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

Interview

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BROOKE BALDWIN, ANCHOR, CNN: Flash forward to President Trump doubting these sources saying essentially, "My relationships with foreign leaders is far more important". So Congressman, what do you think Trump's motivation is for not trusting human sources?

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D-CA): We can only imagine what's in this mans mind, but what we can not imagine is him continuing to be President. This is down right a serious national security issue.

We've known from the very get go (ph) that Trump had no use for the intelligence systems of the United States. He said so right there standing next to Putin in Helsinki. The fact of the matter is Trump always believes in his gut, which happens to be getting bigger and bigger but less and less useful.

The fact of the matter is Trump, as a President, is a national security risk. I mentioned a few moments ago that he is pulling three quarters of a billion dollars out of the NATO defense programs in Eastern Europe pushing back against Putin. What is going on here?

When you refuse to believe your intelligence agencies then what you have come to is a narcissistic mind where you happen to think you possess all of the knowledge of the world and apparently that's where Trump is in his own mind. It is extraordinarily dangerous.

And then he goes off and probably, possibly in that meeting where he invited the....

BALDWIN: Sergey Kislyak.

GARAMENDI: ... exactly - into the Oval office things were said there that are of great concern to the intelligence community. It was private. The only people there were the Russians.

In all of the meetings that he's had with Putin there's only been Putin, no American there except perhaps an interpreter. The fact of the matter is our President is a danger to our national security.

BALDWIN: So can the President be trusted with classified intelligence, Congressman? GARAMENDI: He can't be trusted with anything. He can't be trusted with the economy. He can't be trusted with national intelligence information.

In all probability, the national intelligence community is keeping critical sources and information from those sources and about those sources from him because they can not trust him to keep his mouth or his tweets quite. It goes on and on.

There is a back and forth within the intelligence community that sorts out - sifts (ph) out and tries to get to the foundation of knowledge and information about what our allies or adversaries are doing and thinking.

It goes back to the very beginning of any government, maybe three, four thousands years ago when they tried to figure out what was going on in the other camp so that they could prepare themselves. And down through the centuries, down through the millennium we need to understand what is going on with our friends and with our enemies.

And that's what intelligence gathering is all about. It is not bad. It is absolutely necessary. It's essential and Trump is inessential.

BALDWIN: Congressman Garamendi, thank you very much, appreciate you.

GARAMENDI: Thank you.

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