CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview With California Congressman John Garamendi

Interview

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BLITZER: Yes, I anticipate you're absolutely right. Jeff Zeleny at the White House, thank you very much.

Joining us now, Democratic Congressman John Garamendi. He serves on the Armed Services Committee.

Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

Let me get your thoughts on this late development. This Roger Stone ally, Jerome Corsi, now says publicly he expects to be indicted as early as this week.

What would that mean for Mueller's investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians?

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D), CALIFORNIA: It's just coming closer and closer to the campaign and quite probably to the president himself.

One shoe after another keeps falling here. The result of it is, this investigation is moving forward. And we should make it very, very clear that the president, through his new acting attorney general, cannot and must not stop this investigation. It is absolutely critical to our democracy to understand exactly what Russia did.

And if there is any collusion, then let it be. Let's find out what happened.

BLITZER: You expect more indictments for potentially Roger Stone, a longtime Donald Trump ally, indictments in the coming days and weeks?

GARAMENDI: Well, that has been festering for months. Roger Stone himself said in his own interviews on television that he was aware of Assange and the WikiLeaks and what was going on there. All of those things were in play. And now we're seeing the follow-up of it.

And I suspect that, yes, there will be an indictment.

BLITZER: This all is happening as the Democrats won the House of Representatives after January. They will be the majority. You will be the majority in the House.

Congressman Adam Schiff of California, who is expected to be the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, wrote a piece just now posted in "The Washington Post" entitled "Matthew Whitaker, We're Watching You."

Matthew Whitaker, the acting attorney general. Democrats say they want to protect the special counsel, Robert Mueller. They're concerned about Whitaker.

What, if anything, can you do if Whitaker reins in, let's say, Robert Mueller?

GARAMENDI: Well, if he does that, he's obstructing justice, plain and simple.

There's an ongoing criminal investigation by the FBI, by the special counsel. And if this man were to somehow, acting, I think, unconstitutionally, because there's a major question about whether he has any constitutional authority at all, if he were to stop this investigation, I believe it would be obstruction of justice.

And I believe he should be held accountable for that. He's not above the law, and certainly the president...

BLITZER: So you want Whitaker to recuse himself?

GARAMENDI: Absolutely.

BLITZER: Let's talk about what Democrats are trying to do to protect Mueller and the Russia probe.

They want to get legislation attached to must-pass spending legislation in order to protect Mueller. How do you think your Republican colleagues will react to that?

GARAMENDI: They ought to act as though they're patriots. They ought to act as though they believe in the Constitution. They ought to act as though, if there's wrongdoing, let us find out what it is.

And if it takes a law to protect Mueller and his investigation, then they should support it. BLITZER: What do you make of the fact that Michael Cohen, the

president's longtime fixer and lawyer, showed up here in Washington today with his criminal defense attorney?

GARAMENDI: Perhaps that's why the president is hiding out in the White House and not doing the veterans ceremonies that are normal for a president to do.

I think it's a very serious problem for the president. This is the president's fixer. This is a man that knows what the president has done over the last decade or more. And here he is in Washington. Was he talking to Mueller? Probably so. Why?

BLITZER: Well, we know that at least eight of Mueller's lawyers on this federal holiday today, Veterans Day, were in fact seen working over at the Justice Department.

[18:20:04]

But I have got to say, we don't know if Cohen went there, although that's the widespread suspicion.

GARAMENDI: He showed up with his lawyer to have lunch in Washington? Probably to have a meeting with the Mueller team.

BLITZER: That is what everybody is suspecting.

Now, let me get your thoughts on the awful situation in your home state of California. You're a former lieutenant governor of California. The fires that are going on, this is what the president over the weekend tweeted about the fires.

"There is no reason for these massive deadly and costly forest fires in California, except that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year with so many lives lost all because of the gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now or no more fed payments."

What's your reaction to that?

GARAMENDI: I don't think I can say it on television.

BLITZER: Say what you can.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: By the way, we're showing some live pictures of Los Angeles County right now. You can see the smoke.

GARAMENDI: The president simply doesn't know what's going on. He doesn't understand that 31 people have lost their lives, that an entire community of 26,000 people is totally destroyed. It is gone. The homes are gone, cars lined up across the roads. He doesn't understand.

He has no empathy. He doesn't have any humanity. People have died, people have lost everything, and he comes up with this crazy, bizarre tweet that has no relevance to what is actually happening.

It's not a forest problem. It is a global climate change problem. It is hot. It is dry. It is California. In the future, we're going to have to make changes, to be sure. But when the president says no more money, come on.

OK. We will calm down here. We will go about protecting California as best we can, but we do need federal help. People need to be able to rebuild, and we must rebuild our communities so that they are sustainable and resilient.

BLITZER: We want to wish everyone in your district and throughout the state of California good luck.

GARAMENDI: Absolutely. These are my neighbors.

BLITZER: This is an awful situation. We have got some more reporting on this coming up this hour. We're going to go to the scene of those fires as well.

Congressman Garamendi, thanks so much for joining us.

GARAMENDI: Thank you.

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