CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Mike Quigley
Interview
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REP. MIKE QUIGLEY (D-IL): -- dangerous. And if allowed to, will create a very dangerous precedent for the future.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Congressman, just to be clear on what you just said, are you saying that what the president is doing now is, in your words, quote, "far worse than what Russia did to our democracy during the 2016 election?"
QUIGLEY: We can inoculate ourselves against what the Russians did. Well, we can educate the public, we can defend ourselves from cyber- attacks. What I'm suggesting is, a profound change in the ability, the integrity, the independence of the Justice Department and the intelligence community, that will have a longer-lasting impact than what the Russians did.
What the Russians did was -- what did Mike Morell call it -- the political equivalent of 9/11. Absolutely. But if presidents are allowed to use law enforcement to go after their political enemies, where does it end? That's a self-inflicted wound, real damage to our democracy.
HARLOW: So you are -- I mean, you are saying it is far, far --
QUIGLEY: Oh, absolutely.
HARLOW: -- worse? OK. We have to see how this plays out. You believe that it is politically motivated to go against political enemies. I hear you on that.
Let me ask you this, though. Of course there is the irony of the White House fighting to keep so much of the Mueller report -- underlying evidence, testimony surrounding it from McGahn, et cetera -- secret, hidden, right? And then pushing for full transparency on this front, on the origins of the Russia probe.
I get the irony. But I wonder, sir, if there's any risk to Democrats in terms of at least optically, pushing against this latest probe by Barr into the origins of the Russia investigation, transparency there, while pushing for it on the Mueller report. What do you think?
QUIGLEY: I think it's different things. How did all of this begin? The first notion that the president of the United States was going to question the intelligence community or his predecessor, was -- it was a Saturday morning some time ago. The president woke up, read something in "Breitbart," and accused President Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower.
Of course, there was no truth to this. And there was a long string. A litany of accusations -- unfounded, unproven by the president -- attacking his predecessor and how this investigation began. None of them have borne out.
There have been investigations. My committee, the Intelligence Committee, is the oversight authority over the intelligence community. We would want to know if there were abuses. Absolutely none have been found. So this is yet another assault using the Justice Department, in reality, not just to go after an internal investigation, but to go after his political enemies.
And so looking back for the big picture, Russia attacked our democracy. Chairman Nunes at the time, from the intelligence community, and the president of the United States, locked arms and they joined in the fight by attacking the FBI and the entire intelligence community, its own Justice Department. The assault continues.
HARLOW: Congressman, let me turn the page and talk about impeachment. You said earlier -- you said this in February to "The New York Times -- that Democrats need to be, in your words, quote, "patient and practical" about impeachment. And I'm wondering if there is anything that has changed in your stance since then.
QUIGLEY: Well, that was before we found out everything about Manafort and Cohen and the --
HARLOW: Right.
QUIGLEY: -- release of the redacted report. I think what we have to recall here is -- and the speaker's strategy follows the notion that -- we can count votes in the Senate. And this, indeed, is a fight for the hearts and minds of the American public.
Simply impeaching the president on the House side isn't going to remove him --
HARLOW: That's right.
QUIGLEY: -- because they don't have the votes. So you've got to appreciate, this could backfire. We've had two important victories this week in court, where the courts recognized the broad sweeping authority of the House to investigate, especially when -- we're talking about an obstruction after the fact.
But what we're talking about earlier, to me, that moves the needle and it goes from the president abusing his power in the matter of obstruction, to the president of the United States assaulting and weaponizing the Constitution using the law enforcement power he has.
So, look, I think we need to continue to move along the path we have. And I think there'll be continued victories in the court system. But the president of the United States, as he moves toward a more dangerous tack, risks putting the House in a position where it has absolutely no choice.
[10:35:08] HARLOW: OK. It sounds like you're not there yet, but you may be moved there.
Let me ask you --
QUIGLEY: Yes.
HARLOW: -- in the short amount of time we have left, about something very important -- I think -- and that is the president, just this week, raised the possibility of easing restrictions on the Chinese tech giant Huawei, as part of an attempt to get a trade deal with China.
In the (ph) very same week that he called Huawei "very dangerous" for American national security, and the U.S. Department of Commerce put Huawei on the trade blacklist. Is that a good idea, to go easier on Huawei to get a trade deal with China?
QUIGLEY: It shouldn't be part of a quid-pro-quo. China and its security threats and its cyber-threats to the United States are very real. It is an existential threat to the United States security for a whole variety of reasons. That takes a broad-ranging systematic approach to address the Chinese assault.
Using it as a bargaining chip without getting to the core of the matter, the broad-ranging issues that we must address when it comes to telecommunication and even rail cars, belittles it. This is something we need to focus on and not throw off as a onetime offer.
HARLOW: OK. Congressman Mike Quigley, I appreciate having you on, on all of this. Thank you very much.
QUIGLEY: Happy holidays.
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