CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript: Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) Is Interviewed About The I.G. Report And The Administration's Response To It.
Interview
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
COOPER: Just a moment ago in the program, James Comey, the former FBI director, talked about today's inspector general report. He called it a vindication of critical FBI practices. The report found absolutely no foundation for the baseless charges by President Trump and his allies of a coup or treason.
The FBI, the report says, properly opened its investigation. Earlier, I spoke to Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, about the conclusions in the report, as well as the administration's reaction to it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (on camera): The inspector general report, I mean, if one believed what the president had been saying for the last several years and his allies on Capitol Hill --
SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D-HI): Mm-hmm.
COOPER: -- this is a complete debunking of all of the main points of what the president has been saying.
HIRONO: Yes. Yes, but not according to the attorney general, who once again acts like he is the president's attorney. The way he framed it was that the investigation was based on the thinnest of suspicions and an intrusive investigation. That is not what the IG concluded. Once again, Barr misleads and that's using a nice word.
COOPER: There are reasons to be concerned. There are 17 significant inaccuracies and omissions which is what the report calls down.
HIRONO: Yes.
COOPER: And particularly they point that the inspector general points out that if these inaccuracies and these omissions were made by three separate teams, you know, selected teams, you would assume they're the best of the bunch, in such a high-profile case in which it was going to be briefed to the highest levels of the FBI and the Justice Department, if mistakes were made, if there were 17 in these cases, what does that even mean for other less, you know, cases in which there would not be quite as much scrutiny?
HIRONO: That is why Chris Wray is making the appropriate changes that he needs to, and he said that these changes will make the FBI a stronger institution.
[23:40:02]
HIRONO: But the significant thing is that Chris Wray accepts the IG's conclusions and the conclusions are that there was no political motivation for this investigation.
COOPER: He also said today that they have no evidence of Ukraine --
HIRONO: That's right.
COOPER: -- attempting to influence the 2016 election.
HIRONO: Yea. And meanwhile, you still have Giuliani running around, in my view, like a really a loose cannon.
COOPER: How concerned are you about -- I mean, you are critical of Attorney General Barr.
HIRONO: Yes.
COOPER: He has his own investigation going on --
HIRONO: Yes.
COOPER: -- through Durham.
HIRONO: Yes.
COOPER: Both of whom put out statements. Durham put out a statement today essentially saying, well, we we're not limited to just information within the FBI, we have access to other information from overseas and elsewhere, and we will draw our own conclusions.
HIRONO: I think it's very strange and totally inappropriate for Durham to be opining, talking about an ongoing investigation that he's conducting. That is not what the FBI does. That is not what U.S. attorney's offices do. So, this is very much comports with what Barr is saying.
And it is also really untoward for Barr to do what he's doing because this is what he did for the Mueller report. That he came out and in a very deliberate way misled. In my view, he deceived the public.
COOPER: Do you think he is acting as the president's attorney --
HIRONO: Of course.
COOPER: -- and that this message is for the president?
HIRONO: Totally. That's why it's very dangerous. We expect the attorney general to actually uphold the law of our country and the Constitution. Instead, we have an attorney general whose first instinct always is to protect the president.
That should concern all of us. We have a Justice Department and we have the person who is the highest ranking legal person in our country doing the bidding basically of the president. It's just so scary.
COOPER: And yet today, the president came out and said that what this report says is that things were worse than even he anticipated. I mean, he essentially is --
HIRONO: Worse for him, maybe.
COOPER: He's spinning a different story --
HIRONO: False.
COOPER: -- essentially saying that, you know, I guess he is basing the idea that people will not actually read the report, but they will hear him saying that it's worse than --
HIRONO: And what the president hopes is that by continuing to lie to the American people as he does from day one of the presidency, that the American public will be fooled.
COOPER: Senator Hirono, I appreciate your time. Thank you.
HIRONO: Hope we can do it again. Aloha.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source