CNN "Erin Burnett Outfront" - Transcript: Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) Discusses The Six-Page Letter Rant That President Just Released
Interview
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Now, what's notable is the President says he doesn't think this is going to change the outcome of tomorrow's vote. That vote is still going to happen. The White House essentially views it as this foregone conclusion, but Erin it's notable and worth repeating what he says there at the end that despite all of that, the reason he sent this letter is because he 'wanted to put his thoughts on a permanent and indelible record'.
Pretty notable given what the President has been saying over the last several days. And now the question is, if we'll hear from him again tomorrow as that vote is going on.
BURNETT: Kaitlan, thank you very much. And I want to go OUTFRONT now to Senate Minority Leader Democrat Chuck Schumer. And Senator, I appreciate your time tonight.
This is an incredible letter from the President of the United States. Six pages saying that he has it worse than people accused in the Salem witch trials. What's your response to this letter that the President has released?
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Well, my response is very simple. He's saying he's not getting due process. We are yearning for him to take advantage of due process. We in the Senate have invited him to allow four witnesses who are extremely close, had eyewitness accounts of what Trump did that created the impeachment document. Mick Mulvaney and John Bolton and two other officials who are heavily involved.
And if he wants due process, that means the right to be heard. Donald Trump is refusing the right to be heard. And I would ask him and frankly Mitch McConnell and my Republican colleagues what is so horrible about asking people to come testify who have eyewitness accounts of what's happening here.
The President is really just covering up. He has no rebuttal. He has issued no exculpatory evidence of the charges against him and we're giving him the opportunity to bring people to the trial. A trial without witnesses is not a trial at all. And so we believe very strongly that these witnesses should come, that document should be forthcoming, that's what the due process clause is all about. The right to be heard.
The President refuses the right to be heard and it seems quite likely it's because he knows he's guilty.
BURNETT: So obviously, as you point out, Mulvaney and Bolton, I know you've also asked for two others, but certainly if he could be exonerated, they would have the ability to do so. So it doesn't make sense as to why not to allow them.
I want to read for you, Senator, a couple more lines from the letter. Trump writes of Pelosi, so again this is directed at her, this particular line. "You did not recant. You did not ask to be forgiven. You showed no remorse, no capacity for self-reflection. Instead, your pursued next libelous and vicious crusade. You engineered an attempt to frame and defame an innocent person."
This letter, Senator, has all caps in it at one point. It has many exclamation points. As I pointed out, it refers to the Salem witch trials. You have known President Trump long before he was president. Where do you think his head is right now?
SCHUMER: Well, he's obviously under a great deal of duress. But if he thinks he can bully Nancy Pelosi into backing off, he's with the wrong customer.
[19:10:03]
The amazing thing about President Trump as president and before, the very things he does, he accuses others of doing, bully. This is the most bullying president we have ever had. Accusing people of things. This president accuses people of things all of the time every day.
So he ought to look into the mirror. These are serious charges. Impeachment is a very, very serious process. And we in the Senate want to keep it that way. We want a trial that's not focusing on conspiracy theories or rants and raves from those who are known liars who put out conspiracy theories on the right.
We want the truth. We want as Joe Friday in Dragnet used to say, just the facts. And that these witnesses that we are asking for that Leader McConnell is resisting are people who can produce the facts and I don't know what they're going to say.
They may produce exculpatory evidence for the President. They may produce evidence that's very condemning of the President, but they should be heard, as should documents be brought. And I would ask my Republican colleagues, Mitch McConnell seems - he said it publicly, he's going to do just what the President wants.
BURNETT: Yes.
SCHUMER: Maybe he'll rethink that after looking at this letter which is filled with rants and raves. But I would ask my Republican colleagues, the other 52, to look at our letter and to realize impeachment is a solemn, serious and very, very important proceeding. If we can't get the facts, then no president can be impeached.
And this president and then other presidents will have almost no check on overreaching actions that defy the Constitution. BURNETT: So obviously you asked Mitch McConnell for your witnesses
and today he rejected that. What is the state of your relationship? Are you all still talking? Are you going to be able to work this out or No?
SCHUMER: Well, look, when we have to work things for the good of the country, I try to let my personal disappointment in Mitch McConnell not get in the way of doing that. We just produced a very, a big budget document which has a lot of things that we've been asking for, for a very long time.
But I have Mitch McConnell by going on Sean Hannity, by announcing that he doesn't want to have witnesses, he doesn't want to have documents is not rising to the level that a senator should rise to. He's being a pure partisan, he said it today in response to a question that he said proudly, "No, I'm not impartial. I don't want to be impartial."
My hope and my expectation is that there'll be enough Republican senators who will not follow that path. A path leading to trouble, a path leading to real problems for this country and the rule of law. All we need is four Republicans to vote with us to produce these witnesses to produce the document and I expect that some will. I expect that some will.
BURNETT: So let me ask you about those, because obviously you're going to need all the Democrats. You'll have them, we presume, and four Republicans. We've identified seven of them that are the ones that you could be targeting; Susan Collins of Maine, Cory Gardner of Colorado, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Mike Enzi, Wyoming, Lisa Murkowski, Alaska, Mitt Romney and Pat Roberts of Kansas. Are those the people you're thinking about?
SCHUMER: Look, I am not going to get into specifics. I think that every single Republican, every single one should look into their conscience and should say, "How are we going to be remembered here?" And if they try to put together just a sham show trial where there are no witnesses, there is no new facts and each side just recites what they know already, and there's just a quick vote, history will not look on them kindly and their consciences will not look on them kindly.
So I'm hopeful we can get a whole bunch. I wouldn't say who, but it might come from people you'd never expect who might rise to the occasion. The impeachment process is awesome in the biblical sense, awe-inspiring.
BURNETT: Yes.
SCHUMER: AND I hope, I pray and I think that people will rise to the occasion. But I'll tell you this, when those Republican senators, all of them, when they go home, people are going to ask them, "What's wrong with having witnesses?"
A poll from ABC-Washington Post today said not only just 72% of all Americans think these witnesses should be called, but 64% of Republicans do. And it's rare to get Republican rank and file to disagree with what President Trump is doing and they are here in an overwhelming number.
BURNETT: Before we go, Senator, you mentioned what McConnell said that he said he's not an impartial juror. I just wanted to play it so viewers could hear it. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): I'm not an impartial juror. This is a political process. I would anticipate, we will have largely partisan outcome in the Senate. I'm not impartial about this at all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[19:15:07]
SCHUMER: ... that George Washington, James Madison, the creators of this Constitution would be rolling their eyes. If you read Hamilton in The Federalist Papers, I think, it's on paper 59. He wanted the Senate to have the trial, because they would be impartial and they would render fair judgment.
McConnell is defining what the Constitution is urging and calling upon us to do as senators.
BURNETT: Are you impartial? When you refer earlier you mentioned the President as seeming guilty because he would not allow those witnesses.
SCHUMER: Yes. Our quest here is for the facts and these are not witnesses we know that are preordained. We don't know what they will say. And so yes, we are trying to get to the bottom of this to get all the facts out, show us the truth. Show us the facts and then we can each make a decision and hopefully an impartial decision.
McConnell won't do that, but I hope our senators will not. I would ask every one of my Republican senators, are you proud to be partial and to be partisan in this august (ph) proceeding, I hope not.
BURNETT: Senator Schumer, thank you very much for your time tonight, sir. I appreciate it.
SCHUMER: Nice to you, Erin. And happy holiday to you and your family.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source