MSNBC "The Beat with Ari Melber" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Ted Lieu

Interview

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MELBER: Congressman, snap.

REP. TED LIEU (D), CALIFORNIA: Thank you, Ari. Donald Trump needs to stop  making phone calls from his cell phone now. He needs to do what Obama did.  Obama had a cell phone, but he was not allowed to make phone calls from it  because your communications on your cell phone can be intercepted at the  network level. It has nothing to do with your phone, it`s an issue I`ve  been working on for over three years, and if anyone has access to a  telephone network, and the Chinese and Russians certainly do, they can  listen in on anyone`s cell phone anywhere in the world if they have the  cell phone number.

MELBER: So what are the Democrats going to do if this investigation goes  forward, if you guys went back to House? Where does that lead?

LIEU: Certainly we`re going to have Oversight Committee hearings on the  President`s use of the cell phone. In addition, we know there`s been other  lacks, communications with the President. He has been using unsecured Wi- Fi at his resort Mar-a-Lago, he has left his cell phone in unsecured  places. And again, this is something that doesn`t have to do with the  President`s cell phone per se, so even his tweet shows he doesn`t  understand the problem. One of the ways to intercept communications is at  the network level. It has nothing to do with the phone, and the president  just needs to stop making calls on his cell phones.

MELBER: Right it`s up in the sky. You heard President Obama make the  comparison to Clinton. We should note so folks understand the facts that  the FBI looked at this. They did not find evidence suggesting her e-mail  server system were ever compromised by cyber means or foreign intrusion.  What do you think about this supreme contrast that she wasn`t hacked,  although she got all that negative scrutiny and he already has made himself  vulnerable this way?

LIEU: It is absolutely hypocritical for the President to have constantly  attacked Secretary Clinton for use of unsecured e-mail server when he`s  using a phone over unsecured networks. And in addition, it`s not even just  monitoring of the President`s cell phone, it could be that these four  intelligence services are monitoring the cell phones of his friends. The  President is a heavily protected asset but his friends are not so it`s very  easy for the Chinese and Russians to monitor their cell phones so every  time he calls them they can hear him on the conversations.

MELBER: Right. I mean, you make a secondary point that`s relevant to the  intelligence and also to people that the President is calling which is he`s  literally putting them in more danger or more exposure because of that  combination as you`ve outlined. Congressman Ted Lieu, this is an important  story at the time when there`s a lot going on. Thank you for making time  to talk to us about it.

LIEU: Thank you, Ari.

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