CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview With Connecticut Congressman Jim Himes

Interview

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BLITZER: The reporter asked him specifically, and he weaved and dodged.

Guys, thank you very much.

Matthew Chance will be heading back to Moscow fairly soon.

Let's talk about all of this with Congressman Jim Himes. He's a key Democrat. He serves on the House Intelligence Committee.

Congressman, are we just beginning right now to understand the extent of Russian attempts to undermine American democracy?

REP. JIM HIMES (D), CONNECTICUT: Yes, Wolf.

And one of the many tragedies of what happened today, of course, is that there was probably a chance to get the Russians to stop their ongoing efforts to meddle in the 2018 and 2020 elections. If the president had been firm and said, no, we're not arguing about whether you did this, you did this, and now we're going to talk about why you're never going to do it again, if that had been the speech, maybe Putin, maybe Russia would have taken a step back.

But now they were given by the president the United States a green light to continue their efforts to meddle in our elections. And we're going to see that.

Other elements of damage was, there are thousands -- I sit on the Intelligence Committee -- thousands of men and women who worked to develop the kind of reporting that they did that provided the indictments, that provided the intelligence community assessment of the Russian hack of our election.

Think of how they feel right now. Some of these people, by the way, put their lives at risk every single day. And they just heard their president say that, regardless of whether you risk your life or simply show up on time to do a hard job every single day, I don't care.

The damage, Wolf, today is profound.

BLITZER: What's your reaction, bottom line, to what you heard the president say here in Helsinki with Putin by his side?

HIMES: Well, I think I speak for the institution here when I say this place is reeling.

Democrats and Republicans alike really stunned by the extent to which the president really went out of his way. Here's a deal guy, a hard- charging supposed negotiator. And I'm pretty sure that either of my daughters could have done a better job opposite Vladimir Putin in this discussion.

Putin now has a green light, not just to go after our elections, but where was the mention of Crimea, the violation of a sovereign nation? Where was the mention of murdering people in London and in foreign -- in foreign countries?

What Vladimir Putin got today from the president the United States was this. There is nothing you can do, nothing you can contemplate so bad that the most powerful country in the world, the United States of America, will call you on it.

BLITZER: Does it raise national security concerns, Congressman, that President Trump seems to take a former KGB agent's word over his own intelligence community, including his director of national intelligence, the former CIA Director, now Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, his secretary of defense?

Almost every one of his national security and intelligence officials says there's no doubt the Russians did it, and the president seems to be taking Putin's word over that.

HIMES: Of course it does, Wolf, in at least two or three ways.

Number one, as I referred to today, there are an awful lot of dedicated people working for CIA, NSA, FBI, who devote their lives to providing the president with good information. And if the president simply doesn't care, those people will go do something else.

And you know what? If we don't have those people at CIA and NSA and FBI, this country is a lot less safe. We talked about what happens when a murderous dictator like Vladimir Putin is given a green light by the United States for any of its activities. We will see more of those activities.

And then, of course, there's the political issue here. I mean, how are Republicans -- I would hope that, in this institution, they might stand up, finally, for the national security of their country and say the president is wrong.

But how are people like John McCain, people in the Republican national security establishment supposed to deliver good advice to the government, to the president, if they think they're just going to be countermanded, fired, whatever, by the president of the United States?

Today was -- I agree with John McCain -- a truly disgraceful performance that puts our security in deep risk.

[18:15:03]

BLITZER: Congressman Jim Himes, thanks so much for joining us.

HIMES: Thank you, Wolf.

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