CBS "Face the Nation" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Jim Jordan
Interview
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REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN (R-Ohio/@Jim_Jordan/Oversight Committee Ranking Member): Right.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Can you actually claim vindication? A lot of Republicans seem to be seeing that here.
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: Well, we want to read the report first. But what I do know is not-- to date not one bit of evidence to show any type of coordination, collusion, conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the election. So that's been-- that-- we- we've sort of known that for a long time--
MARGARET BRENNAN: Or at least none that rises to beyond a reasonable doubt--
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: Well--
MARGARET BRENNAN: --and can be prosecuted.
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: Well, under-- understand this, when this thing all started back in May of 2017 the Justice Department had already been looking into this issue for-- they-- they started in 2016, late summer 2016. And all the way up until the special counsel's named in May of 2017 there was no evidence of collusion at that point either because when we deposed Lisa Page, when we deposed Jim Comey they both told us, up until the point that Comey left the FBI, there was no evidence of collusion. Now, twenty-two months later there still doesn't appear to be any evidence of any type of coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia to impact the election. We'll read the report and we'll see what it says but that seems to be the-- the facts as we know them.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So you no longer believe that the Mueller Report is a hoax or a scam as the President has called it?
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: I-- I've not called it that. In fact, the President has let the Muell--
MARGARET BRENNAN: But the President called it that.
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: The President-- the President has let the Mueller report--
MARGARET BRENNAN: But you--
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: --play out. I me-- understand this, Margaret, everyone got what they-- what they-- go back to May of 2017, all the Democrats, all the Republicans in Washington, DC said we need a special counsel and they got the guy they wanted. They got Bob Mueller, the guy who everyone said is right next to Jesus--can almost walk on water, they got the guy they wanted. He now has his report. And-- and it looks like--
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right and you--
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: It looks like it's not going to be--
MARGARET BRENNAN: --tried to file articles of impeachment against the deputy attorney general who-- who helped put him in place. Sir, you have been a skeptic of this probe from the beginning--
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: That's because-- that's because--
MARGARET BRENNAN: So do you now--
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: --Rod Rosenstein-- well--
MARGARET BRENNAN: --accept its findings and believe it has integrity?
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: Well, all I'm saying is the Democrats when they-- now-- it seems like they now think that this is not going to be the bombshell they thought it was going to be. So they are launching all kinds of new fishing expeditions. They bring in Michael Cohen for goodness sake. They're first announced witness of the hundred and sixteenth Congress. Michael Cohen, a guy who's going to prison in six month-- or six weeks for lying to Congress. They bring him in and what does he do? He lies to Congress again. We think at least seven times. So Jerry Nadler sends eighty-one letters to sixty-some different people.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-Hm.
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: So they're launching all kinds of new fishing expeditions to find more information--
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well--
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: --because they're bound and determined to go after the President--
MARGARET BRENNAN: --but you-- but Congressman you know--
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: --in spite of the amazing--
MARGARET BRENNAN: --that as we said at the beginning of the program, thirty-four people were indicted. Three companies, aides including the--
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: --Margaret--
MARGARET BRENNAN: --National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: Margaret--
MARGARET BRENNAN: They had admitted to breaking the law.
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: What was--
MARGARET BRENNAN: So can you admit--
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: --the central--
MARGARET BRENNAN: --that this was not a witch hunt?
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: What was the central charge of the Mueller investigation-- of the special counsel investigation? It was to look at potential--
MARGARET BRENNAN: Any link to coordination between Russia and anything related.
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: Ex-- no it was to--
MARGARET BRENNAN: And anything else that came up--
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: Any type of coordination or conspiracy or collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to steal the election. Remember what Adam Schiff said. We have more than circumstantial evidence to point to collusion to do just what the charge was. But we have not seen any of that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right. But, Congressman, because you're deciding to put aside those indictments and guilty pleas it-- it appears--
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: I'm not saying that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: --you're picking and choosing this, when you're-- you're picking the outcome you like and looking away--
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: No, I'm not.
MARGARET BRENNAN: --from the ones you didn't.
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: No, I'm not. Those people they did things wrong.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So--
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: And they're going to have to pay the consequence for that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay.
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: We understand that. But that wasn't the charge of the special counsel investigation. It was to look at that one fundamental issue. We'll read the report and see what it says. But all indications are that there is no-- and no-- and I-- I've seen no evidence. Now almost two and a half years of them investigating, I've seen no evidence of any type of coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia to impact the election.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Sure.
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: And neither have you.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, but that's not the-- the question we're waiting to see this report. But-- but, more broadly, I mean for Americans. Should they look at this and-- and while yes, there's no indictable offenses that we have seen, yet, from the special counsel related to the Russia probe or the-- the allegation of conspiracy with Russia. There are all these instances that ethically look questionable that-- the President's son agreeing to meet with Russian intermediaries to get dirt on Hillary Clinton. A number of different things along the way that came to light in the course of this investigation, not disclosing to primary voters that the President was seeking business deals in Russia. Do those things morally sit right with you?
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: Look, we'll-- we'll read the report and we'll see what-- what the special counsel has to say about that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, those are things we already know and I'm asking you ethically, morally?
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: Here's what I know about the President. In two-- in two and a half years as President of the United States, we have seen regulations cut, we have seen taxes reduce, we have seen the economy growing in an unbelievable rate, we have seen--
MARGARET BRENNAN: You're diverting.
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: --the lowest unemployment in fifty years. No, I'm telling you the truth. I was with the President last Wednesday in-- in-- right here in Ohio, and I saw the response he got from citizens in our district. The people lined up on the streets cheering him because--
MARGARET BRENNAN: But those specific examples--
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: --they-- they know we have Gorsuch and Kavanaugh--
MARGARET BRENNAN: --you're-- you feel--
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: --on the court.
MARGARET BRENNAN: --ethically, are fine with you.
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: I-- I'm saying, that wasn't the charge of the Special Counsel investigation. We're-- we're focused on Mister Mueller's report and I hope it's made public, I hope Bill Barr is-- he said he's going to follow the law, make as much public as he can in consultation with Rod Rosenstein and Bob Mueller and we will read the report. But what I do know is it's been an amazing two and a half years under the President's leadership and I think the American people appreciate that. And I know the central charge of the special counsel investigation was to look at collusion and there has been zero evidence, zero evidence of any type of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the election. Other things that have happened, people who've done things wrong, they're going to be held accountable for that. That's the way it's supposed to work in this great country, and that's-- but-- but-- on the central issue, no evidence whatsoever.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Congressman, thank you very much.
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: You bet.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We'll be back in one moment. Don't go away.
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