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

Interview

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KEILAR: Let's turn now to this breaking news that there is a new acting chief of staff, who may be the chief of staff. I'm not sure.

We're joined by Congressman John Garamendi. He's a Democrat who serves on the Armed Services Committee.

We have a number of things to ask you about. There's so much breaking news this evening. But on this chief of staff news, what do you think about the timing of this?

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D), CALIFORNIA: I don't know, but it just seems, Brianna, this is a terrible, terrible problem for "Saturday Night Live."

You don't have to wait to Saturday night to have, oh, my goodness, what's going on here? It is absolutely crazy time. Mulvaney has now three jobs. First of all, acting is the right word. The president has not had a chief of staff.

He's trying to do it all by himself, and the result is ultimate chaos. So, Mulvaney is going to be acting chief of staff. He also is running the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. And he is the director of the Office of Management and Budget.

That office alone is enough to keep five people busy. Bottom line of all this is ultimate chaos, chaos in the operation of the most important government in the world. And it is a serious, serious problem.

[18:15:12]

I don't know what he's going to do there, perhaps just hold the title acting, which is probably appropriate.

KEILAR: This comes, of course, as there's been so much news about Michael Cohen, about Michael Flynn and the special counsel putting out filings today that show a rebuke of Michael Flynn's lawyers basically blaming the FBI for his lies.

GARAMENDI: Yes.

KEILAR: Trump yesterday tweeted that the special counsel -- quote -- "gave General Flynn a great deal because they were embarrassed by the way that he was treated."

This filing by the special counsel, at least indirectly, rebukes that. What message do you think Mueller is sending with this new document?

GARAMENDI: He is sending, don't mess with me.

He's being very, very clear here. I have got the goods on you. Don't mess with me. If you want it all to come out in a filing, you're going to get it to come out. So, if you're playing games with me, you have made a mistake.

It's just very, very clear. It goes way back. Flynn was lying weeks, weeks before he ever became the director of -- in the Oval Office. When he got that position, he continued to lie. It's his problem. And, OK, bottom line of it, Mueller has the goods on certainly Flynn, certainly on the others, and quite probably on the president.

KEILAR: Why do you think that Flynn, then the national security adviser, formerly the director of the CIA, a respected intelligence officer prior to that, he lied to those FBI agents, when he understands how these things work?

And, clearly, those agents had the transcripts. When you know that, that they clearly have the transcripts of his conversations with the Russian ambassador, that he should have, that he would have known that, why do you -- what questions do you have about his lies?

GARAMENDI: Well, I think it's about hubris.

I remember very, very clearly, the day of the inaugural, the members of Congress were sitting there in the stands behind the president. Flynn was talking to the Joint Chiefs, the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a very puffed-up way. You could just see that this man was very, very taken by himself as he was talking to the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. We were sitting not more than 15 feet behind him. And I was thinking

to myself, there's something here about him that is not good. He has too high opinion of himself.

And so when the FBI came along to question him and to ask him, I think he thought he ruled the world and didn't have to respond to anybody. And he certainly, certainly was not wise or careful.

KEILAR: President Trump also attacked Michael Cohen, as you know, his credibility.

But Cohen says, look, this isn't my word against the president's. He said the special counsel has substantial, as he put it, evidence as well.

What type of evidence do you think they might have?

GARAMENDI: Tapes and other people that were in the meeting. We know that the president of the AMI, the publisher of the book -- of the magazines, has already stated in a filing that Trump, Cohen and he were all in the same meeting together discussing the issue of how to keep people quiet.

And that was at least a year before the election. And so I'm quite sure that everything that Cohen and certainly anything that the prosecutors in the Southern District of New York are using and will bring forward is very, very well backed up by the words and the physical information that's available.

There's collaboration on all of this.

KEILAR: We have learned a lot more about these investigations in the past two weeks. Are these developments having any influence on your Republican colleagues? Do you talk to any of them? Do you think that any of them are thinking differently about the president's involvement here?

GARAMENDI: Oh, there's no doubt about it. There's absolutely no doubt that the Republicans...

KEILAR: They're telling you that?

GARAMENDI: In quiet conversations, you can see that they're -- they're very worried, they're very concerned about what's going on here.

And they know that, ultimately, all of us in Congress are going to face a question about, how do we proceed? Do we follow the Constitution, carry out our obligations to hold the administration accountable?

And I think they will want to do that. And earlier in the show, just a few moments ago, you gave, I think, a prime example of a very substantial Republican senator that suddenly woke up and said, oh, my God, did I really say that? I really didn't mean to say that.

KEILAR: Orrin Hatch.

GARAMENDI: Exactly. He backed up so fast, he probably hit the wall on the way back.

KEILAR: All right, Congressman John Garamendi, thank you so much for being with us. We do appreciate it.

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