CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview With Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal

Interview

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BLITZER: Very interesting, indeed.

All right, Sara, thank you, Sara Murray reporting in Washington.

Joining us now, Senator Richard Blumenthal. He's a Democrat. He serves on the Armed Services and Judiciary Committees.

Senator, thanks for joining us.

Let me get to the questions.

What was the impact, from your perspective, of President Trump's statements today at this joint news conference with Putin?

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D), CONNECTICUT: It was shocking and dismaying, in effect, appeasement. That is a word that has very significant meaning in our history.

Donald Trump was a patsy and a pushover and a puppet, not a president. He, in effect, instead of Putin American interests first, he blamed America first, and he blamed everyone, except Russia himself.

So now the question is, what do we do? There is bipartisan dismay. And I think there's an opportunity for bipartisan action that heightens and forces implementation, enforcement of sanctions that penetrates and disrupts the Russian servers and systems through effective countermeasures, proactive and offensive, not just staying on our heels, and also exposing the well, the illicit corruption-fed wealth that Putin and his oligarchs have around the world to the potential disgust of the Russian people.

BLITZER: How concerning, Senator, is it to you that the president doesn't know who to trust, whether to trust Putin or his own intelligence agencies?

BLUMENTHAL: As I listened to the president today, I thought about his first day in office, when he went to the CIA and he stood before those stars. They are all anonymous, as you know, Wolf. They are Americans who gave their lives for intelligence operations around the world.

Only their families and their fellow CIA operatives know who they are. And that kind of sacrifice was so betrayed today. It was really the president of the United States failing to fulfill his oath of office to defend America against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

He sided with Putin against America. He betrayed his oath of office. And I am so deeply disappointed and sad, as an American, that, on foreign soil, of all places, the president United States has, in effect, made himself a puppet of a Russian totalitarian dictator in the worst kind of tradition of appeasement.

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And I think we're going to have bipartisan reaction that will force the intelligence agencies to implement measures and

will provide the kind of support that's already in the Cyber Command for the NDAA, the National Defense Authorization Act.

BLITZER: The director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, whom -- he was appointed by President Trump

, he made the comparison to the September 11, whole 9/11 issue, to argue that the warning signs are there that Russia and other actors are targeting American digital infrastructure right now.

So, what happens if President Trump dismisses those warning signs, not only from previous intelligence agency directives -- directors, but his own people?

BLUMENTHAL: Most of my life, Wolf, has been spent in law enforcement.

And regardless of these insidious attacks, whether by House Republicans on the FBI or the president on the United States on his own intelligence community, these guys and gals are going to do their job. They go to work every day defending America. They are the real patriots in this country.

And they are going to continue to protect America. But here's the other point. We need our allies, just as we did after 9/11, to come to our side. Putin has attacked not only the United States and our election systems. He has attacked Western democracies.

His goal of sowing discord, of dividing us from each other and within ourselves, is applicable not only to the United States, but also to our allies. We should be rallying around those allies, not trashing and demeaning

them, as Donald Trump has done over these past few days. It is a profound disservice to an alliance that has served us well in world wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan, where these allies have shed blood, spent resources and sacrificed lives.

And I believe that we now need the instincts, the better instincts of America to come together here in the United States Congress, and take action. Putin understands only action, not words.

BLITZER: "The Washington Post" editorial board just posted this.

And I will read it to you, Senator.

"In Helsinki, Mr. Trump again insisted there was no collusion with Russia. Yet, in refusing to acknowledge the plain facts about Russia's behavior, while trashing his own country's justice system, Mr. Trump in fact was openly colluding with the criminal leader of a hostile power."

Do you agree?

BLUMENTHAL: I agree totally. He was colluding with the leader of a hostile power, deliberately and purposefully.

The real question here is, what does Vladimir Putin have on Donald Trump? And that's a series of facts probably that only the special counsel will reveal, all the more reason that the special counsel needs to be protected and why this talk about impeaching the deputy attorney general, who supervises that special counsel investigation, is so reprehensible and irresponsible.

Trying to intimidate and stop and threaten this investigation will stop us from gaining the truth. And this collusion -- that's the right word for it -- that resulted in today's appeasement to a totalitarian dictator who has oppressed his own people, invaded Crimea, participated in war crimes in Syria, hacking into the United States and other Western democracy, poisoning his own foreign intelligence, former intelligence people in Britain, an attack on British soil.

The list is so long, it is almost too long to be recited here. And I just think the United States of America has to rally around our intelligence community, our law enforcement, to make sure that the truth is upheld.

BLITZER: Senator Blumenthal, thanks so much for joining us.

BLUMENTHAL: Thank you.

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