CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview With California Congressman Ted Lieu
Interview
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
BLITZER: M.J., thank you very, very much.
Joining us now, Congressman Ted Lieu. He's a Democrat. He serves on the Foreign Affairs and Judiciary Committees.
Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.
And let's get to some of our big stories, first of all, the recordings of then candidate Donald Trump and his former attorney Michael Cohen, and now in the possession of the FBI. Those tapes include conversations between the two men about payment to a former Playboy model who had an alleged 2006 affair with Donald Trump.
How much trouble might this be for the president?
REP. TED LIEU (D), CALIFORNIA: Thank you, Wolf, for your question,
I'm a former prosecutor. And the large payment to silence Karen McDougal during the middle of a presidential campaign looks like a felony violation of the campaign finance laws. That's one reason Congresswoman Kathleen Rice and I wrote a letter to the FBI earlier this year asking for an investigation.
And what these Cohen tapes establish, at a minimum, is that Donald Trump now knew about the payment. So, depending on what he says in those tapes, he himself could also be guilty of a felony violation of the campaign finance laws.
BLITZER: Yes, being an in-kind campaign contribution not reported to the FEC. That could be a problem.
Let's talk about the White House preparations under way right now for yet another summit with Vladimir Putin in the fall at the White House, despite the widespread backlash to his first meeting with Putin in Helsinki on Monday.
Should that meeting, the second meeting, Congressman, go forward?
LIEU: Not at all.
I'm also a veteran. I previously served on active duty. I never imagined our U.S. commander in chief would deliver the talking points of the Kremlin. And for Vladimir Putin to not acknowledge that he ordered the Russian military to attack American elections in 2016, and then have him step onto U.S. soil is embarrassing. It's disgraceful.
That meeting should not occur until the Kremlin acknowledges what they did to America.
BLITZER: According to a top Microsoft executive, Congressman, three candidates, three political candidates in the 2018 midterm election campaigns, they have already been targeted, we're now told, by the same Russian hackers, the military hackers who attacked the Democratic National Committee back in 2016.
What kind of message would it send if President Trump were to invite Putin to the White House as the Russian government is still actively engaged, we're now told, in these cyber-attacks against the American electoral system?
LIEU: So, I have no problem with the U.S. having better relations with other countries. The problem is, if we don't hold Russia accountable for their attack on U.S. elections in 2016, it invites them to do it again, and to keep on doing it.
That's the message Donald Trump is sending to Putin. And it also doesn't surprise me that the Russians would attack congressional races. I'm a vice chair of the DCCC. We knew that, in addition to the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee was also attacked in 2016 as well.
So the Russians have a very sophisticated, large-scale, ongoing, pervasive influence campaign on United States democracy. There is no way Vladimir Putin should be coming this fall. And if he does, I'm going to be marching in protest with many other people against him.
BLITZER: Sources tell CNN, Congressman, that some in President Trump's inner circle are very worried right now that the Helsinki summit will embolden the special counsel, Robert Mueller, as he continues to pursue -- pursue an interview, sit-down interview with the president.
Do you believe President Trump's performance with Putin strengthened Mueller's hand?
LIEU: Absolutely.
I think it makes it much harder now for the president to try to fire Robert Mueller or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. It really makes you wonder, what does Putin have on Trump, when we watched Donald Trump's words and statements at the Helsinki summit?
And this not just coming from me. It's coming from Republicans. We saw this amazing op-ed in "New York Times" written by Republican Congressman Will Hurd, who basically said that he's a CIA agent, and he has seen people be manipulated. And he believes the president of United States is being manipulated by Putin.
BLITZER: Yes, Will Hurd, before joining -- becoming a congressman, was a CIA officer, a clandestine officer. A very strong article he wrote, indeed.
Congressman Ted Lieu, thanks for joining us.
LIEU: Thank you.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source