NBC "Meet the Press" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Steve Scalise

Interview

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Joining me now from Kenner, Louisiana is the number two Republican in the House, Steve Scalise of Louisiana. Congressman Scalise, welcome back to Meet The Press, sir.

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REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

Chuck, good to be back with you.

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CHUCK TODD:

Due to an accident on email we know some of the talking points that the White House has sent over to House Republicans, including the defense that they have is saying, "There was no quid pro quo" in the phone call, that that in itself should be enough to stave off of impeachment. But I am curious, when you hear and read the phrase, "I want you to do us a favor though," and you know, again, I think the president of Ukraine has the internet so he knew that aid was frozen, it's-- How do you interpret it if it's not a quid pro quo? How do you interpret it? "I need us to do us a favor though"?

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

Well, first of all Chuck, if you read that sentence, what the president is talked about is CrowdStrike. He's talking about the 2016--

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CHUCK TODD:

Does that--

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REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

--interference--

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CHUCK TODD:

--make it better?

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REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

--with our election by Russia--

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CHUCK TODD:

Does that make it better that--

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REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

President Trump, President Trump is trying to look into the interference by Russia so it doesn't happen again. I thought you would want to be concerned about making sure that doesn't happen again as well--

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CHUCK TODD:

Well, let me ask you this though--

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REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

But that's what he's talking about--

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CHUCK TODD:

The intelligence--

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REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

--not Joe Biden.

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CHUCK TODD:

The intelligence community, his own intelligence folks, have said it was Russia that did the hack. He's the only person that seems to believe that Russia didn't do the hack. So the CrowdStrike, does that even make you more--

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

No, not at all.

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CHUCK TODD:

Does that--

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REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

Not at all--

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CHUCK TODD:

--make you more disturbed that he doesn't believe our own intelligence?

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REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

Well, CrowdStrike, first of all, was the one who got the server and they never shared it with the FBI. They've never shared it with anybody. There's still a lot of information we're trying to find out about how the Russians interfered with our election when Barack Obama was president. And I'm glad President Trump continues to look into that interference so it doesn't happen again. He's the one trying to root it out. By the way, President Trump is the one who's been standing up to Russia. They've talked about Javelin missiles in that call. President Trump sold Javelin missiles to knock those tanks out that Russia was sending into the Ukraine. Obama wouldn't sell those Javelin missiles. You might want to ask President Obama or Joe Biden why they wouldn't sell the Javelins so that Ukraine could stop Russia from coming in with those tanks. But President Trump did and continues to provide relief. We've given a lot of relief. In fact, President Trump has probably given more help to Ukraine than any other president.

​CHUCK TODD:

Why-- It seems as if you endorse the president's sort of one-man operation here by Rudy Giuliani to go around the government and try to do his own investigation. I've not understood this. If the president doesn't believe the U.S. government's assessment of what the Russians did, why doesn't he ask the FBI to investigate? Why is he asking Rudy Giuliani to go to a foreign country to do it? Do you understand? Have you--

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

Well, the FBI--

​CHUCK TODD:

--been able to understand that?

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

Well, you can ask Rudy Giuliani that. And the chairman himself said he's not even sure if he would bring Rudy. But keep in mind, the chairman said a lot of things, made a lot of baseless accusations. Chairman Schiff is the one who for two years was running around saying he had more than circumstantial evidence that President Trump colluded with Russia on the, on the Mueller investigation. And that turned out not to be true. And so instead of saying, "Okay, we were wrong. Let's move on," they continue to go down this road of impeachment, regardless of the facts. You know, they've said that there were high crimes and misdemeanors. The actual author of the articles of impeachment just recently, a few days ago, said that, "If they don't impeach President Trump, he might get reelected. He will get reelected," is what he said. The framers did not put the power of impeachment in the Constitution so that you could stop somebody from getting elected who was duly elected in 2016.

​CHUCK TODD:

Let me take the--

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

It's a high crime and misdemeanor standard. And they should take that with the respect that it deserves--

CHUCK TODD:

Let me take the word--

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

--and they haven't.

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CHUCK TODD:

Can we take the word impeachment out of this? Given what Rudy Giuliani was doing or was not doing, we don't know, given what the president may have meant with, "I would like you to do us a favor though," but we don't know, is this not worthy of Congressional oversight? Is this not worthy of an investigation? Do you want to know what it is that Rudy Giuliani was doing sort of either on his own or against the wishes of some people in the government? Is this not worthy of an investigation? Again, skip the impeachment part for a second.

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

Well, they've been investigating President Trump for over two years and the entire way making baseless allegations. Speaker Pelosi, the day before the transcript came out, was saying that there, there was going to show that the president broke the law. And then they didn't have any quid pro quo, all of the things that they were saying. They're investigating everything. And that instead of, by the way, we should be moving USMCA to get a better trade deal. We should be passing bipartisan legislation to lower drug prices. They won't bring those deals to the floor--

​CHUCK TODD:

So you, you approve of what--

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

Because all they're focused on--

​CHUCK TODD:

--Rudy Giuliani's been doing?

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

--is impeachment, Chuck.

​CHUCK TODD:

You approve of all this?

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REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

Well, again--

​CHUCK TODD:

I mean, you think all of this--

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

--you can ask Rudy Giuliani. But keep in mind, Rudy Giuliani, this was--

​CHUCK TODD:

You're part of Congress.

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

--in the, that conversation happened-- Chuck, if you'd let me answer. That conversation with President Zelensky happened right after the Mueller Report came out after two years of an investigation, and Rudy Giuliani was the president's personal attorney in that case. So again, you can ask Rudy what he was doing. I know that what President Trump talked about was continuing to find out what happened with Russian interference in the 2016 election because he has been standing up to Russia. And there's a strong record, by the way, of how President Trump has stood up to Russia when Barack Obama wouldn't and Joe Biden--

​CHUCK TODD:

Do you think--

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

--was president when they would not stand up to Russia.

​CHUCK TODD:

Do you think it was appropriate for the president to ask a foreign leader for help investigating his chief political rival for 2020?

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

Again, go look at what he talked about in that call conversation. He was talking about the 2016 interference that happened in our election. Look, there have been media reports for years. Joe Biden himself bragged, long before he was a candidate for president, that he went there to Ukraine and held the billion dollars back. You know, "I'm going to leave in six hours unless they fire the prosecutor." My goodness, Chuck. A lot of people have been asking for that to be investigated for years--

​CHUCK TODD:

Congressman, you know the reality behind--

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

--long before Joe Biden was a candidate--

​CHUCK TODD:

You know the truth behind that. Why are you putting it out there as if it's a, "Oh, my gosh. We have no idea what you're, what he was talking about then"? I mean, we're, you're taking something that actually happened that the entire Western alliance supported, this was a bipartisan effort, as you know in Congress, that supported this effort--

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

I don't know if the Western alliance--

​CHUCK TODD:

--to clean up, to clean up the corruption--

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

--supported him holding back a billion dollars. Of course, there was a lot of corruption. In fact that's why Zelensky got elected with a mandate to clean up corruption. He and President Trump are talking about that in the conversation, things that both of them are doing to clean up corruption and drain the swamp. Look, all of this stuff with this whistleblower report, there were a lot of things if you read the whistleblower report that are concerning in terms of allegations that were very partisan. In fact, the Justice Department or the inspector general determined that the whistleblower does have a political bias. You know, again, let him, let him go forward and make accusations, but--

​CHUCK TODD:

I just don't want to--

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

--a lot of these accusations have turned out to not be true.

​CHUCK TODD:

You, you-- every time I've asked you whether you have been-- if you're concerned about the actions the president took, you've avoided answering the specific question and instead focused on--

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

Well, no, Chuck, don't, wait--

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CHUCK TODD:

--focused on something else.

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

--don't try to infer--

​CHUCK TODD:

No, I'm not. I'm just asking--

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

Don't try to infer anything.

​CHUCK TODD:

You seem to be--

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

I'm concerned about--

​CHUCK TODD:

--uncomfortable defending-- You seem to be, let me, let me put it this way. You seem uncomfortable--

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

No, no, no--

​CHUCK TODD:

--defending the president's actions--

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

Please don't put words in my mouth.

​CHUCK TODD:

Okay, I-- then I'll let you finish. But let me--

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

What the president was--

​CHUCK TODD:

--finish my statement here.

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

I think-- well, you've made a lot of statements and accusations--

​CHUCK TODD:

No--

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

--that aren't true, Chuck. President Trump was looking--

CHUCK TODD:

I, I, I don't think I've made one--

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

--into the 2016 collusion in interference that Russia had when Barack Obama was president. And we all know that happened under Barack Obama's watch. You all have tried to tie it to Trump. And Trump continues to look into it. I'm glad Trump continues to look into the interference that Russia tried to do--

​CHUCK TODD:

So you endorse--

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

--tried to have with our elections--

​CHUCK TODD:

--this private investigation. Don't go through the FBI. Go to a foreign government.

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

Wait, private--

​CHUCK TODD:

I mean, this sound--

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

No, no. This isn't a private investigation, Chuck.

​CHUCK TODD:

What is Rudy Giuliani doing?

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

This is not--

CHUCK TODD:

What is it?

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

Again, you can talk about Rudy separately. There is no private investigation. There's been a public, government investigation into the collusion that Russia had trying to interfere with our elections. We still haven't gotten to the bottom of it. There's still a lot of serious questions that need to be answered so it doesn't happen again. And President Trump's continued to be aggressive, not only at that, but pushing back against Russia in many other ways. I mentioned the Javelin missiles. It's President Trump who gave the-- sold the Javelin missiles to Ukraine so that they can bust those Russian tanks--

​CHUCK TODD:

All right.

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

Obama didn't do that, by the way.

CHUCK TODD:

After reading that detailed note, not-- "Don't call it a transcript," transcript, you are comfortable that the president is mixing-- he appears to be mixing politics and, and government policy. Does he not, do you not see that--

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

That is not--
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CHUCK TODD:

--in there?

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REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

That is-- wait, Russian interference with our election. It might be politics because--

​CHUCK TODD:

And the Joe Biden--

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

--it was the 2016 election--

​CHUCK TODD:

--and the Joe-- and the bizarre Joe Biden and this--

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

But it was a foreign government trying to interfere with our election. Aren't you concerned--

​CHUCK TODD:

He's trafficking--

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

--about the Russian--

​CHUCK TODD:

He's trafficking in a conspiracy--

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

--interference?

​CHUCK TODD:

--theory. Yes. And in fact, he's saying it's not. He seems to be doing a Russian propaganda thing with saying it's the Ukrainians with the server with the candlestick or something. I, I-- This is--

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

It sounds like you're--

​CHUCK TODD:

--a conspiracy theory--

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

--reading a lot of these Democrat talking points. The people that have been saying for years that the president was involved in all these other things and then none of it turned out to be true. The Mueller investigation was their ticket to impeachment. Shouldn't, by the way Chuck, shouldn't they first have voted to start an impeachment inquiry, which has always happened? This is only three times in the history of our country that Congress has moved articles of impeachment. And they wouldn't even do that. It's like they're trying to shield their members from voting on this while they continue to go down the drumbeat of impeachment. Because, as the author of impeachment articles said, he's concerned that president will get reelected. That's not why you impeach a president. We've got an election next year to deal with that.

​CHUCK TODD:

Congressman Scalise, I will leave it there. The number two in the House. Thanks for coming on and sharing your views. Much appreciated.

​REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE:

Good to be with you.

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