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

Interview

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BLITZER: If you read those Comey memos, they are fascinating and, as you point out, very consistent with what he put in the book and what he's been saying in all these TV interviews.

Thanks very much, Jim Sciutto, for that report.

Joining me us now, Congressman John Garamendi. He's a Democrat. He serves on the Armed Services Committee.

Congressman, let me get your reaction. We now have 15 pages of Director Comey's memos about his interactions with President Trump, with several redactions, areas that are blocked out, blacked out because of security concerns, classified information.

Do these documents lend credibility, in your opinion, to Comey's account?

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D), CALIFORNIA: Absolutely. They are consistent from what he's written, what he said in the committee hearings and what he said on every television show in which he's been interviewed.

There's consistency all the way through. And I think it lays a heavy, heavy burden on the president, because of the detail, even the descriptions of what was going on in the room at the time. All of those things lend significant credibility to his story, to his narrative of what this president was up to.

BLITZER: Comey's account of the president's remarks about Michael Flynn, the fired national security adviser, clearly touched a nerve. In the memo, Comey says the president expressed serious reservations about Flynn's -- quote -- "judgment issues."

And just this morning, the president tweeted this. "So, General Michael Flynn's life can be totally destroyed while shady James Comey can leak and lie and make lots of money from a third-rate book that should never have been written. Is that really the way life in America is supposed to work? I don't think so."

What is your reaction?

GARAMENDI: Well, Mr. President, you are the way life in America should not happen. You ought not be lying. You ought not be telling -- you should be telling the truth, and you ought not be tweeting nasty things about people young and old.

And, by the way, in your campaign, it was just plain disgusting the way in which you treated your opponents. Life in America should not be the way you're doing it, Mr. President. You have a very, very important position in this nation. You're supposed to establish a high standard of deportment and you're not.

BLITZER: Some think the president could be signaling his willingness to pardon Michael Flynn, who has already pled guilty to the charges against him. If the president were, for example, to offer a pardon, could that be considered more evidence, from your perspective, Congressman, of obstruction of justice?

GARAMENDI: Well, it could be. It could be, particularly if there are other ways of communicating to the various people that have been indicted, some of whom have already pled guilty, communicating to them that if -- from the president in various ways, including the Scooter Libby pardon, that he's out there ready to take care of them.

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Is that obstruction of justice? It certainly could be.

BLITZER: According to these memos, and we have gone through them, I'm sure you have as well, the president was also fixated on what Comey calls the golden showers thing, the most salacious part of that Steele dossier regarding allegations of Donald Trump and Russian prostitutes in Moscow back in 2013.

Comey says the president claims Vladimir Putin had told him -- and I'm quoting now from the memo -- "We have some of the most beautiful hookers in the world."

That is an alleged quote from Putin. But it is unclear when Putin and Trump had that conversation, because there was no mention of hookers in that first official phone call between these two men after the inauguration.

And the Russians say the two men never had a conversation before Donald Trump became president. What do you make of that?

GARAMENDI: Well, what I make of it is, I don't think there's ever been a readout, that is, a description in a narrative of what actually happened and what was said between these two men.

And that's most unusual. So we really don't know. I guess we will have to depend upon Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin, both of whom have a very strong tendency to not tell the truth.

BLITZER: According to "The Wall Street Journal," Congressman, at least two of the memos that he handed over last year to a friend in New York City, memos which were then leaked to the news media, are now considered to have contained at least some classified information.

And now the inspector general over at the Justice Department, according to "The Wall Street Journal," is investigating. Do you believe Comey was careless in the way he leased these memos?

GARAMENDI: Well, I have no idea about that one memo. I think it went to a professor. Was it at Princeton or one of the universities? And apparently at that time, that was not -- that memo was not classified. So I don't know. The rest of them, I don't believe he did release them.

Certainly, what we have now is that the Republicans on the Intelligence Committee, on the Judiciary Committee and on the Oversight Committee in the House of Representatives did release them. And so you might ask the Republicans that question. Did they release classified information?

They certainly have come very close to it in the past.

BLITZER: Congressman, I need you to stand by for a few moments. I want to talk to you, but listen to this.

GARAMENDI: Sure.

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BLITZER: I want to bring it back. Congressman John Garamendi. He's a Democrat. He's a member of the House Armed Services Committee. You've been very patient, Congressman.

What's your reaction to this potentially very significant news? It could -- it could be, potentially at least, a breakthrough.

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D), CALIFORNIA: Well, it certainly is. And it falls on several other things that have also happened. First of all, the facts on the ground are that, for the last 70 years, there's been two countries -- 60-some years, two countries on the Korean Peninsula.

Recognized most recently by a very courageous president, new president in South Korea, who has basically said there are really two countries. We need to recognize that and move away from what both countries had previously held as a primary and unchangeable fact. And that is reunification. We now seem to be moving away from that.

President Moon, very courageously, very -- in a very difficult political environment, has taken that step.

The work that has gone on from the United States is also important. We do need to keep in mind that the United States has consistently said that they wanted a freeze on the nuclear weapon development, as well as on the missile development. That's now been in place. I think we have an opportunity here. If we can find a way to guarantee the security of both North and South Korea, we can find an eventual and probably over the next several months and years, a reduction of all of this tension and a reduction of the military standoff that's existed now since 1953.

BLITZER: It looks like there must have been very, very positive conversations between Mike Pompeo, the outgoing CIA director, the secretary of state nominee with Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang about two weeks ago. The president himself described those meetings as very excellent, very positive meetings. We don't know the substance of what happened.

[18:40:05] We do know that the North Koreans now have issued a very significant statement. And let's see if they follow up with action.

But are you ready at this point, Congressman, to give the president some credit for this potential breakthrough?

GARAMENDI: Well, certainly. And also, Kim Jong-un went to Beijing. What came of that meeting? I suspect some very good things to have come out of that. So all of these things are coming together, and that's good for everybody involved and certainly for the men and women in the United States military that are in harm's way in South Korea. And certainly, for the Koreans themselves, both North and South.

This war, all of this build-up, if we can back it down, if we can get two countries and create a situation where their future is secure, I think we can see some real good progress here. Certainly, all of the words and the back-and-forth between these two presidents, Kim Jong-un and Mr. Trump, heated up. Perhaps they both came to their senses and said, "Maybe it's time for negotiations." If that's the case, it's good for everybody.

BLITZER: Yes. If you take a look at some of the developments over these past few months, the suspension of the North Korean nuclear testing, the ballistic missile testing, the last time they did it was back in November. Since then, of course, there were the Winter Olympic Games in South Korea. Kim Jong-un sent his sister there, very positive, at least rhetoric that emerged from that.

Then Kim Jong-un took the train ride from Pyongyang to Beijing and met with the Chinese leadership, as you correctly point out. Then Mike Pompeo heads over to Pyongyang for the secret talks that took place. He's only the second American ever to meet with Kim Jong-un. Dennis Rodman, the NBA star, the first several years ago.

And now this sets the stage for the summit with the South Korean president, President Moon next week, followed by a summit with President Trump. These are all pretty significant developments, Congressman.

GARAMENDI: No doubt about it. And your rendition of the various

activities that have taken place, keep in mind the election of a new president in South Korea, who parted from more than 60 years of what was the mantra of South Korea: "We're going to reunify." President moon said something quite different. He said that the reality is there's two nations here. Some day, some day off in the future, perhaps there will be reunification, but not now. That is a very, very important part of this whole equation as it's being played out.

Good for everybody. Good for all of the participants in it, Pompeo, the president's bluster, perhaps, as well as Kim Jong-un's bluster. Bluster they decided to, well, maybe that's not going to get us anywhere; maybe it's time to sit down and recognize it.

One fact to keep in mind is that, at this moment, South Korea -- excuse me, North Korea still has its ballistic missiles, intercontinental missiles and bombs. They have not given those up yet. Certainly, we want to see that these negotiations would result in all of that disappearing, not being there, and, of course, the verifications that it actually happened.

BLITZER: I know you were not that long ago, a few months ago, you were in South Korea and went up to the Demilitarized Zone, as well.

Congressman Garamendi, thanks so much for joining us.

GARAMENDI: Thank you.

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