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January 07, 2009

Sen. Reid's Press Conference on Roland Burris

Harry Reid

REID: We just completed about a 45-minute meeting with Roland Burris. For me, who had never met the man, it was very enlightening. Senator Durbin has known him all of his political life, but I was very interested in his political career. He went through that line by line; it was extremely interesting.

He obviously is a very engaging, extremely nice man. He presents himself very well. He's very proud of his family. He's got two Ph.D.s and two law degrees, and he talked about how proud he was (inaudible) having those degrees.

He understands, above all else -- being a lawyer, attorney general of the fifth most-populous state in the union -- the law. And we have a situation here that we've had a rule in effect since 1884 here in the Senate, that for a person to be appointed by a governor, you have to have the signature of the governor and the secretary of state.

Now, that matter is in the courts. And there are all kinds of rumors floating around when the Illinois Supreme Court will make that ruling. But it appears they're going to do it pretty soon and as to whether or not the secretary of state must sign the certificate along with the governor.

So once that's done, that will be one step out of the way. The other issue that I think is important is that Roland Burris, to me, appears to be candid and forthright. Without any hesitation, he prepared an affidavit that the impeachment committee for the Illinois state assembly already has, and he's going to go answer any other questions they might have.

He's not trying to avoid any responsibility and trying to hide anything. So that will take place tomorrow afternoon at 3 o'clock in Illinois. Once that's done, we'll be in a different position to see what we are going to do.

There are a number of efforts that we are going to undertake, one of which would be to send to the Rules Committee. But there's going to come a time when the entire Senate is going to have to act on this. And that day, I hope, would come sooner rather than later.

It's a -- we want to do what we can do to make sure that everything has been done in the Blagojevich hours is transparent.

We know that there's been a lot of issues raised as to why we held this up. Well, it's obvious: We have a man who was arrested for trying to sell the office.

Roland Burris, one of the first things he said to us, hey, this is nothing that's racial, I understand that. So a lot of people tried to make this a racial issue, but Roland Burris has not and will not.

We believe that what he's going to do tomorrow afternoon is very important. We believe that court decision is very important before we can move to the next step.

Senator Durbin? DURBIN: I've known Roland Burris for 36 years in Illinois politics. We've campaigned together, and we've really come up through the ranks our own way, but we've always been friends, and I've always respected him.

He comes to this opportunity to serve in the Senate at an extraordinary time in Illinois political history. When our governor was the subject of a criminal complaint, arrested and removed from his own home, and is now subject of an impeachment proceeding, which begins in earnest probably tomorrow in Springfield and may play out for the next several weeks, a lot of the concern over this governor has to do with the appointment of the -- fill the vacancy of Barack Obama to this Senate seat.

I think it was important that the United States Senate say -- and we did, as a Democratic caucus unanimously -- that we were going to carefully scrutinize and review the process by which this Senate seat would be filled, if Governor Blagojevich was involved, and that's what happened. He chose Roland Burris and sent his name, and we have been carefully taking a look at that process.

The meeting we had this morning with Roland Burris was a very positive meeting. As I've said, I've known him for such a long time. We are friends and on a first-name basis.

And at the outset, he said, I want to make it clear that this -- I understand this controversy has nothing to do with my race, and I understand that both of you have excellent records when it comes to racial relations.

So I want to make sure that everyone understands we are trying to deal with this in terms of the rules of the Senate, the laws of our land, the laws of the state of Illinois and our constitutions.

DURBIN: Now, there is a serious question that has to be asked and answered, and that is whether the secretary of state, Jesse White, an African-American, in Illinois, needs to certify the signature of Rod Blagojevich for the appointment of Roland Burris. That decision will be before the Illinois Supreme Court today or tomorrow. We are hoping that they act on it in an expedited fashion.

I called the attorney general of Illinois, Lisa Madigan, yesterday, as well as the secretary of state, and urged them not to delay the decision. Whatever the decision of the Supreme Court, we want it to be made on a timely basis. And they both agreed that was their intent, as well.

We are hoping that, at the end of the day, if there is a court order and a mandamus, that the secretary of state would certify the signature of Governor Blagojevich and then comply completely with Senate rules.

As Majority Leader Reid has told you, this has been a rule in the United States Senate since 1884. And since 1917, when we started the popular election of the senators, we have never, ever waived this rule for any election or appointment.

Everyone has to present a certificate, signed by the governor, cosigned by the secretary of state, never been waived in the history of the United States Senate. So it's an important rule and one not easily challenged or changed.

The second thing, of course, is that Roland Burris clear the air completely in terms of his appointment by Governor Blagojevich. He has submitted, as Harry Reid told you, voluntarily an affidavit that explains most of the circumstances.

Tomorrow he will face questioning from Republican and Democratic legislators about the details of that arrangement. He has said that he will answer every question completely and candidly. I think that's an important step in the process.

If that comes to a positive conclusion, as we believe it will, the next step is for the Rules Committee to review what has come together here on a bipartisan basis and recommend to the United States' Senate, both Democrats and Republicans, the next step. But this was a positive meeting, and it moves us forward.

The last point I want to make to this is this. My state, the state of Illinois, has gone through quite a beating since our governor was arrested. There have been a lot of jokes about it; it's been the subject of late-night television shows and all the rest of it.

But I will tell you that the overwhelming majority of Democrats and Republicans serving in the state of Illinois are honest, hard- working people. They want to clear this record quickly and move forward.

Secondly, we are so excited that finally one of our own, a former senator from Illinois, will become president of the United States in just a few days.

We have one of the most challenging agenda facing us in Congress that any president in Congress has faced since 1933. We have an economy on the ropes; we need to move forward. We need a full complement of senators to work toward that goal as quickly as possible.

So it is our intention to deal with this matter in an honest, open, transparent way, with all deliberate speed so that we can fill all the vacancies and have a full complement of senators working on a bipartisan basis to address the challenges our nation faces.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: If Mr. Burris is able to present his complete credentials to you, if one of those signatures is Mr. Blagojevich, Governor Blagojevich's signature, would you still be -- it sounds like you're willing now to accept that as a valid document.

REID: Well, you carry -- you carry just a little too far. We believe that the certification by the secretary of state is vital to (inaudible) once that's done, once his hearing is completed tomorrow afternoon, we'll reassess where we are.

There are a number of things we can do. We could refer it to the Rules Committee, have them report back to us as soon as they can.

But remember what all this has brought about. It has brought about transparency in this appointment. Blagojevich, who has a reputation that's not very good, we had -- this is something that had to be looked into in detail, and we're going to continue to do that.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Senator Reid, if there's no actual evidence for assertions that Roland Burris obtained this appointment through fraud or any other corrupt practice, why do you have to have the Rules Committee investigation if there's no positive evidence to impeach him at all that I've seen or that...

(CROSSTALK)

REID: Well, we're not -- we're not talking about impeaching Roland Burris.

QUESTION: ... to impeach his character or the appointment. As I understand it, there's been no evidence for any assertions (OFF-MIKE) that this appointment was actually obtained through fraud or any other corrupt practice. Given the absence of that evidence or assertion, why do you then want to have the Rules Committee...

(CROSSTALK)

REID: Well, people -- people ask a lot of times why we have to do various things procedurally here in the Senate. It's because we're the Senate; that's how we operate.

And I think that this should not be done, because Durbin and I thinks it should or shouldn't be done. The Senate's going to have to make a decision on this, the entire Senate.

Mr. Burris understands that. And we're going to do the best we can to make sure that the state of Illinois has two senators, not one senator.

(CROSSTALK)

REID: One at a time here.

QUESTION: It sounds like, once he has been certified and done what he needs to do in Illinois, that you have decided to seat him, that you don't have a problem with him as an individual, despite who appointed him. Is that correct?

REID: First of all, understand we don't have a problem with him as an individual. At this stage, the process is working out. As we've outlined for you, there's a court case pending now. He's going to testify tomorrow afternoon.

And that is such an important hearing tomorrow afternoon, because he will be testifying under oath, as he did with his affidavit that he filed. It's important the Senate get the full benefit of that.

When you have a governor that is obviously charged with some bad things, we -- we have to be totally open and above-board on this. So we're going to move forward as quickly as we can as we've outlined it.

(CROSSTALK)

REID: I'm not going to -- you can yell as loud as you want. I'm not going to respond. Other people are being more polite.

QUESTION: Just a technical question. You said that ultimately the entire Senate will have to make a decision on this. Are you saying that there will ultimately be a vote of the entire Senate on whether or not to seat Roland Burris?

REID: I think without any question that will be the case.

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