CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview With Congressman John Garamendi

Interview

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BLITZER: It certainly doesn't.

Thanks very much. Good reporting, Kaitlan Collins, for us.

Let's get some more on all of this.

Congressman John Garamendi is joining us. He's a Democrat on the Armed Services Committee.

Congressman, thanks for joining us.

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D), CALIFORNIA: Good to be with you, Wolf.

BLITZER: What impact, Congressman, does this level of chaos over at the White House have on the president's ability to govern?

GARAMENDI: It's extremely serious.

I have been saying for months and months the chaos, the uncertainty, the lies, the variation in policies is a major national security issue.

Our friends, our allies have no idea what to expect from this presidency or from the White House, and certainly our opponents are always looking for an opportunity to do a little something to us.

And we know, we know that Russia is doing more than a little something to us. They are seriously interfering with the upcoming election, and now we have this nuclear issue also.

BLITZER: What do you make of this "New York Times" report that President Trump has quietly behind the scenes actually asked his White House chief of staff, John Kelly, to oust Jared Kushner, his son-in- law and senior adviser, and Ivanka, his daughter and senior adviser, from the White House?

GARAMENDI: Well, perhaps reality television has not worked so well.

Didn't he used to say he liked to fire people? Well, he has a very serious problem. He has men and women in his administration who are using their power position for personal gain.

Now, a definition of corruption, at least as I understand it, is when you have the political power and you use it for your personal gain. There is a serious allegation about Kushner. There's also a serious allegation perhaps -- an allegation, for sure, about Ivanka, and who knows.

The president himself under the Emoluments Clause can receive nothing, as in nothing, from any foreign government or foreign power. And there's a lot of questions that have been raised about that. We have got a White House that has danced on the edge of corruption from the very first moment that he took his oath of office.

BLITZER: The White House chief of staff, John Kelly, now says that when he actually got to the White House, he's a retired four-star general, the handling, in his words, "The handling of classified material wasn't up to the standards that I had been used to."

Once again, that's a direct quote. He says he had his eyes opened in September when he asked -- and I'm quoting him right now -- "What's the percentage that they're still -- that are still on interim clearances, and the answer to that was a fair number. I mean, it was a lot."

Does that concern you? You're on the Armed Services Committee. That there are so many who didn't have full security clearances?

GARAMENDI: It's a major, major problem.

You have no idea who they're talking to, although that's part of the concern. You know that, in many of these cases, there is the possibility of people being leveraged by their past activities.

And I do know, as a member of the Armed Services Committee, we have classified hearings at various levels all of the time. And it is very, very important stuff. There's another element here. And that is most of -- some of these people have come from an element in which they are in the stock trading business, buying and selling stocks.

The information that's available in the president's daily briefing is extraordinarily valuable if you want to play in the stock market. You can be ahead of everyone or you can making decisions based upon information that you know is going to come down. You can pass that on to people.

It is a real serious problem. But, beyond all of that, beyond all the personal gain that appears to be part of what is going on here, there is the issue of the most important nation in the world, whose leadership is in absolute chaos.

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It's not the wheels coming off. The thing is in full stages of absolute collapse here. And that is a very real problem for this nation and, frankly, for the rest of the world.

BLITZER: Congressman Garamendi, thanks for joining us.

GARAMENDI: Thank you.

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