CNN "The Lead With Jake Tapper" - Transcript: Interview With Virginia Senator Mark Warner

Interview

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JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Brynn Gingras in New York, thank you.

Joining me now is Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia. He's the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

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

TAPPER: As you know, Michael Cohen's lawyer, Lanny Davis, claims that Michael Cohen has evidence that the president knew about the hacking of the DNC e-mails before that even happened.

He also says that the president -- and that Michael Cohen might know about more about possible collusion with the Russians. Do you have any evidence, do you know of any evidence that might back any of that up?

WARNER: Jake, I'm not going to comment about what Mr. Cohen has testified to our committee.

As the chairman and I said yesterday, we have reconnected with Mr. Cohen. We had to clear up some of his earlier testimony, and we hope that his plea deal would not preclude him from coming back before our committee.

So I'm anxious to hear if he's got information about the collusion or knowledge of the Russian hacking before the leakage of that information. I'm -- we have also got questions for him about his involvement in the proposed Moscow Trump Tower. There are open questions on that issue as well.

So if Mr. Davis going to make him available to Mr. Mueller, I hope he will make them available to our committee as well.

TAPPER: How can you rely on what Michael Cohen says? I mean, hasn't he contradicted publicly or his lawyers have contradicted publicly things that he said behind closed doors to your committee under oath?

WARNER: Well, clearly, you're going to have to take some of Mr. Cohen's comments in context, just as you have to take Mr. Trump's comments in context.

I still remember that video of Mr. Trump saying, I believe on Air Force One, that he had no knowledge of any payments to the adult porn star. But clearly there was some evidence that maybe not only did he have knowledge, but he may have instructed now.

So, obviously, any of Mr. Cohen's comments would have to be taken in that context, and what other substantiating information. Remember, we -- and much more than we -- the Mueller team has literally thousands and thousands of other individuals' testimony and the ability to then corroborate or deny what Cohen might say.

It might be a missing piece.

TAPPER: Senator, Michael Cohen, as you know, implicated President Trump in federal court yesterday, telling a judge that the payments he made to Karen McDougal and to Stormy Daniels, these women who alleged affairs with President Trump, were -- quote -- "in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office for the principal purpose of influencing the election."

It's obvious that the candidate for federal office is President Trump.

Do you think that President Trump committed a crime? And if so, what will or can you do about it?

WARNER: Well, again, I think that's for a court of law to figure out or another process to figure out.

But it does seem, of at least what I have seen in the public press about the timing of these payments and the fact that then candidate Trump was under a great deal scrutiny about the so-called famous "Hollywood Access" tape, it seems like the timeline and logic at least follows.

But, as I said earlier, with both Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump, neither one of these have been exactly people that are always on the straight and narrow in terms of the truth.

[16:35:10]

TAPPER: Here, take a listen to your fellow senator, Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah, this morning. He was asked about what these charges say about the type of people the president surrounds himself with. Take a listen.

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TAPPER: "The president should not be held responsible for the actions of people he's trusted."

Your response?

WARNER: I have a great deal respect for Senator Hatch, but I can't think in my lifetime -- and I remember Richard Nixon -- when there's been this many people that have either been indicted or guilty pleas. We have got the president's campaign manager, we have got the

president's lawyer, we have got the president's first national security adviser all pleading guilty. We have got potentially family members and others still under investigation. We have got Mueller with over 30 other indictments now, other presidential appointees like his foreign policy adviser Papadopoulos, pleading guilty, who clearly acknowledges the Russians reached out to him with compromising information.

I think you are judged by the company you keep.

TAPPER: Let me ask you a question, Senator. Based on what you know -- and you know a lot more than the rest of us -- did America have free and fair elections in 2016?

WARNER: Jake, I'm not here to relitigate 2016.

TAPPER: You have -- but you have a very knowledgeable take on what happened. We're all talking about -- I mean, Stormy Daniels, Karen McDougal, Russian collusion, all of this is about 2016.

It's pretty simple. You know more than the rest of us. Did we have free and fair elections?

WARNER: Jake, our committee is going to finish this process. We have already finished on election security. We have also confirmed that the Russians intervened to help Trump and hurt Clinton.

We have got elections in 65-odd days. And as we have seen in the last 24 hours as well from Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter, our foreign adversaries are still using social media and the Internet to try to interfere in our political debate and our election cycle.

TAPPER: Senator Warner, vice chair of the Intelligence Committee, thanks so much.

WARNER: Thank you, Jake.

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