CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. John Garamendi
Interview
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
BLITZER: Yes, a clear escalation. You're right. Phil Mattingly up on Capitol Hill. Thank you.
Joining us now, Democratic congressman John Garamendi of California. He's a member of the House Armed Services Committee.
Congressman, thanks for coming in.
REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D-CA): Good to be here.
BLITZER: On Alex Acosta, the Labor Secretary, do you believe he should resign because of what he did or didn't do more than a decade ago, when he was the U.S. attorney in South Florida?
GARAMENDI: Never should have been appointed. He had a bad record even before he was confirmed. We knew much of this and now we know more. He ought to be fired.
BLITZER: What if he doesn't resign and what if the president decides not to fire him, lets him stay on the job? What happens then?
[17:10:00]
GARAMENDI: I think there's grounds for impeachment. He can be impeached along with any other federal employee. It's happened before. Not very often. But his record is terrible. What he did in that case is unconscionable.
And why did he do it?
That question has not been answered. But it'd be great to have the answer. Why did he allow this guy to get away with what is just a horrible crime?
BLITZER: There were about eight Democratic senators, who voted to confirm him as Secretary of Labor.
You think they made a major blunder?
GARAMENDI: They made a mistake. He never should have been nominated in the first place and never should have been confirmed. There was enough information to really question what was going on. And he adds to a very, very long list of corrupted and incompetent individuals in the president's cabinet.
BLITZER: During his confirmation hearings, Democrats and Republicans could ask as many questions as they wanted. Only one senator, Democrat Tim Kaine of Virginia, asked any question at all about Jeffrey Epstein in the case that Acosta handled more than a decade ago.
GARAMENDI: Every senator --
BLITZER: Where was the vetting on the part of the U.S. Senate?
GARAMENDI: Obviously it wasn't good enough. Obviously there are senators who will have to answer that question. As a member of the House of Representatives, it is not for me to answer it, it is for those senators to answer, Democrat and Republican alike.
BLITZER: But I want to be precise.
If the president doesn't fire him or he doesn't resign you want the House of Representatives to launch impeachment proceedings against Acosta?
GARAMENDI: I think there is grounds for that. Yes.
BLITZER: So the answer is yes. All right. We'll move on and talk about another growing rift between the president and the United Kingdom over the leaked diplomatic cables sent by the British ambassador to the United States.
The president says in those cables that -- the ambassador says the Trump administration was clumsy and inept and the president this morning responded that the ambassador is a very stupid guy, a pompous fool. And he went -- he called him wacky at one point.
What is your analysis about this dispute going on?
GARAMENDI: Well, the president has always had trouble with the truth. Saying the truth himself and when the truth is told, he doesn't like it. The fact of the matter is, the ambassador did exactly what the ambassador is supposed to do; he's supposed to give honest evaluation, forthright evaluation to his superiors in the foreign office in London. And he did. Now the fact that those memos, honest as they are, correct as they
are, were leaked, well, that is an embarrassment to the president, not to the foreign office and not to the ambassador, who did what he is supposed to do.
BLITZER: Ambassador Kim Darroch has been in Washington for three and a half years, almost four years. He's very well known in Washington. I don't know if you know him, have you met him?
GARAMENDI: I have met him and I don't know him well but I've met him in various opportunities that occur here.
BLITZER: Would you call him very stupid and a pompous fool?
GARAMENDI: He's none of those things. The president is.
BLITZER: Because he's very well known in Washington, very well plugged in and if you go to any diplomatic receptions or dinners or events at the British embassy here in Washington up on Massachusetts Avenue, not only is there -- are Democrats and Republicans but very often there are representatives from the White House and the Trump administration, who were more than happy to attend.
GARAMENDI: As I said a moment ago, the president has a problem with the truth. He can not speak the truth himself and he cannot handle anybody that speaks the truth to him. That is a well-known fact.
And the ambassador spoke the truth. This administration is incompetent, this administration is in chaos, this administration has all kinds of troubles. And the ambassador simply told the foreign office in London the truth.
BLITZER: So how do you repair the strain that has developed in U.S.- British relations right now?
GARAMENDI: Change the prime minister, change the president.
BLITZER: Well, the prime minister is being changed in the United Kingdom. The president still has a while to go. And as you know, there is a very strong possibility he could get re-elected.
GARDNER: We'll make sure that doesn't happen. This man cannot lead this nation any longer. He has totally destroyed our diplomatic relations around the world and he's taken on our allies and NATO. And he's done his darndest to destroy those relationships.
Those are critical allies and you just can not disrespect our allies over and over again and expect to be able to accomplish anything in this world. But that is what the president has done. And it is time for him to leave. And the election is probably the way in which that will happen.
BLITZER: And so you don't see a serious impeachment process beginning for the president in this first term?
GARAMENDI: We don't know. There is a lot of smoke. There is smoke everywhere. Mostly coming out of his family and every which direction.
Is there a fire beneath it?
There is evidence that there is.
Does that lead to impeachment?
Who knows who will happen in the next several months?
But there is a growing conflagration going on with this administration. It may very well happen. But at the moment, we're not there.
BLITZER: But even if he's impeached in the House of Representatives, you don't have the two-thirds vote in the Senate to convict and --
[17:15:00]
BLITZER: -- actually remove him from office so he'll run for re- election.
GARAMENDI: Probably so. But then we don't know, do we?
We thought Richard Nixon would run for re-election and it didn't happen.
Why?
Because it turned out there was a raging fire in the administration. My guess is there is a raging fire in the administration. My
Will this president survive that?
Impeachment, not likely.
BLITZER: Among all the 23 or 24 Democratic presidential candidates, who is best, from your perspective right now, Congressman, to lead that fight against the president?
GARAMENDI: The fight for impeachment or...?
BLITZER: No, the fight to get elected President of the United States and defeat Donald Trump in November 2020.
GARAMENDI: Well, at the moment it is the leader in the polls, Mr. Biden.
BLITZER: Is that someone you are supporting?
GARAMENDI: I am not yet supporting one or another but he clearly is leading. He clearly has the experience. And at the moment he is best positioned.
BLITZER: What do you think about the House Judiciary Committee going ahead and subpoenaing maybe about a dozen or so current and former Trump administration officials? You can see the names over there. They want to come over and testify.
What is that all about?
It is all about this administration stonewalling and totally ignoring the constitutional authority that the House of Representatives and the Senate has to oversee and to have oversight over the administration.
They are stonewalling not only within the White House but now within most every one of the departments. That is simply wrong. That is not the way this nation was set up.
BLITZER: But the administration is succeeding in that stonewalling, at least for now.
GARAMENDI: One more reason the president has to go. This is a constitutional democracy; this is not an autocracy and this is not a nation run by a single person who is going to demand that it be his way. Even now he's disrespecting the Supreme Court.
So our democracy, our way of governing here is at risk, given the authority and the way in which the president wants to literally set himself up as king.
BLITZER: Congressman Garamendi, thank you for coming in.
GARAMENDI: Thank you.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source