CNN "State of the Union" - Transcript: Interview With Sen. Cruz

Interview

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BASH: Welcome back to the STATE OF THE UNION. I'm Dana Bash.

President Trump has called the Mueller probe a witch-hunt more than 170 times on Twitter.

Now that it's over, the president has been silent on the investigation. In fact, he's been with Kid Rock on the golf course, and he just arrived this morning at that golf club again.

But how are his allies responding?

Well, joining me now for an exclusive interview, Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who actually worked at one time for Robert Mueller at the Justice Department.

Thank you so much for joining me this morning.

First question is, do you think the public should see the full Mueller report?

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: Absolutely.

I think the report needs to be made public, it need to be released to the Congress, and it needs to be released to the American people. This has consumed two years of the American people's time, and we need to have full transparency. We need to know the special counsel's conclusions.

BASH: OK.

And the president has continued to unleash attacks on the special counsel investigation, even in the probe's final hours, calling it a big hoax, a witch-hunt.

Do you agree with the president that the Mueller investigation was a witch-hunt?

CRUZ: I think the Mueller investigation went on far too long.

And I think Bob Mueller made a serious mistake when he brought together the team of investigators and lawyers and selected so many partisan Democrats who had been longtime Democratic donors. I think that was unfortunate, because, by doing that, it undermined the credibility and impartiality of the special counsel's office.

BASH: Do you think it went...

CRUZ: That being said, we're being -- go ahead. I'm sorry.

BASH: Do you think -- would you go as far, though, as the president has in calling it a witch-hunt?

CRUZ: You know, I will leave that language to the president. I will say I'm concerned that it may have become a fishing expedition.

We will see when we see the report. We will see what's in the report. But I do think it's striking that at least the early indications are, there are no further indictments, which means, as you pointed out at the top of the show, that not a single person was indicted for colluding with the Russians to influence the 2016 election.

If that's right, that there are no indictments for collusion with the Russians, that's good news for the American people. Those were serious charges when they were raised two years ago. And if the special counsel concluded that there is not evidence that that occurred, that would be very good news.

BASH: So, as you mentioned, a senior Justice Department official is telling CNN that he's not recommending any further indictments.

But we do know that there are other investigations going on elsewhere in the Justice Department into the president's businesses, his inaugural committee, his charitable foundation. Are Republicans right to be popping the champagne right now?

I'm not saying you are, but others are. Or is it premature?

CRUZ: Listen, if anyone thinks that the Mueller report being concluded is the end of the Democrats' attempt to take down President Trump, they haven't been paying attention the last two years.

It was striking, as I listened to your interview with Congressman Nadler, that he was immediately pivoting away. OK, fine. Yesterday, the Mueller report was the end-all and be-all. It was going to be the salvation for the Democrats and destroy President Trump.

Now you can already see the Democrats pivoting away, saying, OK, but well, we need to do other investigations. It's got to be someone else. It's got to be the Southern District of New York. [09:20:03]

BASH: But, Senator...

CRUZ: It's got to be the New York attorney general. It's got to be Congress.

BASH: But, Senator, it is the Justice Department.

CRUZ: And...

BASH: It's the president's Justice Department that is continuing to investigate those other things that I just mentioned.

Democrats are one thing, but I'm talking about...

CRUZ: But...

BASH: Go ahead.

CRUZ: But, Dana, my point is, you asked Congressman Nadler whether the House is going to impeach the president.

I will answer that for you. Yes. They fully intend to impeach the president, and they don't care about the basis. Twice, Congressman Nadler said something remarkable. He said, listen, the special counsel is focused on crimes. We're not all that concerned with crimes. Our focus -- this is Democrats in the House -- is much broader than crimes.

What they are basically saying is, they are going to impeach the president for being Donald Trump. And they don't care about the evidence. They don't care about the substance.

BASH: But you know much better than I that the Justice Department can't indict a president.

CRUZ: And every presidential candidate ought to be asked now...

BASH: It's against their guidelines. So, is that a bit of a red herring?

CRUZ: Well, we will see what's in the report.

And, as a member of the Judiciary Committee, I'm going to read the report. I want to give it a fair consideration. And I hope and expect the American people to have the chance to do the same thing.

But my point is, the extreme left in the Democratic Party, they have so much anger and hatred directed at the president, that we're going to see the Democrats moving forward with impeachment, whatever the evidence. That's why you're seeing Democrats like Congressman Nadler saying, don't worry about crimes. Our focus is not just crimes. That's just Bob Mueller's focus. Our focus is broader.

What their focus us is, is politics. And they need to set aside the rage and anger. Listen, I disagreed with Barack Obama on a host of issues, but I didn't believe he should be impeached. The extremism that we're seeing in the Democratic Party, their focus is obsessively on trying to destroy the president and this administration.

That's not good for the American people. We ought to be coming together and solving the real problems in this country...

BASH: OK.

CRUZ: ... not just engage in relentless political warfare.

BASH: OK, Senator, I want to turn to a couple of other topics I know that you would like to talk about.

One of them is the Middle East, because the president made headlines...

CRUZ: Yes.

BASH: ... by tweeting that it's time for the U.S. to fully recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

It seems like the president is really putting his thumb on the scale for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the final weeks of the elections over there. What would you do if a Democratic president made a move that helped a Labor prime minister in Israel?

CRUZ: Well, I -- I think your focus is off slightly.

Listen, what the president did this week was tremendous. He recognized that the Golan Heights is legitimately now part of Israel. That's something I have been pushing for, for over a year.

BASH: And you don't think doing that weeks before an election in Israel puts his thumb on the scale, regardless of the substance of it? Talking about the timing.

CRUZ: I think it is good foreign policy for Israel and it's good foreign policy for the United States.

In December, I introduced a resolution for Congress to recognize the Golan Heights was part of Israel. Just a couple of months ago, I introduced legislation for Congress to recognize the Golan Heights as part of Israel.

And, indeed, that legislation, a number of Democrats in the House have spoken out in favor of that legislation. There's bipartisan agreement to do that.

And the reason is simple. The Golan Heights were taken in 1967 during the Six-Day War, a defensive war where Israel was attacked. If you look at what's happening in the Middle East, no one in their right mind would want to see the Golan Heights goes to Bashar Assad, go to Syria, or go to Iranian proxies or the Russians.

It's legitimately part of Israel. I'm glad the president took my counsel and the counsel of others and recognized this. And, indeed, I hope that Congress will take up the legislation I have introduced and put the president's determination into U.S. law, because that is in the security interest of Israel. And, critically, it's in the security interest of the United States.

The president did the right thing here.

BASH: Senator, one last important question. We learned this week that the Justice Department issued subpoenas in a criminal investigation into two Boeing plane crashes.

You chair the Senate Subcommittee on Aviation. You are going to have a hearing this coming week, on Wednesday. Do you think that Boeing is criminally liable? And, also, do you think the FAA was negligent here?

CRUZ: Well, the first question is going to be a determination initially for the Justice Department and ultimately for the criminal justice system.

I, like everybody else, am deeply concerned about these two crashes that took over 300 lives. And so I'm chairing a hearing this week with the acting head of the FAA and the relevant government officials to inquire really what went on here, what we knew, when did we know it, and what caused this crash.

There are early indications that a system on the plane called the MCAS system, which adjusted -- adjusted the altitude of the plane, may have contributed to the crash. We don't know that. We shouldn't jump to conclusions.

[09:25:03]

But when you have over 300 people whose lives have been taken, it was the right thing to do to ground the planes. I called for them to be grounded early on. And the FAA ultimately agreed with that determination.

But our priority has to be the safety of the flying public. You and I, we're on planes all the time. Our families are on planes all the time. And Texas, Texans are on planes all the time. We need to have the confidence when we get on a plane that there is not a problem, mechanical system or software system that endangers the lives of passengers.

And so this hearing this week is going to be the first step for the Senate to begin inquiring, what are the facts here and what do we need to know to be confident that the flying public is safe? That's our responsibility.

BASH: Well, Senator, it is.

And we look forward to seeing that, both on the side of Boeing and on the side of the FAA and whether the oversight on their part was lax.

Thank you so much for joining me this morning. I appreciate it. CRUZ: Thank you, Dana.

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