CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) Is Interviewed About The NYT Report That Trump Considered Firing Intel Inspector General Michael Atkinson

Interview

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Let's get some more on all the breaking news. Joining us now Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna of California, a member of the Oversight and Armed Service committees.

Congressman, thanks so much for joining us. And I quickly want to get to the breaking news from the "New York Times." President Trump has reportedly discussed dismissing, firing the inspector general of the U.S. Intelligence Community for bringing that whistleblower complaint to Congress. What's your reaction to that news?

REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): Well, Wolf, if true it's absolutely outrageous. And we need to understand the stakes tomorrow. The rule of law in this country is at stake. I mean, you have the President of the United States not learning any lesson from the Mueller investigation, basically believing he can fire anyone who calls him into question. And he's threatening to fire someone who basically did his job by allowing the whistleblower complaint to move forward.

BLITZER: If the President were to retaliate and -- against the Inspector General Michael Atkinson and fire him, would that rise to the level of its own article of impeachment?

KHANNA: Yes, Wolf. At this point, we just have so many illegal actions that the President continues to engage in that the numbers keep adding up. But the central case here remains that the President bullied Ukraine's President to investigate Joe Biden for political benefit and withheld aid. And I think that case is going to be made clearly tomorrow.

BLITZER: CNN has obtained this internal Republican memo. It's very detailed laying out their strategy for defending the President now that the public impeachment hearings are just hours away and we pointed out some of the major points insisting there was no conditionality or evidence of pressure that President Zelensky and President Trump both said there was no pressure on the call. That the Ukrainian government was not aware of any hold on U.S. security assistance during that July 25th call. And that the U.S. security assistance hold was actually lifted on September 11th. So how do you respond to those points?

KHANNA: Well I think Ambassador Taylor tomorrow will respond and will make it very clear that his understanding was and many people thought that this President was threatening to withhold aid and if Zelensky didn't investigate Biden. Now the Republicans say, well, he -- Ambassador Taylor didn't speak to the President. Well guess who the two people are who did speak to the President? Mick Mulvaney and John Bolton.

So you can't have it both ways. You can't say we're not going to have Mick Mulvaney and John Bolton testify and tell the truth and then say that people who were lower on the food chain haven't spoken to the President.

BLITZER: Your Democratic leadership, they're about to meet very soon to discuss their strategy going forward. Clearly the stakes are enormous right now. What do you think the strategy should be?

KHANNA: The strategy needs to be simple. We need to have a few key witnesses. And we need to stick to the basic fact that this President has compromised our national security as Secretary Condoleezza Rice recognizes, as even Ambassador Nikki Haley has alluded to, why is he asking a foreign leader to investigate an American citizen who just happens to be Joe Biden. Who just happens to be the one person leading him in all of the polls. And I think most Americans think that that is wrong.

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BLITZER: We're told that the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, in his opening statement is going to lay out the scope of this investigation to the American public, obviously we're going to be televising it. There's going to be television cameras in there. What do you think of the strategy?

KHANNA: I have a lot of confidence in Chairman Schiff but my view is that the more we have the witnesses talk and let them make the case the better we are. I don't think the American people want to hear from members of Congress or our spin or our interpretation. The facts here are so powerful, let people just hear what happened.

And what they will realize is this is not just one phone call or two phone calls. This is a concocted plan over months to hold aid from Zelensky unless Zelensky launches a public investigation into Biden.

BLITZER: Because you remember the criticism that the Chairman Adam Schiff received for that parity, that embellishment of what the President said in that phone conversation with Ukrainian President Zelensky has been hammered as you know. Are you worried that something like that might happen again?

KHANNA: No. My sense is that Chairman Schiff will keep it brief, that he will allow the expert attorneys to do the questioning. And that we will let these witnesses speak and share their stories. I mean, here the facts are so overwhelming. The facts will speak for themselves. I don't think it requires interpretation from any of the members of Congress.

BLITZER: The Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said he's dropping his lawsuit against House Democrats. But still says he won't comply with your subpoena. Are Democrats content to let witnesses defy subpoenas as long as they can get that kind of information elsewhere?

KHANNA: No. And especially in Mick Mulvaney's case because he was in charge of the Office of Budget and Management. He knows why the decision was made to withhold aid. He knows whether the President directed him to do that.

And here is the important thing to understand about executive privilege, Wolf. It doesn't cover illegal acts. So, yes, Mick Mulvaney doesn't need to tell us about his advice to President Trump about Russia or Ukraine but he does need to disclose if there was illegality and that's not covered by executive privilege.

BLITZER: But you're not going to court to fight him because it's going to take too long, right?

KHANNA: Well, we're going to continue to fight it but we're not going to hold up the entire process to do that. And here is my view. I think we will have the public hearings.

The evidence will be overwhelming. We'll have a vote in the House. We'll have a trial in the Senate. And then over the next few years more and more information is going to come out and people are going to realize how deep this went and how wrong it was and how much of an abuse of the Constitution it was. Unfortunately we're not going to be able to get all of that information before we have to vote.

BLITZER: Congressman Ro Khanna, you guys are going to be very, very busy. Thanks so much for joining us.

KHANNA: Thanks for having me on.

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