CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview With Senator Edward Markey
Interview
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BLITZER: Every day is dramatic.
Sara, thank you very much.
Let's get some more on all of this. Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts is joining us. He is a member of the Foreign Relations Committee.
Senator, thanks so much for joining us.
So, what do these developments tell you right now about where Robert Mueller's investigation stands?
SEN. EDWARD MARKEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Well, it is clear that the White House is stonewalling on the one hand. They don't want to answer questions.
And in order to make sure that that is successful, they're trying to have Whitaker take over at the Justice Department, and consistent with his promises in the past, his prejudicial comments in the past to defund the investigation, to severely limit the scope of the investigation, all towards the goal of making sure that the American people never get the answers to what happened in 2016 in any potential collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign.
BLITZER: You're clearly very concerned about the new acting attorney general of the United States, Matthew Whitaker. He has already taken over for Jeff Sessions, who is out of there.
What can you do realistically about that?
MARKEY: Well, there is going to be a bipartisan effort to attach a bill to must-pass legislation so that Mueller cannot be, in fact, fired without cause, that he would have an ability to have judicial review of whether or not that had happened, and that all of the documents are actually preserved, so that the House and Senate Judiciary Committees would have access to them.
So that effort is going to be made over the next couple of weeks on the floor of the United States Senate, and so we intend on doing everything we can to make sure that Whitaker is not brought in as a political hatchet man to destroy the Mueller investigation before the American people get the answers that they have been waiting for.
BLITZER: But do you think your Republican colleagues would vote for such legislation protecting the special counsel?
MARKEY: Well, over the past year, they have said that they want to maintain the integrity of the Mueller investigation. They have said that they respect Mueller.
So this will be the moment, where obviously Trump does not want that, but yet, again, the integrity of the United States Senate is on the line. Will Republicans stand up with Democrats to ensure that this investigation is not short-circuited for political reasons? Because that's why Whitaker has been given this job.
BLITZER: Let me get your reaction, Senator, to the very strong and public statement from the first lady calling for the departure of the deputy national security adviser to the president.
Have you ever seen anything like this, a public rebuke of such a senior official by a first lady?
MARKEY: This is unprecedented, Wolf.
This just shows how dysfunctional this White House has become, where the first lady is publicly tweeting that she wants someone on the national security team to be fired.
There's a way of handling this, but that's not the way to do it. We have far many more important things that we should be talking about today, the North Korea nuclear crisis, the Russian-American nuclear crisis, what is happening to the Rohingya in Burma and Bangladesh.
And ,instead, this is what we're talking about, just another distraction in a dysfunctional White House.
BLITZER: Yes, our Jeff Zeleny, our White House correspondent, is reporting that, for all practical purposes, she's been told she is fired, but they're letting her clean out her desk right now before she is escorted out of the White House.
We expect the president, by the way, Senator to ask the homeland security secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, for her resignation soon as well and others could be forced out in the next few weeks.
How concerned are you about stability, or lack thereof, inside the Trump administration?
MARKEY: Well, again, it is the prerogative of a president to appoint Cabinet members, but we have to just step back and see that it is being done in the context of this dysfunctional atmosphere that has been constructed.
And so I'm afraid that what this president is now doing is going in and just taking out people that may have had slight disagreements with him, and doing it in a way which is unpresidential on the one hand, but on the other hand just sending the wrong signal to the rest of the world about the stability of our federal government.
BLITZER: Senator Markey, I know you are on the Foreign Relations Committee. I want to ask you about North Korea right now, these reports that it is operating more than a dozen undeclared military bases.
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The president responded by saying -- and I'm quoting the president now -- "We fully know about the sites being discussed. Nothing new and nothing happening out of the normal."
He went on to say, "I will be the first to let you know if things go bad."
You say the president is getting played by Kim Jong-un. What do you see happening? What do you want to see happen?
MARKEY: Well, "The New York Times"' report is definitive. It is using the CSIS investigation.
The North Koreans are still manufacturing new fissile material, nuclear material. They're still manufacturing new nuclear weapons. They're still building new ballistic missiles and the capacity to deliver those weapons potentially to the United States, but for sure to that entire Pacific region.
And so the president is just being taken for a ride by the North Korean government. The new normal for North Korea is, they just continue to build nuclear weapons and missiles, they enhance their trade with China and with Russia, which reduces the economic pressure on them, and then they smile as the president of the United States contends that we have won a negotiation, and that there's no reason to be concerned about the North Korean nuclear threat, which is absolutely the opposite of what is happening.
BLITZER: Senator Markey, thanks so much for joining us.
MARKEY: No, glad to be here. Thank you.
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