CNN "The Lead with Jake Tapper" - Transcript: Sen. Mazie Hirono (D- HI) is Interviewed About Pressure on Pelosi to Send Impeachment Articles and the Coming Senate Impeachment Trial

Interview

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Let's bring in Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii. She's on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Senator, thanks for joining us as always.

Do you see any advantage for Speaker Pelosi to continue to hold on to the articles of impeachment at this point?

SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D-HI): I'm not second-guessing anything that Nancy Pelosi does. And she said today that the articles will be sent to the Senate soon.

In the meantime, here we are in the Senate working very hard and arguing for a fair trial, which means that we should have relevant witnesses and relevant documents, something that Mitch McConnell is doing his very best, he's doing his darndest to make sure that doesn't happen.

So, Jake, you know, just as the president tried to rig his election by shaking down the president of another country for his own political purposes, this Senate trial is being rigged by the president through Mitch McConnell to not call any witnesses or provide any documents.

TAPPER: Well, on that topic, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell signed on to legislation from Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, that would allow for a vote to dismiss any articles of impeachment if they don't arrive from the House within 25 days of the House vote.

What do you make of that?

HIRONO: That is all part and parcel of the Republicans' desire to not have a fair trial. So, I see it as yet another distraction, another attempt to stone wall.

Meanwhile, what we're faced with is and what the trial is going to be about is whether it's OK for the president to do what he did regarding Ukraine. So that's something they don't want to face.

And I am waiting for the president to mount a defense for the trial that is going to occur in the Senate. And I would like him to do that, because, you know, mounting a defense means producing evidence. So, he calls this process a witch hunt and all of that. That's not evidence, that's just what I call rhetorical nothingburgers.

TAPPER: So --

HIRONO: So, meanwhile, we actually want evidence, facts. And Mitch doesn't want to go along with that.

And he's doing what the president wants. When the president says he's leaving it up to Mitch, oh, give me a break. Because at the very beginning, Mitch said he's just going to talk to the president to get his marching orders from the president.

TAPPER: House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff told CNN that the Intelligence Committee in the House has no plans to hear or subpoena a testimony from John Bolton ahead of the Senate impeachment trial. He says there's little to be gained by going that route.

Do you disagree? Should the House subpoena Bolton? Because it doesn't look like there's any guarantee the Senate will.

HIRONO: The thing is, Jake, that there will be times when the Senate is going to have to vote on whether or not they are going to go along with not having any witnesses. There will be motions, there will be a couple votes where the senators are going to go on record whether or not witnesses should be called, the documents should be produced.

So, regardless of where Mitch McConnell wants to go to totally stone wall and not face what the president did, the senators are going to go on record, including some vulnerable Republican senators.

And let's face it. The majority of the American people want a trial that is fair. That means calling relevant witnesses and getting relevant documents.

TAPPER: Do you think -- well, take a listen to what we have been hearing this week. Congressman Doug Collins, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said Democrats criticizing the strike on General Soleimani, quote, are in love with terrorists. And we also heard from the former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley.

Take a listen.

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NIKKI HALEY, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: The only ones mourning the loss of Soleimani are our Democrat leadership.

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TAPPER: What do you make of all that?

HIRONO: It's pretty sad how low the Republicans will stoop because nobody is mourning the death of Soleimani, including, of course, the Democrats. Those are just lies. But I figure they've entered the moral dead zone, that is the Trump White House.

TAPPER: All right. Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono, thank you so much for your time today. Appreciate it.

HIRONO: Uh-huh, thank you.

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