CNN "Anderson Cooper 360" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Ted Lieu

Interview

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COOPER: Yes, amazingly, he is undercutting his own message at the same time that he's actually it.

Jim, thanks very much.

We're going to talk to one of the landowners who just filed suit in a moment.

First, though, on Capitol Hill, reactions coming quickly. Republicans, many who had been on record warning against emergency declaration, got on board in favor of the president's decision. House Democrats fired off a letter to the president demanding that the White House's counsel and the appropriate Justice Department officials answer questions in the coming days.

Joining us is Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee, California Congressman Ted Lieu.

Congressman, thanks for being with us. What questions do you, does your committee, want answered, exactly?

REP. TED LIEU (D), CALIFORNIA: Yes. Thank you, Anderson.

Let me say, my heart goes out to first responders and victims of the mass shooting in Aurora, Illinois, today.

Regarding your question, the Judiciary Committee is going to do an investigation of Donald Trump's authoritarian power grab. The Framers of the Constitution are rolling in their graves right now, because they specifically gave the power of the purse to the House of Representatives. There's no way they would allow the president to override that by declaring this fake national emergency.

We're going to interview these witnesses. We want to know what basis they have for the national emergency. What communications they have. We want to request documents, because we believe the president and his staff are acting in violation of the Constitution.

COOPER: In terms of the president's comments that he, quote, didn't need do this, I mean, as you are well aware, the president frequently speaks off the cuff -- how much weight can a comment like that hold in any kind of an investigation?

LIEU: One of the things that makes America great is that our courts as well as Congress deals with facts and certainly statements from the president are things they will consider. There's also a whole host of data that Jim Acosta alluded to that shows there's no national emergency. Based on the Trump administration's own data, Customs and Border Patrol have said that border apprehensions have decreased 75 percent from 2000 to 2018. Based on the FBI's own data, violent crime and property crime are down.

COOPER: As of tonight, has the committee gotten any kind of response from the White House?

LIEU: Not to my knowledge. The letter only went out today because he declared the national emergency today.

But I want to make an additional point. Even if Donald Trump gets through the obstacle of the courts, he still has to raid pots of money from certain accounts. The biggest is military construction that helps military families. I don't remember during the campaign that he said that the wall was going to be paid for by military families.

It was going to be paid for by Mexico. So, he also has a big political problem.

COOPER: That's where some of the money would come from, military construction that's meant to help military families.

LIEU: That's correct. Based on the Republican reporting, there's military construction funds that are raided, as well as funds that are for counter narcotics, which is really quite stupid because when you look at the data, according to Department of Homeland Security, 80 percent to 90 percent of illegal drugs come through our legal ports of entry. And these counternarcotics operations do the rest.

So, to really take money from that is really not a wise thing when you are trying to build a wall that's going to help solve this problem.

COOPER: You know, some Republicans have said, and have said on the show, even just last night, that look, other presidents have declared national emergencies for things that -- somebody used the example of a situation Burundi that President Obama declared a national emergency for, essentially saying, you know, other presidents have done this. Why is this any different?

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LIEU: Two reasons. One is all the national emergencies, many of them dealt with a foreign issues. None of it was to actually construct a large construction project. Second, Congress just handed him a bill where we specifically rejected billions of dollars more for building the wall. I don't see how the courts are going to say that somehow Congress intended through a national emergency statute to le let him do this end around the constitution. So that's why I think it's going to fail.

But let's say he wins in court. At the most, what this is going do is give him a one-time shot of about $6 billion to $7 billion. And then that's it. Because from now on, every single appropriations bill that Congress writes, we're going to prohibit him from using the money for the wall. So he's never going to be able to build his $50 billion to $60 billion wall by doing it through this method, which is why I think he never declared a national emergency two years ago.

COOPER: It is interesting though. I mean, you know, so many Republicans who went after President Obama in the past for declaring a national emergency or doing something by executive order, they have now completely just reversed themselves and are allowing this President do that. It's the same thing with the budget. They were all, you know, very concerned about deficit spending. And now there's record deficits.

LIEU: You have seen Republicans engage in this pattern where they will say all sorts of things, telling the President not to do X. And then when the president takes action X, they all come around and support him. And this is particularly supporting when they know in their heart of hearts this is completely unconstitutional. It's weakening the power of Congress. And it's giving the President even more executive power.

And by the way, in two years, there's another election. We could get a Democratic president. If they want a Democratic president to have all this power, then they will look at this day and rue their word.

COOPER: Congressman Ted Lieu, appreciate it. Thank you. Coming up next, I'm going to return to breaking news on this. And as I mention we will talk to one of the landowners who is part of the first lawsuit filed against the president's action. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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