CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Denny Heck

Interview

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BLITZER: Jim Acosta at the White House, thank you.

Joining us now, Congressman Denny Heck of Washington state. He is a Democrat who serves on the House Intelligence Committee.

Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

I first want you to listen a little bit to what your Republican -- Republican colleague Congressman Justin Amash of Michigan said at a town hall just a little while ago. Listen to this.

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REP. JUSTIN AMASH (R), MICHIGAN: I'm confident that if you read volume two, you will be appalled at much of the conduct. And I was appalled by it.

And that's why I stated what I stated. That's why I came to that conclusion, because I think we can't go -- we can't let conduct like that go unchecked. Congress has a duty to keep the president in check.

I think it's really important that we do our job as a Congress, that we not allow misconduct to go undeterred, that we not just say, someone can...

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

AMASH: ... violate the public trust, and that there are no consequences to it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Is this Republican congressman doing a better job than a lot of your fellow Democrats are doing explaining the Mueller report to the American people?

REP. DENNY HECK (D), WASHINGTON: Well, first of all, Wolf, I want to say words that do not often come out of my mouth. I agree with Justin in this regard.

And, as a matter of fact, so do now -- count them -- more than 940 former U.S. attorneys, who basically characterize volume two of the Mueller report in the same way.

But, look, let's put this in perspective. That's Justin Amash alone. Where is anybody else within the Republican Conference? As a matter of fact, Wolf, it saddens me to remember this and to comment about this, but let us remember that one Senator Lindsey Graham, who was best friends with John McCain, loved him like a brother, refuses to stand up for him in the face of President Trump's continuing effort to disrespect John McCain's legacy and to destroy it.

So, this is Justin Amash alone. And good for him for it. But that's as far as it goes thus far.

BLITZER: I also, Congressman, want to get your reaction to the latest

-- and this is a brand-new court filing from Democrats, an effort to depose people from the Trump Organization and even to depose President Trump himself.

The Mueller team was never able to secure a formal Q&A, oral question- and-answer session with the president. Will this effort, do you believe, succeed, where Mueller failed?

HECK: Well, one way or another, the truth will out, Wolf. It's going to.

And, as a matter of fact, if you looked at just the last week, we could go Monday. We had the court case saying that the accounting firm for the Trump Organization had to cough up, a couple of days later, another court case saying that Deutsche Bank had to cough up the information.

[18:15:12]

Both of those efforts were strongly resisted by the president. And, in the course of that same week, of course, we discovered that there was an internal memo in the Internal Revenue Service indicating that he had to turn over his tax returns, that there was no legal basis for resisting it.

So, the truth is, I am very optimistic that the truth will out, that this information will come forward, that disclosure will win out the day.

BLITZER: On another subject, we also just got a response from the Trump campaign in the back and forth that has been going on between President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential candidate.

This all started with the president siding with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, to say that Biden is a low-I.Q. individual. What message does this send to American adversaries?

HECK: So, let's take a step back, Wolf.

This all happened when the president was in North Korea -- in Japan. The truth of the matter is that that trip was an abject failure, that he went there to achieve some diplomatic progress. He achieved none. He went there to make progress toward a bilateral trade agreement. He did not make it.

So, remember this. Everything that comes out of the president's mouth is in furtherance of one of four objectives; 100 percent of everything that comes out of his mouth is either a denial, an attack, an effort to play the victim, or, fourthly, an effort to change the subject by saying something outrageous.

So what I believe is, he was changing the subject because of how embarrassingly unsuccessful his trip to Japan ended up being. That's my takeaway from the trip to Japan. And, by the way, Wolf, I have another takeaway. It looks as though

it's about time for John Bolton to update his resume, because three strikes and you're out. He disagreed with the president on Venezuela. He disagreed with him on Iran. And while the president was in Japan, he disagreed with him on North Korea firing the missiles.

Again, words that don't often come out of my mouth, in this instance, I agree with John Bolton. The firing of those missiles was demonstrably a violation of the United Nations resolution.

BLITZER: Congressman Denny Heck, thanks so much for joining us.

HECK: You're welcome, sir.

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