CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: "Interview with Sen. Richard Blumenthal"
Interview
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BLITZER: We are following breaking news on the impeachment investigation, House Democrats releasing the text of a resolution formalizing the probe.
It is up for a full vote on the House floor on Thursday.
Joining us now, Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat. He serves on the Senate Judiciary and Armed Services committees.
Senator, thanks so much for coming in.
SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): Thank you.
BLITZER: Do you support this House decision to hold a full vote on the impeachment inquiry on Thursday?
BLUMENTHAL: It is a really wise decision, because it will mean that this impeachment proceeding goes forward methodically and logically, ending the private part of these proceedings, and public hearings, so the entire American public can see, making it very fair and transparent.
BLITZER: Based on what you have seen so far, Senator, do you support impeaching the president, and then, if he is impeached, if it comes to the Senate, where you will be a juror in the Senate, will you support -- based on what you know right now, do you support removing him, convicting him, removing him from office?
BLUMENTHAL: I strongly support the impeachment proceeding.
And I believe that the House will vote to impeach him, for very good reasons. Clearly, in his own words, in that notes, the transcript of his July 25 call, he has confessed to putting pressure on a foreign leader to try to help him in a political campaign to benefit him personally.
But even more important, as today's testimony from Lieutenant Colonel Vindman emphasized, compromised our national security, in fact, undermined our own national defense by holding American military aid hostage to a partner, Ukraine, that literally was fighting for its life against Russia, our partner and key to our defense in Europe.
And so I will certainly listen if there is exculpatory evidence, but, right now, the facts are really powerful in favor of impeachment.
BLITZER: So, if it were up to now, not just impeachment, we are talking about conviction, would you vote to remove him, to convict him?
BLUMENTHAL: Based on what I know now, certainly, the burden is on the president to come forward with exculpatory evidence. Remember, we're going to have a trial, and I'm going to be listening
to all of the evidence before I cast my vote. But what I am hearing right now is the story of betrayal of trust, in fact, compromising his oath of office, and undermining our national security. And those are powerfully severe violations of the Constitution.
BLITZER: Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, spent hours -- I think he is still being deposed right now behind closed doors.
What strikes you -- based on what we know, his opening statement for example, what strikes you about his testimony?
BLUMENTHAL: What struck me about his testimony, Wolf, is, first of all, his personal story of coming to this country, loving it, a career military officer 20 years, with everything to lose and nothing to gain by coming forward in the way he did, after complaining privately to the counsel for the National Security Council, and, second, his emphasis on national security.
One of the quotes in his testimony is, this would all undermine U.S. national security, after he goes through the details of how pressure on the president of Ukraine for the president's own personal benefit would undermine our aid to Ukraine and our own nation's national security. Those two points really struck me.
BLITZER: And, as you point out, an incredible personal story that he shared with members of the committee. He and his twin brother were only 3 years old when his father and his grandmother -- his mother had died in Ukraine -- in 1979, when Ukraine was still part of the then- Soviet Union, were brought to Brooklyn, New York, raised in Brooklyn, went to college, eventually Harvard, became a U.S. military officer, still active-duty, was wounded in service, still has shrapnel in his body because of his service in Iraq.
He was in an IED explosion. And now some of the president's supporters are accusing him, practically speaking, effectively of being a dual loyal American, he has dual loyalty, which goes against the grain of everything this young man has lived for.
BLUMENTHAL: It goes against the grain of everything he has lived for and everything that we all live for as Americans.
And many of us have that kind of immigrant story. My own dad came to this country in 1935 to escape Nazi persecution. He was 17. He came alone. He had not much more than the shirt on his back. He spoke virtually no English, and he knew virtually no one.
Nobody loved this country more than my father, and that is true of many of our immigrants. To castigate him just because he is an immigrant is sad and scurrilous, especially in light of his extraordinary military record.
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BLITZER: And so many of these Soviet Jews who came in the late '70s, early '80s from the then-Soviet Union, they were trying to escape anti-Semitism, as your dad was trying to do when he escaped from Germany and came to the United States.
BLUMENTHAL: And, you know, this country means, as the beacon of hope and freedom, that we welcome people who are persecuted, seeking asylum as refugees to this country, just as Lieutenant Colonel Vindman's parents came here, bringing him at 3 years old.
And he has given back to this country in the way that many immigrants do. We are a stronger country. In fact, we are a nation of immigrants and the greatest country in the world because of our diversity.
BLITZER: And for those critics who start raising questions of his patriotism, his loyalty, is certainly disgusting.
Senator, thanks so much for coming in.
BLUMENTHAL: Thank you.
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