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

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

REP. DOUG COLLINS, R-GA: Good to see you as well.

HENRY: A few moments ago, one of the leaders on the Democratic side, Jim Clyburn, said, there is not a majority for impeachment in the House. So, what's the point of all this?

COLLINS: The point is they have a base to feed, and that base to feed is rapidly saying, we want to impeach the president. But they got a problem. The problem is the president came -- the Mueller report came back, it did not show what they wanted, there is no collusion, no obstruction. And when they look at it, they look at an economy that is booming, they look at a president who is in control.

And then they have to feed to different bases. One says impeach, one says, go after Trump, do everything they can to destroy the president. While the others in their caucus are saying, we don't want this. Our voters don't want this, and they want to move slowly.

So, they -- look, they lose on the politics, they lose on the facts, and so now, the American people are the ones losing in the end because they're not doing anything with the majority they have in the aisle.

HENRY: Joy Behar was on "The View", saying that they're calling you out. Calling every Republican in Congress, all Republican leaders, and said you're not standing up to this president, and you should go to jail. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOY BEHAR, HOST, ABC: Nixon would be so -- he -- was says, I was in the wrong period of history. He was -- he would have gotten away with everything just like this corrupt president is getting away with. This is an unbelievable corruption -- corrupt president, corrupt administration. And the Republican Party is right behind him, and they all should be go thrown into jail as far as I'm concerned.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: How do you react to that when only Justin Amash, as you know is your only colleague who was saying there should be impeachment?

COLLINS: Well, it's really interesting to have a talk-show host who's not looked at any of the -- and probably, not read the Mueller report. Not looked at the things that I've had the privilege to look at. And also look at it from the perspective of she had her mind made up a long time ago.

She didn't like this president, she didn't like him as a candidate. And so, now they're trying to tell us that a president who's doing exactly what he said he was going to do, to do and work with an economy, to work with our -- with the House to -- in the last two years, to bring down deregulation, to bring down our businesses so that they can actually do that job.

Again, this is the rhetoric that really frankly Americans are tired of. They're tired of hearing from talk-show host, who just spout off about what they ever wanted to believe in, instead of saying what is actually happening, and that's why the Democrats are torn up right now.

HENRY: Yes, well, Congressman, let me press you on that point though, because you talk about the good things you say the president has done like create jobs. Shouldn't he be focused on creating more jobs, health care, infrastructure, was supposed to be the topic today. He wants to get the USMCA -- the Canada-Mexico free trade agreement done.

How does it help his case, and your case to actually get this work done for the American people if he walks out of a meeting with the Democrats?

COLLINS: Well, it's very interesting, it's so amazing. Why would the pass be given or the blame be thrown at the president when you have the Speaker of the House actually accused him basically of a crime today before she ever gets there?

Henry: Yes.

COLLINS: The president is like anyone else. He wants to do business, he wants to try, but when you have people basically, kicking sand in his face, or accusing him of a crime, he's going to react.

This president is passionate about the American people. He's passionate about putting Americans back to work. He's passionate about doing infrastructure. And what we've seen so far is the Democrats including this speaker is passionate about keeping her job and telling everybody else what they've done wrong, and that's just the wrong idea. They want to see him defeated in 2020, instead of actually having an agenda here in the House.

HENRY: I want to close on something that you've been passionate about which is investigating the investigators. You released another transcript of these closed-door interviews in the last 24 hours. Loretta Lynch, the former Obama attorney general, where she basically says that James Comey is not telling the truth, she did not tell him to call the Clinton e-mail investigation a matter.

Was James Comey have a problem? Did he lie under oath?

COLLINS: I think, he's got a lot to answer for. And I think lately, he's been going around trying to tell everybody that he's OK and that his version is right because when this cuff comes out, you know -- really, for this matter, James Comey is 15 minutes or up. It's time for the people to see exactly what was going on, that he was a part of this cabal that was working against this president from day one.

And he's trying to cover his tracks because what's happening is as we release transcripts, as more becomes when the attorney general is actually looking at how this got started. Jim Comey's version of Captain America is going to become very embarrassing, I think, to the American public as they see further what he actually did.

HENRY: Is this part of the reason we're seeing more subpoenas from House Democrats they're nervous about what Bill Barr and others may find out about what happened?

COLLINS: I think their time is running out. I think what they're finding is that the Mueller report was just the first of this, and now those of us who have been investigating what actually happened here as the inspector general's report comes out later is Mr. Durham continues his work, they're going to find out that there's a lot more at play here, and it was actually a concerted effort it seems to be at the candidate Trump, and then, President Trump in his early years just to derail his presidency.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source