WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today joined Andrea Mitchell Reports to discuss tax reform and opportunities for bipartisanship in the Senate. 

“But if we look back at the health care process and outcome, that's got some important warnings here. We should be listening to Senator John McCain who says the only way to do very hard, very complex things here in the Senate is in an open process, not by having five or six people craft a complex plan in secret and then roll it out and try and pass it with only one party's vote. If the health care process had been open and robust and bipartisan for the last seven months, I think we would be making progress. And given that the tax plan that's being rolled out today was crafted largely in secret and with no Democratic input, that's not very encouraging.”

Full video and audio are available here.

Excerpts from the interview: 

Senator Coons on whether there’s room for bipartisanship on tax reform: Absolutely. This is an example of an area where, right from the election, there were many Democrats saying we would like to find a way to work across the aisle, to work with President Trump. There are a number of other areas like infrastructure where we had early hopes we might be able to work together. But if we look back at the health care process and outcome, that's got some important warnings here. We should be listening to Senator John McCain who says the only way to do very hard, very complex things here in the Senate is in an open process, not by having five or six people craft a complex plan in secret and then roll it out and try and pass it with only one party's vote. If the health care process had been open and robust and bipartisan for the last seven months, I think we would be making progress. And given that the tax plan that's being rolled out today was crafted largely in secret and with no Democratic input, that's not very encouraging. 

Senator Coons on Roy Moore:  Well, I have worked very hard to find some way to partner with Republicans and Democrats from a wide range of backgrounds and views. So I will give Roy Moore, if he's elected, the benefit of the doubt. But all of those statements you just repeated are gravely concerning, even alarming. Hopefully he will come to the Senate with an attitude that changes and he will show that he's interested in constructive legislation. But if he's simply a bomb thrower, someone who comes here determined to shake things up and to make things difficult for Mitch McConnell, he will be able to do so and it will be an even harder road ahead for the Republican majority as they try to legislate and to govern. 

More on Roy Moore: Doug Jones is a great candidate. He's a former U.S. Attorney, he's a prosecutor, he's someone who has stood up for justice in a state where that makes a real statement. It's my hope that the contrast between Doug Jones as a candidate and Judge Moore will be clear, and I can't think of anyone to be a better person to deliver Democrats' message to the middle class folks, the voters of Alabama, than Vice President Joe Biden. The special election is on December 12. There is going to be a very small turnout. And look, I'm someone who got into a race for the U.S. Senate against Republican Congressman former Governor Mike Castle and I ended up facing Christine O’Donnell. In the primary, who knows what might happen and if Democrats might be successful in 2018 because of unexpected upsets in Republican primaries. 

Senator Coons on Senator Corker: Kristen, I was surprised and disappointed by Chairman Corker's resignation announcement last night. He is a conservative Republican. We disagree on a number of important policy matters, but on the Foreign Relations Committee, he's been a good chairman and a good legislative partner. We've introduced and moved forward -- 

More on Senator Corker and whether his resignation will hurt bipartisanship in the Committee: Yes. Because Senator Corker has worked very hard to find ways to work together despite our disagreements on a number of areas. He and I, I believe we've moved five bills from introduction to becoming law in recent years. We've traveled together, we've worked together. Ben Cardin, the Ranking Democrat on the Committee, has a respectful, constructive relationship with Chairman Corker. It's my hope that the next Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee in the next Congress, whether it's a Democrat or Republican, will also work as hard as Bob Corker has to find a way to put our country's interests first. But he is the sort of pragmatic legislator, someone who really wants to get things done, that I think our country wants more of. When I go home to Delaware, what I hear from people when I'm going to the grocery store or after church or coming home from the train station, they say they want Republicans and Democrats to work together, to compromise, and move forward to the betterment of America. The election of Roy Moore certainly suggests there are a lot of states where folks are pulling in the opposite direction. 

Senator Coons on Facebook: Yes. I think we need to hear from Mark Zuckerberg. We need to better understand both what Facebook knows about how to micro-target ads and what they know about Russian activity. We need to be preparing for the 2018 and 2020 elections and make sure we understand the really disruptive power of social media to move messages directly to the inboxes of Americans, to their social media feeds. We've got real restrictions on the ability of foreign powers to influence our elections in traditional media. The Russian government can't come and buy ads on Fox or MSNBC to try to push an election. But through Facebook, they may have accomplished exactly that goal. We need to better understand what's happened to the 2016 election and prepare ourselves for 2018 and 2020, because Vladimir Putin and his regime continue to interfere in elections across Europe, and he continues to have interests and objectives that are quite different from ours. We need to make sure we're securing our future elections. 

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