CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: "Interview with Rep. John Garamendi"

Interview

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MARQUARDT: All right. I want to bring in Democratic Congressman John Garamendi of California. He serves on the Arms Services Committee and just returned from a trip to Ukraine.

Congressman, we'll be talking about Ukraine and Syria in just a second, but I want to get your reaction quickly to what you just heard the former vice president saying there about his son and his work in China and in Ukraine.

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D-CA): He's absolutely correct. There is nothing untoward to any of that work. But let's look at the other side of this debate. Let's look at the president, the kind of conflicts that he has himself to say nothing of the conflicts that his children has.

It is absolutely clear that the president has violated the Constitution emolument clause, both the second -- Article Two emoluments in which the president can receive no money from any of any government in the United States and Article One, which is the foreign emoluments clause.

The president is in clear violation -- and what about his kids gallivanting around the world cutting deals, getting special deals from the Chinese government. It goes on and on and on. The pot is black. He shouldn't be calling the kettle so.

MARQUARDT: Congressman, you did just get back from Ukraine. I want to ask there -- I want to ask you about your trip there. One of the people you met on that trip was Bill Taylor. He's the charge d'affaires, which --

GARAMENDI: Right.

MARQUARDT: -- right now is the top U.S. diplomat in the country. He's also a former ambassador to Ukraine. Now, for those who don't know his name, he is absolutely pivotal in this impeachment inquiry, and that he was speaking with the president's point man on Ukraine including the E.U. Ambassador Gordon Sondland.

And in a text message, he wrote, "Are we now saying that security assistance and White House meeting are conditioned on investigations?" Now, those investigations would be those conspiracy theory investigations that the president wanted Ukraine to launch into the 2016 election and Joe Biden.

Now congressman as you know, Ambassador Sondland is expected to testify this week and he responded back, "Call me." So my question to you congressman is, did you speak with Bill Taylor about his thoughts because in this exchange and in another, he makes it quite clear that he felt a quid pro quo is going on. Military aid, $400 million worth in exchange for investigations.

GARAMENDI: Well, first, we didn't go there to do investigations. We went there to see if the Ukrainian government had the support they needed to conduct a very vicious war against Russia that's invaded their country. The morning that we visited with the minister of defense, we met Ambassador Taylor right outside the ministry.

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And at that moment, our cell phones went off about this text that he had sent out. And so as we got out of the bus, greeted him, one of my colleagues wrapped his arm around him and said your text was right on. And he acknowledged that yes, he did send the text and that that was an issue.

We didn't go any further because at that very moment, a memorial had begun for the soldiers that were killed on that day over the previous five years so we ended that. But it was very, very clear that this is a man that was standing up for what was right, pushing back against what is obviously a deal that the president was trying to cut with Syria.

The money was absolutely withheld, some $400 million withheld, was not released until all of this thing broke open following the whistleblower's whistle account. In addition to that, there was five hours between that text message from Ambassador Taylor and the response from Sondland.

And it is now clear from the information that Sondland has made available about his testimony on Thursday that he had talked to the president in that intervening five hours and they apparently developed the response, which is what I would call the ultimate CYA response.

MARQUARDT: Well, congressman, let's show the audience what you're talking about. This was an exchange between Bill Taylor and the E.U. ambassador, Gordon Sondland.

Taylor writes, "As I said on the phone, I think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help for a political campaign." Five hours later as you noted, Sondland responded saying, "Bill, that's Taylor, I believe you're incorrect about President Trump's intentions. The president has been crystal clear, no quid pro quos of any kind."

Now as you mentioned, we know that Sondland spoke directly with the president in those five hours. And now, according to the "Washington Post," he is going to say tomorrow in his testimony that this was the message from President Trump.

So congressman, do you believe now that Sondland is going to be testifying that he is going to turn against the president?

GARAMENDI: Well, he's going to tell the truth. He's going to be under oath. He'll know if he lies there are other people that are privy to much of what will be said.

Much of what those text messages and e-mails as well as the call itself between the president of the United States and the president of Ukraine, all of that information is available so yes, I think Sondland's going to make sure that he is accurate.

And it's very increasingly clear that accuracy is that yes, there clearly was a strong arm, an extortion underway between -- that the president was attempting to extort the Ukrainian government to develop information on the 2016 election as well as the Bidens. The result of that extortion is the president will be impeached.

MARQUARDT: And there's another witness who may be causing -- raising the nerves for the White House tomorrow. That's Fiona Hill, the former adviser on Russia. She is expected to testify as well and she is no longer a part of the government so, I imagine you and all of is we'll be watching that very closely. Congressman John Garamendi, thank you so much for joining me.

GARAMENDI: Thank you.

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