CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Jimmy Gomez

Interview

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BLITZER: And 193 of those days at his golf clubs. This is day 868 of his presidency.

Pamela Brown, thank you very much for that report.

Joining us now, Congressman Jimmy Gomez, a Democrat who serves on the Oversight and Ways and Means committees.

Thanks so much, Congressman, for joining us.

REP. JIMMY GOMEZ (D-CA): Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Let me get your reaction, first of all, to the breaking news. You have heard it, that the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jerry Nadler, is privately lobbying the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, to open a formal impeachment inquiry.

Are you with Nadler or are you with Pelosi?

GOMEZ: You know, it's not a question of who I'm with.

I voted first twice -- I have said this before -- twice to start debate on impeachment. And I will do it again.

At the same time, Nancy Pelosi is the quarterback of our team, although different people play different positions, and some people are more aggressive. It make -- we want to make sure that we do get it right.

So I'm with Nancy and I'm with Nadler in different respects. First, Nancy's our leader. Nadler is making sure that we line up the facts and the case, so that we when we do approach impeachment, and if we do, that we can make sure that it's successful.

BLITZER: When I spoke to the Judiciary Committee chairman, Jerry Nadler, yesterday here in THE SITUATION ROOM, he wouldn't commit to waiting for Nancy Pelosi's blessings before opening an impeachment inquiry.

What message would it send if Nadler were to defy the speaker of the House?

GOMEZ: I'm not sure if he will defy the speaker of the House.

This is still Nancy Pelosi, and everybody's behind her. He might not want to commit in public, but I don't think that he's going to break ranks.

BLITZER: What do you make of his argument that a formal impeachment probe would centralize all the various investigations in the House of Representatives and actually wind up giving more power to investigate?

GOMEZ: He's the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, so he knows what he's talking about.

But, at the same time, you still have Chairman Adam Schiff of the Intelligence Committee. You still have Richie Neal. You still have Elijah Cummings. Unless everybody's on board, which it doesn't sound like everybody's on board, I don't think that's going to happen.

BLITZER: The speaker responded to Nadler in that closed-door meeting, we're told, by saying that she doesn't want to see the president impeached, she wants to see him in prison. She wants to see the president of the United States in prison.

It's an extraordinary statement from the speaker of the House. Do you agree with her?

GOMEZ: I want to see justice served. I want to see this president held accountable. And that's why you see so many investigations going on. That's why you have investigation into his financial documents that the committee I'm on, Oversight, is conducting.

That's why you have the intelligence community following up on the leads and the facts regarding the foreign interests of this president. So I think we need to conduct these investigations and let those end up where they're going.

If it determines that we lead to impeachment, or if he ends up in jail, so be it.

BLITZER: Because maybe you can explain this to me. If she believes the president of the United States committed crimes that potentially could lead to imprisonment, how can she justify not opening impeachment proceedings?

GOMEZ: I don't know everything that she's thinking about.

But I know that a lot of times, when people always ask, what's the next step, what's the next step, Nancy Pelosi is always thinking about that next step. You open up an impeachment proceeding, you end up having a vote, it passes the House. Then you end up in the Senate.

If you end up in the Senate, with Mitch McConnell, you better have a mountain of evidence, because this guy is not going to risk his majority. He has 22 seats up in 2020. If he actually, say, removes the president, which I highly doubt that that's what he will do, it would cost him the majority of his house, because you would suppress his own base.

So we're going to go into the Senate and take on Mitch McConnell, well, we better have guns loaded and have -- be ready to bear, because this is going to be a fight.

BLITZER: You also heard for the first time today the actual voice- mail from John Dowd, who was the president's top lawyer at the time, to Michael Flynn's lawyer. And Flynn was not only the former national security adviser to the president, but a key witness in the entire Mueller investigation.

[18:20:05]

How do you interpret that message, Congressman?

GOMEZ: I -- it's interesting that this recording came out. Last night, I flew back to Los Angeles. I didn't have Wi-Fi. So what I ended up doing was rereading the Mueller report. And I reread that section. And I highlighted it, because it's actually on my phone. I'm reading it on my iPhone.

And I highlighted that section, because it was very, very questionable, when he -- what he was trying to suggest. At the same time, it also points out -- later on in that same page, it points out that Trump's attorney, when he was told by Flynn's attorney not -- that he couldn't give them any more information, that he would tell the president -- Trump's attorney would tell the president that that was hostile actions towards the president.

So, in my eyes, it's what the folks associated with this administration have always done, which was to dodge, lie to protect this president. At the same time, I want to tell people that we want to make sure that we follow all this evidence forward, all this evidence to the logical conclusion.

If it's obstruction, then we're going to bring it out. And we want to make sure that this is read out loud, in public, and make sure that everybody understands what's going on.

BLITZER: We have some brand-new information. And I want to get your thoughts.

We have just learned, Congressman, that the Justice Department has now responded to your committee, the House Oversight Committee, in its investigation into the 2020 census and the citizenship question.

The Department of Justice said it was working to get the House Oversight Committee more documents in response to the subpoena for information regarding the 2020 census. But they call your committee's decision to go ahead with contempt premature.

That's the new information. What's your reaction?

GOMEZ: I think that's nonsense.

We have -- we have been working on this issue for a number of months. We have been really questioning the fact on what motivated the Census Bureau, what motivated the Department of Commerce to add the citizenship question. They're not giving us the information.

And since they're not giving us the information, if we need it, we issued a subpoena. And if they don't respond, we're going to issue that contempt. I think that's the way we have to go.

BLITZER: They're also suggesting in this new statement they released, this letter they released, that if you go ahead and issue this contempt citation, they're just simply going to stop cooperating with you.

GOMEZ: That doesn't make a difference. We're going to -- they haven't been cooperating with us anyways.

So we have to make sure that we keep pushing our case forward. And then, if we have to go to court, we will go to court once again.

BLITZER: So this is a significant development. It looks like they're stonewalling on a whole bunch of issues. You're on these two committees, the Oversight Committee, the Ways and Means Committee.

Your Ways and Means Committee, you want to see the president's tax returns for the past six years. You believe you have a strong case. How's that working out so far?

GOMEZ: Hey, we're in -- we're following it through.

And one of the things that I have always said, and I have said it on this show, and I just said it, this president, as well as everybody associated, they have one strategy. It's called dodge, delay and lie.

And I want the American people to know it, because they're going to keep doing it. But we're going to follow every piece of evidence. We're going to issue subpoenas. We're going to -- if they don't follow up on the subpoena, we're going to issue contempt.

And if they don't have -- if they don't follow up on the contempt, then we're going to go to court. And you know what? We're winning in the court right now on the fact that we have a right to investigate and hold this administration accountable.

BLITZER: Congressman Jimmy Gomez, thanks so much for joining us.

GOMEZ: Thank you.

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