CNN "Erin Burnett Outfront" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Mark Warner (D), Virginia

Interview

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OUTFRONT now, Democratic Senator from Virginia, Mark Warner. He is the ranking member of the Senate intelligence Committee. And senator, I appreciate your time tonight.

Senator Warner, your colleague, John Cornyn, the number two Republican in the Senate is with the president right now. He says it would be inappropriate to bring Mueller up to President Trump at dinner tonight. Do you agree? Inappropriate?

SEN. MARK WARNER (D), VICE CHAIRMAN, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Respectfully, I would disagree with John. I think he ought to take the same kind of advice that so many of my Republican colleagues have said, that if this president fires Mueller, that would be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency. And I hope that someone would have the courage at that dinner to say, listen, this is -- we're a nation of laws. You can't go about simply trying to impugn the integrity of the whole FBI or impugn the integrity of the whole Justice Department, as some of the president's tweets and rants have gone about this week.

I would think, you know, at some point, we may all, as individuals and Americans be tested and are we going to remain a country where no one, including the president of the United States, is above the law?

BURNETT: So I want to just show you. Look, they're all there tonight, they're having dinner, but nonetheless, the president put out that tweet, which I just read, and I believe you can see this picture, Senator. These are the Republicans who are with the president right now. This is the picture they put out. Everybody looks happy, everybody is grinning, and everybody is doing the president's trademark thumbs up.

Does this bother you? Is this just friendly? Or is this clearly not a group of people who's going to challenge the president about anything tonight?

WARNER: I don't have the slightest idea what's going to happen at the White House tonight. I know from virtually every Republican senator that I've talked to, there's huge concern. They wonder about the president's rants, about the fact that his lawyer was being investigated and, boy, you have to reach a pretty high bar. I'm no legal expert, but you had to have Rod Rosenstein approve it. You had to have the southern district of New York approve it, you had to have a judge approve it.

And then the president's kind of ad hominem attack against our whole Justice Department. You have a huge amount of concern about the president who brags about how he keep his military plans secret, almost indicating today with his tweeted warning Syria, warning Russia in advance of potential military action. You worry about a president that tends to like to do things on Friday afternoon when Congress is out of town.

And I would hope and pray that someone, whether as a group or privately would say, people are on edge. We're entering into uncharted waters here. And I believe close to a constitutional crisis should the president act so inappropriately.

BURNETT: So when you say "close to a constitutional crisis," you know, the White House press secretary today was asked if the White House supports legislation which has been put out by a Republican, Chuck Grassley in the Judiciary Committee, right, that would protect Bob Mueller's job. She said that the White House does not have a policy on that right now. That's her quote. We do not have a policy on that right now.

Which was a dodge, but she was a little bit more direct yesterday, because then she was extremely clear that she thinks, and the White House thinks the president has the right to fire Mueller directly. They don't need to have the deputy director attorney general do it, he can do it himself. Here's what she said.

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BURNETT: Clearly for that at the least, Senator, you can take away this. They've looked into it, they've spent time, they have lawyers look at it. It matters that much to them. Do you think that this president will fire Bob Mueller?

WARNER: You know, Erin, I gave up predicting this president a long time ago. It feels that as more and more the semi-responsible people around him leave the White House, that it is more Donald Trump being Donald Trump. And that may work if you're on a T.V. show, or it may work even in, you know, kind of a rock them, sock them world of real estate. But it's not the way the leader of the free world ought to operate with so many trouble spots around the world.

And frankly, I cannot think even -- I lived through Watergate. I can't ever remember a president of either party so broadly impugning the integrity of the whole FBI or the whole Justice Department. Because my fear is, that gives license to those people who then start to think, well, maybe if the whole system is not on the level, I can choose which law I want to abide by, and which law I don't want to abide by. And that's not the way our government works.

BURNETT: All right, thank you very much, Senator Warner. Thanks.

WARNER: Thank you, Erin.

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