CNN "Erin Burnett Out Front" - Transcript: "Interview with Rep. Mike Quigley"

Interview

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BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Kaitlan. I'll emphasize this later, but he's had more National Security advisors in the past three years than the last two presidents had in their entire two terms. Out front now Democratic Congressman Mike Quigley who sits on the House Intelligence Committee.

[19:05:06]

Congressman, look, OK, let's be honest. You didn't like John Bolton. You recently questioned if anyone would be surprised if he got the United States into a war with Iran over very, very questionable intelligence in your words. So are you bottom-line happy that all this has happened?

REP. MIKE QUIGLEY (D-IL): I'm never fully happy with anything this president does. Sure, I'm glad John Bolton is gone. One of the chief architects of the Iraq war. The military first option, the unilateral action option using questionable intelligence. Sure, I'm glad he's gone.

About, obviously, two main concerns. First, it's hard to believe his successor won't be in the same cloth and second, you mentioned this is the fourth National Security Advisor, second Secretary of State, third chief of staff. It's a foreign policy in shambles anyway, but the lack of continuity certainly hurts.

BURNETT: The thing about it is though Bolton did fight the President strenuously on this whole idea of bringing the Taliban to Camp David, which the President was resoundingly criticized for on both sides of the aisle. Could it be that Trump is actually worse off without Bolton? And I know you disagreed with Bolton on a lot of things, but is it possible that having him gone is worse?

QUIGLEY: Well, it could be but only in one sense and that is the overriding problem whether it's Bolton or not is the president doesn't want anyone who's just going to say yes or agree or show him great adulation, so that's the bigger concern. It isn't that it's John, it's that he doesn't want anybody who's going to disagree with him.

Foreign policy especially now is a difficult task enough as it is without these internal problems. The President of the United States should be surrounding himself with a team of rivals who are going to disagree with him. And then at the very end using all that advice, good and bad, the President hopefully makes the right decision.

BURNETT: So I want to play for you the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who obviously personally is no fan of Boltons, we all know that, oil and water, policy-wise as well. But he was asked whether he knew Bolton's departure was coming. And I just want to play that exchange again because I have to say, he doesn't usually crack in terms of his reaction but this was telling. Here he is.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bolton was on the guidance to be here. So were you two blindsided by what occurred today that he's no longer with the administration? Was it news for you today because last night you were told that he would be here today.

POMPEO: Yes. I'm never surprised.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, let me ask you ...

POMPEO: And I don't mean that on just this issue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Never surprised not just on this issue as he's laughing. What do you make of that?

QUIGLEY: It's the second half of the problem of the Trump administration's foreign policy. Our allies are constantly surprised. They don't know what to expect. If anything they want certainty and a number of things that have taken place in the last several months had given them no assurance that they can trust us, they can count on us or know what the President is going to do next.

BURNETT: I understand what you're saying. I'm just saying Secretary Pompeo, of course, has been - he's been loyal but he's very respected. Was he standing up to the President there?

QUIGLEY: In his own mild way, yes. That's about as much as anyone can stand up to the President at this point.

BURNETT: So I want to ask you about one other major story tonight. Multiple senior officials, Congressman, who served under Trump are telling us that the President has repeatedly expressed opposition to using basically spies, covert sources of people who are not American to get information. He doesn't trust them and he thinks it will damage his relationship with foreign leaders, because the United States is using spies from those countries. Do you think that he has a point?

QUIGLEY: I think the President has no clue what he's thinking about or talking about when he says that. The fact of the matter is our country is safer because other countries share critical information with us. If anyone thinks our intelligence service can get all the information in the world, it is a big complicated world.

In some of those countries, in Eastern Europe, for example, they don't have the military might and maybe they don't spend enough of their percentage of GDP on the military. But I can tell you my third term on the Intelligence Committee, they keep us safe. Our allies share critical information that saves Americans lives.

And when the President does something to denigrate them as he denigrates our own Intel service, we are less safe.

BURNETT: So this comes after we learn that the United States extracted one of the highest level sources that the U.S. had inside the Russian government, senior source that the United States had cultivated for years, a source who was central to the crucial conclusion, right, to knowing that Vladimir Putin himself directed Russian intervention in the United States election.

[19:10:03]

This is as important and significant and long-standing of a source in the Russian government as we have. The reason the United States did this and pulled this person out of Moscow was fear that Trump could expose this person. Do you think that President Trump would purposefully have given that information to the Russians or would it just have been out of cluelessness?

QUIGLEY: Well, the President can do any number of things wittingly or unwittingly. I can't comment on merits of that extraordinarily sensitive story. What I'll say is this, the mere fact that the reports are out there, not just of this incidence but the meeting in the Oval Office with the Russians. The satellite photos involving the Iranians. The fact that the media reports are out there are enough to discourage our allies from sharing critical information because they don't think that information will be kept safe and obviously that will impact their sources and methods making them less safe.

BURNETT: And just so that we understand, I know it's highly sensitive but can you tell me whether your committee has been briefed about this spy and what happened, the extraction and the merits.

QUIGLEY: Yes. Just doing my job right, I can't comment on that. I apologize.

BURNETT: All right. Well, that's OK. Thank you very much. I appreciate your time, Congressman.

QUIGLEY: Any time. Thank you.

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