CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview With Texas Congressman Marc Veasey

Interview

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BLITZER: Shimon Prokupecz with the latest on that front, thank you, Shimon, very much.

Joining us now, Congressman Marc Veasey. He's a Democrat. He serves on the Armed Services Committee.

Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

REP. MARC VEASEY (D), TEXAS: Hello, Wolf.

BLITZER: When you look at all of these developments with Roger Stone and Paul Manafort, what do you think it means for President Trump, big picture?

VEASEY: Oh, I think that it's bad news for President Trump.

And with his latest lashing out on Twitter, you know, asking for the attorney general to fire Mueller and end the investigation and put this to a close, it appears that the president is lashing out. He knows that this is serious business. He has proclaimed his innocence over and over again, but I think that it's getting to a point where he's getting desperate.

He seems to be very angry about this, lashing out at the media, trying to denigrate the media, and say that the news that they present is not real. I think that he's in a lot of trouble.

BLITZER: The president's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, says the upcoming midterms in November, he says they're really about impeachment or no impeachment, his words.

At the end of last year, you voted in favor of an effort to launch impeachment proceedings against the president. Right now, what evidence do you have that impeachment, high crimes and misdemeanor, is warranted?

VEASEY: Yes.

And, of course, you know, when we had the vote on the House floor, I voted present to Representative Green's amendment that he had. But what I will tell you, I don't think that the midterm elections is just about impeachment or not impeachment.

As a matter of fact, I think that's an issue that's not that relevant at all. I think that people are concerned about what happened in Helsinki. I think that people are concerned about the economy and these tariffs.

And just going back to Helsinki very briefly, people here in Texas, Wolf, were embarrassed by what they saw. And I thought the president had a chance to turn the page. Many people think, was he compromised? Is there something to that dossier? And when he was with Putin on the world stage with cameras in front of him, he had a chance to be tough.

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Instead, he let Putin walk all over him. And I think it just further reinforced that there's a lot of fire to all of this smoke that's happening around this investigation.

And he didn't do anything to move on from this. And with the latest revelations and everything that's going on right now with the Manhattan Madam, Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, it just appears to be getting worse and worse for him.

And it also begs the question, why in the world did the Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee think that now was the time to end the investigation? The American public just, in my opinion, don't have confidence in congressional Republicans and their integrity anymore.

BLITZER: Well, we will see how that plays out in November in the midterm elections.

As you know, Congressman, Russia has now officially publicly responded to that news conference over at the White House yesterday by the nation's top national security and intelligence chiefs.

A Russian spokeswoman denying that Russia had anything to do with cyber-warfare in 2016 against the U.S., says: "The two-year hysteria" -- these are her words -- "The two-year hysteria mocks the whole political system of the United States."

What do you make of that? And do you feel that the government is doing enough to counter the ongoing threat right now from Russia?

VEASEY: Obviously, the Russians will say anything to strengthen their position. And it's sad that, in many cases, it seems like the president is also going along with this, trying to downplay what they did in the elections.

And you know the history, Wolf. Before the 2016 campaign, the Russians have always tried to influence our elections to try to undermine our democracy. But they have found, in my opinion, players within the Trump administration that may have -- that, like the Guccifer 2.0, that had contact with Roger Stone, and it's really unsettling that they're not taking this more seriously.

Again, when he was with Putin, he had a chance to be firm, be tough, and say, no, you can -- you have to stop meddling with our -- interference. And what's scary about this is that with the social media platforms that are available out there, it really gives the Russians more opportunities, more tools, and a much easier way to communicate and infiltrate groups of people and organizations within America.

And they're just not taking it seriously. And what's so ironic about that, Wolf, and sad at the same time, the same party, the Republican Party, that has gone around the country trying to implement oppressive voter I.D. bills everywhere, saying that -- that they're concerned about the sanctity of the ballot, they're just letting the Russians walk all over our electoral system and the security of our election system.

They voted to zero out dollars that would have gone to voting clerks all around the country to help protect our elections and to make sure that the Russians can't hack into our systems. And they had the opportunity to vote with Democrats on the House floor here recently. I spoke on the House floor about it.

And they voted, again, to zero out that money that would have been helpful in these efforts.

BLITZER: I want to switch gears for a moment while I have you, Congressman. I want to play for you a moment from the president's rally. He spoke for more than an hour in Pennsylvania last night. Listen to this.

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BLITZER: He's been attacking her for weeks now. Certainly not the first time he's attacked her. But he goes after her I.Q. A few weeks ago, he said it was -- her I.Q. was in the 60s. What do you think about that?

VEASEY: Oh, I think that it's absolutely terrible.

And, again, President Trump has shown that he just doesn't know how to bring the country together. He continues to attack people, the same way how he did throughout the entire Republican primary process, the same way how he attacked Secretary Clinton and others, even after he won the campaign, when most people historically in this country move on and turn the page.

And it just shows just how childish and petulant he is. I believe that -- in his own words that he says that he has the temperament of an 8-year-old. And he just proved it in Pennsylvania.

But what he really needs to be concerned about in Pennsylvania is his bad poll numbers. Of course, he narrowly won Pennsylvania in 2016. But now people there are roundly rejecting him.

And with the type of behavior and the way that he attacked Representative Waters, it's not a big surprise.

BLITZER: So you're from Texas. I want to ask you about the situation on the border with Mexico.

As you know, more than 500 kids, children, are still being -- are still waiting to be reunited with their mothers and their fathers. The Trump administration is now arguing that the ACLU and other private organizations should use their resources to help locate the parents who have already been deported.

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And the federal judge is calling that simply unacceptable. What's your reaction to that, that there are still more than 500 children who have been separated from their parents?

VEASEY: Wolf, that is absolutely insane that they would ask on nonprofit organizations to try and clean up a mess that they caused.

I was down there with the border -- on the border, of course, with Senator Gillibrand not too long ago. And we saw kids as young as 2 years old that were separated from their parents. What the administration did was terrible. And, in my opinion, Wolf,

as long as you have someone like Stephen Miller in the White House, he's going to continue to embarrass the president on matters of immigration. He's a terrible person.

He reportedly told other White House staffers that he actually found joy in seeing young children separated from their parents. And he's the one that continues to advise the president to take these terrible decisions as it relates to immigration.

And asking nonprofits to step up and do the job that they should be doing is absolutely -- it shouldn't -- we shouldn't even be considering that. It's just ridiculous.

BLITZER: Congressman Marc Veasey of Texas, thanks so much for joining us.

VEASEY: Thanks, Wolf.

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