CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Denny Heck

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

[15:30:00] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Mueller said, "That night, the White House press office called the Department of Justice and said the White House wanted to put out a statement saying that it was Rosenstein's idea to fire Comey. Rosenstein told other DOJ officials that he would not participate in putting out a false story.

The president then called Rosenstein -- again I'm quoting directly from the report. The president then called Rosenstein directly and said he was watching FOX News, that the coverage had been great, and that he wanted Rosenstein to do a press conference. Rosenstein responded that this was not a good idea because if the press asked him he would tell the truth that Comey's firing was not his idea.

Comey's firing is just one of at least 10 separate episodes in the report where the president potentially obstructed justice to try to end or hinder the special counsel's investigation but whether or not these actions are criminal, Mueller left that decision up to Congress and House Democrats are hoping to hear from Mueller himself.

The Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees have formally invited him to testify in the coming weeks.

Democratic Congressman Denny Heck joins me now. He's a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Congressman, thanks for being with us. If and when Mueller testifies before your committee, I guess what is the biggest question you'd have for him?

REP. DENNY HECK (D-WA): So, Anderson, the predicate I think even before his rival is I think we have to have a mass American consumption of this report, digested process, and a lot of conversation amongst ourselves as Americans, as to what it actually means. But the truth is, and I've begun that, it's my weekend reading. The truth of the matter is it's like having the sheet music without hearing the song and it's time to hear the song, and the song would come from Director Mueller.

Specifically as a member of the Intelligence Committee what I would be particularly interested in hearing him talk about are some of the counterintelligence items of information that he may have uncovered that weren't even necessarily a part of the report. There are some indication that they have information that they will share with the Intelligence Committee in that regard because, Anderson, at the end of the day, what this all should be leading to most importantly is protecting us against this ever happening again. And in order to do that, we need to fully understand what happened the last time.

COOPER: Well, also, I mean, some Democrats would make the argument that in order to actually do that and protect for the next time you would need somebody in office who is not borderline obstructing justice or at least doing -- you know, acting in a way that certainly raises those -- that possibility. A number of your colleagues are already calling for the start of impeachment proceedings. Democrats like Nancy -- like Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Chairman Nadler say it's too soon.

I'm wondering where you stand. Should there be impeachment proceedings?

HECK: I think I just laid it out, Anderson, the next two steps that are the most important is that we all need to read this report in its entirety. I am. I'm working myself through it. Working my way through it. But it is 448 pages or however long.

COOPER: Single spaced.

HECK: More importantly I think lots of people need to do this. Not just members of Congress. But lots of people. And then we need to hear directly from Director Mueller. Those are the things that I think are the predicates for the conversation about where we go from there.

COOPER: Another revelation from the report, and I'm quoting, the week after Comey's briefing the White House Counsel's Office was in contact with Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Senator Richard Burr about the Russia investigations and appears to have received information about the status of the FBI investigation. Does that concern you?

HECK: Deeply. And it's out of character with how I perceive Senator Burr. But it hasn't been confirmed yet and so I will withhold additional comment. It wasn't the biggest surprise for me yesterday. I had two big surprises yesterday, Anderson. And I'm a hard guy to surprise. The first of which was Attorney General Barr's performance at the press conference ahead of time in which he demonstrably asserted that which was explicitly not true according to the Mueller report, in material ways most notably whether or not the Office of Legal Counsel's prior indication that you cannot indict a sitting president played a role in Director Mueller's decision not to advance that recommendation to the attorney general.

COOPER: Right.

HECK: Just demonstrably not true. And why I was so surprised by that is it's kind of blown up in his face. It's counterproductive to the interest of his own boss because now everybody is focused on -- he just said a whole bunch of things that weren't true all press conference long and it's made it even worse. But the second way in which I was significantly surprised is the number of additional investigations that are spun out of this. At the end -- I raced to the end. That's why I read in its entirety,

the president's transparently disingenuous written answers about not remembering anything.

COOPER: Yes.

HECK: And the second part I was reading just this morning had to do with all the 14 investigations that have been spun out that don't fall within the narrower definition of the criminal investigation of Director Mueller. That is deep, that is broad, that will be ongoing, and it is of very, very deep significance.

COOPER: It's also interesting, because there are no references in the report about Trump's taxes or loans to his business except for the Trump Tower Moscow. Why do you think it is that Mueller left that alone?

HECK: So --

COOPER: Do you think it is possible because of these other -- some of these other investigations?

[15:35:02] HECK: So, again, his focus was on the criminal conspiracy and coordination with Russia for interference. His focus was not on what the predicate for that might be, namely financial entanglement. That's why you have so many members of Congress who are interested in seeing the tax returns, interested in seeing the tax returns of the businesses, to more fully understand what is it that may have compromised President Trump, then candidate Trump, then going forward.

You know, Anderson, I'm reminded that the very last time you and I spoke on air, you were in Helsinki and I was sitting in this very chair and the president was over there engaged in that just bizarre performance of side bar conversations with Vladimir Putin.

COOPER: Which, by the way, we still know nothing about the details of what he and Putin talked about.

HECK: Which is the point, Anderson. And why I think the American public needs to know whether or not there are financial entanglements which compromise the decision-making of the president. Does he have a conflict of interest here that puts his interest above that of the American people?

COOPER: Should Barr resign? Would you like to see that?

HECK: Bill Barr should have never been appointed. I think the letter he wrote last summer, which was clearly an audition for the office, was prima facie and in and of itself disqualifying.

COOPER: Yes. Congressman Heck, I appreciate your time. Thank you.

HECK: Thank you, sir.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source