CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: "Interview with Rep. Mike Quigley"

Interview

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BLITZER: All right, Manu, thank you. Manu Raju on Capitol Hill.

Let's get some more on all of this. Democratic Congressman Mike Quigley of Illinois is joining us. He's a member of the Intelligence Committee. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us. We certainly have a lot to discuss.

But first, this truly extraordinary meeting at the White House today completely devolved with the President insulting the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. They stormed out according to the Republicans. What's your reaction to this?

REP. MIKE QUIGLEY, (D-IL): First of all, Speaker Pelosi can certainly take care of herself. And I think you could make the case that she's the most successful female elected official in our country's history. So, that's fine.

It blinds us, I think, momentarily to the bigger issues here. And that is that the United States has backed out of a commitment to the only troops really fighting Isis on the front lines, our allies the Kurds. And as a result the Isis now has free reign. We have betrayed one of our closest allies. And I believe that makes us less safe in the future.

On foreign policy, I remember what Emerson wrote, to have a friend you need to be one. Does anyone in the world now think that we'd be a trusted ally?

BLITZER: The White House just released the text of the letter that the President said -- that the President sent to Erdogan of Turkey among other things saying this in the aftermath of the earlier decision by the U.S. to pull out troops, saying, "don't be a tough guy. Don't be a fool." What's your reaction to that?

QUIGLEY: You know, I'll be honest, I saw this online first. I got a copy of the letter. I actually thought it was a prank, a joke. That it couldn't possibly come from the Oval Office. It sounded all of the world like the President of the United States in some sort of momentary lapse just dictated angrily whatever was on the top of his head.

These are extraordinarily serious issues and an extraordinarily dangerous part of the world. And for him to write this and to also say that it doesn't effect us is ignorance at the highest level. The fact is everything is connected. And places across the world can impact us here. They affect our allies. It affects our allies' willingness to help us. That makes us less safe.

But clearly Isis is willing to come here and do damage and willing to go and kill our allies as well. So, he's wrong on all points of this and it's particularly scary that there doesn't seem to be any guardrails on foreign policy on this President.

BLITZER: Speaker Pelosi also said that emerging from the White House meeting that impeachment -- the impeachment inquiry didn't come up during the course of the meeting. But do you think that is what is agitating the President right now?

QUIGLEY: I think a lot of things are agitating the President right now. I don't think there is anyone there who pushes back that he listens to. And I think as a result you see this helter-skelter foreign policy and his actions on the local level. But, look, the House and the Senate can do more than one thing at a time. The impeachment inquiry moves on but in the meantime we're passing important legislation on a daily basis.

BLITZER: Let's turn to the latest in the Ukraine scandal. How significant is it, Congressman, that federal prosecutors are conducting what's being described as a counterintelligence investigation into the President's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.

QUIGLEY: You know, I'm not aware of the investigation. But if it's true, it's absolutely no surprise. I mean, how can anything go wrong. Rudy has absolutely no security clearance. He has no foreign policy experience.

My questioning, the head of our intelligence community said he didn't know what Rudy was doing. Secretary Pompeo apparently didn't know what he was doing. So it shadow government and what role Rudy was playing is perhaps known only to Rudy and the President of the United States.

As a result, I think he can be taken advantage of. I think he could be a target. And it's a concern beyond the fact that I believe they were doing things contrary to U.S. policy.

BLITZER: Your committee heard today more testimony this time from one of the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's key advisers, Michael McKinley who just resigned the other day, what sort of context did he provide?

QUIGLEY: You know, I'm following House rules now and I can't testify -- I can't talk about what was testified today. I know others might have already. But I'll just say this, none of the testimony seems to contradict in any way by anybody what we have learned in the whistleblower's complaint and the transcript that came out of the White House, right.

The President of the United States bullied one of our closest allies and enlisted the Department of Justice to help in that manner. But as far as how anyone testified, I can't talk to that.

BLITZER: Congressman Quigley, thanks so much for joining us.

QUIGLEY: Thank you.

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