CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with Representative Mike Quigley

Interview

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BLITZER: Evan Perez doing excellent reporting for us as he always does. Thank you.

Let's get some more on all of this, Democratic Congressman Mike Quigley of Illinois is joining us. He's a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

Thank you.

BLITZER: So the president is lashing out at the Mueller probe and is saying things in these tweets this morning, and you've seen them. He says it's a total mess. He's gone absolutely nuts, Mueller. They are screaming and shouting behind the scenes. These are angry people. They are highly conflicted. A disgrace to our nation. He was not Senate-approved, Mueller. He was not confirmed by the Senate in this interview with the "Daily Caller." He says, "As far as I'm concerned this is an investigation that should never have been brought. It should never have been had. It's something that should never have been brought. It's an illegal investigation, he says. And it's very interesting that Mueller was never confirmed by the Senate. Your reaction?

REP. MIKE QUIGLEY (D), ILLINOIS: He doesn't need to be, and Mr. Mueller had extraordinary bipartisan credentials coming in. When he was appointed I heard many prominent Republicans say there couldn't be a better choice than Mr. Mueller, he's a war hero, who's done nothing but run a very tight investigation.

In fact, I think he's probably bent over backwards to not antagonize the president of the United States. We've heard that he's sent questions for the White House to respond to. I believe he's well within his bounds to have called the president in on subpoena and require the president of the United States to answer these questions, so obviously the president has had a bad week and he doesn't like these questions, so he's lashing out because he's afraid to take responsibility frankly for anything.

BLITZER: Do you expect more indictments in the coming days?

QUIGLEY: I'm not sure what Mr. Mueller is going to do. I think he took this time off out of respect for the election process. We all remember how people reacted to Director Comey's statements just days before that election and how many people I think justifiably felt it had an impact on that election. So I think out of respect for that process, the Mueller probe has been quiet. If they are going to do something, I suspect it will be rather soon. [17:20:04] BLITZER: How incriminating -- you just heard some of those

texts from the longtime Trump ally Roger Stone. How incriminating are they involving WikiLeaks, when the WikiLeaks hacked texts would be released?

QUIGLEY: Sure, and I saw what Mr. Stone said that you could take text out of context. I completely agree. So let's just forget that the texts ever existed. The fact is prior to their release, it was Mr. Stone who bragged about his relationship with Julian Assange and his communications with WikiLeaks, and he said, and I think his words were that Mr. Podesta was next in the barrel. So he can't have it both ways.

Now that he's -- you know, first he was bragging about it. Now he's feeling the heat about that, and he's backing away as quickly as he can.

BLITZER: As you know, the Democrats will be in the majority in the House of Representatives after January 3rd. It looks like Adam Schiff, your ranking member, will become the chairman, replacing Devin Nunes who really didn't want to do much on this full investigation. What are going to be your committee's key priorities looking ahead when you're in the majority?

QUIGLEY: Yes, I think it's appropriate for us to get back on a bipartisan track, working with our Republican colleagues to face our national security.

BLITZER: Can you do that, though, given the bad blood that exists? The Senate Intelligence Commit, the Democrats and Republicans are working pretty nicely together, but in the House it's been awful.

QUIGLEY: I think we have to try because those national security threats that we face aren't partisan in nature. I think we have to protect the Mueller probe and assist them. All those transcripts that people have heard about, I think the first thing we should do is turn over everything we have to the Mueller probe and then see where his gaps are, what we have left to do and move forward appropriately.

BLITZER: Do you believe the Republicans will have Devin Nunes as the ranking member, the top Republican on your committee?

QUIGLEY: I'm hearing that Mr. Nunes wants to return as ranking member. That will be a choice he' has to make.

BLITZER: Because there's a lot of friction between Devin Nunes and Adam Schiff, between the Democrats and the Republicans, right?

QUIGLEY: I think every two years it's incumbent upon us. I think we owe it to the American public to put aside the last two years and start afresh because the challenges are still there, and we simply have to work together.

BLITZER: Let's talk a little bit about the future of the overall House of Representatives. Nancy Pelosi, do you support her as the next speaker of the House? QUIGLEY: I do. An extraordinary position. I think it's getting

tougher in our polarized climate. Let's just look at what happened. Republicans were in control. They had more seats in their -- under their control since the Hoover administration, and what did they do? In a close period of time they virtually ran two speakers out of town. No one wanted to ever not be speaker of the House until we've had this current climate.

I think Nancy Pelosi did an extraordinary job getting the healthcare law passed, but beyond all that, I don't think the American public elected a Democratic majority in the House based on who was going to be the speaker. I think the focus after this, and it will get sorted out, will be on these issues.

BLITZER: But you know there are at least 17 new Democrats now say they're not going to vote for her, and if you do the math, she can't get 218.

QUIGLEY: Well, I think a lot of things have to be sorted out in the next couple of weeks. I'm certain that they will, and I think -- I would remind my colleagues that we're going to focus on the issues, not necessarily who is the leader.

BLITZER: Because there's 17 plus another five, and there's going to be some more Democrats, another three Democrats just won in very close contests in Republican-held districts.

QUIGLEY: Processes like this have a give and take and an ebb and flow. I'd like to think it will be decided well before the time we come back.

BLITZER: So you think some of those Democrats who signed this letter saying they wouldn't vote for her will flip and actually vote for her?

QUIGLEY: I'm not sure exactly how it's going to work out but I'm sure the process will sort itself out. And we will appoint the next speaker. I frankly think it will be Nancy Pelosi. No one knows how to count votes better than our leader.

BLITZER: OK. Mike Quigley, thanks so much for coming in.

QUIGLEY: Thank you.

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