CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) Is Interviewed About Trump's Impeachment Hearing

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

So let's talk to someone who is expected to vote on whether or not to impeach President Donald Trump. That is Democratic Congressman Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts. He joins me now. He is a member of the Oversight and Reform Committee. Congressman, thank you so much for joining me this evening.

REP. STEPHEN LYNCH (D-MA): Good to be with you.

MARQUARDT: Congressman, you were initially not supportive of these impeachment proceedings. That changed, and assuming this comes to a vote, will you vote to impeach the president?

LYNCH: Well, it depends on the evidence, but I think we have -- first of all, I thought that the results of the Mueller report were not as forceful. I thought that we still needed more evidence, however. I think with the Ukraine situation, we have a lot of that evidence in hand.

We have the president's own statements. We have Mick Mulvaney's statements. We have corroborating evidence by probably four to five Republican administrative officials.

So, the evidence is piling up. So, I would say that the scales are weighted heavily towards articles of impeachment at this point.

MARQUARDT: But what about your vote?

LYNCH: Well, I'll reserve that until we complete this process, right? We don't have articles for me to vote on yet so, I would need to read the articles before I decide whether to vote for the articles. There is technicality, but a necessary one.

MARQUARDT: Congressman, we have just had two weeks of historic and incredibly dramatic testimony that was in the House Intelligence Committee.

The House Intel Committee is now going to hand over a report that they're expected to allow members to see tomorrow that the Judiciary Committee will then pick up.

But after all of this dramatic testimony in the House Intel Committee, polls have shown the public opinion has not changed on impeaching and removing the president.

[17:05:05]

Does that concern you heading into a big election year?

LYNCH: It concerns me with regard to how the Senate might vote. I think that this is one of those situations where I think public opinion often guides members of the U.S. Senate and the House for that matter.

But I think going back to the evidence that I talked about that's been brought out in these hearings, I think if members are open and thoughtful and weighing their obligation to protect and defend the Constitution, I think that members if they're doing that, will side on the basis of impeachment, I believe.

Now, we still have to draft the articles. So, which particular elements of the obstruction of justice will the Judiciary Committee proceed with? What elements of bribery often talked about as quid pro quo? What specific charges?

Because the House will have to vote in each and every one of those charges separately and there may be some members that think one or other charge is not sufficient.

MARQUARDT: Well, to that point, would you like to keep the charges and the articles narrower or wider because there is talk of course about having at least one article of impeachment that could deal with the obstruction of justice that goes back to the Mueller probe which of course is not directly linked to this Ukraine affair.

LYNCH: Right. I think you want to have a tightly scripted set of articles of impeachment. I think going back to your comments regarding public opinion, I think if we started to load up with issues that were sort of left in limbo as a result of the Mueller investigation, it may actually hurt the force of evidence that's being provided with what happened in Ukraine. MARQUARDT: Right.

LYNCH: So, I would favor a -- rather than throwing everything against the wall and see what sticks, I would really want to craft this tightly and based on the facts, based on the evidence, I think we owe that to the American people.

MARQUARDT: Congressman, we're starting to see when members go home for recess, obviously one of the big things that they're being confronted with by constituents is this talk of impeachment. I want to play for you and our viewers what happened to your fellow Democrat, Mikie Sherrill, when she was confronted on impeachment at a town hall. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you going to go along with the impeachment or will you have the courage and we can't spend the next year investigating? Let the voters decide who the president --

REP. MIKIKE SHERRILL (D-NJ): I did not run for office to impeach the president. The president crossed a line for me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: Congressman, what are you hearing from other colleagues who are in districts like Sherrill's about what they're facing in this impeachment question?

LYNCH: Well, I think they are feeling pressure from both sides in the so-called purple districts, districts that were carried by President Trump in the last election.

But again -- so I think those members I think will put a lot of thought into this and be even more precise in terms of weighing the evidence. But again, I go back to the bulk of the evidence that has been produced thus far. I think it's fairly damning regarding the president's conduct in this case.

MARQUARDT: So let's assume those articles of impeachment are voted on and the House does vote to impeach the president. For the benefit of the Democratic Party, how would you like to see that Senate trial going knowing that a conviction is highly unlikely?

LYNCH: Well, we've got to keep it simple. I think we've got to focus precisely on those elements that we think crossed the line with regard to the president's conduct.

It's got to be lawyerly (ph). We're not going to impeach this president with pitchforks and torches. It's going to have to be the law. And, you know, I think the managers of the impeachment process that are House members and go to the Senate will have to really do a great job in terms of telling that story.

You know, with everything that the president has done here, I think there's an obligation on the part of House members to carry this case to the Senate.

Again we're going to have to be very, very precise. And regardless of the outcome, look, if we fail to impeach, what it means now is that this type of conduct is acceptable. This is acceptable.

[17:09:56]

Now, that's what the Senate vote will decide, whether or not, you know, it is safer to remove this president or leave him in office. And I think, again, the evidence against this president and his conduct thus far has proven him unfit for office really.

MARQUARDT: Congressman Lynch, one of the names that kept coming up time and time again on the Republican side during the impeachment public hearings in the Intelligence Committee was that of Hunter Biden.

If the White House does choose to engage in these hearings in the Judiciary Committee and then calls for Hunter Biden to testify, how do you think Democrats should respond to that?

LYNCH: I think it's ridiculous. Remember, the Ukrainians never identified Hunter Biden as a suspect of a crime. So, I think the Republican effort is just to obfuscate.

They've been, you know, now I hear they want to have Adam Schiff as a witness. You know, what evidence would he be able to produce? So, they're trying to shift the attention away from the president and his conduct and all of the witnesses that have pointed to the president's illegal conduct.

They want to, you know, obfuscate and that's what -- so they've dreamed this up. They've dreamed up this theory that Ukraine really hacked the elections back in 2016 and not Russia, which plays right into Putin's hands.

MARQUARDT: Right.

LYNCH: They've basically adopted the Putin line that really in spite of 14 intelligence agencies that work for the United States, they're discarding all of that and they've got their own conspiracy theory about Ukraine doing this.

MARQUARDT: Right.

LYNCH: So, it's shameful. It's shameful, really, that they're going so low as to come up with these conspiracy theories when we have such a serious matter before us.

MARQUARDT: Well, it's a major historic week ahead on Capitol Hill. Congressman Stephen Lynch, thank so much for your time tonight.

LYNCH: Thank you very much.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source