CNN "Erin Burnett Outfront" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Adam Smith

Interview

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BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Kaitlan. I want to get more on that. Now. Let's go up front to the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Democratic Congressman Adam Smith who, of course, not only has the chairmanship but attended the meeting at the White House on Iran last night.

So let me start with you, Chairman with the strike itself. Do you applaud the president for going against his advisors and then going with whatever outside advisor or advisors it was and ultimately calling off the strike?

REP. ADAM SMITH (D-WA): I think it was the right decision not to do this strike. I think it would have had a very unpredictable consequence and could easily have escalated into a severe armed conflict with Iran. And don't forget, we have a lot of U.S. military personnel in that region, who would be vulnerable to a response from Iran. So I think it was the right decision.

I'm not sure about the process leading up to that decision or the way the President chose to explain it. But yes, I think showing restraint in this situation was the right thing to do.

BURNETT: So let me ask you though, about how this went down because as you say the timeline and how it played out is actually really important here. You were at the White House briefing on Iran yesterday, so you were there. Were you aware that a strike where people would die 150 odd people would die was imminent, was on the table?

SMITH: That was not said, but yes we all knew that was on the table. At the briefing, they basically, first of all, wanted to show us the intelligence to show us that they had clear evidence that Iran was responsible for this. And then they wanted to sort of discuss what they were thinking in terms of possible options. Now, they were very hesitant about naming specific options, but there were, gosh, I don't know, 12, 15 Members of Congress there from the House and the Senate.

BURNETT: Yes.

SMITH: We all ask, "What are the options?" And they gave us sort of the range of what the options were and it's pretty obvious from the conversation that this was one of them. They did not give us an indication that they had decided at that point on what option they were going to choose.

BURNETT: All right. So at that time, did you feel there was anything like - I mean you knew that there was an option of killing scores of people, 150 people, I guess, in the case as the President said. Do you think that that would have been proportion? I mean the President was very explicit, unmanned drone, 150 people, ultimately, I didn't think it was proportionate.

SMITH: Yes. And I don't see why it would have taken him that long to reach that conclusion. But I agree with it. I know it was obvious that the White House, but the President was genuinely conflicted. He does not want to give Iran a blank check to strike our assets in this way. On the other hand, he's mindful of the fact that any response that we have could escalate the situation.

Now, sitting around him, the National Security Advisor John Bolton, Secretary Pompeo, Vice President Pence, I think they were more willing to take that risk. But in the big problem with that is I don't think any of them know where does it lead. You say you don't want regime change in Iran, OK, well, what do you want? And what do you think is going to happen if you strike Iran and what's your plan for dealing with it.

In the body bottom line that came out of that meeting and many other conversations, they don't have a plan.

BURNETT: They don't have one.

SMITH: And that's trouble.

BURNETT: So what I'm trying to understand though, because, again, when you talk about the possibility of something happening that could cause a serious armed conflict, a war, you want to know that people are doing things in a very specific way, right? You want to know there's a process and a procedure.

So the President says that within 10 minutes or half an hour of these strikes happening, depending on which Trump you believe, they said, "We're ready to go. We'd like a decision." He says, "I want to know something, how many people are going to be killed?" And so they said, "We'll get back to you." And then they get back to you about 150.

This is 10 minutes or 30 minutes before strike. You're telling hours before you were aware that Iranians would be killed when you looked at these range of options. Do you think he literally was not paying attention before?

[19:09:54] SMITH: I don't know. And keep in mind, they've had months to contemplate this. Because the maximum pressure campaign that they've put on Iran, the sanctions, pulling out of the JPOA, putting the IRGC on the terrorism list. I talked to a lot of intel people that lead up to this, they all could have easily predicted exactly how Iran would have responded in the way that they have respond to it.

So as they implemented this plan, they literally had months to contemplate. "OK, we're going to do this." It's reasonable to assume that this is what Iran is going to do. What comes next? And now that's the part they didn't think about, and I think this is sort of evidence of a failing within the National Security Council.

John Bolton kind of wants to run things on his own. He doesn't have the regular conversations with the NSC and the Pentagon that they should so that the President can hear. "Well, here's what we think is going to happen. Here are your options." So it's not a literal last minute decision. BURNETT: Which, again, all we have is his timeline and it appears

it's that way, which I think is deeply unsettling for people or what you think you should have struck or not struck is actually not the point. The point is the way this went down should be deeply unsettling to anyone.

The President then tweeted today, Chairman, "Sanctions are biting and more added last night." You just heard Kaitlan reporting. There were no sanctions added. So are you aware of new sanctions about to go in place, additional ones, was that discussed in your meeting?

SMITH: It was not. Well, actually it was and the President said us what he said publicly. But you're right, there's no evidence of that. I do want to say that it is not the point whether or not he struck. It does matter and given the choice between him having gone ahead and done it ...

BURNETT: Yes.

SMITH: ... and decided at the last minute not to do it, I would prefer the latter. But you're right, the process is troubling, yes. This is part of the way the President negotiates and basically, what's the right word here, he doesn't tell the truth when he negotiates. He says what he thinks is most useful in that particular moment.

And I guess I understand that's the negotiating strategy. But the truth comes out fairly quickly and kind of undermines that argument. And to say that, "Well, here's what we did, we put more sanctions on," when we didn't, again, that undermine it. And keep in mind, one of the big point here, we need allies and friends, OK?

To confront Iran effectively, the more people who are with us the better. And if they're looking at this and trying to figure out, "OK, well, what do you guys do and shouldn't we be with you or not?" It's going to undermine their confidence in being with us, because we don't appear to know what we're doing and we don't appear to be clear on it.

BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Chairman. I appreciate your time.

SMITH: Thanks for the chance.

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