CNN "State of the Union" - Transcript: Interview with Kirsten Gillibrand

Interview

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SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (D-NY): Well, we have seen this time and time again.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has already said his goal is to defeat the agenda of this administration. We just had a vote on the January 6 rights and only had six strong souls to vote with us. That's a problem.

And I don't think there's necessarily good will behind all negotiations. And I think the American people elected us to solve the problem of COVID, to rebuild the economy, rebuild the infrastructure. And I think it's our moment to act.

I think we need a bold solution that does both the hard infrastructure of roads, bridges, high-speed rail, rural Internet, but also the softer infrastructure, the human infrastructure of paid family leave, affordable day care, making sure our kids are back to school, so that all parents can get back to work.

TAPPER: You heard Secretary Buttigieg mention the fact or allude to the fact that the counteroffer that the Republicans made over eight years, almost a trillion dollars, is just a few hundred billion dollars more than would have been spent on infrastructure and transportation anyway.

GILLIBRAND: Right.

TAPPER: To you, does that suggest that Republicans are negotiating in bad faith?

GILLIBRAND: To me, it means we're about to miss the moment that we have to answer the need of this country.

We are in an important -- an important time, where people need government to work for them. And so we have to answer that moment with bold reforms. And I think waiting any longer for Republicans to do the right thing is a misstep. I would go forward.

I would offer -- President Biden has a huge, bold agenda of so much he wants to do for the economy and the American people. Democrats should respond and vote together now through reconciliation to get it done, and then move on to the rest of the bipartisan agenda, like my bill.

TAPPER: Then let's talk about that.

GILLIBRAND: Yes, exactly.

TAPPER: So, you and Senator Joni Ernst are working together on this bill. You have been on -- working on this for a long time.

But you and Ernst compromised, came together in order to get the 60 votes you need. But your fellow Democratic Senator Jack Reed said this week he would include a similar plan in this year's defense spending bill. But when you tried to bring up your bill that would pass, that has 60 votes, he blocked it because, frankly, he supports a more narrow version. He doesn't support your legislation.

Do you think that Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, your New York colleague, should bring it up for a vote now?

GILLIBRAND: I believe we should have a vote now. I think it is a hallmark bill. It is a generational bill of shifting how we address military justice, how we build a military justice system that's worthy of the sacrifice our men and women in the military make.

And this Memorial Day weekend, there is no better time to talk about the sacrifice the men and the women in our armed services have made for us.

And so what this bill does is, instead of having the current process, where, after a sexual assault or other serious crime is committed, the commander will look at the investigation report and decide whether or not it goes to trial -- unfortunately, under that current method, we have seen enormous bias, bias against survivors of sexual assault, but also racial bias against black and brown service members, and how often they are punished.

And so to take biases out of the system across the board, you need a trained military prosecutor to make these decisions about whether it should go to trial. That takes it out of the chain of command.

The chain of command has bias because they may know the perpetrator, the accused. They may know the survivor. And they may have a certain lens about which service member is better for fighting a war or better for good order and discipline within the ranks.

That bias is inappropriate when it comes to serious felonies. If someone can go to jail for more than a year of their life, for defendants' rights alone, you would want an unbiased system.

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TAPPER: Yes.

GILLIBRAND: But we also believe, if you created the unbiased system, you would also -- and professionalized that system, you would also see different cases going forward with sexual assault and more ending in conviction.

Over the last 10 years, the number of sexual assaults have gone up, but the percentage of cases going to trial and ending in conviction have gone down. Under President Trump, the statistics and details got even worse. And so we are not moving in the right direction.

And, last, our allies have already done this.

TAPPER: Right.

GILLIBRAND: This is not a scary step. This is something the U.K. has done. They have written to our government, saying they did not see a diminution in command control.

TAPPER: So, why is Jack Reed -- why is Jack Reed blocking you? Why is Jack Reed stopping you from doing this?

GILLIBRAND: You would have to ask Jack Reed.

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