CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Mazie Hirono

Interview

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BLITZER: Clearly the Democrats in the House, they want to hear from Mueller. They want to hear from Flynn. They want to hear from everyone associated with this. Don McGahn, former White House counsel. Guys, thanks very much.

Joining us now, Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, she's a key member of both the Judiciary and Armed Services Committees. Senator thanks so much for joining us.

SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D), HAWAII: Good to see you.

BLITZER: Let's begin with the breaking news. What's your reaction, first of all, to the treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, defying a Congressional subpoena to get six years of the president's tax returns?

HIRONO: I think this kind of defiant attitude comes straight from the top. This is a committee that is entitled to the tax returns and really, we have to ask, what is the president hiding? Now, we know that probably he didn't make a lot of money.

He actually was a terrible businessperson. And that he probably didn't pay taxes and took a lot of losses and write-offs. So, sure, I would think that the president is very interested in having his treasury secretary just stonewall everything. But this kind of stonewalling comes from the top. And that's the president. He's protecting himself.

BLITZER: Richard Neal, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in the House issued a statement just now, but he concluded by saying, given the treasury secretary's failure to comply today, I am consulting with counsel on how best to enforce the subpoenas moving forward. I assume that means they're going to go to court.

HIRONO: I think so. But isn't it amazing that this is the kind of modus operandi of this administration and this president that they just stonewall everything. It's very much the way he transacted business when he was not the president. You just stonewall everything. You force everybody to go into court. You wait everybody out. You have people holding the bag. And this is what the president does. The rule of law in his view does not apply to him.

BLITZER: All right. Let's move on to some other sensitive issues. Does Congress right now need to subpoena the president's fired former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, so he can give his account of people trying to influence his cooperation with the Special Counsel Robert Mueller?

HIRONO: Well, that is a bombshell. So maybe they should just invite Michael Flynn. Maybe, you know, he'll be very cooperative with the Congress, also. But if he doesn't come on his own volition, then they should subpoena him. Because, obviously, he has a lot of information that is relevant to what the House has to look at. And sadly, none of that, apparently, is the going to happen in the Senate.

BLITZER: Flynn is, by the way, awaiting sentencing as we speak. What, specifically, Senator, would you ask Flynn if he did appear before your committee?

HIRONO: A lot more about what could be deemed an obstruction of justice effort by the president and his team. And yes, there might be legal issues involved, attorney/client privilege and all of that, but there's nothing like hearing from the source. And that means Michael Flynn. In addition, we're still waiting to have Mueller come and testify.

And there are, you know, Barr should testify, especially after the press conference that he gave recently, where he seemed to be just enjoying himself immensely, being the president's personal lawyer as opposed to the attorney general of the people of this country.

BLITZER: If these contacts with people inside the White House or Congress were intended to influence Flynn's cooperation with Mueller, why do you think Mueller declined to charge any of these individuals potentially with obstruction.

HIRONO: Well, as your previous commentator said, that there may be attorney/client privilege issues, we don't know. That's why we need to hear from Mueller. We need to hear from Flynn. We need to hear from a whole bunch of other people, probably.

So starting with Mueller and now that we have this revelation about Flynn, thank goodness that there is a Judiciary judges who are not just going along with whatever the president and Barr wants. The independence of the Judiciary is critical and we see that almost on a daily basis now.

BLITZER: Attorney General Barr says he's moving ahead with his plans to investigate the origins, the Russia investigators, whether it's the FBI, the Justice Department, the CIA, elsewhere. He says he has a lot more questions today than when he started and raised the specter of U.S. government officials potentially abusing their power as they carried out the probe. What do you make of the attorney general's concerns about this new investigation into origins of the Russia probe?

HIRONO: These concerns are the concerns of somebody who is the president's lawyer and not the attorney general of our country. Remember when he was up for his confirmation hearing and he was asked, do you think the Russia probe is a witch hunt and he said, "no."

[17:15:05] So now suddenly that he is the attorney general, he acts more and more like the total mouthpiece of the president. It is more than disappointing and I had called on him earlier to resign and he should do so. But, of course, we all know he's not, because he's just enjoying himself.

BLITZER: Senator Hirono, thanks so much for joining us.

HIRONO: Thank you.

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