CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview With Indiana Congressman Andre Carson

Interview

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BLITZER: And I can assure you, whatever he knows, Robert Mueller and his team, is a ton more than any of us know. They know a lot right now.

Mark Mazzetti, you and your team at "The New York Times" doing excellent reporting on this. Thank you very much.

Sara, you're doing excellent reporting as well, getting a lot of new information.

Let's get some more on all of this.

Democratic Congressman Andre Carson of Indiana is joining us. He's a member of the Intelligence Committee.

Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

Now that Roger Stone tells "The New York Times" he was just bluffing about his connections to WikiLeaks, do you think that's at all a credible explanation?

REP. ANDRE CARSON (D), INDIANA: Time will tell, which is why it's so important for the Democrats to regain the House, so we can reopen the Russia investigation.

Our Republican colleagues failed miserably in sort of checking off certain boxes when it related to the interviews. They did so in a very cursory manner, but we need to reopen the investigation to subpoena not only Steve Bannon, but Roger Stone's activity, as well as their e-mails.

BLITZER: If people in the Trump campaign actually believed that Roger Stone had inside information on WikiLeaks or the hacked e-mails, shouldn't they have alerted authorities, the FBI specifically?

CARSON: There are a lot of things that this administration should have done and should be doing, but they aren't doing.

So I don't think it's unreasonable that they would be doing something like that.

BLITZER: Well, they didn't. They didn't do what -- if there were illegal activities going on, didn't Steve Bannon and others in the Trump campaign say, you know what, someone's trying to pass on hacked e-mails, for example? That's a crime. Someone's trying to get involved -- foreign involvement in a domestic presidential campaign. Potentially, that's a crime.

And no one called any of the authorities. Is that the information you have as well?

CARSON: I think it's troubling.

I think you have Roger Stone and Steve Bannon, who clearly were involved with spreading of hacked e-mails, the spreading of misinformation about Hillary Clinton, along with the web of donors, Wolf, some who are connected to Cambridge Analytica, who were responsible for spreading these hacked e-mails, and ultimately allowing Russia to leverage these tools to impact our electoral process.

BLITZER: How important, Congressman, is Roger Stone to answering the question, the key question, whether there was, in fact, any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia?

CARSON: I think he's critically important.

Again, Wolf, my Republican colleagues on the Intel Committee have failed miserably. When the Democrats regain the House, I think that one of the first things on our agenda would be opening -- reopening the Russia investigation.

And so these things cannot be done in a very careless manner. My Republican friends talk about saving taxpayer dollars and being good stewards of taxpayer resources. This is the first step in making sure we are preserving and maintaining the republic, as it were, to get to the bottom of this, so we can honor our founding fathers, as complicated as they were, and making sure we have the correct checks and balances to keep the system sound.

BLITZER: As you know, Mueller and his team, they have -- they have questioned, either directly or through a grand jury, about a dozen of Roger Stone's associates.

Do you think Stone will be indicted after the midterm elections?

CARSON: We will have to wait and see. I don't want to say too much before the -- before Tuesday the 6th. You know how these things can get.

BLITZER: Do you believe Stone was honest when he testified before your committee, the House Intelligence Committee?

CARSON: One would hope. I mean, he was under oath. One would hope.

But I still feel as if the line of questioning too cursory, it was too surface. I think that in order to get deeper into these investigations, we need the Democrats to lead the charge. Adam Schiff has done a phenomenal job. He's a very dear friend of mine.

I think we need Chairman Schiff, myself and others to get to the bottom of this. And I think we could really unearth necessary truths to make the American people feel safe.

BLITZER: Well, if the Democrats win the majority in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Devin Nunes will no longer be the chairman of the Intelligence Committee. Presumably, Adam Schiff will be the chairman of the Intelligence Committee.

What are the first things you will want him to do?

CARSON: Well, I think that a Chairman Schiff will certainly lead the effort in reopening the investigation. I think Chairman Schiff will ensure that many of the subcommittees, one of which I serve on, Emerging Threats, is given the opportunity to help our intel community and give them the kind of necessary support that they need.

[18:15:03]

And they don't need the interference of Congress. We want the oversight of Congress. But we don't need Congress using the intel agencies as a political platform. We want them to keep Americans safe. We want them to keep our global community safe.

We want to reach strengthen our relationship Wolf, our Five Eyes partners and make sure that the global community is communicating, and we don't have a president or an administration who is constantly minimizing and insulting the hard work that our citizens put into these agencies each and every day.

BLITZER: Let me turn, Congressmen, to the president's midterm push to create fear over immigration.

The president posted a video, as you know, on Twitter today. He sent it out to his 55 million followers.

It shows someone who's now on death row here in the United States for killing two police officers and then shows selected scenes of the migrant caravan. The video alleges that Democrats are letting people like that killer into the country.

What's your reaction to this effort in these final days of the midterm campaign, this effort by the president?

CARSON: I think, very sadly, Wolf -- and you remember it -- this is reminiscent of Willie Horton tactics. This is reminiscent of the kind of fear-mongering that takes place, the racial division that takes place, creating this boogeyman of sorts, or boogeywomen of sorts, where you have African-Americans who are targeted as part of this boogeyman effort, Latinos who are targeted as part of this boogeyman effort, Middle Easterners, South Asians, Africans being targeted, minority communities, ethnic groups being targeted, unfortunately.

That's not what this country should be about. We need a president who's going to be a leader. I want to see President Trump, who has a background as a developer, introduce a public works program, the kind that we saw under Eisenhower. He can only get that done under the Democratic proposal, but he doesn't want to.

Instead, he wants to conjure up fear amongst his base. But our polls are showing us, Wolf, that his base is slowly leaving him. Not only are they seeing buyer's remorse or having buyer's remorse, but they're disgusted. They don't feel like he's being presidential, he's representing them.

We want President Trump, if he really cares about this country, to be presidential, stop the fear-mongering, stop the Islamophobia, stop the homophobia, stop the anti-black rhetoric, get to the job, be a president, be presidential, and move America forward.

BLITZER: Yes, the president did promise a major infrastructure program when he took office. We haven't seen that yet.

As you know, the president has also said, Congressman, without any evidence at all, that there are, in his words, Middle Easterners among those in that caravan about 1,000 miles away from the United States in Mexico. When he says Middle Easterners, he's suggesting presumably terrorists.

What do you hear when he says that?

CARSON: I'm saddened, I'm deeply disappointed, but I'm not surprised.

It's as if he thinks that the American people are stupid. Now, he has -- there are folks from the Industrialized Midwest, and Rust Belt states and other states who feel displaced, they feel as if they're hopeless and their jobs have left, and they're blaming the loss of jobs on minority communities.

I think the reality is that his statements have been irresponsible. He's perpetuating negative stereotypes. That's irresponsible. I think, if we really are concerned about preserving the republic, I'm urging folks to vote on Tuesday, November 6, and vote for Democrats.

BLITZER: Congressman Andre Carson, thanks so much for joining us.

CARSON: Always an honor. Thank you, Wolf.

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