CNN "Erin Burnett Outfront" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Smith

Interview

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BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Kara.

I want to go now to the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Democratic Congressman Adam Smith. Congressman, I appreciate your time.

So, you know, Congressman, Michael Flynn and other top White House officials were pushing this plan, right, to transfer this nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia. You know, you hear they're saying there were at least half a dozen times that it was raised that this at best could be inappropriate and unethical, at worst, illegal. Do you have any concern there were quid pro quos here?

REP. ADAM SMITH (D-WA), CHAIRMAN, HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Absolutely. I mean, this is the big problem with president Trump having the business interests that he continues to have and not disclosing them. There's no transparency.

We know that Trump industries, the companies, they're done business with Saudi Arabia. They've gotten money from Saudi Arabia, just like they've gotten money from Russian interests as well as part of their private industry. We don't know the details.

So, when something like this comes up, you have to ask yourself the question, is the president looking after the interests of the United States or looking after his own personal business interests? And then you mix in Michael Flynn and all these others who have been getting paid. Michael Flynn was paid, that's part of the reason he's going to jail, by sovereign funds from -- by the Russian government, I believe by the Turkey government as well.

So, is it the U.S. interests or is it the business interests of Donald Trump and the people around him? And we don't know.

BURNETT: And we don't know. Of course, when you talk about it impacting policy, talk about transferring technology. Of course, you're also, you know, talking about this whole situation, you know, with this horrible dismemberment of American journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

SMITH: Right.

BURNETT: The president has deep ties to Saudi Arabia, we know this, Congressman. This has been going on for a long time. He visited, his first trip as president, as I mentioned, $110 billion arms deal with the country announced at that time. Jared Kushner apparently hangs out with the crown prince until 4:00 in the morning once, talks to him regularly on a first-name basis.

And in terms of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the president refuses, is in defiance of Congress right now, he won't hand over -- won't say that it was done at the direction of the Saudi crown prince, even his own intelligence has said it. In fact, he takes the crown prince's side publicly repeatedly like this.

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BURNETT: How much looking into does this warrant? I mean, obviously --

SMITH: A great deal.

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BURNETT: -- we talked so much about Russia. Sorry. Go ahead.

SMITH: Particularly when you're talking about the murder of Khashoggi. I mean, it's slam dunk as far as the intelligence community is concerned.

Saudi Arabia obviously did it. They fully believe that MBS was involved. So ignoring that is just wrong, and, again, points up to the conflict.

Now, I will point out one fact that you ought to know. We have negotiated. We've negotiated with the United Arab Emirates on a similar deal regarding nuclear power.

BURNETT: Yes.

SMITH: And the agreement is, you know, they don't get to generate anything. The nuclear material has to come in from the outside, has to be disposed.

BURNETT: Right.

SMITH: So this type of an agreement can be negotiated with, as we did with the UAE, with Saudi Arabia. But here, there's such a conflict. When you hear the president dismissing the obvious facts of what Saudi Arabia has done, it gives considerable concern.

BURNETT: Right. Of course, there's that nuclear power facility near Abu Dhabi.

I want to ask you about the president declaring a national emergency to secure funding for the wall, chairman. I know this is very important to you. Sixteen states have now sued to stop it. The president today says, hey, I'm not worried about it at all. Here he is.

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BURNETT: The ninth circuit has ruled in his favor recently regarding the wall. Is he right, this is open and closed?

SMITH: No, it's absolutely not. If reports are to be believed, his own lawyers have told him that he's wrong on this.

Look, there's a degree of nuance here. I mean, first of all, you can argue over whether or not this is actually an emergency. But the real part of this that's clearly illegal, the national emergency statute from 1976 does give the president broad authority to declare an emergency, but when he's going to take money from other agencies, it is very prescriptive about where that money has to go.

And the money that he wants to take out of DOD, I mean, let's not forget for the moment that even if he could do this, it's still a terrible idea. It is not our top national security priority to build a wall at our southern border that people will go under and over, anyway. Taking money out of the Department of Defense for this purpose makes us less safe.

But it's also illegal because the law says that you can only use money from the military construction budget to build something that is going to provide protection for U.S. Armed Forces. And President Trump has made it clear, this wall is to stop people coming across the border and threatening the country. It has nothing to do with force protection within the military.

And, therefore, I think the slam dunk goes the other way. This is clearly an illegal action.

BURNETT: All right. Chairman, thank you very much.

SMITH: Thank you.

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