CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Ed Markey
Interview
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BLITZER: Clarissa Ward reporting from Ukraine for us. Thank you, Clarissa.
Let's get some more on all of this. Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts is joining us. He's a member of the Foreign Relations Committee. Senator, thanks so much for joining us. And I want to begin with this new claim from the president. Have you seen any evidence that the Iranians were planning to attack four American embassies?
SEN. ED MARKEY (D-MA): Absolutely not. Just two days ago, Wednesday afternoon, Secretary Pompeo, Secretary Esper, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the head of the CIA, all 100 senators on this question of imminent threat to the United States as a justification for the assassination of General Soleimani. And we sat there for 75 minutes, waiting to get the evidence, waiting to get the information which would prove that there was an imminent threat.
What we heard for that 75 minutes was that it was something that could have happened days or weeks from now. They did not give us any specific targets. They all got up after 75 minutes to just walk out of the room. There were still at least a couple of dozen senators who wanted to ask more questions, more follow-on questions, but it all would have been aimed towards getting the answer to the question of what were the targets and when were those targets going to be hit. And we didn't have any information.
But then 24 hours later, the president says, well, it was an embassy. And then 48 hours later, the president is saying, well, it is four embassies. So it is outrageous, Wolf, that there is just an absolute cavalier indifference that this administration has for the United States Senate that in closed briefing, secret session, they would not give us this information, but yet for Fox News, the president can do an interview that reveals all of this without, without having first disclosed it to the Senate.
BLITZER: How do you explain that, Senator?
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MARKEY: So it is outrageous to who he is --
BLITZER: How do you explain that, Senator? What's going on here?
MARKEY: Well, I just think that they believe that they can just treat United States Congress as something that is not relevant to this decision of whether or not we go to war with Iran, whether or not we engage in dangerous activities that can have potentially catastrophic consequences for our national security, not only in the Middle East but also here in our homeland. And that's how they want to conduct this. And it's why it was so important that the House had a debate yesterday and a vote on whether or not we should have a war with Iran without receiving previous permission from the Congress and why it's important that we have the same debate on the Senate floor next week because the president has to be made accountable of what he just did in the last two days in denying us the information which we were entitled.
[17:15:12]
It's just a further indication that unless we ratchet it up the level of pressure, we could easily just slip into a situation whereby accident of - because of lack of oversight on Trump and his advisers are able to make decisions that could be potentially dangerous for our national security.
BLITZER: While I have you, Senator. Let's quickly talk about the president's impeachment trial. In the Senate, the speaker now says she plans to send the two articles of impeachment to the Senate next week. Is that the right call?
MARKEY: Well, again, I think that Nancy Pelosi has handled this masterfully, because she withheld, we have been able to one, find out that Bolton would be willing to testify. Two, gain access to e-mails which are going to really shed us spotlight in terms of what was happening. It will give us an opportunity and has thus far to put more pressure on the Republican senators to come to an arrangement where we have witnesses, Mulvaney, Bolton, others who have first-hand information about what the president knew and when he knew it.
Now there is no guarantee that ultimately, Republicans are going to give us those witnesses, because McConnell keeps saying that he has the 51 votes to proceed and that they will make the decision later as to whether or not there are witnesses. And later with Mitch McConnell, I'm afraid, is going to mean never. So, the time that Nancy Pelosi gave us is very valuable because public pressure is intensifying on Republican senators to find some way of ensuring that it is a full and fair trial, and through our witnesses and that the American public get the information from witnesses that were denied on the House side and that all of that is going to be directly relevant in informing senators' judgment as to whether or not they vote to remove Trump from office. So I think Nancy Pelosi did just the right thing, and -- and at the appropriate time when she sends it over, we'll be ready to proceed.
BLITZER: You and your colleagues in the Senate are going to be very busy over the next two or three weeks. Senator Markey, thanks so much for joining us.
MARKEY: Thank you, Wolf.
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