CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview With Massachusetts Senator Edward Markey

Interview

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BLITZER: You could see that during the course of those three hours.

Thank you very, very much, Elise Labott, reporting.

Joining us now, Senator Ed Markey. He's a Democrat. He serves on the Foreign Relations Committee. He joined in the questioning of Secretary Pompeo.

You were there, Senator. Thanks so much for joining us.

And let me get your quick reaction. You heard Secretary Pompeo. He was very adamant that he wouldn't reveal what the president said to Putin during that private one-on-one meeting with only translators present.

Why should that be a secret, if the president was only expressing U.S. policy?

SEN. EDWARD MARKEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Well, sadly, Wolf, at the end of the day, we now know more about the substance of the conversations between Donald Trump and Michael Cohen than we know about the substance of the conversation between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

That's the dilemma that the American people have a right to know what the president is doing in their name in the national -- in protecting the national security of our country.

And it's very clear, after the testimony of Secretary Pompeo today, that he's not in a position to give us absolute assurances about what did transpire in that conversation, that extensive, more-than-two-hour conversation that took place between Putin and Trump, and that, at the end of the day, that's at the heart of this question, because the same thing happened with President Kim in North Korea and Trump.

They too had private conversations that we still don't know the full substance of. And the American people are entitled to know what the leader of the free world is doing, is saying, is committing to other nations in the name of the American people.

BLITZER: Secretary Pompeo also assured your committee just a little while ago that the U.S. won't recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea. He says he personally told the Russians they will face what he described as severe consequences if they interfere in Ukraine or Crimea.

Again, the president has not specifically said that. We haven't heard a bold statement like that from the president. So, whose word do you believe here?

[18:20:07] MARKEY: I actually don't think we know what President Trump believes. I don't think that Secretary Pompeo knows what President Trump believes.

The president is basically in a position where, in many of these foreign policy issues, he's just making it up as he's going along, and then leaving it to people like Secretary Pompeo to come and to try to explain situations that are inherently unknowable on his part, ambiguous at best, but dangerous in terms of the creation of foreign policy and the message that we're sending to our friends and our enemies around the world.

So I don't think any of us are in a position to know who knows anything. But if I had to choose one, I would choose Secretary Pompeo.

BLITZER: The White House, we have learned, our Kaitlan Collins, who broke the story, our White House correspondent, that the White House will no longer be providing summaries of the president's phone calls with foreign leaders.

Secretary Pompeo seemed to be arguing that readouts of top-level meetings would actually make it harder to achieve progress in serious negotiations. What do you make of that?

MARKEY: Obviously, the president is moving to a bunker mentality. We saw this during the Nixon years. It's somebody who doesn't trust the press, but he also doesn't trust the American people.

And, increasingly, he doesn't trust his own staff. He doesn't trust the people who he has hired to do these jobs. So I think that there's a lot of pressure on the president. We understand that. Michael Cohen had four million files that were taken by federal prosecutors. He holds the Keys to the kingdom.

And I think that, ultimately, in this situation, we're seeing a deep paranoia that is being manifested by the president. Unfortunately, it's showing up in national security areas that go to the heart of the protection of the American people. And he's more concerned with the protection of Donald Trump.

BLITZER: As you know, the White House announced today that the president is postponing his second meeting with Vladimir Putin until after the Mueller investigation wraps up.

The national security adviser, John Bolton, said the meeting would take place next year after what he described as the witch-hunt that Mueller is engaged in will wrap up.

But what do you -- what do you make of that decision? What do you think went into that decision?

MARKEY: I think he realized that he's created a mess from his first summit with Putin.

It's very clear that the American people wanted a confrontation, and not a conversation with Putin. The American people wanted him to draw the line on many important national security issues. He did not do that.

And I think that he now realizes that, if he once again had a meeting where it was obvious that Putin was the winner in that conversation, that it would seriously hurt him and hurt the Republican chances this fall, and that he was advised politically that it was a huge disaster for him, for the Republican Party, and to just push off the next summit into the next year.

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

MARKEY: No, glad to do so.

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