CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript: "Interview with Rep. Steny Hoyer"

Interview

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Yes, Jim Acosta, appreciate it. Thanks.

Just a few moments before Mulvaney suddenly reversed himself and the White House damage control began, I spoke with the House majority leader, Democrat Steny Hoyer.

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COOPER: Leader Hoyer, how damaging were Mick Mulvaney's remarks for the president of this impeachment inquiry?

REP. STENY HOYER (D-MD): Well, essentially, what I understand, I didn't hear Mulvaney say it, but I understand he said yes, there was a quid pro quo, and in fact get daring people to get over it because that's foreign policy.

No, it's not. The Congress of the United States appropriated money for an ally who is in a war with -- and losing -- losing people. And what the president decided to do is withhold that money which Mulvaney says was quid pro quo. He doesn't say that was the quid pro quo, but a quid pro quo for them doing something that he wanted done.

And then the course of his conversation he said look, by the way, I need a favor. And the favor was to look into a political opponent, not in 2016, but in 2020. And so, I think it cannot help the case and will be part of the testimony and evidence that the committees are gathering.

COOPER: Mulvaney is claiming that the president pursuing this conspiracy theory, which flies in the face of what the intelligence community says was Russian involvement in the DNC hack, Mulvaney is claiming that was a concern about corruption in Ukraine. Just logically, that also doesn't make sense.

I mean, there's plenty of actual Ukrainian corruption, but the president didn't raise any of that. All he talks about was this conspiracy theory about CrowdStrike and the Bidens.

[20:10:05]

HOYER: It's there for everybody to read. The conversation -- the president told the speaker of the House, he thought the conversation was perfect, which is why I presume he released it, because he thought it was fine.

It wasn't fine. It clearly was a quid pro quo. It didn't need to be stated this is the quid and that's the pro.

Clearly, the president of Ukraine knew what was going on. Clearly, he knew that the president was saying I need this favor. And by the way, I've got your money, and also, I know that you want to visit the White House.

And obviously, the contingency between the two was patently clear. And I think Mulvaney's comments, as I said, certainly were not helpful to the president's case.

COOPER: I want to ask you about Turkey and the Kurds and northern Syria. The so-called deal that was announced today, which the president is trumpeting as something that will save, quote, millions of lives. The Turkish foreign minister calls it a pause.

And I guess the question is, what's it's going to change? The Turkish government says it got exactly what it wanted.

HOYER: Well, I haven't seen the agreement, but I think the Turks are right. They got exactly what they wanted. And very frankly, probably the Iranians got what they wanted. Perhaps the Syrians got what they wanted to getting ISIS out of their territory.

And now they've got the Turks there. And frankly, I think the Russians got what they wanted.

So, frankly, the president taking credit for some sort of positive move forward I think is absolutely incorrect.

COOPER: The president saying that this potentially will save millions of lives. I mean, if he was actually concerned about that, he could have kept anywhere from 50 to 100 special forces troops who were doing extraordinary job along the border basically encamped with the Kurdish fighters, and that, that small number of special forces troops kept Turkey from launching this invasion until the president, as you said essentially green lit it by pulling them out.

HOYER: Yes, I think you're right, Anderson. And very frankly, the president's rationale for doing this, both publicly and in our meeting yesterday said, look, I said in the campaign, I was going to get the troops out of the Middle East.

COOPER: And, lastly, we want to send our condolences on the death of your colleague Elijah Cummings. You served in your House and the home state of Maryland. Can you just talk about him? What do you want people to know about him?

HOYER: He was a very good and decent person. The minority spoke on the floor today through their leader and said how much they felt his personal respect. He was a fierce advocate and effective advocate.

And from their standpoint, an effective opponent, but they had respect for him. Why? Because he was decent person. He respected others. He was a quiet man but a very forceful man.

And the House has lost a great member. The country has lost a person of great intellect and integrity. And we are a lesser place for his loss.

As you know, he was the speaker pro temp, the first African American speaker pro temp in the history of the Maryland legislature. He was president of the student government of Howard University, a Phi Beta Kappa. He had intellect, integrity, and great moral strength, and we're going miss him very, very badly.

COOPER: And what an extraordinary arc of life he had. Just so much accomplished.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, I appreciate your time. Thank you.

HOYER: Thank you, Anderson.

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