Fox News "The Story with Martha MacCallum" - Transcript: Rep. King talks Hope Hicks' testimony to House investigators

Interview

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MACCALLUM: And with Hicks on Capitol Hill, the president pulled the spotlight with a bold and early announcement, his intention to run again in 2020. Another sign that they are not concerned about collusion accusations, perhaps, Brad Parscale, who worked with Facebook, Twitter, and Google to target voters in places like Michigan and Wisconsin, and who was investigated himself by the Mueller probe about a possible connection between his data machine and Russia's, will now lead the Trump 2020 team.
In moments, Former Deputy Campaign Manager David Bossie joins me on that.
Plus, Jonathan Turley on the illegal potential implications here. But first, one of the men at the center of today's House Intel hearing interviewing Hope Hicks, one of the Top Advisors to President Trump, Congressman Peter King. Good to see you tonight, congressman.

REP. PETER KING, R--NEW YORK: Thank you, Martha. Thank you very much.

MACCALLUM: So, tell us the scope of what Hope Hicks has been willing to answer questions about today, so far?

KING: Yes, first of all, my understanding was that Hope Hicks would be willing to answer everything, but the White House asked her only to answer questions up to the end of the campaign, because that was really the scope of the hearing. And then they said no questions after inauguration because then, she would've been an employee in the White House, and later there was a negotiation, and understanding with the White House that she would answer very key questions about the transition period, specifically regarding General Flynn, Ambassador Kislyak, anything that was at all pertinent to Russia.

And my understanding is, you know, she answered. And I have to say that, her testimony I thought was exceptional. She answered in excruciating detail every question about the campaign, every allegation at all of anything involving Papadopoulos or Carter Page or any about Russian influence or Russian collusion or any type of cooperation between the Trump campaign and Russia as far as I was concerned in any rational observer.

She debunked all of that. I thought she did an exceptional job, and she was still going a few minutes ago; she should be over by now. She was there for nine hours. That's nine hours of questions, and many of them tedious, many of them repetitive.

MACCALLUM: Let me ask you something, Congressman King. We've sort of got the indication that one of the focuses that Robert Mueller is looking at with regard to Advisor Hope Hicks is, after the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting that Don Jr., Donald Trump Jr. had with some with the Natalia Veselnitskaya and others, that after that, when that story broke, that there was an effort on Air Force One between the president, and some of his advisors, and Hope Hicks was there, to craft a response to that. That's Mueller is very interested in that, that he thinks there might be some obstruction in that particular meeting. Did she answer any questions on that?

KING: No, that's in the period after the inauguration. And I believe what this is -- the White House intends, to claim executive privilege in the future and they wanted to preserve the record. This is something that many presidents do, the whole idea of executive privilege. So, if she has any questions at all about her service in the White House after January 20th of last year --

MACCALLUM: And is it your -- is it your understanding, congressman, that that was also the case when she testified in front of the Senate and also the case when she testified to the Mueller committee?

KING: As far as the Mueller investigation, she wouldn't talk about that at all, which is the right thing. You should not be talking about, any conversation she had with the criminal investigation. As far as the Senate, my understanding is that she only spoke about the period during the transition, she did not go beyond January 20th. And that why today, she did testify to us similar as how she did before the Senate, she did answer all questions that we asked her. Actually, these are questions that were agreed by the White House that she wanted to answer them, involving General Flynn, involving the Russian ambassador, involving conversations at Mar-a-Lago, and all that leaning --

MACCALLUM: What did you learn about General -- about General Flynn? Because his story has been sort of back in the news now.

KING: You know, basically, she was just giving it from her perspective. And that basically -- I can't go into all the detail, but basically that when she was questioned about General Flynn, she basically told him to speak with a reporter, and what happened after that, she really was not familiar. What she knew is if she passed on, she got the inquiry from the media, she passed on to General Flynn.

MACCALLUM: OK. I do want to ask you also about the NSA Director Mike Rogers who spoke at a hearing today and he talked about the issue of Russian meddling and whether or not the White House has been aggressive enough in asking him to pursue it, to add resources to making sure it doesn't happen again when we get to the midterms. Here he is -- and I want to get your thoughts on this.

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MACCALLUM: What do you make of that?

KING: Well, first of all, I don't think the president has to tell Mike Rogers what he has to do. I would assume, the NSA, the part of their ordinary job is to try to intercept to try to stop and to try to report back to Congress. I have not heard any Republican Congress saying that they need more authority or they need more direction. I do know that, for instance, the Department of Homeland Security, you know, and other government agencies are working with state and local governments as far as any type of interference with the ballot boxes or the election machines in the states.

And as far as other than that, you know, not everything that gets done, is spoken about, not everything that would be done by intelligence personnel is spoken about. I think the United States is going to do all it can and tends to do all it can, it's already begun, to make sure that whatever the Russians did in 2016, they're not going to do again.

MACCALLUM: Sarah Huckabee Sanders pushed back and said that they have added $44 million to the budget to work on cyber issues and, you know, indicated that they feel that they are doing a lot in that regard. So, we'll see. Congressman, thank you very much. A busy day for you, and we appreciate you being here as always.

NAME: And I'm going to emphasize, Hope Hicks answered every question in an exceptional way.

MACCALLUM: Let me ask you one last question. Any talk of a subpoena for her for the information that she was not willing to talk about?

KING: Well, the democrats are talking about it. I don't think it's going to go very far.

MACCALLUM: All right. Pete King. Congressman, thank you, sir. Good to see you.

KING: Thank you, Martha. Thank you.

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