CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Congressman Steny Hoyer
Interview
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
HARLOW: Welcome back.
Well, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says a deal must be reached by tomorrow if Congress wants to ensure that millions of struggling Americans have a chance to receive more stimulus money before Election Day. She is expected to talk to the White House in just a few hours.
With me now is House Majority Leader, the number two Democrat in the House, Congressman Steny Hoyer of Maryland. Good morning, sir. REP. STENY HOYER (D-MD): Hi, Poppy. How are you?
HARLOW: I'm well. Thank you for being here on such an important day. Is a deal going to be announced this afternoon?
HOERY: Well, I hope so. Obviously it will depend upon whether we can come to an agreement. And that will depend upon whether or not we give the assistance to all the people who need it.
The conversation has been sort of like we'll save half of the people on Titanic. We won't need boats for everybody because the Titanic won't sink, but, by golly, when it does sink, we'll take care of half the people. That's not what Americans want. That's not what Americans need. That's not what economists tell us is essential.
States and locals are a perfect example, where Senator McConnell said, let them go bankrupt. But when states go bankrupt, they're going to drag down the economy with all of us.
So I'm hopeful we get to an agreement. I think Secretary Mnuchin and Speaker Pelosi clearly want to get a deal. The problem is they've been dealing with people who I don't think wanted to get to a deal and the president has been all over the ballpark. Now he says, go big and bigger than we suggested in our $2.2 trillion reduction by 35 percent of our original offer.
So I think that Nancy and Mnuchin, the speaker and Mnuchin, are going to be trying this today hopefully to get to that deal. And let's hope they do.
HARLOW: Okay, certainly. Let's hope they do for the millions of Americans who cannot get by much longer without it.
The thing is you said this to Axios on Wednesday. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOYER: Frankly, we're prepared to go down further.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How low?
HOYER: Well, I think they've mentioned 1.8. I think we could work a deal at 1.8.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: The White House is offering 1.8. You said you could work a deal at 1.8. Why is there no deal?
HOYER: Well, because the devil is in the details. They're not offering anything for states and local, which we need. They're not offering anything for earned income tax credits for the people who are most struggling but working. They're not offering to do testing pursuant to a plan. They say they're going to take our number, but then they changed it in terms of they may do this, it's not a requirement -- HARLOW: I know some of the language changed and I heard the speaker's interview over the weekend about changing may to shall, et cetera, or shall to may. But you now -- I mean, politically, you've got 56 percent of Democrats in a key state like Arizona -- 56 percent of likely voters, excuse me, in the state of Arizona, blaming Democrats on this over Republicans or the president.
[10:30:07]
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: You've got a number of Democrats like Congressman Ro Khanna saying, make a deal, it is time to make a deal. And even your colleague in the House, freshman Democrat Max Rose, said this to Wolf just yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MAX ROSE (D-NY): I'm happy to hear he wants a big stimulus. Suffice it to say, that's not where he was two months ago. The Democratic Party needs to learn, to a certain extent, how to declare victory and go home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Majority Leader, he's saying declare victory, go home. We got the Republicans up, let's make a deal. Is he right?
REP. STENY HOYER (D-MD): No. The president's rhetoric is good from time to time. When he says, two months ago, some days ago, and he was saying no negotiations. He then changed, well, maybe a little negotiations. Then he said, well, let's talk about --
(CROSSTALK)
HARLOW: I'm not talking about what the president has said, I know he's all over the map on this stuff. I totally hear you --
HOYER: But the point --
HARLOW: -- but the deal on the table is $1.8 trillion, and you guys have gotten the Republicans way up. Why not take this deal?
HOYER: Yes -- the deal on the table -- the deal on the table is not $1.8 trillion. Why? Because the Senate has clearly indicated they're not interested in $1.8 trillion. McConnell does not want a deal, McConnell indicated that from the beginning. The problem Mnuchin has is, in negotiating with the speaker, I think they could come to a deal.
They came to four deals, they came to four deals that passed overwhelmingly, the two of them. They came to a budget deal that passed overwhelmingly. The problem is, yes, the president says $1.8 and the secretary now says $1.8. But then he goes over to Mnuchin's office, and Mnuchin says -- excuse me, McConnell's office, and he says, I can't buy that number.
(CROSSTALK)
HARLOW: Then -- then let it get -- I guess my question is, should you let it get to that point and let McConnell say, no, I'm not going to take this to the floor? Right now there's not even a deal laid out between Mnuchin --
(CROSSTALK)
HARLOW: -- and the speaker right now, when 8 million more people, Majority Leader, have fallen into poverty since the beginning of this pandemic, when 41 percent of homes of African-Americans in this country with children don't have enough to eat. That is how dire this is.
HOYER: Poppy, we passed a $3.4 trillion bill on May 5th (ph) --
HARLOW: I understand.
HOYER: -- which would have precluded that from happening. And the Senate simply ignored it. And the House later --
HARLOW: I know, but you don't have the majority in the Senate. I mean --
(CROSSTALK)
HOYER: -- so --
(CROSSTALK)
HARLOW: -- is half a sandwich better than no sandwich for these people that -- as you rightly put it -- are on the Titanic?
(CROSSTALK)
HOYER: I agree with you 100 percent. Half of the people are going to go down and drown. Half of the --
(CROSSTALK)
HARLOW: But right now all of them are. Right now all of them --
(CROSSTALK)
HOYER: -- taken care of, state employees, teachers, that's not taken care of. Sanitation workers, police, fire, that's not taken care of. So when you say, you know, take half a loaf, what you're doing is leaving half the loaf --
(CROSSTALK)
HARLOW: For now.
HOYER: -- I (INAUDIBLE) for now --
HARLOW: It's not perfect. But no one's getting anything right now.
(CROSSTALK)
HOYER: But, Poppy, you say there's a $1.8 trillion? McConnell's going to offer a bill, as I understand it, tomorrow. And then on Wednesday. It doesn't get -- it's less than almost a third of that $1.8 trillion. So don't say that we have $1.8 trillion on the table because McConnell --
HARLOW: That's what Mnuchin has on the table, with support from the president. That's what I'm saying.
(CROSSTALK)
HOYER: Yes, but he can't (INAUDIBLE) Senate -- Poppy, he can't sell it to the Senate. So you know, when you say he has it on the table, Mnuchin can't do anything. He can't do anything with the president. And the president doesn't have anything on the table. The president just says --
HARLOW: So nothing gets done?
(CROSSTALK)
HOYER: I (INAUDIBLE) speaker is trying to do -- and what I hope we get an agreement to do -- is to take care of the problems that confront us that are undermining the health of our people and our economic wellbeing. That's what the speaker's trying to do.
We reduced -- you know, you say we've stuck (ph) -- 35 percent, what we determined was the necessary figure to do everything we wanted. So we reduced that very substantially, by 35 percent.
Now, I said -- as you pointed out the other day -- yes, we could come down $400 billion. I don't think that would be as good as the $2.2 that we've offered. But having said that, they -- it's not only the number, it's who they leave behind. They leave children behind, they leave families behind, they leave restaurants behind that are really hurting. They -- you know, that's the -- then the testing. Yes, the speaker made that point.
But the whole problem we've had is this administration has denied any kind of unified national plan to confront this virus. They've been negligent, they've been incompetent in dealing with this. So we've --
(CROSSTALK)
HARLOW: Majority --
HOYER: -- policymakers, and they pretend that, oh, we'll take their $75 billion. Well, that's not a deal when they undermine the implementation of a plan. So -- HARLOW: Majority --
[10:35:00]
HOYER: -- you can hear my voice, I'm frustrated, others are frustrated -- we need --
(CROSSTALK)
HARLOW: I hear it, I hear it. I hear it.
HOYER: -- an agreement.
HARLOW: And I'm glad you're here and I appreciate the time. And you know, I wish Mitch McConnell would join us as well, he's always welcome on this. But there is huge desperation out there so we're wishing --
(CROSSTALK)
HOYER: Well, he's --
HARLOW: -- all sides luck in getting a deal for as many people as they can. I'm sorry we're out of time but you're welcome back.
(CROSSTALK)
HOYER: -- the American people luck, right?
HARLOW: Thank you very much for joining us.
HOYER: You bet, thanks.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source