CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Russian Investigatoin

Interview

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We're joined now by Congressman Ruben Gallego. He's a Democrat who serves on the Armed Services Committee.

Congressman, thanks for joining us.

REP. RUBEN GALLEGO (D), ARIZONA: Thanks for having me, Wolf.

BLITZER: So what do these changes mean, from your perspective? Do you expect the president to take on the special counsel, Robert Mueller, more aggressively now?

GALLEGO: Well, he can try, but, for the most part, I think he understands, if he tries to fire Mueller...

BLITZER: If he tries to fire Mueller.

GALLEGO: If he tries to fire Mueller, that's an impeachable offense. That's a line that many of us are drawing. You have heard it from Democrats and Republicans. That's not an area that he should go down that road.

The fact that he has gotten rid of this lawyer and some of the top lawyers in the city have now joined him, it's largely because he's acting in such an unhinged and guilty manner. And he needs to deal with that. But if he believes that somehow that this gives him some free rein to

fire Mueller, then he is in for a rude awakening. That is a line he cannot cross.

BLITZER: Because I know a bunch of Democrats would clearly go for impeachment if he were to fire Mueller. Maybe I have heard a few Republicans say that. Most Republicans have either been silent or some Republicans, Louie Gohmert, among others, have said, go ahead and fire Mueller.

GALLEGO: Well, I hope they wouldn't be cowards. And we can't really depend on them to have any level of courage, but we have seen some senators, Republican senators, say that this is a line that they cannot cross.

BLITZER: But impeachment first goes to the House. Then the trial goes to the Senate.

GALLEGO: It's true. Now, at the same time, we have an election season, and I do believe that the American people would not stand for this type of obstruction of justice. And they would punish the Republican Caucus for being the cowards that they are.

BLITZER: What does all this mean for a potential sit-down, face-to- face interview between the president and Mueller?

GALLEGO: Well, if the president is not afraid of what he did, and he believes everything that he's done has correctly and has been honestly and legal, then he shouldn't be afraid to sit down with Mueller.

And he has so far, you know, hired some conspiracy theorist lawyers. He might go to Court TV and hire some more lawyers, whatever it is. So he can hire whoever he wants for his defense. But, by the end of the day, if he has nothing to hide, then he shouldn't have a problem meeting with Mueller.

BLITZER: Do you believe that these late developments in the House Intelligence Committee, the Republican majority now saying, it's over, no more investigation, no evidence of collusion will propel the president to take steps to fire Mueller?

GALLEGO: Certainly.

The Republican House Intelligence Committee members are essentially engaging in a cover-up. They know that there were some things that were done there that were either illegal or at least questionable. But the fact that they haven't issued subpoenas, the fact that they haven't put any of these characters and actors that were involved with the Russian propaganda campaign, as well as the Trump campaign, under subpoena tells us that they're trying to either give cover to somebody or to give cover to the president, so he can act in whatever erratic manner he wants, or, more importantly, try to fire Mueller.

BLITZER: You're on the Armed Services Committee. Let me ask you quickly to react to the president's announcement today, $60 billion in new tariffs against China, against Chinese exports to the United States. I know there's fear of a trade war. The Dow dropped more than 700 points.

But what about the U.S. need for China to be helpful in the North Korea crisis right now? How does that impact that?

GALLEGO: Well, it doesn't help us. Certainly, we need them to have -- be strong with us in terms of standing against North Korea and making sure that we have a Korean Peninsula that is pacified and denuclearized.

But it also shows you how erratic and irresponsible this president is. Look, we do need to work on tariffs, but we don't have to do it in this manner. We have to focus on trying to do this with the least amount of impact on American workers. That's what matters here.

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What the president is doing is more to fulfill his ego, not necessarily to help the American worker. He could have done this in a manner that I think would have been a lot more productive, with less disruption to the world economy and to our stock markets.

But, instead, in his usual manner, he just kind of threw something on the wall and hope it stuck. And the only people that are going to get stuck at the end of the day are going to be the American workers.

BLITZER: Let me ask you to react to the spending bill that just Housed the House of Representatives and now goes to the Senate. It didn't include any protection for the so-called dreamers.

Last night, the president tweeted this: "Democrats refuse to take care of DACA. Would have been so easy, but they just didn't care. I had to fight for military and start of wall."

How do you respond? What happens to the dreamers now? Protection for them was not included in this legislation.

GALLEGO: Luckily, we do have a court system that has given them protection in the meantime.

What the president was asking yesterday was for essentially us to give him money for his really dumb border wall, which is not going to actually give us any security, for people that are already protected.

And our counterargument was very simple. We will give you more, but we have to have more people protected with more assurances. And that has been the position of the Democratic Party, the Democratic Caucus, since the beginning of our negotiations.

The president has been all over the place. He's been listening to the xenophobes within his Cabinet such as Kelly and Miller. And at the end of the day, he can't figure out how to make a deal. He's a bad deal-maker and this is why he doesn't have any results here. We could cut a deal. The problem is, Trump is the problem when it comes to cutting a deal.

BLITZER: Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

GALLEGO: Thank you.

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