CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview With Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)

Interview

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I want to bring in Democratic Senator of Illinois, Tammy Duckworth. Good to see you, Senator. First of all, your response to a positive testing of coronavirus of your colleague, Senator Rand Paul.

SEN. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-IL): Well, I wish him a healthy recovery. I hope that he has not spread out to other folks and I give the same caution to all Americans.

Take care of yourself. Make sure that you maintain social distancing and sanitize, sanitize, sanitize. It is what I'm doing.

WHITFIELD: What are your concerns about hearing these reported details that there was a lunch. Some of your colleagues at this lunch along with Senator Rand Paul in close proximity, even that Senator Rand Paul was at the Senate gym this morning.

[15:10:08]

DUCKWORTH: Well, I'm pretty concerned. The Democrats when we had our meeting today, we actually had our chairs all positioned at least six feet apart in a giant, almost ballroom like environment.

So we certainly did not do that on the Democratic side and the Senate gym is not wheelchair accessible, so I work out at home. WHITFIELD: All right, and now let's talk about this proposed stimulus

package. Senator McConnell saying that now this vote has been pushed back possibly to six o'clock. What kind of encouragement or lack thereof are you getting from this process and the hope from this stimulus package?

DUCKWORTH: Well, the package that the Republicans have drawn up does nothing to help struggling workers. You know, our struggling workers need help today and they need their jobs safeguarded for tomorrow. It has no protections for them.

Our first responders need PP Equipment, Personal Protective Equipment and resources today to our hospitals and our first responders. There's nothing in it for them.

You know, and instead it creates a $500 billion slush fund for Steve Mnuchin to, you know, hand out loans for corporations as he pleases.

I mean, do Americans think that this man, this man is going to look out for the wellbeing of working Americans over the wellbeing of corporations and corporate CEOs? I certainly don't trust him, not without oversight and the slush fund that they proposed in their bill which no Democrat had any chance to put any, you know, requirements into does not provide any oversight for him.

So I'm glad that this vote has been postponed. It needs to be. I urge my Republican colleagues, please allow Democrats to come to the negotiating -- negotiation table, and let's write a bill together that will safeguard Americans, safeguard this public health emergency, safeguard us during this economic crisis.

WHITFIELD: What do you like that is in the proposal? Because reportedly, this legislation would include $250 billion, you know, to also help send out the $1,200.00 checks to many American adults, along with $500.00, or perhaps even $600.00 for children, what is -- what else in that bill seems plausible or appetizing at all to you?

DUCKWORTH: I think that our Americans need more than one check, for example. I think we need unemployment insurance protections.

There's nothing in this bill that they proposed that will protect people who can't make their mortgage payments from being evicted, and rent payments from being evicted.

There's nothing in this bill that protects students from student loan debt. This bill is all skewed towards corporations. It is skewed towards a slush fund that Steve Mnuchin is going to be able to write checks to whoever he wants with no oversight even to Trump Organizations.

We need to put working families first. We need to protect Americans and their mortgages, Americans and their rent, and we need to make sure that Americans can get back to work when this whole crisis is over with and we need to get money and resources to our hospitals right now, and it doesn't have that in there.

WHITFIELD: How do you convey this then to, you know, your colleagues there on what to include prior to any 6:00 p.m. scheduled vote?

DUCKWORTH: Well, we told them this yesterday what we wanted and we were negotiating with the Republicans up until 8:00 p.m. last night, at which point Mitch McConnell called all of the Republicans away. They walked away from the negotiating table yesterday, when we actually were making some really good progress and were coming to some agreements, and then to walk away at eight o'clock last night.

WHITFIELD: So give me an example of what some of those -- can you give me an example of what some of those agreements were?

DUCKWORTH: Sure $200 billion to go to hospitals and first responders, OSHA protections for first responders, people who are on the front lines, unemployment insurance extension up to four months additional, making sure that we protect people who can't pay their mortgages so that they don't get evicted. Renters don't get evicted.

Protections for students with student loan debt who can't pay their student loans back right away. All of those were part of the Democratic negotiating points and they were -- we were agreeing to them.

And now, they've taken all of that out and instead created a $500 billion slush fund, that by the way, Steve Mnuchin can actually write these checks out to large corporations and then on his own without oversight from Congress decide to say, hey, you know what, I'm going to take away the requirement that you can't do stock buybacks.

I'm going to take away the requirement that you can't have executives, increasing their salaries. That's ridiculous. Our struggling workers need help now.

WHITFIELD: Okay. So it seems like you all are very far apart and if this vote was scheduled, somewhere in the four o'clock hour, and it's been pushed back to six o'clock, does that lend the appearances that there is some agreement and that that two hours allows for a better success rate of that vote?

DUCKWORTH: Well, we were moving together in a bipartisan way up until 8:00 p.m. last night, I can say that, and something happened last night when Mitch McConnell put all of his negotiators away, and then they started writing their own bill.

So if they delay this and we can come back to vote in a couple of hours, it would just mean that the Republicans have agreed to come back to the negotiation table and allow Democrats to have some input.

[15:15:04]

DUCKWORTH: Right now, it's a Mitch McConnell bill, Democrats -- Senate Democrats have had no input to this and the entire House of Representatives has had no input to this.

Essentially, Mitch McConnell has disenfranchised the voters of Illinois, my constituents from having any part in this conversation when he did not allow Democrats at the table. WHITFIELD: And quickly, what's your response to the Governor of

Illinois saying, you know, the whole issue of trying to get medical supplies, it's like the Wild, Wild West right now and also receiving criticism from the President for his comments?

DUCKWORTH: Well, the person who needs criticism is this President who should have ordered under the Defense Procurement Act, all of these businesses to start producing all of the PPE -=- the gloves, the masks, the swabs that we need. He has invoked his right to enact this Act, but yet he has not yet given the orders to all of these defense industries to start producing these badly needed medical equipments.

And so, I agree with Governor Pritzker. It is a Wild, Wild West out there, and this President has been irresponsible from the very beginning, from the time when he said to the World Health Organization, you know what, we don't need those test kits that you're offering us. When he said to the President of China, how great job he's doing early on.

And now this President finds himself at a point where he is finally worried about this because of the economy and where we are on stock trading. He should have been worried about this when people couldn't get testing and people still can't get testing.

We need this equipment now. Let us start allowing these defense industries to make this equipment, make this stuff that we need for our first responders.

WHITFIELD: We'll leave it there for now. Thank you so much, U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth, appreciate it.

All right. Coming up breaking news out of Germany. Angela Merkel going into quarantine after her doctor tests positive for coronavirus.

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