CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Ro Khanna

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

BLITZER: We're standing by for final word on that. Jim Acosta, thank you very much.

Joining us now, Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna of California, he's a member of Oversight Committee. Congressman, thanks for joining us.

REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA), OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: Wolf, great to be back on.

BLITZER: Let's begin with the latest departure from the President Trump's cabinet. Does Alex Acosta still need to testify before the House Oversight Committee despite his resignation?

KHANNA: He does. Because Americans are concerned that there are two different types of Justice Department - justice for those who are rich like Epstein and get away with something of a 13-month sentence for trafficking in a sex offense and others who get long jail sentences for marijuana offenses. So Acosta needs to explain why that discrepancy exists.

BLITZER: CNN has also learned Congressman that the director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, who you just heard Jim Acosta report, might also be on his way out. What impact would that departure have on President Trump's overall National Security team?

KHANNA: Well it is concerning because this president has a pattern of removing those who stand up to him or give him information which he disagrees with. He got rid of Mattis because Mattis was standing up to him with Shanahan. Shanahan, there was the scandal that was in part leaked because Shanahan may not have supported the president, and Coats has had the temerity to sometimes question the president. So we see that the president just wants yes people around him.

BLITZER: The House Oversight Committee held a hearing today on family separations and conditions at various migrant detention facilities on the southern border. Lawmakers became very emotional and at times very angry as did the former acting I.C.E. Director Tom Homan who was a witness of the hearing. I want you to watch a little bit of this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. GERRY CONNOLLY (D-MA), OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE: I've sat here and listened to horror stories. I thought it was fiction. I thought it was a novel reading from Charles Dickens. And the conditions that prevailed 19th century London -- children without soap, children in filth -- conditions that none of us would ever countenance with our own children. Well any child in our care is our children.

TOM HOMAN, FORMER ACTING I.C.E. DIRECTOR: Let me explain why I'm sitting here so frustrated because I'm the only one in this room that wore a green uniform and been in that line. I'm the only one in this room who has found dead aliens in a trail that were abandoned by smugglers and just left them there because they weren't money anymore. I'm the only one in this room that stood on the back of a tractor- trailer surrounded by 19 dead aliens including a 5-year-old little boy who suffocated in death in his father's arms. I was there. And I saw and I smelled it and it is terrible. And I still -- I still have nightmares to this day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Congressman, you were at the hearing, is your committee getting the answers you need from the administration about its policies on the border especially impacting these kids.

[17:15:03] KHANNA: No, we're not. And Tom Homan was a badgering witness. He wasn't answering the questions. He was interrupting Gerry Connolly. He was interrupting Ayanna Pressley. He wasn't answering questions that all Americans regardless of party want to know. Why can't we get these kids food? Why can't we get them blankets? Why can't we get them access to a doctor? We're not talking about anything more than upholding basic human rights. Frankly upholding basic moral principles rooted in faith.

BLITZER: Congressman Ro Khanna thanks as usual for joining us.

KHANNA: Thank you, Wolf.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source