CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Khanna

Interview

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COOPER: But -- I mean, there's -- you don't have any evidence that a -- I mean, do you have any evidence that, A, those conversations have taken place and/or what the content -- context is?

KHANNA: Well, there is public reporting that he has used WhatsApp to communicate with MBS. We don't know what the contact is. We do know also based on public reporting that Tom Barrack, who is the President's chair of the inauguration committee, has used private e- mails to talk about giving nuclear reactors to the Saudis.

Here is why this matters, though. As you know, one of the largest humanitarian crises is taking place in Yemen. 14 million people may have famine. We're about to pass a war powers resolution in the House and the Senate.

[20:35:02] The question is, is the President going to sign it, or is he too beholden to the Saudis? These are deeply important questions about our national interests and yet one wonders what communication is taking place with MBS and why this isn't being disclosed under the proper laws.

COOPER: But isn't -- I mean, isn't -- aren't there often communications between people in the White House and foreign officials that are not made public? I mean, don't there have to be private communications?

COOPER: Well, sure. But, I mean, the irony of this is that the President ran his whole presidential campaign accusing Hillary Clinton of having a private server and having communications. And here you have something that's much worse.

You have communications with foreign leaders on platforms that aren't official U.S. platforms, that put sensitive information at risk. No one is saying that they have to disclose every detail of those communications, but they need to be doing it on official government servers and preserving those records so that if there is inquiry, they can comply with that. And they haven't done that.

COOPER: Right. I mean, there is an actual, you know, Presidential Records Act, and Ivanka Trump still doing White House business, or at least from -- according to Congressman Cummings, I think his information is several months old, but on a private e-mail account. There is obviously the irony of, you know, the President running on similar criticisms of obviously of Secretary Clinton.

But, so if -- would it be not a violation of the Records Act if she used private e-mail, but then forwarded those e-mails to an official account so there is a record of it? I mean, the fact that there is no record of it seems like there is two issues. There is a security concern and then the fact that there is actually no record of it.

KHANNA: I think they're both serious issues. One is why is she using a private e-mail account or why is Jared Kushner using WhatsApp, which can be intercepted from foreign intelligence and which is putting sensitive information at risk. Separate from that are the law as you pointed out requires that these information, these records be preserved.

And if she's forwarding it to her official account and preserving that, then at least she is complying with that part of the law. But there are large questions whether that's being done.

I mean, one of the things that was reported is that she hasn't been preserving those e-mails that she hasn't replied to. Well, that would be a violation of the law. And if anything, this President should have been aware of this law. I mean, he based his whole campaign on this law against Hillary Clinton.

COOPER: It's also interesting because obviously the Kushner -- Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, I mean, they still are making money from private -- you know, from private businesses. Ivanka Trump is making money from the Trump hotel. That -- is that information that also should be saved in official documentation?

KHANNA: Absolutely. Any information that affects any part of their job needs to be saved. And the reason we have this law is for transparency, Anderson, precisely for the reasons you say that. If there are potential financial conflicts of interest, and if Congress wants to conduct oversight, then there is a record that the American people can consult.

If they do it privately, and that information isn't available, then the American people won't know if there are conflicts of interest. And so that's why it's deeply problematic that they aren't preserving these records or that they're conducting this communication on private e-mail servers.

COOPER: In terms of the White House's refusal, though, to turn over documents about the President's private conversations with Vladimir Putin, obviously it is of concern that we have no idea, the American public, other officials have no idea what actually was discussed between Vladimir Putin and President Trump, even at Helsinki at this, you know, one-on-one meeting they had with interpreters, only president.

Normally there would be some sort of a readout, there would be other official there, there would be some sort of -- at least general understanding of -- I mean, specifically of issues that were discussed. But at the same time, shouldn't the President have the ability to have private conversations with Vladimir Putin or whomever without disclosing, you know, every conversation to people in Congress?

KHANNA: Sure, Anderson, there should be some private conversation. But in this case, the President didn't have any of his own officials there. He didn't even have his secretary of state. He didn't have national security officials. And even Republican colleagues of mine were offended when he said that he believed Putin more than our own intelligence officials. And that he said he believed that Putin didn't interfere with our elections, which is absurd for anyone looking at the evidence.

So, no one is saying that we need all the details of all his sensitive conversations, but we need to have an account of what was discussed and ask some basic questions. Both President Obama and President Bush in the past have complied with providing readouts and summaries of conversations with foreign leaders.

[20:40:00] If they want to claim executive privilege for certain sensitive parts, that's fair. But to say that they're not going to disclose any of the nature of those conversations, who was there, what was discussed, that's just being unreasonable.

COOPER: Congressman Ro Khanna, appreciate your time. Thank you very much.

KHANNA: Thank you, Anderson, for having me.

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