CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview With Rep. Joaquin Castro

Interview

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BERMAN: Joining me now to discuss, Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro of Texas. He serves on the Intelligence and Foreign Affairs Committee.

Congressman, thanks so much for being with us.

This is happening over on the Senate side. It's the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that has the vote, obviously, not the House. But what do you make of the framing that Sarah Sanders just put there, that Democrats are voting against Pompeo because they hate the president more than they love the country.

REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO (D), TEXAS: I guess that's -- she's playing politics with that. There's some big concerns about Mike Pompeo, the fact that he's been against the Iran deal and the idea that he may take the president basically in very hawkish and wrong direction.

For me, as somebody who has sat on the Intelligence Committee, I've basically been concerned about the direction that Mike Pompeo has taken the CIA and, of course, all of this is classified, so I can't discuss it. But as a person, I respect him. But I think as somebody who's led the organization, I think he's taking it in a very wrong direction and a direction that in a few years could lead to scandals.

And so I haven't been privy to -- I haven't watched the hearings. I didn't watch the confirmation hearing. Obviously it's been going on in the Senate. But, you know, I sense that there's some real reservations, obviously, among Democrats, and even among Republicans about his confirmation.

BERMAN: Well, Republican Rand Paul is a no vote. Republican Senator John McCain is not there to vote on this. So he would not get through the full Senate without some Democratic votes. Heidi Heitkamp of North Carolina says she will vote yes. And there are some other Democrats likely to go that way.

Are they letting you down, congressman?

CASTRO: No, I think it's each senator's individual decision. And, look, we have to consider this in the context that traditionally a president is given a lot of flexibility in terms of who they can put into their cabinet. My brother was the HUD secretary under President Obama. So, in a sense, I guess my family has been through this process. So a president does get to pick their cabinet members.

I think one of the big differences this time, in addition to the concerns about Mike Pompeo, is that this president has not been your average or normal president. This president has shown that he governs on a whim, that he's let the agencies of the federal government basically be depleted and neglected. And so, yes, there is a lot of concern about who you're going to put with this president because this president is not doing his job in many ways. That means that you need people who are going to excel.

BERMAN: Let me ask you -- let me ask you about the issue of North

Korea right now which I'm not sure there's a foreign policy issue of greater urgency right now than what's going on there.

[09:45:05] One of the things the president wrote this weekend on that was, wow, we haven't given up anything and they have agreed to denuclearization. So great for the world. Site closure and no more testing.

The president's wrong about denuclearization. Kim Jong-un has not agreed to that. What he's agreed to is no more testing and closing one of the sites here. Leave the denuclearization out of it for a second. But in and of itself, the no more testing, the site closure, do you see that as a positive development? If there were a Democratic president in office right now, President Obama, would you not be out lauding this as a move in the right direction?

CASTRO: Yes, these things could be very good. I think -- what we have to remember that in the last dozen years we've been to this same point a few times and then everything fell apart. So one of the reasons, for example, that they may be offering to freeze testing is because they've already achieved a certain amount of nuclear capability and that testing is no longer required or could be frozen for a while while sanctions are lifted.

So I think we should give the president some credit in getting us to this point. In fact, I gave the administration a lot of credit when they went to the United Nations and got the strictest or strongest sanctions placed on North Korea that the country's ever seen. But I also don't think that it's time for the president to beat his chest yet because, like I said, in the last dozen years or so, we've been here a few times and it's all fallen apart.

BERMAN: You're on the House Intelligence Committee. The House Intelligence Committee has basically wrapped up its investigation of the Russian meddling matter. If the Democrats retake the House in November, will you move to reopen the investigation?

CASTRO: Yes, I think the investigation in some form would have to be reopened. In fact, we keep seeing every week in the news more stories coming out about alarming things that are directly related to this investigation. So I don't see how, as a responsible Congress and a responsible committee, you couldn't have some investigation reopened.

BLITZER: OK. That's interesting. I think people will find that interesting heading into the election.

One note I want to task you about. The president just put out a statement that I think will interest you as a border state member of Congress. He says, despite the Democrat-inspired laws on sanctuary cities and the border being so bad and one sided, I've instructed the secretary of homeland security not to let these large caravans of people into our country. It is a disgrace. We are the only country in the world so naive. And then, in all caps he writes, "wall."

You care to react?

CASTRO: Well, I mean, I guess you've got to understand that every time

the president gets in a political jam, anytime he's feeling threatened politically, he goes back to a few of the same things. And one of them is the wall, beating up on immigrants, Mexicans are criminals, MS-13 gang members, you know, basically all over the place, the border -- the border is completely open. So this is a playbook that he's been using now for a few years and I guess this morning he did the same thing.

BERMAN: Congressman Joaquin Castro, from Texas, thanks so much for being with us.

CASTRO: Thank you.

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