CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview With Washington Congressman Denny Heck

Interview

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BLITZER: And the president says he could make an announcement within the next two or three weeks. We will see if that happens.

Jim Sciutto, thank you very much.

Joining us now, Congressman Denny Heck. He's a Democrat. He serves on the House Intelligence Committee.

Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

Who do you think the president should nominate to replace Nikki Haley?

REP. DENNY HECK (D), WASHINGTON: Well, whomever he nominates, Wolf, I hope it is somebody that shares an adherence to the values of human rights throughout the globe, which Ambassador Haley was on occasion willing to stand up and speak out on behalf of.

[18:15:00] I would recommend to him, if I thought he would consider it, somebody like Nancy Soderberg, who was the alternate representative in the Clinton years and carried the rank of ambassador to the United Nations.

But she is a little tied up now running for the U.S. House of Representatives in Florida 6. Short of that, perhaps Cory Gardner from Colorado, who serves on the Foreign Relations Committee and has a broader geopolitical view of world relations.

But whomever it is, I hope they support the values of human rights and I hope they understand the importance of good relations with our partners throughout the world.

BLITZER: As you know, Nikki Haley was able at times to walk a rather fine line. She sometimes contradicted the president, but managed to remain in his good graces.

Do you think that's a necessary quality for whoever he nominates?

HECK: Well, sure, but I think it is a difficult quality to achieve.

And if you stop and look, there have been more high-ranking people depart and head for the exit signs in the Trump administration in 20 short months than any presidency in modern history and perhaps throughout history. I'm not quite sure of that.

They have left in droves, and it just goes to speak to how difficult it is, in fact, to serve this administration and to be able to have that balancing act of never offending him and of always being completely, 100 percent, unthinkingly, blindly loyal to him.

BLITZER: We have a graphic. We will put it on the screen. We show all the administration departures over the past year-and-a-half or so. And you see all those folks who have left the Trump administration.

As you know, Congressman, the president's national security adviser, Ambassador John Bolton, the former ambassador to the U.N., he is frequently a very harsh critic of the United Nations. He has gained significant influence certainly inside the Trump administration.

Do you think the next ambassador will have the president's ear?

HECK: So it may be that Mr. Bolton's involvement in this is a part of why Ambassador Haley departed.

I think that's one of the more interesting questions, why did she leave and why now? The norm is that an ambassador to the U.N. serves more like four years because of the importance of depth of relations.

And certainly it would have been more in the norm for her to have waited until after the election to make an announcement. It is all very curious. As my colleague Mark Sanford, there's something not quite right here. Maybe, in the fullness of time, we will better understand this. Maybe she departed suddenly and prematurely because she wanted to get

out ahead of a midterm election disaster that she would be at least secondarily associated with, or maybe she wanted to depart prior to the issuance of a report by special counsel Bob Mueller.

We just don't know yet, and, hopefully, we will someday.

BLITZER: Let's talk about that a little bit, because you're on the Intelligence Committee.

That "New York Times" report, which came out claiming that former Trump deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates seriously considered a proposal from an Israeli intelligence firm to create fake online identities and use manipulation on social media to help Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign, what are your main takeaways from this report?

HECK: No surprises whatsoever, Wolf.

I mean, this is a part of the broader pattern of engaging in these kind of deceptive practices and completely weaponizing social media platforms that has, in part, led to now the conviction of at least five very-close-to-President Trump associates, from his national security adviser, to his campaign chairman, to his assistant campaign chairman, and right on down the line.

There are now five convicted felons, including, by the way, Rick Gates. So, there should be nothing whatsoever that surprises people that this conversation would have taken place, and that they would have explored this possibility.

BLITZER: Do you see a direct line to Robert Mueller's Russia probe?

HECK: Well, as insofar as Rick Gates has now turned state's evidence, we will all find that out.

I don't expect, as I said before, for there to be any more announcements between now and the midterms, 28 days, four hours-plus from now, Wolf. But I do think, at some point, there will be additional indictments. I don't think he's done yet. There are just too many people that are cooperating too fully, now Mr. Manafort and Mr. Cohen, and immunity granted to the chief financial officer at the Trump Organization and Mr. Gates.

Bob Mueller would not have struck the plea deals with them if they had not made what we call a proffer, in other words, showed their cards a little bit, here is the information I have that might be of use to you.

And so I fully expect there to be additional indictments before all is said and done.

BLITZER: Yes, I suspect there will be as well.

All right, Congressman Denny Heck, thank you so much for joining us.

HECK: You're welcome, sir.

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