Fox News "Sunday Morning Futures" - Transcript: Russian Investigations

Interview

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BARTIROMO: Happy Sunday. Welcome back to 'Sunday Morning Futures.' We will get reaction to the latest on the U.S. response in Syria in just a moment but we want to get back to where we left off on that I.G. report, the Justice Department's internal watchdog on former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. Joining me now to weigh in is Texas Congressman John Ratcliffe, who's also a member of both the House Judiciary Committee and the House Homeland Security Committee. Congressman, it's good to see you. Thanks so much for joining us.

REP. JOHN RATCLIFFE, R-TEXAS, HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: You bet, Maria. Thanks for having me on.

BARTIROMO: I want to talk to you because you're one of only three lawmakers who have actually seen the raw intelligence behind the Nunes memo on alleging the surveillance abuse at the FBI. What can you tell us in terms of the I.G. report -- the beginning of the I.G. report that was dropped on Friday night? What struck you?

RATCLIFFE: Well, I think the most important takeaway is that the firing of Andrew McCabe was justified. Not once, not twice, not three times but four times the number two person at the premier law enforcement agency in the world, the FBI, lied and was less than truthful, sometimes under oath. So I think that it's important to underscore that that decision was the appropriate one. I think the other important takeaway for the American people is that it shows our congressional investigations into this matter are justified. Remember, Adam Schiff and others were wagging their finger at me and other members for maligning the character of certain FBI and Department of Justice officials. Listen, I love the Department of Justice. I wanted Adam Schiff to be right but he wasn't. Look at the extraordinary circumstances of what the American people have seen in the last week if they've turned on their T.V. or read a newspaper. They've seen the FBI Director, former Director Comey contradicting his Deputy Andrew McCabe, both of them contradicting each other under oath. You've seen Jim Comey contradicting the former Attorney General of the United States Loretta Lynch in recorded and televised interviews and you've seen Jim Comey contradicting himself with respect to his congressional testimony and now some of the things that he's saying in interviews regarding his book tour. So you know, all of this is extraordinarily inappropriate, it's sad, it's disappointing, it's painful, but it shows that it's important for us to get to the bottom of this and for these congressional investigations to continue so that we can hold people accountable. I think Andrew McCabe is being held accountable and I think others need to be as well.

BARTIROMO: Are there criminal referrals here? Where is this going?

RATCLIFFE: Well, we'll see. You know, we're waiting for the rest of the Inspector General's report. Very clearly what has been outlined is that Andrew McCabe, according to FBI's own investigators was less than truthful under oath. The same thing that other folks like Michael Flynn and George Papadopoulos and Rick Gates are currently being charged for. So you would expect that Andrew McCabe would be treated the same under the law. I do expect that the next part of the Inspector General report will highlight additional misconduct at the FBI and the Department of Justice and that hopefully, everyone will be treated equally under the law as we get those revelations.

BARTIROMO: Meanwhile, he is on this book tour and he's trashing Trump in every interview. Your reaction to a former FBI Director writing a book with these Comey memos talking about these memos we took on then Candidate Trump.

RATCLIFFE: Well, the funny thing about every Jim Comey story is that the starring role and the hero, in the end, is always the same. It's always Jim Comey. He's always in some sort of tortured matrix to save us all.

BARTIROMO: Right.

RATCLIFFE: The problem is he's not in the Justice League. He's in the justice system and I think that it's a betrayal of the oath that he took to be monetizing that and publicly talking about things that are frankly beneath the dignity of the office that he held but more importantly, I think, you know, at the end of the day, the decisions that he made have really come with some extraordinarily grave consequences for our national security. Jim Comey's the one person in the history of the United States to simultaneously act as the FBI Director investigating what Hillary Clinton did under the espionage act, as the attorney general exercising prosecute discretion, he acted as a member of Congress by adding elements to the statute, the espionage act and acted as a Supreme Court justice in interpreting what the law should be. You know, those kinds of things, superheroes do that in the movies but in real life, we respect the separation of powers and I think that's a system that he did not follow the rules that he should have and I think that's the oath that he betrayed to the American people. And again, that has come with grave national security consequences Maria.

BARTIROMO: Congressman, I want to ask you two other pieces of business certainly as it relates to national security and the homeland. You being on the Homeland Security Committee. Should we be worried given the fact that the President has called out Russia, it has -- he has called out Tehran on the heels of the strikes against Syria?

RATCLIFFE: Well, you know, with respect to Russia, I think they were warned in advance of this attack. I've seen the words that they're going to respond and their fears of retaliation. I wouldn't expect any military response against either opposition forces in Syria or against our own special forces in the region. I'd be surprised if they took that action. This is not the old Soviet Union. They can't go toe to toe with us militarily. And economically they really can't do anything to us either. We're talking about a Russian economy that's smaller than the economy of my home state, the State of Texas. But I do think where we are vulnerable is in cyberspace. You know, DDOS attacks or malicious cyber-attacks are something the Russians or the Iranians could do in retaliation. So I think that the United States and our allies like Great Britain and France would be vulnerable there and there has been some frankly chatter with respect to potential attacks against the U.K. in particular already. But Maria, you know some risks are worth taking and trying to prevent the use of chemical weapons anywhere in the world I think is one of those risks.

BARTIROMO: Congressman, real quick before you go. We know that Paul Ryan is stepping down as Speaker of the House. Who will you support as the next speaker?

RATCLIFFE: Well, first of all, I'm less concerned about who the next speaker is. I'm more concerned about what the next speaker is. I want the next speaker to be a Republican. But Republicans are all ling up, I was glad this week to see. You know, Paul Ryan did a great job. He has endorsed Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise has endorsed Kevin McCarthy. Now, I hate to punish Kevin with the -- with the most difficult and perhaps worst job in Washington but I know that he'd be up to the task and I think it's important that Republicans be unified as we head into the midterms with respect to that. But again our focus needs to be on making sure that the next speaker is a Republican.

BARTIROMO: Congressman, thank you. Thanks for joining us this morning. Good to see you, sir.

RATCLIFFE: You bet. Always great --

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