CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: "Interview with Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi"

Interview

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

Joining us now, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi. He is a Democrat, serves on both the Intelligence and the Oversight committees, two of the three panels that heard testimony, pivotal testimony today.

Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI (D-IL): Absolutely, Wolf.

BLITZER: And, as you know, in his opening statement that has now been released, Taylor writes that Ambassador Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the E.U., told him that President Trump wanted the Ukrainian president, Zelensky, to publicly commit to investigating the Bidens and the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

How explosive -- you were in the room. How explosive was this testimony?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, a couple things, just to set the scene.

Ambassador Taylor is a 50-year career public servant. He's apolitical, and he's a veteran.

He was extremely compelling. And this testimony was extremely important. I know that this opening statement had been leaked. If he's willing to confirm that's what he said today, then it corroborates the most explosive admission to date, which was Mick Mulvaney's statement the other day that there was indeed a quid pro quo involving military assistance and aid to Ukraine with these investigations and an announcement of the investigations that would help Donald Trump politically.

BLITZER: This doesn't line up, apparently, with what you heard from Ambassador Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the E.U.

Will you be calling him back to clarify?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: I don't know. That's obviously something that Chairman Adam Schiff would have to direct.

But what we do know right now is that Mr. Taylor offered extremely detailed testimony, especially with regard to his phone calls and text messages, that really illuminate the situation, to an extent that we didn't know up to this point.

BLITZER: In his opening statement -- and it's 15 pages single-spaced -- we have all read it by now -- Taylor really goes after this policy that was being conducted, a separate policy, as opposed to the formal U.S. policy, by the president's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

Tell us about that.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Yes, I mean, this is something that has been a common theme, which is that Rudy Giuliani is operating some kind of rogue shadow foreign policy. And what that means is, it's not necessarily in the best interest of

the United States, but it may be in the best interest of his personal legal clients, such as Donald Trump and maybe others.

BLITZER: How much of a game-changer was Ambassador Taylor's testimony today?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: I got to tell you, he is probably one of the most credible witnesses I have ever seen.

And he really comes across as somebody who's a true patriot. He is apolitical. I want to state that repeatedly, because he doesn't have a dog in this fight politically. But he came forward, again, at risk of his career, at expense to himself.

He hired his own attorneys, and he flew here from Europe, from Ukraine, to testify today. So he had no incentive but to tell the truth. And I believe that's what he did today.

BLITZER: So, based on his testimony, can you share with us what your committee's next steps might be?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: I don't know.

I know that we will continue with the depositions and testimony of various witnesses this week and next week, and review documents as they come in.

But one thing I have to say, Wolf, is that there's just a steady stream of these career public servants who are defying the president's order not to cooperate with our inquiry. And that just goes to show you that there are a lot of good people out there that want to come forward and tell the truth and tell us about any wrongdoing that has occurred.

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BLITZER: I know you got to go vote, so I'm going to let you go, Congressman Krishnamoorthi.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Thank you.

BLITZER: Thank you so much for joining us.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Thank you, Wolf. Thank you.

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