CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Ted Lieu

Interview

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BLITZER: Interesting, Kaitlin, thank you.

Kaitlan Collins at the White House.

Joining us now, Democratic congressman Ted Lieu of California. He's a member of both the Judiciary and the Foreign Affairs Committees.

Congressman, thank you so much more joining us. And I want to quickly start with the breaking news. Hope Hicks, the former White House communications director, will testify before your committee behind closed doors next week.

What do you want to ask her?

REP. TED LIEU (D), CALIFORNIA: Thank you, Wolf, for your question. This is a significant first step for the American people in the House Judiciary Committee to learn more about the obstruction of justice that Donald Trump committed.

And I think it's a consequence of the House floor vote yesterday, where we authorized enforcing or contempt citations of subpoenas. We're not messing around. I think that's why Hope Hicks is going to come in next week. And we're going to ask her about the obstruction of justice, the 10 or so incidents in the Mueller report.

BLITZER: Do you know, Congressman, what topics, if any, will be off- limits for your questioning?

LIEU: There should be no topics that are off-limits. The White House has gone to d unprecedented efforts to obstruct information to come to Congress and the American people. And it's not just about the Mueller report, it's about every area.

So for example, the Trump administration is suing right now to eliminate health care coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. We want to find out about that but we can't.

And now you saw they also are not giving us information about the census. It is everywhere they're obstructing information from coming to the American people.

BLITZER: Well, the president, as you heard, he's exerted executive privilege and preventing the Commerce Secretary and the attorney general from talking about the census question on citizenship.

Do you think he might do the same with Hope Hicks now?

LIEU: I don't think he will, because he really has no basis for doing so. And regarding the census question, the issue is, did Wilbur Ross lie

to the American people and lie to Congress?

A federal district court judge found that he did. And we want to have the document to see if he, in fact, did that. And if he did, then we should win on this census issue, because, under the Constitution, it's not counting citizens, it's counting people. And that's what the Constitution requires.

BLITZER: How soon will we see the transcript of Hope Hicks' testimony before your committee?

LIEU: We would try to release a transcript very soon. And I think it's important, again, that we see Hope Hicks coming in, because the House of Representatives has not authorized our committees to start enforcing contempt citations and subpoenas and we are not messing around.

We expect witnesses to show up and we expect documents to come to us because these are lawful congressional subpoenas.

BLITZER: Where do things stand right now in getting testimony from Annie Donaldson, who served as chief of staff to the former White House Counsel, Don McGahn?

You also want her to come before the committee.

LIEU: We do and we expect Don McGahn -- in fact, we expect all the witnesses we've asked to come before the committee. And there is really no legal basis to say they can't even come before the committee. The White House is just making stuff up.

They're saying they have this blanket immunity that no court case has ever talked about or ever found. In fact, the White House has not even asserted executive privilege when it comes to Don McGahn and he is a private citizen right now. We expect that he will come.

BLITZER: As you know, the House Oversight Committee just voted to hold the attorney general Bill Barr and the Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt over that citizenship question on the 2020 census.

Do you want to move --

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BLITZER: -- forward with a full House vote?

LIEU: So what was good about the House vote that we took yesterday is it authorized all committees to have their subpoenas and contempt citations automatically enforced without future House votes.

So in fact, that one House vote has authorized their Oversight Committee to go forward and litigate this in court, so that's what we did yesterday.

BLITZER: The full House was planning to hold the attorney general Bill Barr in contempt over the Mueller report until your committee reached a deal with the Justice Department. But the White House will now, we're told, have a role in what documents you will eventually get to see.

Was it a mistake to agree to that deal?

LIEU: No, it was not. And let me be very specific about the deal. We agreed to not refer attorney general Barr for criminal contempt. But the Judiciary Committee did hold it in civil contempt. And that is what the House voted to enforce yesterday.

So we are still going forward with the civil contempt action. And if we do not see their underlying evidence that we were promised, we will litigate that in court.

BLITZER: Congressman Ted Lieu, thanks so much for joining us.

LIEU: Thank you, Wolf.

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