CNN "The Lead With Jake Tapper" - Transcript "Interview with Rep. Joaquin Castro"

Interview

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Joining me now to discuss this and more is Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro. He sits on the House Intelligence Committee. His brother, Julian is running for president.

Congressman, thank you so much for joining us.

The House Intelligence Committee subpoenaed Rudy Giuliani for documents. What are you hoping to learn exactly? And are you expecting that he will comply?

REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO (D-TX): I expect that he will comply eventually.

And if it means that we have to go to court to get him to comply, then, of course, I'm confident that will do that. But, hopefully, he will voluntarily come forward and sit for an interview with the House Intelligence Committee.

In terms of what we'd like to know from him, I'd like to know what his role was in meeting with these Ukrainians, what he was pressing them for, what the president asked him to do. He has said that the State Department asked him to go there.

In fact, he showed text messages from Kurt Volker. So we need to know who asked him to do what and also what the responses were from the Ukrainians. TAPPER: Giuliani responded to the subpoena, saying -- quote -- "It

raises significant issues concerning legitimacy and constitutional and legal issues, including, inter alia, attorney-client and other privileges. It will be given appropriate consideration."

Let's just talk about attorney-client privilege. He has said that he was the president's attorney.

CASTRO: You're right. And he has acted as the president's personal attorney.

But at one point in this process, as he was doing one of his interviews or tweeting, I believe that he said that he didn't go over there as the president's attorney, or at least on one of the trips, he didn't go as the president's attorney.

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So it's not clear that he would be protected by attorney-client privilege. But, certainly, that's something that may have to be worked out in the courts.

TAPPER: The president says he's trying to find out who the whistleblower is. And he has been attacking this person.

Is the president getting close to violating the Whistleblower Protection Act? And what do you and your colleagues intend to do to try to keep the whistleblower's identity from becoming public?

CASTRO: You're right.

I mean, that's been one of our top priorities. Fortunately, that's been a priority for the DNI, for Mr. Maguire, is to keep the anonymity of this person intact.

The president at this point has been very abusive of the Whistleblower Protection Act, and really is basically on the verge of not only revealing the identity or getting somebody else to reveal the identity of the whistleblower, but also bringing harm to that person.

It is getting quite scary, the president's behavior and his words, and what that could conjure up.

TAPPER: What is being done to preserve the security and safety of this whistleblower?

CASTRO: Well, as I understand, the person is under protection.

I expect that that's full federal protection 24 hours a day, as it should be. And as long as, to the larger public, the person is anonymous, then I think that that will probably suffice.

Now, we don't know exactly what's going to happen. We don't know if somebody in the White House is -- who may know the person's identity is going to leak it.

But the federal government should be committed to keeping this person safe, wherever he or she is.

TAPPER: I want to get your response to a tweet from Congresswoman Maxine Waters, a Democrat from California.

She tweeted: "Impeachment is not good enough for Trump. He needs to be imprisoned and placed in solitary confinement. But, for now, impeachment is the imperative."

With all due respect, that does not seem to be in keeping with what Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said should be the tone when it comes to impeachment, that it should be done with regret and prayerful and respectful and solemn.

That seems to be something else.

CASTRO: Yes, look, I have a lot of respect for Maxine Waters. And she's a very passionate person and has felt very strongly for a long time that the president has broken the law.

And so you see those -- you see that in her words? I think a lot of Americans have been very upset and outraged about the president's conduct. I think all of us want to make sure that this process is a fair one, that there is due process for the president and all the other witnesses that are going to come forward.

But we're committed to getting to the bottom of what happened.

TAPPER: This inquiry is fast-growing and already fairly complicated, with the web of people involved.

Do House Democrats have a strategy to explain this scandal to the American people? Because it is already, as we learn more information -- and now that it branches out to Attorney General Barr and Secretary Mike Pompeo, Vice President Pence, Rudy Giuliani -- to explain it in a way that is clear that the American people can understand what exactly happened, so they can assess whether or not they think President Trump deserves to be impeached?

CASTRO: Yes, you're right.

It is important that we explain it and that we explain it simply. And if you look at the whistleblower's complaint and the transcript of that phone call, it's starting to become clear that there was an attempted cover-up by the White House of a president abusing his power, betraying his oath of office.

And in this investigation every day, it seems like there is a new basically path that we need to follow, a new trail to follow. And so we're going to do that.

TAPPER: The White House trade adviser, Peter Navarro, today on FOX Business said that this is an attempted coup. And he said he didn't know who was more dangerous, House Democrats or the Iranians or the Chinese.

Your response? CASTRO: I did. I saw that clip.

And that language is really obscene, that Peter Navarro would make those comments. Those are the kind -- that's the kind of language that can lead to civil unrest in this country. And it's highly irresponsible for an adviser to the president of the United States to be speaking like that.

Those are false claims. But for him to be talking like that is highly irresponsible.

TAPPER: Congressman Joaquin Castro, Democrat of Texas, thank you so much. Appreciate your time, sir.

CASTRO: Thank you.

TAPPER: He once called Donald Trump a -- quote -- "race-baiting, xenophobic bigot" -- unquote -- but now Republican Senator Lindsey Graham is one of the president's strongest defenders.

What changed? That's next.

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