Rep. Donna Shalala on the wall: "No one is building the Great Wall of China anymore"
Rep. Donna Shalala, a freshman Democrat from Florida, says that she is standing firmly with Democrats against the border wall that President Trump is requesting in a bill to reopen the government. Shalala told CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent Major Garrett in this week's episode of "The Takeout" podcast that she supports border security, but that she doesn't believe a wall is necessary to enforce it.
"We also believe the government should open and we should have a conversation about smart border security," she said. "No one is building the Great Wall of China anymore. They have modern technology, they have sensors." Shalala also faulted Mr. Trump for not filling around 7,500 vacancies at Customs and Border Protection.
Shalala, who served both of Bill Clinton's terms as HHS secretary, also discussed possibly impeaching Mr. Trump, saying that she would support impeachment "if the evidence is there," but that she had not seen any evidence of an impeachable offense yet. She also said that she would wait to see what Special Counsel Robert Mueller reported when he concludes his investigation.
"We believe in the rule of law, and the rule of law demands that we have evidence...We've got so many other things to do," Shalala said, referring to other Democratic priorities this term, such as health care.
Shalala flipped a Republican seat in November, winning the district previously held by GOP Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in Florida. She served as Health and Human Services secretary during the Clinton administration.
Shalala said that she was willing to work with her Republican colleagues as a freshman.
"I'm naturally bi-partisan," she said.
For more of Major's conversation with Donna Shalala, download "The Takeout" podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, or Spotify. New episodes are available every Friday morning. Also, you can watch "The Takeout" on CBSN Friday at 5pm, 9pm, and 12am ET and Saturday at 1pm, 9pm, and 12am ET. For a full archive of "The Takeout" episodes, visit www.takeoutpodcast.com. And you can listen to "The Takeout" on select CBS News Radio affiliates (check your local listings).
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