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

Interview

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BLITZER: Yes, these congressional investigations continuing nonstop.

Manu Raju, up on Capitol Hill, thank you.

Joining us now, Congressman Jimmy Gomez, a Democrat. He serves on both the Oversight and Ways and Means Committees.

Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

Let's get right to the impending release of the Mueller report. Sources tell CNN there's right now a lot of anxiety inside the White House about some of the details that may be revealed. What will you be looking for in these 400 pages?

REP. JIMMY GOMEZ (D-CA): First, Wolf, I want to just say to the people of Paris that my hearts go out to them.

I actually proposed to my wife in Paris. So it's a dear place. And, actually, today's my anniversary. So, I'm -- but I'm here with you.

I just want to say...

BLITZER: Happy anniversary.

GOMEZ: Thank you.

I want to say this. I'm not looking for anything in particular. What I'm trying to do seeing what is in the report. We have no idea what's in the report. So, that's why the Democrats have been calling out that this report should be released with no redactions, with supporting documents, so the American people can see and read for themselves what Mueller found in his investigation, and then draw their own conclusions.

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BLITZER: What about classified information?

GOMEZ: I think that we should -- we should unredact as most of -- as much as possible. And if there's some stuff that's redacted, I will -- I can understand that.

But if it's 90 percent of the report, then something is wrong, something is fishy. And it's because everybody -- first, I don't trust this administration. And whenever they have a chance to protect the president or to side with the American people, they always choose this president.

BLITZER: You sit on the House Oversight Committee, which is also digging right now into the president's finances, including documents from the president's accounting firm when he was a private citizen.

What specific information do you want to see?

GOMEZ: Well, one of the things that we have -- when we had that hearing with Michael Cohen, he really kind of spelled out how this president manipulated his wealth in order to get a better financing or to reduce his penalties when it came to insurance.

So, we have always had a lot of questions about how this president was using his financial statements. And then, at the same time, do they match up what he was reporting on his taxes? We don't have access to his taxes yet. And we don't have his financial statements.

So, if we can get a hold of both, that will tell the American people a whole lot.

BLITZER: As you know, the president's personal attorneys, they have threatened legal action if that accounting firm he used to work with cooperates with you in Congress.

Do you worry that's going to be a major hurdle for your committee?

GOMEZ: I'm not sure if anybody is surprised that he has attorneys threatening not only his financial firm, but also trying to bully Congress.

We're not surprised. So, is it going to be an obstacle? It's just part of the course when it comes to this administration. They -- when we call for transparency, they say it's presidential harassment. When we actually try to hold this administration accountable through investigations and oversight, they attack us.

And then, at the same time, they resort to name-calling when they feel cornered. So, I'm not surprised about this -- this latest attack.

BLITZER: Is there anything you can do to protect the entities like this accounting firm, for example, that decide to cooperate fully with your committee?

GOMEZ: Off the top my head, I'm not sure.

But I know that Chairman Cummings is probably looking at all options. I trust his expertise and I trust the committee staff. We don't know. First, they haven't come forward. So we're going to push it as much as we possibly can.

BLITZER: The president's attorneys have also raised concerns about weaponizing the IRS in order to get his tax returns. Do you think there's potential for Congress down the road to abuse that power?

GOMEZ: I want to be very clear. We wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for this president not releasing his tax returns when he was running for president.

It's something that has been done by Democrats and Republicans alike for the past 40 years. So, we wouldn't even be in this situation if the president would have just followed custom and practice and did the right thing.

At the same time, this is not something that has never been done by Chairman Neal or the Ways and Means Committee. We have asked for documents in the past. It's never been denied, not once in the history of this law and the statute, which is 6103-F.

So, no, it cannot be weaponized if we do it in the appropriate way. And that's what Chairman Neal is doing.

BLITZER: Congressman Jimmy Gomez of California, thanks so much for joining us.

GOMEZ: Thank you for having me.

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