CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Representative Mike Quigley (D-IL) about Coronavirus

Interview

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SCIUTTO: Happening right now, the president's top health officials are giving House lawmakers their latest briefing on the deadly coronavirus outbreak. It started about 15 minutes ago. Congressman Mike Quigley of Illinois just stepped out of that briefing to speak with us and share with you the latest information that lawmakers are getting.

Congressman, we do appreciate you taking the time this morning.

REP. MIKE QUIGLEY (D-IL): Good morning.

SCIUTTO: And I understand you are getting the latest CDC guidance. Let's go through as best we can on one point. The president seemed to imply yesterday it's OK for people to go back to work even if they have the virus. What does the CDC said?

QUIGLEY: Yes. I was just handed this form as we entered the briefing. It says avoid close contact with people who are sick. Seems obvious. And number two, stay home when you are sick. I think an obvious lesson in flu season anyway. The bottom line is, we have to be bipartisan on this. This has to be about keeping us -- our people healthy and safe and protecting our economy. But we can't have the president of the United States in conflict with leading health officials, not just in our country, but in the world.

Yesterday the House acted appropriately on a bipartisan basis. We passed the beginning of this. An $8 billion effort to confront this virus. And to cure it. And the Senate, I believe, will do the same thing today. All that being said, the president calls it a hoax. He's underfunded this, lowballed the projected numbers that are going to be needed. This sends a message to a lot of people who pay attention to him that it's OK to disregard the experts in health.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you this. The president is misleading with information about this. Has the administration to this point stood in the way of necessary measures to respond to the spread of the disease? Dr. Sanjay Gupta was just telling me that early on, for instance, the standards under which people were tested for this were too tight. And, therefore, that likely missed people early on having it.

To your knowledge, has the administration in the early response not taken necessary steps?

QUIGLEY: Well, I think if you lead with the president, and I think him calling it a hoax and underfunding -- the budget he just proposed to Congress had a 18 percent -- 16 percent to 18 percent cut in the CDC. These are agencies underfunded and unfortunately seemingly unprepared.

The doctor is absolutely right. I think the limits were extremely tight on who could get tested. Those have finally opened up. And unfortunately, the early testing kits that came out of the CDC were showing inconclusive. They just weren't working. At the same time, the World Health Organization kits were working and we disregarded what they were teaching us.

This has to be an all-hands approach, interagency, bipartisan, and working with all the countries across the world to make this work. There are lives at stake and our economy is at stake.

SCIUTTO: I want to ask you about 2020. You just endorsed Joe Biden, as did other colleagues of yours from the state of Illinois. I want to ask you this because there is a division within the party. Right now you have two front runners with two very different views of the way forward. You supported -- you're supporting Joe Biden.

What message does Joe Biden need to send to more progressive Democratic voters, Bernie Sanders supporters, to try to win them over?

[09:45:07]

QUIGLEY: Well, first of all, the primary target of most Democratic voters across the country and certainly in my district is replacing the current president. And I believe every poll I've seen shows that he has the best opportunity to do that.

Number two, let's remember the Biden-Obama record. Pick a progressive issue you care about, and we got it done. Not only did we pull ourselves out of the greatest economic downturn since the Depression, we passed a health care law for the first time in history. We repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," we passed legislation to make sure that women get paid equal pay for equal work, and the list goes on.

If you want the progressive agenda completed, the first thing you have to do is replace this president. The second thing you have to do is put somebody in there who was there when we got it done for eight years.

SCIUTTO: OK. I want to ask you a final question on the president's selection for director of National Intelligence. As you know, the acting director still ambassador to Germany, someone without, many lawmakers have argued, the necessary intelligence experience for the job. And now the president has re-nominated John Ratcliffe who when he was first floated as a name last fall, many Republicans said he doesn't have the experience either.

Are you concerned and should Americans be concerned if politics are trumping national security in this key post?

QUIGLEY: Look, this is a role created post-9/11 to coordinate the intelligence agencies to avoid the mistakes that allowed 9/11, frankly, to take place. We shouldn't have amnesia about that threat. DNI Coats told us in one of his last briefings, the most important thing he does is coordinate, develop relationships. You have to understand how these agencies work. You have to -- the act says that there needs -- someone needs to have extraordinary amounts of intelligence experience.

The current DNI, acting, doesn't. This nominee doesn't. That ought to be a concern. This is what keeps us safe. It can't be about the president's goal of having people around him whose personal loyalty is the most important goal, not the nation's safety.

SCIUTTO: Congressman Mike Quigley, we do appreciate you taking the time this morning, particularly in light of the briefing you've been in. And we look forward to having you on again.

QUIGLEY: Any time. Thank you.

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