CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript Interview with Dick Durbin

Interview

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Just ahead: Do Senate Democrats have any hope of blocking President Trump's U.S. Supreme Court nominee? I will ask the minority whip, the Judiciary Committee member Dick Durbin. You see him live. He's standing by. We will discuss.

And we will also break down the CDC's stunning reversal of its new guidance on how the coronavirus spreads in the air. Was politics, politics, politics at play?

We will be right back.

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[18:19:00]

BLITZER: We're back with all the breaking news on the fight over filling the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy left by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the president saying he'd prefer a confirmation vote before the November 3 election, enraging Democrats. Joining us now, the second-ranking Democrat in the U.S. Senate, Minority Whip Dick Durbin. He's also a member of the Judiciary Committee that will eventually hold hearings on a Supreme Court nominee.

Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

So, Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, just promised on the U.S. Senate floor that President Trump's nominee will get a vote, and President Trump says he wants to announce his nominee by this weekend.

What's your reaction to these late-breaking developments?

SEN. RICHARD DURBIN (D-IL): Well, I can just tell you, I have been in the Senate for a number of years. There's a flood of emotions on the floor of the Senate on the Democratic side, real feeling of sadness over the loss of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, all the tributes that we will talk about, what she achieved in her life for the rights of women and men, and the question of whether it's all at stake now, whether the Supreme Court will change so dramatically that her legacy will be lost to future generations.

[18:20:05]

And, of course, there are strong feelings about what Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader, has done to the United States Senate.

It is just beyond description to think that he has walked away from traditions and precedent and from the civility that has been part of the Senate as long as I have belonged here, or as long as I have been part of it here, and instead has said, I'm going to get a political result here at any cost. I'm going to embarrass my colleagues on the Republican side and make them reverse themselves from statements that they made clearly four years ago. I'm going to violate precedent in the Senate. I'm going to get my way one way or the other.

BLITZER: Have you spoken with any of your Republican colleagues, let's say like Senator Mitt Romney, or Cory Gardner, or Chuck Grassley, all of whom you know, and, at least publicly, they're apparently still undecided?

DURBIN: No, I haven't. That opportunity may present itself.

But we have two Republican senators, Murkowski and Collins, who have said they will not be party to the strategy by Mitch McConnell. We need two more. People say back home, well, just go there and stop everything. Make sure that they never do this.

That isn't how the Senate works. Whether there's a government functioning, whether the House is in session, the Senate has its rules and procedure. And Mitch McConnell knows them well.

He's going to move us forward toward his goal, whatever it may be, on his timetable, whatever it may be, with a nominee that we don't even know at this moment. And I just know that he's determined to get this done, even at great damage to the Senate.

BLITZER: So what's your message to Republican senators who might still be on the fence right now?

DURBIN: I would say to them, remember that moment when John McCain came to the well of the Senate and gave the no vote, which stopped the efforts of the Republican side to eliminate the Affordable Care Act.

It was an act of courage, which we expect from a man of his stature. Who will show that courage today on the Republican side and step up and say, we should do the right thing, even if it's unpopular in our own political party?

BLITZER: At the end of the day, do you think Democrats will be able to find enough Republicans? You need four, at least, assuming all of the Democrats are in line. You need four Republicans to join you in blocking this nomination. Is that doable?

DURBIN: It's possible. I'm not going to say it's doable. That sounds like it's just something that will take a little bit of time.

But, really, there have to be Republican senators now who are thinking long and hard about their own legacy in the United States Senate. I know, if they say, we're going to hold this up, as Murkowski and Collins have, it's a great political risk, but it can be done.

And there are those who may think it's more important to have your own conscience on your side than to have all of your colleagues standing behind you.

BLITZER: As you know, some Democrats are openly threatening to try to pack the Supreme Court with additional justices next year if Joe Biden were to win the White House and Democrats were to take the majority in the Senate.

Would you agree with that?

DURBIN: No, Wolf, let me tell you, I'm not going to get engaged in that speculation.

What we need to do is convince the American people that this just isn't another political fight, a cussing match in Washington. The future of the Supreme Court is important for every single family, when you think of the millions of families that have insurance under the Affordable Care Act, the protection we all have if there's a member of your family with a preexisting condition.

All of that is at stake here in a decision by the Supreme Court that is imminent. It's a matter of months before it's handed down. So, people across America have to understand it.

And when you hear all these glowing tributes, as we should, to Ruth Bader Ginsburg and what she has done on behalf of women across America, remember, all of that is at stake with this selection of the next Supreme Court nominee.

It really comes down to that. This is critical.

BLITZER: So, what's your bottom-line prediction? What's going to happen over the next 43 days before the election?

DURBIN: Hard to say.

There was an argument made that we couldn't vote before the election without hurrying it, ignoring some of the precedent, perhaps ignoring hearings. Who knows? Mitch McConnell at this point may decide there will be no hearings on this nominee.

There's usually an FBI background check. Who knows? Senator McConnell and Donald Trump may decide not to do that as well. You just don't know what they're going to do at this point in a reckless effort to fill this vacancy.

BLITZER: Senator Dick Durbin, thanks so much for joining us.

DURBIN: Thank you.

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