CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview With Arizona Congressman Ruben Gallego

Interview

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ACOSTA: And not heeding that advice.

All right, CNN's Barbara Starr, thank you very much.

Let's get more on all of this with Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego of Arizona, a member of the Armed Services Committee.

Congressman, thanks for joining us, and happy holidays.

REP. RUBEN GALLEGO (D), ARIZONA: Thank you.

ACOSTA: You're a veteran who served overseas in Iraq. So I want to get your thoughts on the president's phone call in just a moment.

But, first, let's talk about the big breaking news of the day, the latest in the Russia investigation. Roger Stone associate Jerome Corsi says he's in negotiations with the special counsel's office.

Do you think Corsi's potential cooperation here could be a key break in the Mueller probe? What do you think of that?

GALLEGO: It could be. But, I mean, this goes back to the most important point about -- that has to happen right now, which is we need to protect the Mueller investigation.

The president needs to back off on all his pressure points, particularly acting A.G. Whitaker trying to undermine the investigation. And there's -- and at least the Senate should start by passing the bill that Senator Flake and a couple other Democratic senators have been trying to push to actually protect the investigation, since there's even more and more always being revealed.

ACOSTA: And what does that say to you, Roger Stone's response in all of this? He's been pretty outspoken, not on what may happen to him, but what's happening to Jerome Corsi right now.

GALLEGO: You can never trust anything comes up Roger Stone's mouth.

I think the most important thing we could do is have a thorough investigation at least done by Mueller, and, if not, by the House Intel Committee, a real one, not the sham one that was done by the Republicans in the last session, because, right now, there's so much up in the air that I think the American public deserve to have the truth. And we're not getting it right now.

ACOSTA: And does it look like the investigation is moving closer and closer to the president? Are the walls closing in, do you think, with this potential next shoe to drop with Jerome Corsi?

GALLEGO: Yes, I couldn't tell you. I don't have -- I am not privy to any information. That's because Mueller has been running such a professional investigation, that we hardly hear any leaks. We hardly hear any direction where this is going.

The most important thing that I want to do is to make sure that he's able to do his job in a professional manner without interference. And once he has issued his report, then I will actually make an opinion what the next steps are.

ACOSTA: All right, and let's talk about the politically charged Thanksgiving phone call. You just heard parts of it a few moments ago that President Trump held with U.S. troops serving overseas.

You served in the Marines in Iraq. What did you think about this partisan tone coming from the president? He was talking about the border. He was talking about the Ninth Circuit and so on. Is that kind of subject matter appropriate for a phone call between the president and the troops serving overseas?

GALLEGO: Certainly not.

But this is not the first time he's done that. He's actually slammed the press in front of our members of the military, which I think is very inappropriate, considering that we have to -- we are sworn to protect the Constitution, which -- meaning the First Amendment.

And, of course, these military members have to clap whether they agree or not. This is their commander in chief. To slam our Supreme Court justice also to our -- and in general our jurist system, I think, is also disgraceful.

He is breaking down a very strict line that goes back to the time of General George Washington, where our military is strictly apolitical. And I think that it's one of the many norms that this president has just started to ignore. And it's quite disgraceful that he did, especially on Thanksgiving.

ACOSTA: And Barbara Starr star was just talking about this a few moments ago.

Here we are, two years in the administration. The president still has not made a visit to troops in a war zone. I guess, first of all, do you believe that he should? And I guess the other factor in all of this as well, if he does go, might he engage in some of the same political rhetoric that he did yesterday?

GALLEGO: Well, I do you think he should go. Every president should go and visit our military members overseas, both whether they are in a war zone or whether they're not in a war zone, because we deserve -- and when I say we, as someone that was stationed in Iraq, we do deserve to see our leaders, whether they be members of Congress or our president.

I hope that he would be mature and not engage in that type of rhetoric while he was overseas, but it just isn't in him. The president doesn't understand the presidency is about the nation. It's not about his opportunity to get out his personal grievances.

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And I hope that he will actually learn from the men and women that are overseas that this is about service over self.

ACOSTA: And let me ask you this.

The president, as he was taking questions from reporters after that call, the president falsely stated that the CIA had not come to a conclusion about the murder of "The Washington Post" journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

As you know, the intelligence community has determined with a high degree of confidence that the murder was ordered by the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman himself.

What message is the president sending, do you believe, when he seems to be siding with these autocrats over his own intelligence agencies?

GALLEGO: Well, it really says around the world is that the United States is for sale, both the country as a whole, if somehow you have a grasp on our economy, like the Saudis do when it comes to oil prices, and, number two, that the country is also for sale if the president has business with you.

We know the president does have business with Saudi Arabia. He bragged about it during the election. He has talked about it in the past. He conveniently has forgotten that, now denies it. And I think it really creates a scenario where we have a conflict of interest when it comes to the executive office.

This is why it's important that we do see the president's taxes. It's why it's important that our forefathers have decided that we should not have government -- I'm sorry -- presidents entangled in business with foreign agencies or foreign governments while they're serving in the White House. There's a reason this is all happening right now. And there's a

reason why we really need to get to the bottom where the -- who the president owes money to and who owes the president.

ACOSTA: Well, that leads me to my next question, which is, some Democrats -- we saw -- I think we saw this today -- Adam Schiff, the incoming House Intelligence Committee chairman, talking about some of this.

There are Democrats like yourself who want to use this newfound power in Congress when you take control of the House to investigate the president's financial ties to Saudi Arabia. There's also been talking about investigating his ties, financial ties, whatever he may have in Russia.

What do you -- what do you make of that? Do you support that effort to look into the president's financial ties to Saudi Arabia, in light of this decision that was made on Jamal Khashoggi?

GALLEGO: Absolutely.

We need to decide if the president's being bought or the president's being sold. Unfortunately, I wish it wasn't the Democrats who are doing this. I wish we had a partner in Republicans who had been in charge of the White House for the last -- I'm sorry -- in charge of Congress for the last two years.

They had the same capability. They had the same ability. This is why they have been voted out, at least in the House, because they have no accountability and no oversight over the president and a lot of his abuses.

But, at the end of the day, it's not just that I worry about this president, but I worry about future presidents, if they think that they can get away with this type of action. And also, if other countries around the world know that they can buy the United States, I'm afraid that it could quickly unravel the world order that we have established.

ACOSTA: OK, Congressman Ruben Gallego, thank you very much for joining us. Hope you had a happy Thanksgiving, and happy holidays.

GALLEGO: Thank you.

ACOSTA: It was good talking to you.

GALLEGO: You, too.

ACOSTA: All right.

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