CNN "Anderson Cooper 360" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Ed Markey

Interview

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Joining us now is Senator Ed Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts. Senator, thanks so much for joining us. Look, a close ally of yours, Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, quote, "President Biden and Senate Democrats should take a step back and ask themselves if playing patty-cake with G.O.P. senators is really worth dismantling of people's voting rights, setting the planet on fire, allowing massive corporations and the wealthy to not pay their fair share of taxes, et cetera," and she went on to say, "It's a hustle."

What do you think of that? How do you feel about the issue of whether Democrats and the White House are maybe putting too much faith in Republicans to compromise?

SEN. ED MARKEY (D-MA): Well, I've said all year long that we have to repeal the filibuster. The Republicans are using that, as you already said, to block gun safety legislation from passing, from blocking equal pay for women in the United States from passing, from blocking protections for voting rights from passing.

They are using the filibuster to accomplish that goal and they are extending it now to infrastructure and climate change with their obstructionist policy.

So, from my perspective, the filibuster has to go. It is a relic of a Jim Crow past and is now being used to block the agenda, which our country voted for last November with a Democratic House, Senate and President.

BERMAN: It's not going to happen today, you know that. Joe Manchin is against it, other Democratic senators are against it. So, what's your alternative plan?

MARKEY: Well, as you said, there's a new negotiation that has broken out between more moderate Democrats and Republicans, but John Thune, who's the number two Republican in the Senate said this afternoon that there aren't going to be the votes for anything that goes beyond what Shelley Moore Capito, the lead Republican negotiator already proposed to Joe Biden and Joe Biden rejected.

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MARKEY: So, he already said that it's a nonstarter if you go beyond that. So, this new group is actually in political terrain that is not going to bear fruit. And, you know, as the great Maya Angelou said, when someone shows you who they are, you should believe them the first time. They are telling us at the leadership level of the Republican Party that they are not going to accept anything that's any more than the modest proposal that Shelly Moore Capito has already made.

BERMAN: Have you been in contact with Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema about going the path of reconciliation -- which for our viewers, who may not know means going it without Republicans -- you need every Democrat on board for that.

MARKEY: Ultimately, we are going to need every Democrat. And I think ultimately, it's going to be a product of the failure of these negotiations to produce anything that matches the magnitude of the climate crisis, which we are facing.

We need a massive expansion of wind and solar and all electric vehicles and plug in hybrids and battery storage technologies, a new transmission systems in our country. We can save all of creation by engaging in massive job creation, and Republicans are just not going to support any of it. Nothing that is climate-centered will be allowed by the Republicans to be in the infrastructure bill.

BERMAN: How much jeopardy do you think the Democratic agenda is in? And how much time do you realistically think you have?

Look, I know it's still 2021. We're barely halfway through. We're not even halfway through 2021, but the midterm elections are coming up, and how concerned are you, you might not have the majority after that?

MARKEY: My feeling is that we have to be big, we have to be bold. We have to respond to what the American people voted for last year. And if the Republicans say, no climate, then I say no deal. Let's just move on. Let's move to the next phase where we work using the reconciliation process, as you said, which only needs 51 votes, all Democrats plus Kamala Harris, in order to pass something.

We can't allow the procrastination, the obstinate obstructionism which the Republicans have engaged in in the past, 1994 and 2010. We know what their strategy is. We've seen this movie before.

We've given them enough time. If they come to the table and they are reasonable, let's sit with them. But I just don't think it's going to happen after what we've seen in the first five months of the Biden administration.

BERMAN: I've got to let you run, but how frustrated are you with some of your Democratic colleagues -- Joe Manchin, he doesn't share your frustration, that he's willing to let this go on?

MARKEY: Well, thus far, Mitch McConnell has shown us what the Republican game plan is, I think the same thing is going to happen on an infrastructure bill that matches the magnitude of the problem that we're faced with in our country and our planet. And I think we'll reach a point where reconciliation and repeal of the filibuster is on the table and it will be the doing of the Republican Party.

BERMAN: Senator Ed Markey from Massachusetts. Go Bruins. Thanks so much for being with us tonight.

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