Fox News "The Story" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. John Ratcliffe
Interview
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
MARTHA MACCALLUM, HOST: Hey there, Bret. Thank you very much. So, the hallmarks of the Trump White House over the past two years all coming to ahead this evening.
Good evening, everybody. I'm Martha MacCallum so on the one end you've got the border wall. President Trump's signature campaign promise in jeopardy as the White House is now saying that they're flexible on the funding for the wall.
Democrats rejecting the latest offer, and the jockeying continues tonight. We're going to talk about that. On the other, the Mueller probe. Today, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in the face of all the experts. Saying that he would give former NSA adviser Michael Flynn zero time. The judge clearly had other ideas today. He blasted Flynn in the courtroom.
Gestured to the flag to make his point. Saying that his actions as a foreign agent for Turkey undermine everything this flag over here stands for. "Arguably," he said, "you sold your country out." At one point, even asking the prosecutor if Flynn's actions could be considered treason, which attorney Jonathan Turley found shocking.
Writing this tonight, "It is so wildly out of place that it could have been viewed as an attempt by the judge at being facetious. The man in front of Sullivan was accused of lying in an FBI interview, even though the FBI agents who interviewed Flynn did not believe that his false statements were intentional."
Turley also points out in his piece this evening that the judge had to walk back statements about Flynn being a foreign agent while serving as national security adviser because the prosecutors did not find that to be the case in terms of timing on all that.
Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey weighs in, in just a moment. Also tonight, transcripts from James Comey's second testy interview with House investigators. Texas Congressman John Ratcliffe, a member of the House Judiciary Committee was in the room, questioned former director Comey, and joins me now.
Good to see you tonight, Congressman. Welcome, thanks for being here.
REP. JOHN RATCLIFFE, R-TX: Hi, Martha. Good to be with you.
MACCALLUM: What was your takeaway? What was the big point of what you were asking James Comey about, and what did you learn?
RATCLIFFE: Well, Martha, we continued to focus on the disparity and the dichotomy in which the same conduct was treated differently by Jim Comey's FBI in the Hillary Clinton investigation versus the Trump-Russia investigation.
And so, we spent a lot of time probing former director Comey about why all of the departures from FBI protocols with very few exceptions seemed to work in favor of Hillary Clinton and the folks associated with her and to the detriment of Donald Trump and the folks associated with him.
MACCALLUM: We know what he says about that. He shakes his finger and says that -- you know, Republicans ought to be ashamed of themselves that he is just tired of hearing about Hillary Clinton's e-mails that, that is so yesterday. So, why do you still think that this is so important?
RATCLIFFE: Well, you know, it's hard to argue with a witness like Jim Comey who's always right. You know, Martha, I have to confess. You know, I've lost all objectivity with regard to former director Comey in part, because I was one of the folks that was defending him two years ago when all of this stuff started to happen.
MACCALLUM: Yes.
RATCLIFFE: But he's turned out to be every bit as duplicitous and sanctimonious as folks told me that he was. So, you know, we're just asking questions, we're trying to get a transcript of what really happened so that folks are treated equally under the law. And I think folks looking at this objectively and fairly see that.
I don't mind if Jim Comey is a partisan, but don't pretend to be a fair and impartial umpire saying that on a one side of your mouth while out of the other side of your mouth, you're telling people to use their last breath to stop Donald Trump and Republicans, and to vote Democrat into campaign door- to-door for Democratic candidates. It's disingenuous.
MACCALLUM: So, let me ask you this. One of the things that you were pressing on, we've been going through these transcripts and looking at some of the back-and-forth that you had with him. And you were talking to him about whether or not President Obama was part of any of those back-and- forth e-mail exchanges with Hillary Clinton. And what happened to those e- mails.
He claimed, no, there was never any classified information that flowed between President Obama who at times used a pseudonym, I guess, on some of his e-mails -- correct me if I'm wrong on that to Hillary Clinton.
RATCLIFFE: Right. He said he didn't recall if there was classified information. But we were really trying to find out about the communications and as you saw, Martha, he confirmed that President Obama was communicating with former Secretary Clinton on an unclassified, unauthorized server, at least, at one point in time, while Secretary Clinton was in Russia.
So, it was fair to ask those questions. That wasn't any information that he volunteered. And so, we were really trying to probe into that. Because again, the question here was, "Was classified information mishandled?" And really the question that we had was why wasn't Hillary Clinton asked about that?
MACCALLUM: Yes.
RATCLIFFE: She wasn't asked a single question in her interview about conversations or communications with the president.
MACCALLUM: Yes, I mean, it's a -- it's a fair question and something that many people have brought up to me, and I think have discussed, you know, on their own. Wanting to know whether or not President Obama had any knowledge of this server or whether or not he received any information like that. You also press down on the date of the tarmac meeting between Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton.
And then, as meeting that happened the very next day and information that director Comey asked his people to pull for him right after that meeting happened, what happened with that exchange?
RATCLIFFE: June 27, 2016, Loretta Lynch meets on a tarmac with Bill Clinton. Director Comey asks for all of the e-mails between Secretary Clinton and President Obama. The exoneration memo that Jim Comey had written was changed to delete any references to President Obama from his public remarks.
And three days later, the FBI sent a team of prosecutors and investigators into question Hillary Clinton. She didn't get a single question about the meeting between Loretta Lynch and her husband. She didn't get a single question about her communications with Barack Obama on an unsecured unclassified server.
These are questions that every American would have asked right out of the gate. Director Comey didn't know why they were asked, didn't know if it was a good -- didn't have a good excuse for why no one in that room asked those questions. He didn't follow up with Loretta Lynch. He didn't follow up with President Obama. He didn't follow up with Secretary Clinton.
MACCALLUM: Very -- I mean, surprising. It raises a lot of questions. I think those are very fair questions. And did he take those questions well? Was he, he wasn't responsive apparently.
RATCLIFFE: He didn't. You know, Jim Comey gets red in the face and angry anytime you raise any questions that would question whether his conduct or his decisions raise doubt about his integrity.
You know, the story always has to end the same with former director Comey. He always has to be right and he always has to be the hero in the end. And he doesn't think it's fair if you ask questions that would have the story end any other way.
And I think, it's really sad and unfortunate and -- you know, he walked out of that interview yesterday and was asked if he thought he had any fault or blamed for damage to the FBI in the last few years? And he said none whatsoever.
MACCALLUM: He said, no.
RATCLIFFE: That's the perfect sign off for former director Jim Comey. I think that's his legacy.
MACCALLUM: Congressman Ratcliffe, thank you. Great to have you with us tonight.
RATCLIFFE: You bet.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source