CNN "State of the Union" - Transcript: Interview With Virginia Senator Mark Warner

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

TAPPER: Well, that's a strong charge.

It would contradict what Sessions said, testified before the Senate.

The attorney for Sessions released a statement saying -- quote -- "Attorney General Sessions has publicly testified under oath about his recollection of this meeting. And he stands by his testimony."

Joining us now to discuss this and more is the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator mark Warner, who joins us from Charlottesville, Virginia.

Senator, you just heard what Papadopoulos said. Do you think there's reason to believe that Jeff Sessions perjured himself?

SEN. MARK WARNER (D), VIRGINIA: Well, Jake, let's take us a step back can and look at where we're at, at this point.

With the Mueller investigation now, with the Papadopoulos jail sentence, we're now at five or six guilty pleas, over 30 indictments. The key that comes out of from -- what I read about Papadopoulos is, there was absolute evidence that the Russians had dirt and e-mails on Hillary Clinton, they offered it to Papadopoulos as a Trump campaign official.

And this guy Papadopoulos, I have never met him, but he clearly is aspiring to be a player. And my understanding is, he can't remember whether he turned that information over to other senior people in the Trump campaign. That's not very believable.

In terms of the questions about Attorney General Sessions, I'm sure the Mueller team will look into that.

But if you look at this, and this is -- I think is maybe one of the reasons why this White House is in such -- such chaos and the president's becoming more and more untethered -- is, if you -- just over the last few weeks, we have had the president's campaign manager plead guilty, the president's personal lawyer Michael Cohen agree to work with Mueller and take a guilty plea as well.

We have got the president's chief financial officer now getting some level of immunity. So, I think we're going to start to get a lot of these answers coming out. And I think that's why the Mueller investigation, and, for that matter, our Senate intelligence investigation has to run its course.

TAPPER: So I asked Papadopoulos specifically about whether or not he told anyone on the campaign about the Russians claiming that they had dirt on Hillary Clinton, e-mails belonging to Hillary Clinton.

Papadopoulos told me he doesn't remember telling anyone on the campaign. But he also said this:

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

TAPPER: Now, you have said just now that you find that hard to believe.

Who do you think he told? There is an individual named John Mashburn who worked on the campaign, now works at the Department of Energy. He testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee a few months ago, according to "The New York Times," that he remembers an e-mail from Papadopoulos claiming that the Russians had Hillary's e-mails. [09:40:07]

Is John Mashburn somebody that you think he told?

WARNER: We have gotten some documents from Mr. Papadopoulos. We'd love to talk with him as well on the Senate Intelligence side.

But one thing is fairly clear. This is an ambitious guy who wants to be a player in the Trump campaign. He -- Trump had chosen him as part of his foreign policy team.

It just stretches, I think, most people's credibility that, if Papadopoulos had this knowledge and he wanted to try to further ingratiate himself with the campaign, that he wouldn't have shared that with somebody on the campaign.

TAPPER: But you don't know of any evidence proving that he did share it with anybody on campaign?

WARNER: Again, I will -- I believe -- and I will leave that to the Mueller investigation.

With all of the people who are now flipping on this president, and I think starting to come clean, my hope, again, is that Mueller will move expeditiously on these matters.

TAPPER: OK.

An anonymous op-ed in "The New York Times" from a senior Trump administration official this week sent the White House spinning. Kellyanne Conway just said this person upended Washington.

The official wrote that he or she and others are -- quote -- "working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda."

The president's calling for this person's name to be revealed for the sake of national security.

Do you see it as a national security threat?

WARNER: No, I don't, Jake.

But, again, I don't want to -- I think we have to be willing, again, to step back. The last three months, we have had the president with a disastrous policy in terms of separating kids from their parents at the border. We had the embarrassment of the president kowtowing to Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.

We had this zigging and zagging on his trade and tariff policies. We have had, as I indicated already, the guilty pleas of some of the senior campaign and personal lawyers. We have had the horrible treatment of John McCain after he passed. And now we have had the Woodward book and this op-ed come out.

Clearly, you have got a president who's lashing out. He's lashing out in terms of whoever wrote the op-ed. And I wish the person would have revealed their identity.

But you have also got the president attacking his Justice Department and also attacking the Justice Department for indicting Republican congressmen on graft. Does this president not understand that the Justice Department is not a tool of his own personal power?

TAPPER: So...

WARNER: And that is one of the reasons why I think you're seeing not only Republican members, but what appears to be a lot of folks in the White House, have real concerns about this president stability.

TAPPER: Senator, let's turn to the president's nominee for the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh.

This week, Senators Dianne Feinstein and Patrick Leahy are suggesting that Brett Kavanaugh might have perjured himself, saying he -- quote -- "misled the Senate," giving -- quote -- "untruthful testimony."

Do you agree? Will you vote for Kavanaugh? And if you agree that he perjured himself, will you support impeaching Brett Kavanaugh?

WARNER: Listen, if Judge Kavanaugh perjured himself, that's clearly disqualifying.

I'm going to go over the record. I wanted to go through the hearings first, but I'm strongly inclined to vote against Judge Kavanaugh, not only because of his views on issues like women's reproductive health and workers rights and gay rights, but I am very concerned that this judge's outside-the-mainstream views on executive power, with a president that is this dangerous, in many ways disqualifies him.

But I want to go over those hearings from last week. And I will be making an announcement a few days.

TAPPER: All right, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, thank you so much, sir. We appreciate it.

Source