CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: "Interview with Rep. Denny Heck"

Interview

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BLITZER: Jim, thank you. Jim Acosta reporting.

Joining us now Washington State Democratic Representative Denny Heck who serves on the House Intelligence Committee.

Congressman, thank you so much for joining us. Several issues I want to go through with you. But let's start with the news that a friend of the Dayton shooter bought the high-capacity magazine used in the attack.

First of all, do you support a ban on these high-capacity magazines?

REP. DENNY HECK (D-WA): Sure. I see no reason whatsoever that weapons that are equipped such as that, whose only purpose is to kill as many people as possible, should be allowed on the streets.

I hope that this individual is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and according to the charging authorities. But the fact of the matter is we won't even begin to mitigate this, as important as prosecutions are, until we can adopt common sense gun safety legislation.

BLITZER: Republican Congressman Mike Turner, who represents Dayton, now supports limits on magazines.

[17:10:00] BLITZER: Is this an area you think you could find common ground, Democrats and Republicans, working together?

HECK: Well, I hope so, Wolf. And in fact, I see some perceptible shift going on here. You had the Mooch response to that -- in a rare instance, I actually agree with the president, the Mooch will say anything he can to get attention. But I find it incredibly rich the president would accuse anybody else of this.

But you also had your own host, S.E. Cupp, announce she dropped her membership in the NRA. There are signs here but we need to qualify and temper this by remembering Martin Luther King's wisdom when he said, change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability -- because we also know the president is fickle and could change his position. We know he has said that he hopes to get something in the way of background checks.

But the NRA, who is opposed to all gun safety legislation, will have a seat at the table and we know that a certain senator, John Barroso from Wyoming, said he doesn't see something happening here.

So this will happen if and only if the American people rise up and make their points of view known and say it is time to put a stop to the senseless slaughtering of American citizens in our malls and our churches.

BLITZER: We've gone through this drill so many times in recent years.

How do you make sure this time, Congressman, that this will still be a priority when Congress returns in mid-September from the recess?

HECK: So there are a lot of members of Congress, including the majority of the House, who, you know, Wolf, passed not one but two gun safety legislation bills in February, six months ago, both related to background checks. The only way in which the Senate will move is twofold.

One, if the president of the United States finally makes his position clear and sticks to it, that it is time to stop the slaughter. And I frankly don't think that will happen unless Americans throughout our great land make it clear to him that this is what they expect him to do and what they expect the United States Senate to do.

BLITZER: On immigration, Congressman, this new rule that the administration is putting out will penalize people who use certain services like food stamps or Medicaid and it will benefit immigrants with better English and better education.

Is the administration bypassing Congress to enact the president's vision of what the president calls merit-based immigration?

HECK: Well, yes, of course, he is. The president hates all immigrants except his mother and father-in-law and his wife evidently. He hates them whether they are here without documents or a green card or here seeking asylum. He hates them all. And the incredible irony of this particular circumstance, Wolf, is a

lot of people here who are on green cards are working in very low- paying jobs that nobody else wants to do. And that is why they qualify for some of these benefits.

He's not only going to be hurting these families, he's going to be hurting the local economies, which need these people to fill the jobs.

BLITZER: If it is harder to emigrate legally, talking about people who come to the United States legally, could this actually incentivize illegal immigration?

HECK: Well, as I think I've said to you on this very program, Wolf, I believe the president's behavior over the last two years has, in fact, incentivized an increased attempt to migrate to the United States because the so-called coyotes down in the three Triangle countries of Central America have been telling people, you better get in now because it will only get worse.

So, yes, I think his rhetoric has increased efforts to get in both legally and illegally.

BLITZER: The Trump administration as you know has also directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement to conduct more raids like the ones we saw in Mississippi the other day.

What is your reaction to that?

HECK: You know, Wolf, I didn't go to sleep after the night of that raid feeling one bit safer because these 600 people got up very early in the morning to go work in a chicken factory and provide for their family.

It seems to me the priority of ICE ought to be trying to find those people who have genuinely criminal backgrounds -- and I'm not talking about speeding tickets. Some of these people actually had ankle bracelets, not because they were criminals but because they had sought asylum here and that was the way to continue to track them.

I don't feel any safer that ICE undertakes this. I think they out to have better priorities for what they use their money for.

I was just down at the border week before last and we have a situation down there that isn't good. And it is going to get worse as the president implements his so-called -- and I say so-called advisedly, "migrant protection protocol," where he is sending everybody back south of the border.

I was in El Paso the day before the Walmart incident and the truth of the matter is Juarez is going to struggle -- and I think it is a ticking time bomb -- to deal with all of the people seeking asylum in America that we've sent south. I think that is extralegal and there are two courts that have suggested that it is an illegal action but we'll see where that goes.

[17:15:00] BLITZER: Representative Denny Heck, thank you for joining us.

HECK: Thank you, sir.

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