CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: "Interview with Sen. Richard Blumenthal"

Interview

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BLITZER: We're following breaking news on the impeachment investigation.

House Democrats have just filed a new subpoena demanding documents from the White House. They're also requesting documents from the vice president, Mike Pence. And it's all part of an urgent push to explore the president's efforts to get Ukraine to dig up dirt on his potential 2020 opponent Joe Biden.

Joining us now, Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat who serves on the Judiciary Committee.

Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

We now have the letter. This is the letter written by three committee chairmen in the House, Elijah Cummings of the Oversight Committee, Adam Schiff of the Intelligence Committee, Eliot Engel of the Foreign Affairs Committee, a letter written to the Honorable John Michael Mulvaney, better known as Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, saying they want key documents involving the president's role and other administration officials' role in squeezing the Ukrainians for dirt on the vice president, the former vice president, Joe Biden.

What's your reaction?

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): My reaction is that this kind of corroborating evidence is going to be very powerful in showing how wide-ranging the involvement of other officials was, not only the vice president, but obviously the attorney general who went abroad seeking aid for the same kind of interference in our election, dirt on Biden, and other officials in other countries through Secretary of State Pompeo.

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But, fundamentally, the facts here show the president himself in that call to the president of Ukraine tried to leverage taxpayer dollars and bring pressure to bear on the Ukrainian president to interfere in our elections.

There's a grave national security issue here, an abuse of power by the president himself.

And for all the corroborating evidence, what's important for Congress to do right now, and certainly I'm going to be doing, is keep our eye on the ball.

It's the president of the United States that really is at issue here and his abuse of power.

BLITZER: Your Republican colleague Senator Ron Johnson tells "The Wall Street Journal" that one of the president's handpicked ambassadors, Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, told him that military aid to Ukraine was linked to Ukraine launching investigations into the Bidens in the 2016 election.

What's your reaction to that?

BLUMENTHAL: Number one, the holding hostage of military aid over the Ukrainian president is not only an abuse of power. It is also a grave threat to our own national security.

It was a gift, in effect, to Vladimir Putin. Russia is involved in attacking Ukraine. It seized Crimea. Russia is testing us. And the president, in effect, is sending a signal to Vladimir Putin as to whose side he's on.

But, second, there's no need for a quid pro quo for there to be an abuse of power here. The president is saying, I would like you to do us a favor, his words.

And what he is asking the Ukrainian president to do is, as you said so well, dig up dirt on a political opponent. That is a violation of law. But, more fundamentally, it's a violation of the Constitution, of his oath of office, and an abuse of power that is more than justification to move forward with impeachment.

And the American people, I think, are reacting to it, even though, sadly, and I think tragically for them, my Republican colleagues have remained mostly silent, including Ron Johnson.

BLITZER: The text messages that now have been released, provided by the now former special envoy, Kurt Volker, do you believe they constitute evidence that there may, in fact, have been a specific quid pro quo?

BLUMENTHAL: They do constitute evidence of a quid pro quo.

There is probably more evidence of a quid pro quo. And the House Intelligence Committee and the House itself is only on the cusp of additional evidence, is the best information we have.

But, again, fundamentally, a quid pro quo is a real abuse of power, but the leveraging of taxpayer dollars, the seeking of foreign interference in an American election is an abuse of the president's duty to the American people and to the Constitution.

BLITZER: Senator Blumenthal, thanks so much for joining us.

BLUMENTHAL: Thank you.

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