Fox News "Sunday Morning Futures" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Doug Collins

Interview

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BARTIROMO: Welcome back.

We are focused in Washington on the Justice Department, as Attorney General William Barr is expected to release a redacted version of the Mueller report within the next few days.

Barr's four-page summary of the special counsel's findings created a lot of controversy two weeks ago. Now a fresh argument on Capitol Hill from Democrats, who are demanding that they see the full, unredacted version and it be released to Congress.

Joining me now exclusively this morning is Republican Congressman from Georgia Doug Collins. He's the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee.

And, Congressman, it is good to see you this morning. Thanks very much for joining us.

REP. DOUG COLLIN, R-GA.: Glad to be with you, Maria.

BARTIROMO: You have been releasing the transcript of some of the closed door testimonies of various witnesses. Your most recent has been Jim Baker, the lawyer, at the FBI.

Looking at all of these transcripts that you have released so far, what strikes you mostly, Congressman? What is the takeaway that we need to focus on from all of these transcripts you have released?

COLLINS: The thing that strikes me the most is, it goes back to a certain group.

The media, especially the liberal media, wants to portray this as the FBI and all -- and it's -- all against going forward. But really what we find is, Peter Strzok -- we have seen Strzok, McCabe, Lisa Page. We see Baker. We see Comey, of course.

And all this is coming back to everything that we go back to, following all the way from the Clinton investigation, through the beginning of the Russia investigation, through the Mueller investigation. We go back to this really corrupt cabal that is involved in everything.

And I think it's really interesting when you have Baker actually saying in the transcripts we released this past week where he thought originally that Clinton would have been indicted, she would have been charged in this, and was actually talked out of it by some of the others, and Comey and others.

But then we also found out from Lisa Page's transcript on the same issue that they were actually being pressured by the Department of Justice, even from Attorney General Lynch, who actually said let's call it a matter, instead of an investigation.

So what bothers me the most is, you had this politicization of very high- level individuals at the FBI and the Department of Justice who were not acting in the best interest of the country. They were acting in best interest of their own selves and their own careers.

BARTIROMO: Yes, so how far up the Obama ladder does this go, knowing that now we see suggestions that it wasn't just the cabal of people at the top of the FBI and the DOJ?

You have the State Department. You had other intel agencies. You had Sidney Blumenthal, Hillary Clinton's good friend, sending information through the State Department. How far up through the Obama administration does this go, sir?

COLLINS: Well, we're seeing more and more.

And I'm glad to hear Chairman Graham in the Senate is going to be continuing to look into this. I'm glad to hear Bill Barr is saying that we need to see the predicate for this. We need to know why this actually happened, because what we're seeing -- and no one, Democrat, Republican, independent, it doesn't matter your background.

You do not need the Department of Justice in a position where the justice is being dispensed in a political fashion, not as a blind rule of law. Hearing the things out of the State Department, seeing this previous administration, they were just -- again, everything was politicized toward what they wanted to do and the spin that they wanted to give.

What we need to have here is a continued investigation that Bill Barr has said he is willing to take, and in doing so, he drew the ire of Democrats, who don't want those things exposed. They don't want the things that we have been talking about for a long time, an attorney general who met with a former president whose wife was being investigated on a tarmac in a -- at an airport, where they supposedly discussed their grandkids and other things. That's just not right.

Now we're seeing also the pressure from Loretta Lynch, saying it was -- not an investigation, it's just a matter. You know, anything they could do to play down this, but it all goes back to really what we're seeing is the politicization, which is worse, because it gets into our FISA court, our FISA applications, which were -- really, when you get to it, this was the thing that happened, how we got our FISA courts, was the abuse of power from administration officials and folks back in the '70s.

BARTIROMO: Yes, I want to talk about what happens next, because the Michael Horowitz report is about to come out, we understand, in about a month. We will see what that shows us.

And then, at the same time, you have got this crisis happening at the border. And you just celebrated 100 years -- your colleagues just celebrated 100 days, rather -- pardon me -- 100 days in the new Congress. So the Democrats have been in the majority for 100 days.

We have got a list of some of the votes that you all have taken in this first 100 days. They defended President Obama's Affordable Care Act. For the People Act is basically about elections. That was their number one priority, changing the elections.

You have got things on anti-Semitism, hate. You have got things on transgender. So tell us about the first 100 days with the Democrats in charge.

COLLINS: Well, the first 100 days has ended with a pool card of nothing except promises and press releases.

It seems like this is the way that Ms. Pelosi and the Democratic Party want to govern now. And that is by press release, saying, here is what we're against. Almost one in five of rule bills in the first 100 days have dealt with resolutions that have no force of law.

They're simply expressing what they feel. And then when we get into the actual rule bill that passed with bills, such as HR-1, which is being called the For the People Act, it's actually for the incumbent politician act, because it does nothing except corrupt our political system, especially our elections, makes them more politicized, with lawsuits that you could file anywhere in the country if you don't like the outcome of an election.

It actually goes against, to where you would actually criminalize someone if they tried to stop someone like a 15-year-old from voting. If you stop, you would actually be guilty of a felony under that law. It's just bad law. It's just bad policy.

And when you only have to govern by press release, you really, after 100 days, have to look back and shake your head and say, is our blind disgust with President Trump driving all that we do? And, frankly, that's what we see, Maria. They are so upset that President Trump is still president and they want to make it clear to everyone that they're going to do everything they can to flip that next year.

They have abandoned all pretense of an actual logical agenda, especially when immigration is something we could fix.

BARTIROMO: So this is nonbinding resolutions that have no teeth in terms of actually impacting real laws that actually impact people's lives, and more about just sort of proclamations of what they like and what they don't like.

Meanwhile, in terms of the border, what can you tell us? Lindsey Graham is going to come back from his break and he's going to put legislation together. Give us your sense of what's happening right now at the U.S.- Mexico border.

COLLINS: It's a crisis. And it's a crisis not because Doug Collins says it's a crisis, not because Donald -- even, frankly, Donald Trump says it's a crisis.

He's made a great case. The president is right on target with this. It's a crisis now that everyone is beginning to understand. Jeh Johnson, who was under the Obama administration heading Homeland Security, says it's a crisis. We're starting to see The Washington Post, The New York Times, others say, this is a crisis.

It is there because the president has raised this issue. He's talked about what we need to do. I'm glad to see Chairman Graham is going to be introducing a bill that we already introduced eight weeks ago dealing with the Flores decision, dealing with asylum, dealing with the Trafficking Victims Act, so that we can actually begin to take the incentive, the perverse incentives away for families to take...

BARTIROMO: Right.

COLLINS: ... and undertake a journey that is terrible to get to America. We have got to de-incentivize this.

BARTIROMO: Real quick, before you go, Congressman, you're on the Judiciary Committee. And Bill Barr is going to testify on May 1 in front of the Senate and House Judiciary.

Tell me one or two questions that you're going to ask him on May 1.

COLLINS: I want to know is the continuing -- if he continues what he's found so far in his investigation looking into what predicated all these investigations coming forward, and also the work that he did with Bob Mueller and Rod Rosenstein in actually making sure that we understand the Mueller investigation and what actually came from it and his perspective in it.

Bill Barr has been a straight shooter from day one. It's sad the Democrats have nothing to do now except a story they don't like to attack a man of great credibility in Bill Barr.

BARTIROMO: All right, we will leave it there.

Congressman, it's good to see you this morning. Thank you.

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