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

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

BLITZER: Jim Acosta joining us from Florida on the scene. We'll see what happens later tonight.

Joining us now, Democratic congresswoman Pramila Jayapal of Washington State, a member of the Judiciary Committee.

Congresswoman, thanks so much for joining us. You just voted to hold the attorney general in contempt for not providing the unredacted Mueller report. Your critics are already saying the Republicans are insisting this is simply a Democratic political stunt.

Your reaction?

REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D), WASHINGTON: Well, it's far from a stunt. It's far from a game. I really think this is one of the most serious constitutional moments we have faced. And looking specifically at the foundations of our democracy, our founders were smart enough, Wolf, to have three branches of government --

[17:15:00] JAYAPAL: -- that are supposed to be co-equal so that power wouldn't be concentrated into the hands of one person or a few people, so that there would be oversight of each branch on the other.

If the president now has decided that he is going to absolutely ignore every lawfully authorized subpoena, he's going to now ignore every request for a witness to come and testify, if he is going to exert blanket executive privilege, which by the way, legally he can't do. He already waived executive privilege around the Mueller report.

And now he's trying to assert it over everything and hide what is in the Mueller report.

We are at a deeply disturbing moment in our country's history. The difference between a dictatorship and a democracy is that a democracy has checks and balances. If you take away the entire authority and say one branch is not going to respect the authority of the other, then I think we, every American should be deeply concerned.

BLITZER: The Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler says you're now in a constitutional crisis. His words, constitutional crisis. But impeachment, he says, may not be the best answer.

So what other options do you have?

JAYAPAL: I don't think we've taken anything off the table. I think everything depends on what the president's behavior and the administration's behavior is going forward. Obviously this contempt vote today in committee now moves it directly to the floor, that, once it passes the floor, which I believe it will, we then have the courts and we also have an inherent contempt authority. We have some remedies there.

And then I think the bigger question is, what happens with Don McGahn?

Does the Department of Justice reel this back and provide us with the unredacted Mueller report, which by the way almost every Republican voted on the floor of the House several months ago to release that Mueller report.

That has not happened. So we need to see.

Are they going to provide us with the Mueller report and the underlying information and are they going to allow Don McGahn to testify?

Those are very, very important pieces that we still need to look at.

BLITZER: The other breaking news we're following right now, Congresswoman, the Senate Intelligence Committee has just subpoenaed Donald Trump Jr. to testify and we're told he is considering pleading the Fifth or not showing up.

What's your reaction to this dramatic development?

JAYAPAL: My first reaction was, thank God there's some bipartisanship. I've been so disappointed in my Republican colleagues, who refuse to understand or support the foundations that they were sworn in to support, the Constitution.

So I'm glad there's some bipartisanship in the Senate. But Don Jr.'s refusal to testify or to plead the Fifth is just another example.

Wolf, if Attorney General Barr had come in last week to testify before us, my whole line of questioning was going to be around ongoing obstruction of justice. And I see these attempts, Don Jr. refusing to testify, the president denying subpoenas, authorized subpoenas, the president refusing to allow witnesses to testify, that is all ongoing obstruction of justice and incredibly dangerous for our Constitution and our democracy.

BLITZER: Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, thank you so much for joining us.

JAYAPAL: Thank you, Wolf.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source