Fox News "The Story" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Doug Collins

Interview

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MACCALLUM: Joining me now Republican Congressman Doug Collins of Georgia, the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee. Sir, welcome. Good to have you here tonight. There are reports this evening that the Attorney General is assembling a team to look into that at the Department of Justice. Are you aware of that?

REP. DOUG COLLINS, R-GA: I'm not aware with it from firsthand, Martha. But if that is what he has said, I believe him. Bill Barr has been a straight shooter. From the moment he has been sworn in, he has done exactly what he said he would do. He has done it in a way that is consistent with regulations, consistent with the law, and he is also interested like many of us have been and actually how we got here.

It's not just a place that Mueller has come out with his report and we have found that there was no collusion, that there's not a charge of obstruction, there was nothing there. But it's now important to find out how did this actually start and that's what we're looking forward to and we're glad to hear that he's actually looking into it.

MACCALLUM: Here's Adam Schiff on what he heard in there today. Oh, OK, I'm sorry, Schumer that's what I meant. Senator Schumer, please. Play that.

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SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, D-N.Y., SENATE MINORITY LEADER: Thus far, I don't think Barr has conducted himself in a manner that earns people's trust. To call me dubious that he's going to be fair unless he proves otherwise.

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MACCALLUM: Schumer does not agree with what you just said.

COLLINS: Well, most of it won't agree with Chuck Schumer on many things anyway especially when it comes to this issue because he has played into the just stereotypical of going down a road of saying here's what we believe and we'll find the facts later. What we found is someone who has actually earned trust because he's done what exactly what he said he would do.

The problem the Democrats have is they've put out a line out there, they based their whole atmosphere on the idea that the president committed collusion. He had been obstructing on justice. When they found out that didn't happen, now they're going back in attacking.

It is disturbing to me that they're attacking Bill Barr, someone who they had actually praised before the report ever came out. That's where you see real intentions.

MACCALLUM: Yes. I mean, he did -- he got three votes in the Senate to confirm him. It was a very unconscious process for the Attorney General who was widely perceived as being somebody that was you know, a straight shooter as you say, and that's why I think that process was so uneventful for him. But now they -- some of them definitely feel differently.

One of the things that is also being pressed on is the answer that the Attorney General gave to whether or not he shared any of the report with the White House which he said he chose not to answer. He will have another opportunity tomorrow to clarify that when he testifies on the Senate side. Do you want to hear an answer to that?

COLLINS: Well, I think he sort of give that indication already that he's doing this independently and that's what we've seen so far in him. He didn't answer the question directly but he's gave indication before that he was doing this, putting it together, and not being influenced by anyone outside. I think that's important for people to know.

And it's also important to know that Mueller is working with the Attorney General on the report that's coming out. This is not just simply Bill Barr sitting in a room by himself making. This up this is something that's working with him in Rod Rosenstein which is not mentioned a great deal. He is working on this along with the Mueller team as well.

MACCALLUM: Yes. I think that that's a very important element for people to remember is that this is not as you say, the Attorney General is not doing this on his own. It's a that they're all going through together as they get ready to release this. Although there was a headline today that said that Robert Mueller declined to look at Barr's letter before it went out. Do you -- how do you take that? What do you take away from that?

COLLINS: I take it that Robert Mueller had trust in the Attorney General to present the facts as he was -- he had presented it to them. Remember, Bill Barr, the Attorney General is getting the rap that he made up this statement of his interpretation or what he thought their report should say.

Remember, he got the report from Robert Mueller who had actually had these conclusions in them. He simply put those in as he stated today. That was the statements of findings from the report itself. We can't divorce this.

And again, the Democrats have a narrative that has went bankrupt. So all they can do is let's try to split hairs on why we think Bill Barr may be hiding something or Bill Barr might be doing something and he actually just got this from Bob Mueller. And that's why we said, you know, if the chairman is truly serious about this and he wants this information, there's two ways to go about it.

They can quit dancing around impeachment, and if that's what they truly want in their heart to do is trying to impeach this president, go down that road or better yet call Robert Mueller to testify before us.

MACCALLUM: Which I know you want -- you want. Very quick question, I'm almost out of time. But I know that you've been releasing testimony. You released -- you released Mr. Baker, James Baker's testimony, but I also know that Andrew McCabe has asked for his testimony to be released because he believes that it will show that he needed -- he didn't need -- that he did have other information besides the dossier. Are you going to release Andrew McCabe's testimony as well?

COLLINS: Well, let Mr. McCabe understand he is definitely in line. But also understand McCabe was in the very early in the process and we're going to continue to look at that. Mr McCabe has a lot of answering and I know he wants to sell books, but he has a lot of answering to do as well.

MACCALLUM: But you say you will release his testimony?

COLLINS: His is in the process, yes.

MACCALLUM: OK. All right, thank you very much, Doug Collins. Good to have you here tonight, sir.

COLLINS: Good to be with you.

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