Sen. Ben Cardin (D) of Maryland Discusses Democrats' Request for Full Mueller Report, Trump's Threat to Close Border, Cutting Aid to Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador.
BASH: A top Democrats is raising the stakes in the fight to see the full Mueller report. The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Congressman Jerry Nadler, is preparing a subpoena for the full unredacted report. The move comes one day before the deadline set by Democrats for the attorney general to provide the report to Congress. Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, of Maryland, is with me now. And, Senator, what do you make of Chairman Nadler's threat?</s>SEN. BEN CARDIN, (D), MARYLAND: Dana, first, it's good to be with you. It's important the report is released not just to Congress but the American people. We need to understand exactly how these conclusions were reached in regard to collusion and obstruction of justice. It's important also in defending our country against further attacks from Russia on our election system and other democratic institutions. It's incumbent upon Mr. Barr to get this report to Congress as quickly as possible.</s>BASH: But, Senator, the attorney general has said he expects to make a redacted version of the report public by mid-April. In a couple weeks, if not sooner. So are the Democrats pushing a little bit too hard here given the political situation or is it for political reasons?</s>CARDIN: Well, as you know, we have a summary of the report almost immediately upon it being presented to the attorney general. It's important that this report be released as quickly as possible. We certainly understand there may be certain sections, such as grand jury testimony or dealing with individuals that are not public officials that were not indicted, that type of information we understand being redacted.</s>BASH: Right.</s>CARDIN: But we are concerned that the principle information is made available to Congress.</s>BASH: But is preparing a subpoena and announcing it, when the attorney general says it's already going to come in a couple weeks, jumping the gun on the Democrat's part?</s>CARDIN: Well, you know, it takes time for a subpoena to be executed and issued, et cetera. If we wait a couple weeks and there's a couple more weeks and a couple more weeks and a couple more weeks -- it's important this report be released as quickly as possible. And I hope we can reach an agreement with the attorney general for the release of the report as soon as possible.</s>BASH: Maybe it's a negotiating tactic?</s>CARDIN: I think the bottom line is that it's important that the report be released.</s>BASH: OK.</s>CARDIN: We don't want to release a month from now. We don't want to release two months from now. It's important that the report get released.</s>BASH: OK. I want to quickly turn to what's happening at the southern border and the president's threat to close the southern border. Also his decision to cut aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The administration says those countries could do more to ease what is a humanitarian crisis at the border. What do you think about the approach and, more importantly, how should he handle it differently?</s>CARDIN: Cutting off aid to the countries of the northern triangle in Central America is against our national security interests. Our aid is helping that country develop stability to deal with their gang violence and drug trafficking. It's in our national security interests to improve the conditions in the countries so there will be less individuals who will be tempted to leave to come to our country. It's counterproductive for us to cut off the aid. And closing the border, that makes no sense at all. We need Mexico's cooperation to work with us and cutting off the border tells Mexico we're doing it alone.</s>BASH: OK, but, I mean, we only have unfortunately thirty- seconds left, but can you, in a nutshell, say what he should do given the fact that he is pointing to a humanitarian crisis?</s>CARDIN: Work with Congress and let's enact comprehensive immigration reform. The Senate passed that several years ago. You now have a House that's prepared to take up comprehensive immigration reform. If the president wants to get the immigration system the way it should be, work with us for comprehensive immigration reform and stop doing these types of activities that just turns our neighbors against us.</s>BASH: I like the fact that you are still optimistic about the notion of bipartisanship on something as tough as immigration. Senator Cardin, thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate it.</s>CARDIN: Thank you.</s>BASH: And much more on this as we go live to the border coming up. Plus, new surveillance video includes from the night of the disappearance of a student who was killed after getting in a car she thought was her Uber. Brooke Baldwin is next.