CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Senator Dick Durbin

Interview

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HARLOW: All right, thank you, Jim, thanks, Kyung.

With me now is the second highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate, Democratic Whip Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois. Good morning, and thanks for your time.

SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL): You bet, Poppy.

HARLOW: These are two critical Georgia Senate races, especially for you guys. You need both of them if you have a hope of even having a 50-50 split it looks like.

If Democrats don't win both of those seats, Senator, what are you willing to give on so that your chamber can actually get things passed for the American people, especially since the incoming president has pushed a message of unity?

DURBIN: Listen, let me start by saying we're going to win. We have the two best candidates and the best organization Georgia has seen for the Democrats in modern times, and we believe these candidacies complement one another in terms of bringing out the vote.

The second point to be made is this. If we do win both of those, we are still going to have to work on a bipartisan basis. It'll be a 50- 50 Senate. I mean, to get anything done under the current Senate rules, you really have to compromise and work together, that's going to be the ultimate outcome.

But the question is whether it will be a Mitch McConnell veto approach to the Biden programs, or whether it's going to be a cooperative bipartisan effort to find a way to make them work.

HARLOW: All right. Well for the record, I did ask you what you're willing to give on. But since you bring up the current rules of the Senate, I think it's really important to ask you about the filibuster. Because it may sound wonky to viewers, but it's really, really important.

Because as of now, there are a number of big names in your party: Senator Schumer, former President Obama, President-elect Biden talking about eliminating the filibuster that would completely change the way laws are passed, how the Senate works -- so much so that it was just in 2018 that you said ending it would be the end of the Senate as it was originally devised and created going back to our founding fathers. And you said we have to acknowledge and respect the minority.

So are you at this point comfortable with eliminating the filibuster?

DURBIN: Listen, I live in the world of Senate rules more than most, and I understand how they can be used effectively and how they can just be a roadblock to anything happening.

Here's the good news. In conversations I've had since November 3rd with Republican senators, we sat down and got very honest and very candid on a personal basis, and they are frustrated. They want the Senate to do things. I believe that's where the potential is for the future, that with Republicans who are ready for the Senate to be active and engaged and finding compromises and moving forward, the Senate rules won't hold us back. I hope it doesn't (ph) --

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: So no, don't end the filibuster? You wouldn't support it right now? Because you know, Senator Manchin calls it BS to end it.

DURBIN: Yes. Oh, I can tell you at this point, there are a lot of factors involved. At this point, what I want to focus on is first winning Georgia. Second, finding bipartisan solutions. And third, letting Joe Biden use the presidency to put America back on its feet, to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and to get this economy back to work.

HARLOW: OK, that sounds -- I'm going to take that as a no, don't end it for now, and move on to stimulus. Because in the last week of October, your state, Illinois, recorded the singlemost new unemployment claims of any single state. One of the big food banks in Chicago saw their demand skyrocket 120 percent.

The House did pass a $2.2 trillion stimulus package, but you voted no on McConnell's $500 billion package. What concessions are you willing to make now so that desperate Americans don't have to wait until 2021?

DURBIN: I want to reach an agreement. And I'm not going to say, oh,

OK, well forget food stamps, we won't be worried about people having enough food. I'm not going to say anything like that, that's irresponsible even though we addressed the issue and the Republicans don't. I'm not going to say, well, let's walk away from testing people for coronavirus, and say you don't have to wait days for results. I'm not going to walk away from those things.

What we need to do is walk into the positive side of this, a bipartisan approach that really does something now, that is helpful now. It doesn't mean we get everything or they get everything, but it means that the package that we come up with is significant, addresses the problems we face -- we have triple the infection, triple the infection in Illinois that we had October 1st. It's a dangerous situation, other states face the same thing. Let's get something done that is significant, do what we can achieve now.

[10:45:24]

HARLOW: What does it happen? Does it happen in this lame duck session? I mean --

DURBIN: Absolutely.

HARLOW: -- OK, I hope so.

DURBIN: Absolutely, don't --

HARLOW: I --

DURBIN: -- don't waste the opportunity.

HARLOW: -- I certainly hope so.

Senator Chris Coons told us, told CNN this week that some of your Republican colleagues are coming up to him privately and basically saying, pass on my well wishes to President Biden. Have you reached out to Senate Republicans to ask them --

DURBIN: Oh, I've talked (ph) --

HARLOW: -- about their public refusal, at least by many, to accept what is reality in this election? And if so what are those conversations like?

DURBIN: Many of them are senators who are also parents, who tell their kids, after that basketball game and soccer game, even if you lose, you're going to shake hands with the other team. That is just part of growing up, that's part of good sportsmanship. The president didn't learn that lesson.

I think many members of his party who are trying to be loyal feel very uncomfortable. They understand where we are today, we understand that Joe Biden is going to be the next president. It would be better if it's done with class. HARLOW: Let's end on this. Your party, House Democrats lost seats.

And some moderate Democrats are blaming the progressive, the more left wing of the party like Congressman Tim Ryan of Ohio, here's what he told me a few days ago.

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REP. TIM RYAN (D-OH): My numbers were significantly down too, but we had to get out of that defund-the-police, the Green New Deal --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: You don't support either of those things. Is he right, did that hurt the party?

DURBIN: No. Well, it was used by the Republicans very effectively in a lot of races, even if Democrats had not said those words or gotten even close to --

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: But there were some Democrats in the House who did say those words.

DURBIN: Well if you listen to Bernie Sanders' explanation, there was one candidate for the Green New Deal who made it part of his platform and lost, and no one else. And I'll leave that to Bernie's analysis.

Because here's what I think, you've got to govern from the center. We want to move toward the progressive agenda of course, expand the opportunity for health care is a good example of that. But are we going to move straight into Medicare for all? Of course not, that's not on the horizon in a near term based on the results of this election. Let's achieve what we can, help as many Americans as we can particularly at this moment in history.

HARLOW: Appreciate your time this morning. Good luck to all of you because America is counting on all of you. Thanks, Senator.

DURBIN: Thanks, Poppy.

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