CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview With Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi

Interview

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HARLOW: All right. We're just a day away from the start of week two of public testimony on Capitol Hill in the impeachment inquiry this week. Eight witnesses set to testify. You see them right there.

Up until now, Republicans have argued that the witnesses so far have offered up second or third-hand information. But that could all change on Wednesday, when U.S. ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, testifies.

Let's talk about this with a member of the Intelligence Committee, Democratic Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois. Thank you for being with me. Of course --

REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI (D-IL): Good morning.

HARLOW: -- building up to Wednesday's testimony is "The Wall Street Journal" reporting this morning that there were apparently these e- mails keeping Mulvaney and Rick Perry abreast of this request for Ukraine to do this investigation of the Bidens.

Given all of that, what is the first thing you plan to ask Ambassador Sondland on Wednesday?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, gosh, you know, Ambassador Sondland was at the center of this alleged scheme to condition military aid and a White House meeting on investigations of Trump's political rivals here. I think that we'll be asking him a lot about the events leading up to

the July 25th call, as well as the day of the call and events subsequent to that. He was intricately involved with all of those events, and so he will be a very, very important witness.

HARLOW: And, apparently, he's the one who took the phone call from the president on -- the day after, July 26th, asking for an update.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Right.

HARLOW: My question to you on that though is twofold. What if he says, I don't recall that call, because he didn't bring it up in his two prior testimonies? What do you do then? And do you think he's a reliable witness at this point, given that he had to amend his previous testimony?

[10:20:00]

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, it's true that in his deposition testimony, he didn't seem to remember a lot of things -- a lot of events, a lot of conversations, meetings and telephone calls.

But that subsequently, when he learned about what others said, specifically, you know, Ambassador Taylor, who was a party to many of these phone calls, he then amended his testimony and put forth a declaration, a four page declaration with what he's since remembered.

Perhaps at this hearing on Wednesday, he might even further remember events. We don't really know.

HARLOW: Right.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: But that's why we, you know, have the hearing and have a chance to actually question him live.

HARLOW: So something that happened late on Thursday, I would like your take on, and that is that Ukraine's foreign minister said, and I quote, "Ambassador Sondland did not tell us and certainly did not tell me about a connection between the assistance and the investigations. I have never seen a direct relationship between investigations and security assistance."

Does that harm the Democrats' case here?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, I think that the important fact here is that it was never alleged that the foreign minister was part of these conversations or meetings, in which some of these very troubling events occurred.

And so I think that one of the most important things that we'll learn this week is who is a party to the calls in which, you know, even Ambassador Sondland admits in his declaration and his addendum to his testimony, that there was military assistance conditioned on the public announcement in investigations by the Ukrainians of Donald Trump's political rivals. HARLOW: So even though you have President Zelensky saying, you know, in public, I felt no pressure, and Ukraine's foreign minister saying this, you do not think it's an impediment to the case that the Democrats are building now.

One final thing on this and I would like to move on, and that is on Hunter Biden. We heard in Ambassador Yovanovitch's testimony in her exchange with Republican Congresswoman Elaine (sic) Stefanik about how the Obama administration and the Obama State Department prepared her for her Senate confirmation hearing, and prepared her by telling her a question may come up about Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, then the vice president's son, being on the board of Burisma. And, you know, here's how you -- you know, telling her, that may come up, be prepared for that question. And she confirmed under oath on Friday, yes, that is the case.

Given that, do you believe there is any reason to call Hunter Biden as a witness? Do you believe there are any questions he should answer? Because, of course, he's on the Republicans' list of eight witnesses they would like called.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: I don't think so. And I think the fact that she talked about that is just indicating that these allegations have been kicking around for years, mainly in right-wing circles and so forth.

HARLOW: Well --

KRISHNAMOORTHI: But the main point -- the main point here is that --

HARLOW: But it was the Obama State Department that thought it was worthwhile for her to know that it would potentially come up in a Senate confirmation hearing.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Absolutely, because she was obviously going to be questioned by various senators from various parties.

So I think that that in and of itself doesn't signify that Hunter Biden engaged in any kind of nefarious wrongdoing.

I think the most important thing that we know about the Hunter Biden episode is that witness after witness with knowledge of what was going on in Ukraine, said that the Ukrainian prosecutor's general who looked at it dropped all of these investigations, because they thought that this was a debunked argument against Hunter Biden.

And, in fact, what we learned on Friday was that despite the fact that the Trump administration maintained that they were trying to fight corruption in Ukraine, they decided to fired the corruption fighter. That was namely Ambassador Yovanovitch.

HARLOW: And, again, I would just note before we move on, no evidence of wrongdoing has been put forward about Joe Biden -

KRISHNAMOORTHI: That's exactly right.

HARLOW: -- or Hunter Biden in this scenario. KRISHNAMOORTHI: Yes.

HARLOW: Before we go, I have the letter here that you sent to the FDA about what has happened to the potential ban on flavors of e- cigarettes. "The New York Times" has reported overnight the president may be backing away from his call to ban those flavors, something that you called not long ago incredibly encouraging from the president.

The White House says they're just in an ongoing rule making process.

What answers are you hoping for from the White House and the FDA on this?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Just to kind of level set what's going on for your viewers, we have a youth vaping epidemic right now. Almost 28 percent of high schoolers are vaping and 5 percent of middle schoolers.

And one of the prime reasons why youth get hooked onto vaping is because of the flavors available for e-cigarettes, whether it's mint or tutti-frutti or creme or mango or what have you.

[10:20:04]

The Trump administration, in a welcome sign, proposed banning it. That was two months ago. We have not heard anything since. And we just sent this letter to the Trump administration, namely the Office of Management and Budget in the White House, as well as the FDA, basically saying, where is the -- where are the rules that will promulgate this ban?

You know, we are hearing, especially from "The New York Times" story, that lobbyists and special interests are trying to stop this ban. And I just have to say, our kids are not for sale. We cannot have them subject to marketing by the e-cigarette industry because, quite frankly, it's so dangerous for youth that they should have no part in it whatsoever.

HARLOW: Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, we appreciate your time on all of these issues this morning.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Absolutely. Thanks, Poppy.

HARLOW: Thanks very much. You got it.

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