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

Interview

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BLITZER: Clearly the stakes are enormous. Manu Raju on Capitol Hill, thank you.

Joining us now, Democratic congressman Andre Carson of Indiana. He's a member of the Intelligence Committee.

Congressman, thanks so much for joining us. Let's get to the breaking news right away. The president says he may hold a news conference on the Mueller report tomorrow. We're already hearing from White House officials who are having some serious second thoughts about having cooperated with the special counsel.

Does that tell you anything about what we should expect from this redacted version of the Mueller report?

REP. ANDRE CARSON (D-IN): In many ways, yes. I think the president wants to get ahead of the media frenzy that will inevitably take place as a result of the full report being released.

I'm concerned about the redactions in the report, what it means, to what extent are we protecting sensitive sources and methods and, hopefully as we go further, how much of it is -- how broad is it, how ambiguous is it?

I'm hoping we don't get muddled with redactions that we can't get to the root of the report. And if the president really believes that no wrongdoing has taken place, he should feel OK.

But I think what Director Mueller has essentially done since the president hasn't been indicted, he's really left the task up to Congress. After we review the legal nuance and comb through this report, he's left the task of indictment. If there's a cause for indictment, he's left it up to Congress.

BLITZER: The attorney general, William Barr, is going to hold a news conference at 9:30 am tomorrow morning here in Washington. We don't know if the full report will have been released by then. We hope it will have been released a few hours earlier so people could go through, read the 400-page document and ask tough, serious questions.

But is he trying -- already there's some speculation the attorney general is trying to control the narrative.

What's your reaction?

CARSON: Of course he is. The attorney general was handpicked by the president, given his history, to essentially protect the president. So both the president and the attorney general are essentially working together in a very real sense to get ahead of the messaging, to get ahead of the narrative, to kind of frame this in a way that will not impact the president going into the 2020 election.

BLITZER: The report is supposedly close to 400 pages. We don't know how many of those pages will be blacked out or redacted.

What specific information will you be looking for as you read through the document?

CARSON: I think things that haven't been established. I'll be looking for things like the extent of the president's associates, even the president himself, in terms of the obstruction of justice, those persons who went before the House Intel Committee, of which I serve.

To what extent did they try to obstruct justice or even lie to the Intelligence Committee? Those are the kinds of things I'll be looking for. Also, looking at things that are unredacted, certain individuals who have acted as sources, critical sources.

But I understand, as being the chairman over the Counter Intelligence Subcommittee on Intelligence that there are serious national security concerns that probably should not be made available to the public, Wolf. So we have to protect those things as well.

But in a very real sense, I want the American people to see to it that we're being good stewards over their taxpayer dollars and their personal interests as this report is released.

BLITZER: You don't want sensitive, classified information that could undermine sources and methods to be released to the public.

But do you want your committee to have access to that information?

CARSON: Without question. I think the committees who deal with that kind of information, the Intel Committee and certainly the Judiciary Committee and Democratic leadership will have that kind of information. But the law of averages, once you have so many human beings involved, that information will inevitably get leaked at some point.

BLITZER: Congressman Andre Carson, thank you for joining us.

[17:25:00]

CARSON: Thank you.

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