CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Lieu

Interview

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BLITZER: Lots of questions. Jim Acosta, thanks very much.

Joining us now Democratic congressman Ted Lieu of California. He is a member of the Judiciary and the Foreign Affairs Committees.

Congressman, thanks so much for joining us. We have a lot to discuss. But I quickly want to start with this college admission scandal. It's the Justice Department's largest ever college admissions prosecution.

What are the implications of this?

REP. TED LIEU (D), CALIFORNIA: Thank you, Wolf, for your question. Let me first commend the Department of Justice and FBI for doing this investigation that reveals widespread fraud among rich and wealthy people getting their kids into elite colleges.

It is stunning to me that you had over 30 parents involved, multiple colleges, and these parents were making direct bribes to college officials and coaches and they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

At the same time, all these colleges and universities need to do investigations and institute internal processes to make sure that this fraud doesn't happen again in the future.

BLITZER: As far as you know, is your district affected?

I know you represent parts of Los Angeles, with UCLA --

[17:15:00]

BLITZER: -- USC, other universities in the area.

LIEU: It wouldn't surprise me if they were affected by this. I don't know all of the people who were involved in this scandal. Regardless of who it is and where they live and how wealthy they are, they should all be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

BLITZER: Yes, they certainly should be.

All right. Let's talk about the fallout from Sunday's fatal airplane crash, the second of this new Boeing model.

Are you comfortable -- you do a lot of flying between Los Angeles and here in Washington.

Are you comfortable flying on a Boeing 737 MAX 8?

LIEU: Let me first say that Boeing has a long tradition of making safe planes that are reliable.

However, we do have two crashes within six months of a very specific model of a Boeing 737, the MAX series. And I would feel that would be prudent if those planes were grounded until we determine the second cause of the crash.

BLITZER: Yes, out of an abundance of caution, you would think, just like the Europeans, so many countries in Asia, elsewhere around the world, they just want to make sure it's safe. They would agree to at least stop flying these planes and figure out what happened.

I assume you support that.

LIEU: I do. I'm also a computer science major and I understand how complex computers can be. And sometimes you don't know the unintended consequences of certain software lines of code and things that may go wrong.

So until we know what happened with this second crash, I do think it would be prudent to temporarily ground the MAX 737 plane.

BLITZER: Let's turn to the work of your Judiciary Committee. committee. This is where impeachment proceedings would have to begin in the House of Representatives.

How do you respond to the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying she is not for impeachment?

LIEU: I agree with Speaker Pelosi when she made that statement. She also said in the same exact paragraph that she is not for impeachment as with compelling evidence with bipartisan support.

I agree with that sentiment and that's why in the House Judiciary Committee, we are doing the investigations. We're going to get witnesses to testify under oath. We're going to get documents. And our investigation is either going to exonerate Donald Trump, his family and his associates, or it won't. And then when we're done with that expedited, robust investigation, we'll have a conversation with the American people.

We'll see if we get the compelling bipartisan evidence. And based on the facts, we'll go forward. But we don't have all those facts yet and I agree with Speaker Pelosi's sentiment that it is too early to go forward with impeachment proceedings.

BLITZER: The New York state attorney general has subpoenaed two banks, Deutsche Bank and Investors Bank for Trump Organization records. What are the potential areas here of wrongdoing?

LIEU: Once again we see Donald Trump and his associates implicated in a wide array of scandals; for state actions such as this, I do note that the president cannot pardon anyone associated with violation of state crimes.

I also note again that nothing in the U.S. Constitution says that the president himself can't be indicted. And this is yet another step with another law enforcement agency looking at certain facts, trying to get information to see if our president and his associates are crooks.

BLITZER: The former acting attorney general, Matt Whitaker. is going to be back before your Judiciary Committee tomorrow. It will take place behind closed doors.

What is the committee hoping to learn from him in this follow-up interview?

LIEU: At the Judiciary Committee hearing in which Whitaker testified, he very specifically said that he did not have any conversations with Donald Trump about special counsel Mueller's investigation. That's appropriate. I'm glad he said that.

Then I asked him did he have any conversations with Donald Trump related to investigations out of the Southern District of New York and Mr. Whitaker said no.

Then if you look at public reporting afterwards, it appears that Donald Trump and Mr. Whitaker in fact did have conversations about investigations out of the Southern District of New York and either those reports are wrong or Mr. Whitaker made a statement that was not true to the Judiciary Committee.

We are going to find that out and have him clarify what he meant as well as some other issues that he talked about during the open hearing.

BLITZER: You'll let us know what goes on. We appreciate it very much. Congressman Ted Lieu, thank you.

LIEU: Thank you, Wolf.

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