CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: "Interview with Sen. Angus King"

Interview

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BLITZER: All right, Manu, thank you, Manu Raju up on Capitol Hill.

Joining us now, Senator Angus King. He's an independent. He's a member of the Intelligence and Armed Services committees.

Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

What did you make of the president's decision today to once again trash his former national security adviser, John Bolton, in the Oval Office of all places, even going so far as to side with the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un, over him?

SEN. ANGUS KING (I-ME): Well, it's an odd scene, Wolf, because you remember that John Bolton was hired by the president.

It's an odd situation where the president is dumping on the person that he brought into that very important position. I think, really, though, Wolf, we have got to look forward and see who's going to get this job in the future.

It was apparent to many of us from the beginning that the president and John Bolton were going to go in different directions. I don't think the president wants a war with Iran, for example. And I think John Bolton has been very hawkish about Iran for 10 or 15, 20 years.

He's been pushing in that direction. So I don't think this decision was surprising. What is a little bit surprising is this he said/she said or he said/he said that we're hearing from the president.

[18:10:03]

It's -- I don't know -- I don't know what to say, unbecoming, I guess. If he wants to make that decision, that's fine. It's his call. The national security adviser is not confirmed by the Senate. It's entirely within the president's discretion.

I hope he gets somebody in that job who's going to collect the information throughout the government, give him good advice, and tell him not necessarily what he wants to hear, but what he needs to hear.

BLITZER: Yes, Bolton for years has been saying he wants regime change in Iran. The president doesn't necessarily support regime change in Iran.

He's ready to meet with President Rouhani at the United Nations General Assembly in the coming days.

As you know...

KING: Well, Wolf...

BLITZER: Yes, go ahead.

KING: Wolf, I think the Iranians would be crazy to miss this opportunity.

It's clear that the president wants to meet. He's made that clear. Mike Pompeo has said it, without preconditions. There's a sort of a pause in the friction right now. This is an opportunity for the Iranians to get out of this maximum pressure situation and to try to reach some kind of deal with the United States that hopefully will go beyond the deal that the president abrogated last year.

I think the real question is, what's that deal going to look like? Is it truly going to be better than what we had before? But, like I said, I think the Iranians are missing an opportunity if they don't try to take advantage of this offer of talks.

BLITZER: Yes, the president, he really wants to meet with him, without any preconditions, as you correctly point out. It was Bolton who opposed any such meeting.

There's been a lot of turnover, as you know, in the president's national security team. Some very important positions are currently filled by acting officials. Does that have a negative effect on U.S. national security right now?

KING: Well, I think it does.

You have got vacant positions. You have got people in acting positions. There are people throughout the government in acting positions, that we're not following the constitutional process where people who require Senate confirmation, they're being made active. They don't get ever sent to the Senate.

But I think, you know, you're trying to complicate -- trying to deal with very, very, very complicated issues when you're not fully staffed. And, you know, I think one of the problems with the firing of John Bolton -- and I don't necessarily disagree with it. I wouldn't have hired him in the first place.

But one of the problems is, you're sending a message to your staff, to the national security folks, you know, don't tell me what I don't want to hear. And that's a dangerous message for a leader to send, because anybody makes mistakes. And if you don't have staff and people around you who are telling you

when you're going off in the wrong direction, those mistakes can be very serious. So that's what's bothering me about this back and forth that's going on this afternoon.

BLITZER: Very important point.

Senator, you have just returned from a visit to Saudi Arabia, where I understand you confronted the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, on the murder of "The Washington Post" journal Jamal Khashoggi.

We're showing our viewers a picture of you and your colleagues meeting with the Saudi leader.

What can you tell us about that session? How did he react?

KING: Well, I can tell you that it was a very direct session.

Todd Young, Senator Young from Indiana, and I were there. It was a long, substantiative meeting, well over an hour. He reacted -- you know, we didn't know how he was going to react. We knew we were going to confront him about this issue. He wasn't surprised.

He reacted in a way that he understands, Wolf, that he's got a problem. He understands that he's got a problem with the American people and that this matter has to be dealt with in a straightforward and transparent way.

They have started a trial process for a group of people that were allegedly involved in this murder, but they have left out al-Qahtani, one of the top aides, who's not in the trial who we believe we should be. And then, of course, the -- he's the head of state.

Whether he ordered it directly or not, he's responsible for what takes place on his watch. And I think he needs to come forward and say that publicly to try to get us beyond this issue, because the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States goes back 80 years.

And it's very important, not so much for oil anymore, but because of the tenseness, the complexity of the situation in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is a strong bulwark against Iran, which has expansionist desires in the whole region.

So Saudi Arabia is an important ally, but the crown prince knows he's got to come -- be straightforward about this Khashoggi business.

BLITZER: Well, you spent an hour with him, Senator King. You clearly looked him in the eye.

Do you believe he ordered the murder of Khashoggi?

[18:15:00]

KING: I don't know. I don't know, Wolf. There's no evidence that he did. But, you know, the issue is, if he was the head of the government, and -- how would he not know? On the other hand, this may have been one of those situations from

Thomas Becket, who will rid me of this meddlesome priest, where a leader makes a statement, and the followers -- in the case of Thomas Becket, it was the king's knights went off and killed the bishop.

Now, who knows? I don't know if we will ever know the answer. And I could not form a final opinion on that. But I can tell you, I put the question to him very directly.

BLITZER: But you're on the Intelligence Committee. The U.S. intelligence community, as you know, the director of the CIA, they have all concluded that he was responsible for the murder of Khashoggi.

Do you disagree with that assessment?

KING: No. No, they concluded that based upon his control over the government of Saudi Arabia. In other words, they didn't -- there's no intelligence that I know of that links him directly to the action.

But what their conclusion was, that a sparrow doesn't fall in Saudi Arabia without the prince's knowledge and involvement. And I think, you know, that's really the issue.

So, you know, I think this is -- this is a very serious issue. And, as I say, I think he has to come forward and be straightforward about it, and at least, at least take responsibility as the head of state. It happened on his watch. He's the head of state.

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BLITZER: Senator, with a high degree of confidence, the CIA concluded that he ordered the murder of Khashoggi. Do you agree with that intelligence assessment?

KING: I don't disagree with it.

I just -- like I say, that intelligence -- I'm aware of that intelligence assessment, and it was based upon the way the government of Saudi Arabia works. It wasn't based upon an intercepted communication or some evidence of his direct -- and I think that's a reasonable assumption.

But you asked me the question, do I believe, to a certainty, that he did it? And I couldn't -- I can't give you that certainty.

I think it's likely, for the same reasons that the CIA thought it was likely. He does not take that responsibility, but I think, as I say, at least he needs to take responsibility for the fact that it happened with him as the leader of the country.

BLITZER: Yes, that's a very important point. There's lots at stake in terms of U.S.-Saudi relations, as you well know and all of us know.

Senator King, as usual, thanks so much for joining us.

KING: Thank you, Wolf. Good to be with you.

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