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

Interview

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BLITZER: Kaitlan, good reporting. Thank you very much.

Joining us now, Democratic Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, he's a member of both the Oversight and Intelligence committees. Congressman thanks so much for joining us. Let me quickly get your reaction to the breaking news that Corey Lewandowski now says he will testify before the House Judiciary Committee and he will insist there was no collusion, no obstruction. But if he's uncooperative with your colleagues, refuses to answer questions, how useful will his testimony be.

REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI (D-IL): Well, I think that there are two things that come to mind. One is he's going to be testifying under oath. And so he's got to be very careful in what he says because obviously there was evidence to support what Special Counsel Mueller said about what he recounted in his conversations with President Trump.

And then, secondly, there is no executive privilege governing those conversations. He's not a member of the White House or the executive administration. And so I think that he would be subject to potentially subpoena for directly answering certain questions if he refused.

BLITZER: The Mueller report outlined Lewandowski's role in what is described as potential obstruction of justice. You don't support a formal impeachment inquiry - at least not yet. Could his testimony impact your stance on that?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Possibly. I would like to hear what he said about his conversations with the president and the president basically telling him to instruct Jeff Sessions to do something that he wasn't supposed to be doing. I think that the more we learn about those conversations, the better.

BLITZER: Another sensitive issue I want to get to, you're following -- all of us are following Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib's decision not so visit Israel in the West Bank after Israel put certain conditions on her visit. What do you make of these late developments?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, first of all, I thought that was outrageous for the president to inject domestic politics into this relationship that we have with Israel that has largely been a bipartisan one for decades. I was very disappointed. I thought it was a serious mistake on the part of the Israeli government to acquiesce to his particular request. And I think it is -- it is logical that Congresswoman Tlaib would not want to go to Israel under any conditions that would be put on what she could say and do while she was there given that no such conditions had ever been imposed on other members of Congress.

I think the larger point here, Wolf, is that the president is disrespecting Congress in his actions and while we may not share these -- the viewpoints of these particular members of Congress, we very much believe that members of Congress should be able to conduct oversight and should be able to travel unimpeded by the president.

BLITZER: It is a widely held view here in Washington, not only by Democrats but even a whole bunch of Republicans --

[17:15:00] KRISHNAMOORTHI: That is right.

BLITZER: -- as well. They are very disappointed in these late developments. Congressman Krishnamoorthi as usual thanks so much for joining us.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Yes, Wolf. Thank you.

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