CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview With Virginia Senator Mark Warner

Interview

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BLITZER: Evan Perez, thank you very much.

Joining us now, Senator Mark Warner. He's the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

SEN. MARK WARNER (D), VIRGINIA: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: We got a lot of issues to get through, so let's start with Michael Cohen.

As you know, he sat for an interview with your committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee, last fall. Do you believe President Trump has reason to worry now about what Cohen might reveal?

WARNER: I'm not going to go into any of the testimony that Mr. Cohen gave to our committee.

I have still got additional questions for Mr. Cohen. But I think one thing is clear. This individual has been involved with Trump for decades. I think he knows where a lot of the dirty laundry is.

And I think he would be -- I think you see the obsession coming out of the White House about the Mueller investigation, if you just look at the comments at the top of the show. You have got a White House that is looking at a Supreme Court pick. And one of the criteria, based on your reporting, may be that potential judge's views on whether a president can be indicted. You have got the president's lawyer, Mr. Giuliani, changing positions again this weekend, saying the Mueller investigation would have to show the president guilty before he was even coming in for questioning, the Mueller investigation, by the way, which has gotten four guilty pleas, 20 indictments, and an investigation that our bipartisan committee reiterated last week, the Russians intervened to help Trump and hurt Clinton.

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This is not the actions of White House that doesn't have something to hide. And, frankly, I think it would be -- I hope Mr. Cohen does participate and does come forward fully with the prosecutors in New York.

BLITZER: As you well know, Senator, the question of whether or not the president must comply with a subpoena from Mueller could wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Senate will soon be asked to consider President Trump's nominee to replace the associate justice, Anthony Kennedy. Should lawmakers raise that issue with the nominee during the confirmation process?

WARNER: Well, Wolf, we already know that this choice is going to come from a pre-screened list of the so-called Federalist Society, that Mr. Trump has already put out criteria that frankly disqualifies I think, at least from those four candidates that he has laid out, somebody that would try to overturn Roe v. Wade, someone that would try to take away the rights from the Affordable Care Act, protecting people with preexisting condition.

Those in itself would be, I think, disqualifiers. But you add on top of that the potential notion that he may be choosing a justice based upon whether that justice will help protect him against any future criminal investigation.

To me, I think that's a valid question that people ought to ask.

BLITZER: Do you think that nominee should -- if confirmed should recuse himself or herself from making that kind of decision as a member of the Supreme Court?

WARNER: I think we're getting awfully close with a president that is clearly obsessed with the Mueller investigation. I don't think a day goes by that he doesn't tweet or make comments about it.

I hope -- I'm not sure where Mr. Mueller is on his deliberations. I hope he moves forward. But the idea that the president would use a pick on the Supreme Court to try to protect himself from answering legitimate questions of the Mueller investigation about possible Russian interference that may have involved the Trump campaign, that's pretty unbelievable, even in a Trump administration era.

BLITZER: So, just to be precise, Senator, you say that individual, if confirmed, should recuse himself or herself?

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WARNER: I want to find -- we will have a chance to question this individual.

I have already pointed out I have grave concerns about the list that he is picking from, because the -- his desire, Mr. Trump's desire to overturn Roe v. Wade, his desire to try to get rid of protections for folks with preexisting conditions from the Affordable Care Act, if you now layer on additional preconditions around the president's potential need to be serviced by the Mueller investigation, to me, that would be three strikes and you're out.

BLITZER: The president's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, now says the special counsel, Robert Mueller, must provide direct evidence of wrongdoing if he wants President Trump to sit down for an interview.

What do you make of that demand from the president's personal attorney?

WARNER: Well, I'm not surprised.

It feels like there seems to be a shifting legal theory about every other week coming out of the White House. I have never heard such a prerequisite. I know we're in a gray area when a president would be asked to come forward and answer questions.

But this president has said that he has got nothing to hide. If that's the case, he should sit down if Mr. Mueller asks him to.

BLITZER: Do you worry, Senator, that the constant attacks by the president and his supporters against Robert Mueller and his prosecutors are beginning to take their toll in terms of public opinion, what the attitude of the American people is toward Mueller?

WARNER: I do worry that this constant barrage -- and I give Mr. Mueller credit in the sense that, to my knowledge, there's been absolutely no leaks from that operation, but there has been constant incoming from Mr. Trump and some of his supporters that basically are not only undermining Mueller, but they're undermining folks at the Justice Department.

They've been undermining a lot of men and women who serve at the FBI, and, frankly, I think he has been attacking rule of law. And when you start to give license to people to suddenly say, well, we can pick and choose which laws we want to follow because we're suspect of our legal organizations and operations, you put the country in very, very dangerous territory.

And I think his full onslaughts both on Mueller and on FBI and the Justice Department is very dangerous.

BLITZER: A delegation of your colleagues from the U.S. Senate, all Republicans, by the way, just returned to Washington from a trip to Russia, where they met with the foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. Some worry that these senators may have been used as props by the

Kremlin. Do you believe that trip was a mistake?

WARNER: I am not going to weigh in on the travels of my colleagues.

I am, though, going to point out that this administration seems to treat our allies as adversaries, and treats our adversaries or potential adversaries like they're friends.

I think that the president -- what I don't think he -- doesn't at least seem to reflect is that what we share in common with our NATO allies is not only a common defense alliance, but we have a shared belief in rule of law. We have a shared belief in democracy, in one man, one vote.

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Mr. Putin represents none of those values, yet you see out of the president constant acclaim, and no other word I can think of that better suits how Mr. Trump treats President Putin, always on a pedestal, yet the way he regards our allies, and some of the comments he's made in recent weeks as he heads into the NATO summit this week, very, very problematic for our long-term relations of what I think has been the most successful alliance in modern history.

BLITZER: Were you, by the way, invited to make that trip by your Republican colleagues? And why not send a bipartisan delegation, Republicans and Democratic senators, on a sensitive trip like this to Russia? That's usually the case, isn't it?

WARNER: Usually the case.

Again, I don't intend to go to Russia anytime soon with the kind of investigation that we have been continuing, an investigation, again, that reconfirmed last week bipartisan full Senate Intelligence Committee saying, at Mr. Putin's direction, Russia intervened in our elections to try to help Mr. Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton.

BLITZER: You say you wouldn't go to Russia. Just elaborate a little bit. Why wouldn't you go to Russia?

WARNER: Listen, at this point in time, I feel that Russia has been acting as an adversary towards America.

I feel like they're still engaged and involved in trying to intervene. We have heard that -- comments from the Trump appointees at the FBI, the director of national intelligence, and one of the things that worries me greatly is, from election security, to pushing back on Russia's use of social media in terms of trying to disrupt our -- the way people interpret the press, I'm very worried this White House has not made that a higher priority.

And, at this point, as Russia continues to strike out against us, I think we need to be upping our defenses, particularly in the realm of social media and election security.

BLITZER: The "New York Magazine" writer Jonathan Chait just published

a very lengthy article arguing that we may be closer to the beginning of the Russia investigation than to the end of the Russia investigation, and he says this.

Let me quote from the article. He says -- quote -- "The unfolding of the Russia scandal has been like walking into a dark cavern. Every step reveals that the cave runs deeper than we thought."

Do you see it that way?

WARNER: I would only say, Wolf. I am not going to comment on a journalist's article.

I'm going to say as I have said on this show before, that the number of additional avenues that the committee -- and I can't -- I have no idea what all Mueller is pursuing, but what appears Mr. Mueller is pursuing as well -- doesn't seem to be narrowing.

And we still have a lot of questions that need to be answered.

BLITZER: How much more work does your committee need to do?

WARNER: We have still got folks that we need to call in for witnesses and there are some of the prominent individuals that I still believe that the senators themselves will need to question.

Remember, we have tried to do this in as professional, bipartisan manner as possible. That's why we had most of these interviews in private, done by a bipartisan staff. There will be others that we will need to bring back. And some of this will focus on social media. Some of this will focus as well on what the FBI and Justice Department did right and did wrong in the months leading up to the 2016 election.

And, obviously, that ultimate question of did that Russian involvement, which we have said the intelligence community was right, Russian involvement to help Mr. Trump, did that involvement trying to help Mr. Trump go to the extent of actual collusion?

BLITZER: The investigation by your committee, I take it, will continue through the midterm elections?

WARNER: Listen, I'm not going to put a timeline on this.

I want to get it done as soon as possible. But what we owe the American people is the truth. And so far, we have come out with two pieces of our report, one piece around election security. And thank goodness the Congress responded, and put money into the budget that was passed so that states could upgrade their security.

Unfortunately, that took Congress acting because there was no leadership from the White House. We have also come out with a reconfirmation of the intelligence community's assessment that I mentioned we came out with again last week, the summary, saying that not only did Russia intervene, but they intervened with the goal of helping Trump, and hurting Clinton.

BLITZER: Senator Warner, thanks so much for joining us.

WARNER: Thank you, Wolf.

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