CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: "Interview with Rep. Ted Lieu"

Interview

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BLITZER: We'll see what happens. It's a very sensitive issue indeed. Phil, thank you very much for that report.

Joining us now, Congressman Ted Lieu, he's a Democrat serves both the Judiciary and Foreign Affairs Committee. Congressman, thanks for joining us.

REP. TED LIEU (D-CA): Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: I'm going to get to these subpoenas in just a moment or so. But first, President Trump just acknowledged that he did speak to people in Israel about the decision to ban two of your colleagues. These are elected members of the U.S. Congress. What message does this send?

LIEU: Thank you, Wolf, for your question. No American president should ever work with a foreign power to negatively affect Americans. Donald Trump should be defending the rights of Americans to travel to other countries. The fact that he has not done and has done exactly the opposite shows again that he is unfit to hold the high office of the presidency.

[18:10:00] BLITZER: And what about the Israeli government decision, Prime Minister Netanyahu's decision to flip his ambassador here in Washington, Ron Dermer, a few weeks ago, said these two women would be welcome in Israel. But all of a sudden, today, that decision was reversed?

LIEU: The long-term security of Israel depends on bipartisan support. That's one reason that AIPAC came out opposing this decision. That's one reason that GOP leader Kevin McCarthy a few days earlier said that all members of Congress should be welcomed in Israel. This is going to hurt U.S./Israel relations. Israel security depends on bipartisan support now and in their future.

BLITZER: It's been only a month or so since President Trump told Congresswomen Tlaib and Omar to go back to where they came from, you remember that. And now he's heading to a rally in New Hampshire tonight. What are the potential repercussions of these continued attacks on these two women of color, the first two Muslim women in the U.S. Congress, by the way?

LIEU: So one repercussion is that Donald Trump is now nearing the lowest approval levels ever according to a Fox News poll that came out yesterday. We also know that according to another poll, more than majority of Americans think that the president is racist. And when he says, go back to Americans and tells them to go back from where they came from, that's simply a racist trope. People told me to go back to China or North Korea or Japan, and they tell that to me because of my race. So if I was white, I wouldn't hear that. So the president has been using a racist trope and for him to continue double down on this is very unfortunate.

BLITZER: Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, she's a Palestinian American. And she was also, by the way, planning on visiting her grandmother. She's got family living on the West Bank. She tweeted out this picture, by the way, of her grandmother and wrote, "The decision by Israel to bar her granddaughter, a U.S. congresswoman, is a sign of weakness because the truth of what is happening to Palestinians is frightening."

What's your reaction, Congressman, to that?

LIEU: Thank you for pointing that out. It is outrageous that the U.S. government is working against having an American go visit a relative in Israel. Ambassador Friedman, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, actually I think he should resign, because he doesn't seem to understand that his allegiance is to America, not to a foreign power. He should be defending the rights of Americans to travel to other countries and to visit their relatives.

BLITZER: Well, elaborate on that - Ambassador Friedman, the U.S. ambassador to Israel. When you speak about an allegiance to a foreign power, what are you suggesting?

LIEU: Ambassador Friedman issued a statement today, supporting Israel's decision to ban two Americans from visiting Israel. That is an outrageous statement that Ambassador Friedman issued. He should be fighting to get these two Americans into Israel, one of which wants to visit her grandmother.

BLITZER: But the ambassador was basically saying what the president of the United States, his boss, was saying. LIEU: Well, I wish President Trump would resign. I don't think he's going to do that, but certainly, I can call on Ambassador Friedman to resign. His allegiance, again, is to America, not to a foreign power and to the Constitution of the United States, not to the president.

BLITZER: Let's turn to the work of your Judiciary Committee. The committee has just issued subpoenas, as you know, for Corey Lewandowski, the former Trump campaign manager and another former White House official. How important is their testimony to illustrate the incidence of possible obstruction of justice in the Mueller report?

LIEU: Earlier today, Corey Lewandowski sent a tweet that emphasized he was a private citizen. I'm glad he did that, because executive privilege does not apply to private citizens. I look forward to him testifying before the House Judiciary Committee. And if you watched Robert Mueller's testimony, I had the opportunity to question Robert Mueller on this exact incident involving Corey Lewandowski. He was instructed by Donald Trump to tell Jeff Sessions to stop the investigation into Donald Trump and to focus it only on future elections. And Robert Mueller essentially confirmed all three elements of obstruction of justice were met during that incident.

BLITZER: Does the White House have any basis to invoke executive privilege over Corey Lewandowski, who never worked in the White House?

LIEU: They're just making stuff up. They would have no basis to do that. And the irony, really, is that Bill Barr has this view of imperial presidency, but because he's making really stupid legal arguments, he keeps losing in court, he's going to end up shrinking the powers of the president, because his courts are all going to rule against him.

BLITZER: Congressman Ted Lieu thanks so much for joining us.

LIEU: Thank you, Wolf.

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