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

Interview

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BLITZER: All right, Evan, thank you very much, Evan Perez reporting for us.

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

Congressman, thanks so much for coming in.

These developments you just heard from Evan in the Russia probe, how significant are they, the plea deal that Jerome Corsi says he's not ready to take, for example?

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D), CALIFORNIA: It's step by step.

There's absolutely no doubt that Mueller is progressing right up the line, starting here with a very low-level person. The next one is going to be Stone. And then we're going to go from there. He's got a lot of information

He has hours and hours of testimony from dozens of people, matching stories. Who is lying, who's telling the truth? Bottom line, the president has a very serious problem.

BLITZER: So, you don't think he really needed the Corsi testimony? I really don't know about that.

GARAMENDI: But what I do know is that Corsi is one of the low-level players. And Mueller has been working his way up the ladder. And who's at the top of the ladder? The president. What does it mean? We're going to find out very, very soon, because this thing is coming, I believe, to a conclusion, perhaps not before the holidays, but immediately thereafter.

BLITZER: Yes, that's what people suspect.

Let's go to the sensitive issue of immigration right now.

GARAMENDI: Sure.

BLITZER: The president says -- and I'm quoting him now -- "Nobody's coming into our country unless they're coming legally."

Is that a realistic goal right now?

GARAMENDI: Well, an asylum seeker presenting themselves at one of the entry points is entering the country legally. It is national law. It is in our laws that somebody that seeks asylum presenting

themselves at one of the border crossings is legal. What's happening is that the president and the Border Patrol are choking off access; 100,000 people a day normally come through the San Ysidro entry in Tijuana, San Diego.

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Now it's down to about 100 people seeking asylum. And so they choke it off. Therefore, people are trying to get across illegally. Nevertheless, under the law, they nonetheless are able to seek asylum, even though they may have entered at an illegal point along the border.

This has to be worked out. This whole thing is going out of control unnecessarily.

BLITZER: You think the Customs and Border Patrol responded appropriately to those migrants who were trying to come in yesterday by using tear gas against them?

GARAMENDI: It's hard to say exactly who those migrants were. There are some children. There was obviously a pregnant lady and children.

What does all that mean? I don't think they were going to assault the Border Patrol. There may have been some young people -- it appears that way from the video. Was there overreaction? I just can't say right now, but it's certainly created a major issue that Trump wants to use in the election in Mississippi.

BLITZER: Let's get to the issue of climate change.

The president was asked about his reaction to this report that his administration released, scientists working in his administration released on Friday. And he was asked about the enormous economic consequences of climate change. And he was asked if he agrees. He says, "I don't believe it."

You represent California. We saw a very deadly wildfires in your state, the deadliest in your state's history, in recent weeks. So what's your reaction to the president's dismissal of his own administration's report?

GARAMENDI: His position on this is detrimental, it is a disaster for the world, certainly for California, certainly for other parts of this nation.

In the mid-'90s, I was involved in the Clinton administration preparing for the Kyoto conference. And it was clear then that climate change was going to devastate everything we knew about crop production, forest fires, on and on and on. This is not news.

It is unimaginable that the president of the United States would put at risk this nation, this world by simply refusing to deal with climate change. It is a fundamental worldwide problem. We have to get on it. And the president, every day he delays, every day he says it's not a problem is one more step towards the disaster that's coming to this nation and to this world.

BLITZER: Congressman, thanks so much for coming in.

GARAMENDI: Thank you.

BLITZER: John Garamendi of California.

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