CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with Congressman Joaguin Castro

Interview

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ACOSTA: We will all be watching for that. Jeff Zeleny, thank you very much.

And joining me now in THE SITUATION ROOM is Congressman Joaquin Castro, a Democrat who serves on the Intelligence and Foreign Affairs Committees in Congress.

And, Congressman, I want to get back to this revelation about the Russian attorney who is actually working with the Kremlin, it turns out. Now, I guess that was suspected. We thought that might be the case early on.

But now that we have this information in hand, what does it mean, you think?

REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO (D), TEXAS: Well, it's so terribly disturbing. It confirms our worst fears, that Donald Trump Jr., the campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and Jared Kushner were sitting there with a Russian spy who has deep ties to the Kremlin and deep ties to Russian intelligence.

ACOSTA: And so when the president says no collusion, it's all a hoax, it's all of witch-hunt, I have been cleared by this House Intelligence Committee report and so on, your response to that is what?

CASTRO: Well, on one level, Jim, it's very sad, because this investigation did have so much potential to be fair and thorough.

But it didn't go that way. Instead, it was basically a light once- over, bringing in witnesses, asking them their version of events, and never verifying information that they told us.

The committee didn't use any of its subpoena power even once to verify phone records or travel records or any kind of records that would verify what was being told us. So, in many ways, it was a kind of kindergarten investigation.

ACOSTA: And do you think that the president had advanced knowledge of that meeting? We haven't really been able to get to the bottom of that.

CASTRO: Yes, I think Manu mentioned in his piece these basically suspicious phone calls, series of phone calls where that meeting is being set up at Trump Tower, and there's a blocked number, a call that is made with it comes in right around that time. And so it's an open question whether Donald Trump Jr. before agreeing to that meeting at Trump Tower in June of 2016 consulted with his dad.

We also had other folks who basically let us know that in fact Donald Trump has a phone number that is blocked.

ACOSTA: And do you believe that at that time then candidate Trump that they had dirt on Hillary Clinton, that the Russians have dirt on Hillary Clinton and that that's what was being offered? I guess that is the big question.

CASTRO: Yes, I mean, there's no question the Trump campaign was looking for it, that Donald Trump was begging for dirt on Hillary Clinton, and also that WikiLeaks at that point possessed it.

And that's just one of the secret or clandestine meetings that occurred. There was also the George Papadopoulos episode, where there's this Russian operative, a professor that meets with him, and tells him about all this dirt they have got on Hillary Clinton.

So there was -- there were a lot of things that were very disturbing and we believe amount to collusion.

ACOSTA: And what does that mean in the end, collusion? Because you hear from some of the president's allies who say, well, that's not a crime, that doesn't mean anything.

What's your response to that?

CASTRO: That there was an effort, a coordinated effort, to affect the election, an effort by the Trump campaign and Russian operatives to have a real effect on the election.

ACOSTA: And let's turn to North Korea, because you saw in Jeff Zeleny's report the president is taking a lot of credit for what happened over there.

It is amazing to watch what has taken place over the last 24 hours, this historic meeting. Nobody can deny that. Does the president deserve any credit for bringing this, this meeting together, for making this happen?

CASTRO: That's a great question.

First, those photos and the video are historic. The leaders of North Korea and South Korea shaking hands, speaking and crossing over back and forth between South and North. Now, the question of whether the president deserves credit is an interesting one. If the answer to that is yes, then it's because of basically childish name-calling that he engaged in, Twitter rants that he engaged in, the threat of nuclear war.

So, if the president's going to take credit using those methods...

ACOSTA: But does he deserve credit?

CASTRO: I mean, I don't know. It's hard to say.

You have got President Moon from South Korea that came in, who is basically a relatively new president. And his approach was a different approach than the past president of South Korea, who basically didn't engage North Korea.

This president in South Korea was determined to engage North Korea.

ACOSTA: And I get the sense that you don't want to give the president credit for this.

CASTRO: I'm just not sure if what he did is what caused these two leaders to actually come together.

[18:15:01]

But let me say this. It's quite possible that the strategy that he used in basically trying to believe this guy prompted this guy to come to the table or was helpful with that. That's quite possible.

ACOSTA: OK.

And let me ask you about this, because a lot of people are talking about this here in Washington, especially up on Capitol Hill, this firing, this resignation, I guess forced resignation, of the House chaplain.

A lot of lawmakers on your side and on the Republican side are very concerned about what happened here to Reverend Pat Conroy. The House speaker I guess is claiming -- Paul Ryan, who is outgoing, is claiming that there was no a political motivation here.

What do about this? Because, I mean, people are responding to -- we see it on our Web site -- they're very interested in the story. What do you make of it?

CASTRO: Yes, it was kind of bizarre when I heard about it. I was kind of surprised.

Father Conroy was somebody who interacted with everybody, who was always there to listen to folks. He would move around the House floor and talk to Republicans and Democrats and, as far as I could tell, was well-liked by everybody. And I didn't sense that anybody had a real grievance with him because he said something in a prayer or anything like that. So it took me by surprise.

ACOSTA: Are you satisfied with the speaker's explanation? Should there be an investigation into what happened here?

CASTRO: Yes, I think the House Administration Committee should investigate it. I think that it looks like the speaker may have fired him for political reasons, because he didn't like the words that were in a prayer or two.

ACOSTA: This is that prayer back in October about tax reform. They deny that.

CASTRO: Right.

ACOSTA: You're concerned that that's not the full story?

CASTRO: Yes.

I mean, you can't -- I think any religious leader is going to lay out certain principles and values and that's going to come through in prayers. And I didn't think that what he said was necessarily meant to be an affront to any kind of Republican policy or politics. That's just -- he's just expressing the values of religion there.

ACOSTA: Congressman Joaquin Castro, thank you very much. We appreciate it. Thanks for coming on.

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