CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript: Interview with Senator Chris Murphy

Interview

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COOPER: Cipollone has obviously been front and center of the proceedings. Yesterday, he called the House manager's theory of the case, quote, incoherent, and bashed Schiff for, quote, falsely accusing, unquote, members of the Trump administration.

With me now, Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy.

Senator Murphy, in this new schedule, closing arguments expected Monday followed by a final vote on Wednesday, where does it go from here?

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): Well, the Senate Republicans have decided to speed this trial to a conclusion without any witnesses. We gave them a variety of options this evening. We were able to force votes on not only witness testimony from the four witnesses we requested, but a vote on Bolton alone, a vote on an expedited process to get Bolton before the Senate, and a vote on giving the power to the chief justice to decide which witnesses would come before the body. Republicans did say "no" to all of those.

And so, given the fact that Mitch McConnell is so tightly controlling his caucus, we now are going to move towards debate in a final vote. I think it's a really, really sad day for the country that the Senate has, you know, turned into basically an instrument of the president's cover-up, and that's, I think, real damaging to us in the long run.

COOPER: You know, we heard the argument from Republican Senator Lamar Alexander. Do you think there are going to be a lot of other senators what actually critique or at least, you know, mildly criticize the president's actions? And then say, yet, I didn't think it was an impeachable offense? Or do you think most of them are going to just remain silent on it and just say it wasn't impeachable offense?

MURPHY: You know, I've been struggling all day to figure out what I think of Senator Alexander's argument, because I think there will be other Republican senators who will mirror it. On one hand, it scares me to death, because Senator Alexander is saying, I believe that this corruption happened. I believe that the president bullied a foreign power into interfering in our elections and I just don't care. I don't think that there's anything that Congress can do about it. That scares me to death.

On the other hand, I appreciate the fact that Senator Alexander recognizes the truth, that he actually stipulates what the facts have shown during the trial. And as scared as I am about the threat that Trump presents to the country, I'm also scared that if we don't believe in facts anymore, I'm not sure how we run a government.

And so, to the extent that other senators on the Republican side make that same argument, I think there'll be a part of it that scares me and a part of it that gives me some consolation that we at least can agree on fact sets moving into the future.

COOPER: Right, there was certainly more consolation if the president himself did not continue to insist that this was a perfect phone call. Are there -- this is something we were just discussing and frankly have been talking about all day. I mean, what is to -- in your mind, anything to prevent the president from doing this tomorrow? To calling up Zelensky again or calling up China or calling up, you know, Russia or anybody else he wants and trying to get them to announce investigations into the Bidens?

MURPHY: Well, I mean, the answer is, clearly, there's nothing to stop him from continuing to do it. And what we know is he's been engaged in that same kind of corruption during the trial, during the impeachment process. In December, he sent Giuliani back to Ukraine, back to Europe to dig up dirt on the Bidens.

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And as we heard testimony, he wasn't, you know, he hadn't gotten to the gate yet of the airport back in the United States when Trump was calling him up to ask him what he got on the Bidens.

This is all going to continue. And it's frankly an invitation for future presidents to engage in the same kind of behavior.

What I've said to my Republican friends from the beginning, is that today you might secretly celebrate that the dirt is being dug up on Democratic presidential candidates, but it's going to be you some day. It's going to be a Democrat digging up dirt on a Republican if we let him get away with this.

COOPER: What do you think of John Bolton at this point? I mean, how he has -- I don't know, I mean, I guess -- I mean, things from his book have leaked out. We don't know who's responsible for that. He was speaking and, you know, gave some tantalizing remarks at a paid speech behind closed doors apparently yesterday.

Do you -- do you want the House to get Ambassador Bolton on the record? Do you expect his book to actually come out? Do you expect the White House to try to squash it?

MURPHY: Well, A, he's no hero. He could have testified before the House of Representatives. He didn't have to contest that subpoena. He wasn't currently working in the White House.

Fiona Hill, his deputy, testified. She's not in jail today. So there's no reason that he had to wait until his book was written in order to tell this story.

B, yes, the House should bring him before the body. I don't think the proper forum for his story coming out is his book release. So, one way or the other, at least the House has to get him back before the body.

But the story he seems to be telling is entirely consistent with all the facts that we have heard already. And so it appears, from what we know, that he has telling the truth. He could have told that truth back in November or December. And if he had, we might be in a very different place than we are today, with only a couple Republicans willing to vote with us on anything as we move this process forward.

COOPER: Senator Murphy, I appreciate your time. Thank you.

MURPHY: Thanks.

COOPER: Coming up, more about today's twists and turns in the impeachment trial.

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