CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript: Interview with Congressman Joaquin Castro of Texas

Interview

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Now, before the break, we heard from a Republican on the Intelligence Committee. Right now, Democratic member Joaquin Castro.

Thanks so much for being with us.

Do you agree, Congressman Castro, with the House Republicans that there was no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia?

REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO (D-TX), HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: I strongly disagree. And, you know, Anderson, this is a real betrayal of the American people and of the public trust for Republicans to close the investigation this way.

COOPER: Have you seen any evidence to suggest there was collusion?

CASTRO: Absolutely. Let me just start with one fact. Roger Stone knowing ahead of time that WikiLeaks would dump e-mails belonging to Hillary Clinton. That's one example.

The meetings that were attempted, the e-mail communications with groups like WikiLeaks, the meeting in June of 2016 between Kushner, Donald Trump Jr., others, Paul Manafort and the Russian operatives -- that's the private stuff that happened that the Trump Organization or the Trump campaign denied until they were caught red-handed.

And then you look at the public statements that were made because Donald Trump cannot wash his public -- cannot wash his activity just by making it public. He actively invited Russians to hack into Hillary Clinton's e-mail system. If that piece of information had been found buried somewhere in an e-mail, that would have been the smoking gun. But because he did it in public, somehow that's supposed to clean it up. It absolutely doesn't.

COOPER: You know, I just talked to obviously a Republican member of the committee who's saying, look, we asked all the questions we wanted to ask and, you know, of Steve Bannon and Hope Hicks and Corey Lewandowski and Donald Trump Jr., sure, Steve Bannon, you know, this member wasn't happy with Steve Bannon's refusal to answer some of the questions.

But, you know, Congressman Stewart was saying essentially there was no need to subpoena people. Some people came back for a second interview, and we got the answers we need. Is that true?

CASTRO: And I respect my colleague Congressman Stewart, but I wholeheartedly disagree. This was a take their word for it investigation that simply went through the motions. This was like bringing in a suspect that you suspect of arson or something else, asking them, did you start the fire? They say, I didn't start any fire. And you say, oh, great. Go ahead and go home.

That's what this was.

COOPER: The other thing that Congressman Stewart says is that the U.S. intelligence assessment from the CIA, FBI, and the DNI, that Russian interference in the election was an effort from Putin to help Trump win the election is just flat out wrong.

Congressman Stewart says, look, I went to CIA. I read the raw intelligence, and the CIA just got it wrong. What did they know that the U.S. intelligence community apparently doesn't?

CASTRO: Well, of course, some of that is still classified. But I can say I heard the bit by former DNI Clapper, and I agree that it started off as a campaign to create chaos and to really pour acid on every wound in American politics, to divide people. But I think that as it became clearer that Donald Trump actually had a chance to win, then you saw more efforts for Russians to intervene and actually be helpful. Part of that was dumping Hillary Clinton's e-mails, John Podesta's e-mails -- I should say the Clinton campaign e-mails.

COOPER: Do you believe -- I mean have you had a chance to read the raw intelligence at the CIA? Do you believe the CIA got it wrong, the FBI got it wrong, the DNI got it wrong?

CASTRO: No, I believe our intelligence agencies. I think they got it right. I have had a chance to visit the CIA headquarters as Congressman Stewart said he had as well.

COOPER: Were Democrats on the committee consulted at all about this? The Republicans had finished their report and that the investigation was done?

CASTRO: No. And I've heard that Adam Schiff, our ranking member, he would have been contacted first. I've heard he was not told, and I certainly have not heard anything.

COOPER: So, are Democrats going to issue their own report? And, if so, you know, when can we expect it?

CASTRO: I can't speak, of course, officially for the Democratic members, but my vote is that we issue our own report, and I think that -- I suspect that everybody will agree with that.

[20:25:05] COOPER: Just moving forward, why should anybody have confidence in this House Intelligence Committee moving forward? I mean, whether it's related to Russian collusion or the lack of it or, you know, the next thing that's investigated?

CASTRO: You know, given everything that's happened, that's a fair and also a very sad question that has to be asked. This is a committee that had worked in a very bipartisan way. I'm on two committees in the Congress. I'm on the Intelligence Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee, and I've been very blessed that those two committees are not two of the more acrimonious committees.

And in terms of where we go from here, there's -- you know, besides the Russia investigation, there's a lot of other work within the intelligence realm, and I can only hope that we'll be able to work in the traditionally bipartisan way on those issues.

COOPER: All right. Congressman Castro, appreciate your time. Thank you.

CASTRO: Thank you.

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