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

Interview

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BLITZER: And at that open event in the White House, which we had -- of course, had coverage of that, the president didn't take any questions either.

When he was done with his statement, the president of the European Commission was done with his statement, they simply walked back up the stairs towards the Oval Office. That's the president's right. He doesn't have to answer questions.

But journalists are there to ask questions. That's what's happened for years and years at the White House. And this is truly pretty shocking that the White House would bar an accredited White House correspondent from an open event, as they did for you.

And I assume the White House Correspondents Association and the network bureau chiefs here in Washington are filing formal complaints with Bill Shine and others at the White House. This is not supposed to happen this way. It's truly outrageous.

Kaitlan, thank you very much for your excellent, excellent work over at the White House.

I want to get some more on all of this.

Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut's joining us. He's a member of the Armed Services and Judiciary Committees.

Let me get your quick reaction to what Kaitlan just told us. I'm obviously pretty angry about it. But you're a member of the United States Senate.

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D), CONNECTICUT: Wolf, I am shocked and angry, deeply offended, not only as a United States senator, but as a citizen of the United States, by this kind of very -- showing intimidation and punishment of a reporter simply for asking a legitimate question.

This kind of really violation of a reporter's rights is an offense against the First Amendment interests of all of us. And it is public property. It's not Donald Trump's personal home or place of business.

It really is a source of information that all of us need and deserve. And these questions are legitimate. I am really very deeply offended.

BLITZER: Yes. I mean, it's something you would expect to see in some totalitarian regime. And I have traveled with presidents around the world at photo opportunities that the host government was unhappy that White House correspondents were shouting questions. They weren't happy about that.

They would come to us before a briefing, before a photo opportunity, say no questions allowed. And we would always say the same thing. They don't have to answer the questions, but our job is to represent the American news media and ask those questions. You don't like it, you don't have to answer the questions.

But this is something that is not supposed to take place here, especially at the White House.

BLUMENTHAL: We are the greatest nation in history world because we have the Bill of Rights.

And one of those rights is the First Amendment. This kind of misconduct raises very severe First Amendment issues. And I intend to pursue them.

BLITZER: Yes, I would like to see Bill Shine, the deputy White House chief of staff in charge of communications, who reprimanded Kaitlan Collins, I would like to see him formally publicly apologize to her for what he has done.

I don't know if he was ordered to do so by the president or if he just did it on his own, but that is simply unacceptable. And there has to be an apology to Kaitlan.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: And not only -- remember, Kaitlan wasn't just representing CNN. She was representing ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX, all of the television networks.

She was the pool reporter on this day. She was doing her job. They should know better.

BLUMENTHAL: And that's why I'm saying it's more than about her personally, even if she may have been personally offended.

[18:05:02]

And it's more than about those networks that were represented by her in the pool. It's about the American people's rights to see and hear and ask questions through her of the president of the United States.

BLITZER: This is an attack on the free press. And it's a very serious issue that they have to fix quickly.

Let's talk about will be heard from the secretary of state. What's your bottom line? Because he came. There were announcements made earlier. The president was no longer going to be meeting with Putin at the White House in the fall. They have now delayed it.

The National Security Council -- National Security Adviser John Bolton said it would be next year, after what he called witch-hunt, the Mueller witch-hunt, was over.

BLUMENTHAL: A couple points, Wolf.

First of all, the secretary of state was invited to this hearing so he could tell us, the United States Senate, and the American people what happened in that private meeting, what agreements were reached, what understandings for concluded.

He failed to answer those questions. The audacity of his evasiveness on those points is striking. Second, the delay of this meeting, supposedly a postponement, it ought to be a complete cancellation. It was a bad idea from the outset, because they should have finished the damage control from the first meeting before they planned a second.

But to blame it on this special counsel investigation as witch-hunt is absolutely reprehensible, because it is a further attempt to intimidate and threaten the special counsel's investigation using the visit and foreign relations as a ploy.

BLITZER: You heard the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, say the president, in his words -- and I'm quoting him -- "is entitled to have private meetings with other world leaders."

BLUMENTHAL: He had a private meeting without anyone present to record by notes or any other means what was said, extraordinarily dangerous, especially with a trained intelligence operative like Vladimir Putin, a KGB thug.

But, also, even if he has private meetings, we need to know what agreements and understandings were reached. Our primary source for understanding those agreements right now is TASS, the Russian news agency, and the Russian Defense Ministry, that have said there were agreements on the New START treaty, on Syrian cooperation in the Middle East, on other areas of the world.

What are those agreements? The whole purpose of his coming to the Senate was to explain it. And that was a failure.

BLITZER: Let me get your quick reaction to the release of the Michael Cohen audiotape with the then candidate involving Karen McDougal, the former Playboy playmate.

BLUMENTHAL: This tape is evidence of a criminal conspiracy to violate campaign finance law.

What we have on this tape is the president's own voice with Michael Cohen planning to conceal an illegal payment to AMI to keep secret McDougal's version of the truth, and use a shell company to hide and conceal it.

So, it is a criminal conspiracy, whether or not a payment was ever made. It is very telling and compelling evidence. And I think it will be followed by more evidence on other tapes.

BLITZER: Senator Blumenthal, I know you got to go back to the Hill and vote. Thanks so much for being patient. Thanks so much for joining us.

BLUMENTHAL: Thank you.

BLITZER: Richard Blumenthal is -- was just joining us.

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