CBS News "Face the Nation" - Transcript: Foreign Affairs

Interview

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Good morning, and welcome to FACE THE NATION. I'm Margaret Brennan.

We have got a lot to get to today, but we want to begin with Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton, who is one of the president's closest allies in the Senate.

Welcome to the show.

SEN. TOM COTTON (R), ARKANSAS: Good morning, Margaret. Good to be one with you.

BRENNAN: It's great to have you in person here, here in Washington.

Pyongyang made this announcement about suspending some tests, but they didn't say they're giving up their nuclear development or their weapons. Should the release of three Americans be a condition for these upcoming talks?

COTTON: Well, I think this announcement on Friday is better than continued testing, but it's not much better than that.

As you say, it's an easily reversible decision. They made no announcement about their medium- or short-range ballistic missiles that threatened hundreds of thousands in Korea and Japan, just like it threatens our allies there.

But I do think they show that the president has put Kim Jong-un on the wrong foot, the first time North Korea has been on the back foot for a long time. The fact that Kim requested this summit, the president accepted, I think to his surprise and moved so quickly, said he's not going to ask for U.S. troops to be removed and now has made this announcement shows that he realizes that time and momentum is on the side of the United States and our allies.

I know the president and Director Pompeo, who will soon be Secretary Pompeo, is committed to bringing those Americans home. I hope that will happen before this summit occurs.

BRENNAN: Do you expect release to happen before Mike Pompeo...

COTTON: I know they are working hard to achieve that goal.

BRENNAN: You mentioned Mike Pompeo.

As we've said, he's a friend of yours, CIA director, wants to be secretary of state. One issue that some of the Democrats at his hearing, like Senator Menendez, had with his nomination is that they, frankly, say they don't know which Mike Pompeo to believe, the congressman who advocated for striking Iran and North Korea and criticized the diplomatic deals there, or the one who now says he wants to preserve the nuclear deal with Iran and negotiate with North Korea.

Is this driven by politics or a change of conviction?

COTTON: It's driven 100 percent by politics, Margaret. Fifteen Democrats...

BRENNAN: His change of position.

COTTON: No, the Democrats' opposition to Mike Pompeo.

(CROSSTALK)

BRENNAN: But Mike Pompeo's change of position.

(CROSSTALK)

COTTON: Mike Pence has not changed his position. I have known Mike for many years. We've traveled the world with each other.

Mike is committed to diplomatic solutions everywhere. The difference between Mike Pompeo and a lot of those Democrats or the previous secretaries of state is that Mike Pompeo recognizes that the credible threat of military force is essential to getting diplomatic solutions.

But a lot of these Democrats...

BRENNAN: But he opposed the Iran nuclear deal, and he said in his testimony now he wants to preserve it.

COTTON: Opposing the Iran nuclear deal doesn't mean that you're opposed to diplomatic solutions. It means you're opposed to bad diplomatic solutions.

BRENNAN: But that was a change in position for this.

COTTON: But, ultimately, it's the president that makes that decision.

Mike Pompeo will conduct foreign policy on behalf of the president. But as he said in his testimony, it's the president who will make that decision.

But the Democrats, especially on Foreign Relations Committee, are really engaged in shameful political behavior. Fifteen of them for Mike Pompeo last year to be director of the CIA. Not a single one of them, to my knowledge, has said that he's done a bad job. In fact, many of them have been...

BRENNAN: But it's a very different job than being America's top diplomat and credibly negotiating, which is why they get to this fundamental question.

COTTON: And as Director Pompeo said at his testimony, he is committed to those diplomatic solutions.

But, ultimately, the secretary of state is conducting diplomacy on behalf of the president. Most of these Democrats don't have a problem with Mike Pompeo. They are still struggling to get over the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Or, frankly, they face elections in 2018 and they're afraid of scaring the MoveOn.org or CODEPINK crowd.

And it's really shameful behavior.

BRENNAN: Last week on this program, U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley announced quite definitively that sanctions were coming on Russia and related to chemical weapons attacks.

Then the White House walked that back. Does that very public disagreement trouble you?

COTTON: You know, Margaret, I can't comment on what was happening behind the scenes in the National Security Council.

It shouldn't surprise anyone that the president gets differing opinions and has disagreements among his Cabinet members on those questions. If it gets to the president's desk, it's hard a decision.

I do know that this administration has been much tougher on Russia than the Obama administration ever was. They expelled dozens of diplomats and spies and imposed new sanctions.

BRENNAN: Are you saying that Nikki Haley was expressing her opinion and not a position?

COTTON: I can't tell you about what was happening behind the scenes and what the negotiations or the deliberations were for the National Security Council last weekend.

I can only say that I know this administration has been very tough and taken a very firm line on Russia by doing things like expelling Russian spice and diplomats, closing consulates, imposing lots of sanctions, to include on Russia oligarchs that are very close to Vladimir Putin, bombing Russia's client Bashar al-Assad in the region. And I expect those measures to continue.

BRENNAN: You speak very frequently with the president. Do you agree with his argument that the special counsel led by Robert Mueller was based on an illegal act, as he tweeted on Friday?

COTTON: I assume that we're talking here about Jim Comey's memos that were released, and now they have contained classified information.

BRENNAN: No, but he said the special counsel specifically was created out of an illegal...

COTTON: Well, Jim Comey testified to my committee, the Intelligence Committee, that he wrote those memos and then gave them to a friend of his, in hopes that they would be leaked to "The New York Times" and then that that would lead to the appointment of Robert Mueller.

I think that is unfortunate behavior on Director Comey's part, now support that we know that they may have contained classified information. The inspector general is reviewing them.

At this point, I think it's best for everyone involved, to include the president, for the special counsel to conclude his investigation by following the facts to their conclusion as quickly as can, just like we're trying to do on the Intelligence Committee.

BRENNAN: Would you advise him to continue tweeting about his personal attorney, Michael Cohen?

(LAUGHTER)

BRENNAN: Who he says may flip?

COTTON: You know, the president gets lots of advice about what he should and should not tweet, to include members of his close family. And he continues to do so, so I don't think he's going to take advice about his Twitter comments from a senator, no matter how much they work together.

(LAUGHTER)

BRENNAN: Senator Cotton, thank you. Good to have you in studio.

COTTON: Thanks, Margaret.

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