CNN "State of the Union" - Transcript: Interview With Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton

Interview

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TAPPER: Welcome back to STATE OF THE UNION. I'm Jake Tapper.

Well, since President Trump won't tell anyone, including apparently the top intelligence official in the country, what he said, what he may have agreed to with Vladimir Putin, Democrats are now looking to that U.S. interpreter to testify about what was said, though some leading Republicans have shot down that idea. This comes as Democrats are trying to find the right strategy and the right candidate to battle the brawler with the bully pulpit.

Joining me now, someone getting a little of that 2020 buzz, former U.S. marine officer Democratic Congressman Seth Moulton of Massachusetts.

Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

Obviously, there's been bipartisan -- bipartisan criticism of the president's dealings with Putin and his foreign policy trip this week. Some criticisms from Democrats has been pretty extraordinary.

I want you to take a look at this tweet from Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois. It says -- quote -- "Republicans in Congress cannot continue to turn a blind eye toward the very real possibility that Vladimir Putin has compromised our commander in chief and turned him, perhaps without his knowledge, into a Russian asset."

Do you agree with that, Congressman?

REP. SETH MOULTON (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Well, I think the problem is that we just don't know, Jake.

And that's what's so embarrassing about this situation. I don't know of a time in American history when an American commander in chief has gone into a one-on-one meeting with an adversary and refused to tell us about it, refused to even tell his own intelligence chiefs about what he discussed.

So, this raises an awful lot of questions about what Russia may have on Trump and what Trump is trying to do with Putin.

TAPPER: So, you think it's possible that the president is a Russian asset, with or without his knowledge?

MOULTON: Well, I'm just saying that I don't know.

But the behavior that I saw from the president on television, rather than standing up for our allies, rather than hammering Putin for the way that he's tried to influence our elections and undermine our democracy, and instead just cozies up to this dictator, the Russians -- look, Russia's the greatest enemy of the United States for the last 65 years.

The fact the fact that we have to question the integrity, the honesty and the loyalty of a commander in chief when it comes to dealing with -- with Russia is a problem in and of itself.

And that's why we have -- we have got to elect a new generation of leaders in November to hold this president and this administration accountable.

TAPPER: Amid all the wildness of last week, there are also additional questions, obviously, in the president's mind about what role the United States should play in the NATO alliance and whether or not NATO's an outdated model in a world where the Soviet Union no longer exists.

I want you to take a listen to the president in an interview this week about the NATO ally Montenegro.

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TAPPER: Now, you're someone that could have, theoretically, as a Marine, been called to defend a NATO ally, not Montenegro, which just joined in 2017, but other smaller countries.

How do you view these comments?

MOULTON: When I served in Iraq, Jake, I served under General Mattis, who's now, of course, the secretary of defense.

And our division motto was no better friends, no worse enemy than the United States Marines. That means that there is no better friend for our allies than America and no worse enemy.

And that should be our policy towards NATO as our friends and towards Russia as our adversary. I understand that we have a commander in chief who dodged the draft five times to avoid serving himself, but the fact that he's saying these things about Montenegro just shows how totally out of touch he is with foreign policy.

I mean, Montenegro has 2,000 troops. The fact that we would abandon them to Russia because they're going to try to start World War III is ridiculous.

[09:40:01]

But more to the point, we need a commander in chief who actually stands with our allies, who actually strengthens the NATO alliance.

Senator Rubio is right. A strong NATO alliance is what will prevent us from going to war.

And don't make any mistake about it. Putin is trying to undermine NATO. He's trying to influence the West. And that seems to be exactly what he's doing through our own commander in chief.

TAPPER: I want to turn to your outspoken push for new leadership in the House.

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader, was asked specifically about your call and Congressman Tim Ryan of Ohio's call for a new generation to lead the Democratic Party. She responded in an interview with "Rolling Stone" magazine by saying

this -- quote -- "Inconsequential. They don't have a following in our caucus. None."

Is she right?

MOULTON: Well, Tim Ryan ran against her. He had an entire week, one week, to campaign, and then a third of the caucus voted for him. So I don't think that is inconsequential.

But you know what? This is bigger than one person. What we need is a new generation of leadership to be honest about the problems that we face. A lot of Americans are hurting. A lot of Americans are working two or three jobs just to make ends meet.

And we need a leader who's going to talk about the future, not bring us back to the past, but talk about the future, be honest about the fact that a lot of Americans are losing jobs, not to immigrants, but to automation, be willing to be strong on national security, to create a country that strong and safe, and someone who's willing to reform government, someone who has a vision for the future.

We need a uniter in our party. We can continue to have these narrow and divisive politics with our current leaders, or we can be -- we can find leaders who are going to really bring us together, who are going to unite us...

TAPPER: Are you -- are you that leader?

MOULTON: ... and put us in a position where we can -- where we can create a majority.

TAPPER: Are you that leader, Congressman?

MOULTON: I have said very -- no, Jake, I have said very clearly that I'm not challenging Leader Pelosi.

But I am going to talk about the kind of leadership that we need. And I have been out across the country recruiting especially young -- young veterans to run. There are many more who have decided to run on their own. And I have been anxious to support their campaigns.

I took a group of them down to the border recently. And rather than go down there and do a six-hour trip with a press conference, we spent two days, two days on both sides of the border trying to understand the crisis, so that we can actually come to Washington with solutions.

These candidates were avoiding the advice of their campaign consultants and everything, who said they should be just spending all their time raising money, and are actually trying to understand a big crisis of the day.

We went to Juarez, Mexico. We met with deported veterans, a term that shouldn't even exist. We met with a guy who was in the United States Navy, had come to United States as a kid. His entire family, his parents, his kids are legal residents. He just didn't get around to filling out his immigration paperwork. And when he got out after 10 years in the Navy, he got a DUI. He got a DUI, something that many of my colleagues in Congress have. And because of that DUI, they deported him, despite his 10 years of service for the country.

So, we met with people like that to try to understand this problem. And I think that's the kind of attitude, the can-do, get-on-the- ground, get-into-the-weeds, understand-the-issues attitude, that you're going to see from this new generation of leaders...

TAPPER: Yes.

MOULTON: ... that I and others in the Congress have been supporting.

TAPPER: Someone else that thinks she's a part of a new generation of leaders, Democratic congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, hit the campaign trail with Senator Bernie Sanders this weekend in Kansas.

She says her platform, which includes universal jobs guarantee, forgiveness of all student loan debt, abolishing ICE, represents the future of the Democratic Party. Do you agree?

MOULTON: Well, I think that she has an important voice in the Democratic Party. But the reality is that, if we're going to be a majority party, if we're actually going to win in November, we have got to have a diversity of views.

And I think that's one of the things that's made our party strong in the past. But, if we become narrower, if we become more divided, then you know what? We can do that as Democrats. We're just not going to win.

And I think that the stakes are so high in November. The stakes are so high to put a check on this president, to put a check on the administration, to restore some balance in Washington, that we have got to make sure that we have a broad base.

And we should have people like Alexandria in our party, but we should also have people like Amy McGrath in Kentucky, this amazing woman who was the first woman to fly an F/A-18 in the Marine Corps in combat. She's running in a tough district, a tough district that Alexandria couldn't win, but that Amy can.

And she's a leader that people will look to and say, I'm going to get behind Amy just because -- because I believe in her leadership, because I trust her judgment, not just because she's a Democrat, but be someone -- but because she's someone who has served her country before and someone we can trust.

We need people like that in the party as well.

TAPPER: All right, Congressman settlement, Democratic of Massachusetts, thank you so much, sir. Appreciate your time.

MOULTON: Thanks, Jake.

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