went bankrupt. Twenty percent increases in bankruptcy in Minnesota. I see my kid who's got $35,000 in college debt and how are they going to be able to buy a house or buy a car with that kind of -- with that kind of debt burden? They see growing income inequality. They -- the question that I think Minnesotans and people all around the country are going to be asking is, how can we all share in this prosperity?
SCIUTTO: Right.
SMITH: And that's what we have to be able to answer as Democrats.
SCIUTTO: OK. You're not hearing that right now in the Democratic race enough. Wouldn't you agree? I mean right now you've got a lot of sniping going back and forth between Sanders and Buttigieg and I know you've endorsed Klobuchar, but also Biden as well. Are you hearing a winning message, I suppose, is the question. Are you hearing a winning message from Democrats in the primaries?
SMITH: Well, if you'll allow me, I think we are hearing this message from Senator Klobuchar. I think we are hearing a message that is about, what do we share in common, how can we move forward together? She's -- you know, with practical and progressive ideas for how to accomplish that.
There is a lot of noise in the Democratic primary right now and, I mean, name me a Democrat who doesn't wish that we could just, you know, jump to July or August or December right now. But this is the mess of democracy. Democracy takes a lot of work.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
SMITH: Democracy is hard work.
SCIUTTO: Yes. You know, it's interesting, and I remind people of this, if you look back to the Republican primaries in 2016, I mean there was, you know, there was a lot of back and forth there. So this is not new. It's, you know, both parties are divided in many ways here. But I -- but I wonder what your level of confidence is and are you -- are you preparing for, for instance, for a contested election, convention, rather?
SMITH: I think that you can't take anything for granted. And it's really important right now to keep our perspective about where we are in this process. This is a long, messy, drawn out process. And we are in the very beginning stages of it.
You know, we now have a pretty good idea of about what -- of what a couple hundred thousand people in Iowa think about the presidential race and it's sort of muddled, right?
SCIUTTO: Yes.
SMITH: We're now going to find out on Tuesday what people in New Hampshire think. But it's sort of like a -- you know, high school, where we think we know what the English students think but we don't know what the math students or the geography students think. We have a long way to go.
SCIUTTO: Final question, just quickly, because the DNC is saying Iowa needs to re-canvass the votes in Iowa. Just for -- you know, even if it doesn't affect the final result, just for confidence. Do you think that's a necessary step here after the embarrassment of Monday there?
SMITH: Well, I mean, Iowa has been a mess. We all can acknowledge that. My view of it is that we need to move forward. If any of the candidates in the race want to know what exactly happened at the end of the day, I think that they should be able to get that answer and -- but, you know, I think we need to move forward and figure out what's next. We have a lot of other states that we want to hear from, Nevada, South Carolina, California, Texas, Minnesota.
SCIUTTO: Yes. That we can agree on. There's a lot more to go.
[09:55:00]
Senator Tina Smith, thanks so much.
SMITH: Thank you so much.
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