CNN "The Lead with Jake Tapper" - Interview with Chris Murphy

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

I want to bring in Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut.

And, Senator Murphy, let me just posit that every Democrat on Capitol Hill thinks that John Bolton should have said this during the impeachment hearing, and, if not, then Republicans should have voted to hear from him during the impeachment trial. I get that.

But I -- I don't want to waste any time on that, because the allegations he's making are so stunning. There is a lot here.

Here's one quote from John Bolton: "I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my White House tenure that wasn't driven by reelection calculations" -- unquote.

And that's part of, in Bolton's view, President Trump asking the president of China for help getting reelected. What's your response?

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): Well, it's stunning, but not surprising.

The president made very clear early on in his tenure that, if a foreign government came to him with an offer of election help, he would not report them to the authorities, that he'd hear them out.

So, the president's been pretty unapologetic since the very beginning that he was going to likely solicit help from foreign governments. And the entire impeachment was over the question of whether it's legitimate for the executive to use the powers of the Oval Office to try to get foreign governments integrated into a president's reelection efforts.

So, it's always stunning. I refuse for any of this to feel normal. But, I mean, we have been told over and over again by this president that he believes he is allowed to use the foreign policy of this country to try to help himself politically. So, nothing in Bolton's book really changes what we have been told consistently by President Trump.

TAPPER: And "The New York Times" writes that Bolton described several episodes where the president expressed willingness to halt criminal investigations to, in effect, give personal favors to dictators he liked involving major firms in China and Turkey.

Bolton writes: "The pattern looked like obstruction of justice as a way of life."

This isn't Chuck Schumer saying this. This is John Bolton, obstruction of justice as a way of life.

MURPHY: Listen, so, everything John Bolton is saying here is consistent with what we know about this president.

At the same time, I know you told me I couldn't say it, but it is important to note that John Bolton is trying to make money here.

[16:15:04]

And it is curious to all of us that he wasn't willing to say this stuff to Congress. But he is willing to say it when he can make money.

I'm not suggesting that what he's saying isn't true. I'm just saying that you do have to question his motives. And I have to question his motives even as a Democrat.

But, yes, you are getting further color in this book about this president's love affair with dictators, information in this book that suggests President Trump may have gotten advanced notice that President Xi was going to set up concentration camps for Muslims and may have in fact endorsed that idea in a private meeting.

All of this is just incredibly disturbing. And it just speaks to how huge a job President Biden is going to have to try to turn around this sort of campaign of affection for dictators around the world.

TAPPER: I didn't say you couldn't say it. I would never censor you. I just didn't want to waste our time with it.

And I would note that every Senate Democrat plus Senator Susan Collins and Senator Mitt Romney voted to have more evidence, including a subpoena of John Bolton. But all of your other Republican friends voted against it.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, thank you so much.

MURPHY: Thanks.

Source