CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Rep. Steven Cohen (D-TN) Interviewed on House Speaker Pelosi's Handling of House Impeachment

Interview

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SAVIDGE: That was Nancy Pelosi speaking last night. Joining me is now is Representative Steven Cohen. He is a Democrat from Tennessee and a member of the House Judiciary Committee. Sir, thank you very much for being with us this morning.

REP. STEVE COHEN (D-TN): You're welcome, Martin.

SAVIDGE: So let me start with the point that it seemed that Nancy Pelosi was talking about there. There's a tremendous amount of new information that has come forward since the president was impeached, and that has raised some questions about, it goes back to you see the House speeding through this impeachment process. This all could have been introduced. And yet now the question is will it even see the light of day in a Senate trial? Do you believe or have second thoughts about how quickly the House moved on impeachment given the new information that's come to light at what appears to be the 11th hour?

COHEN: No, not really. Speaker Pelosi's done a masterful job of bringing about impeachment. She opposed for a long time, and it would not have occurred about her endorsement. She's seen that it went through the committee that Alan Schiff is chairman of, Intelligence Committee, and that was the right way to do the investigation because there wasn't an opportunity for a special prosecutor and investigative commission to look at it. And then Judiciary got it. She's done a great job. And I think it was right. I might have held the articles a little longer, but there was getting to be a lot of pressure, and I think she kind of gaged it where it was the right time to acquiesce.

SAVIDGE: Yesterday your Democratic colleagues released new documents, this came from indicted Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, and it includes new information about the apparent surveillance of former U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch. Do you know how much more Parnas may have informationally, and will that remaining information be released to the Senate trial?

COHEN: Well, I think what's been introduced, as I understand it, as part of the House's matter have been the interviews with Rachel Maddow. So that's going to be part of what they can consider if they choose to. I don't think Speaker Pelosi could have foreseen Parnas coming forth and as fulsome as he has been, but he has.

And I think with this president there is going to be more information every week. Every day there's more and more violations of the Emoluments Clause. There is more and more that will come out about obstruction of justice because eventually the courts, I believe, will have McGahn testify and others who know about his obstruction. This is going to go on and on.

And the Republicans in the Senate are not going to vote to put Donald Trump out of office in an impeachment trial because they're tied together. Their fortunes are in the same boat. So it's not going to happen. What's going to happen is November of 2020, and as this material comes out and the House will continue to investigate and the Judiciary Committee continues to investigate and the information comes out to the American public, the ultimate jury will be the American public in November of 2020, and I think that will be resounding defeat for Donald Trump.

SAVIDGE: You're saying that it's not just 100 members of the Senate, it is the overall public as they vote. I want you to listen, speaking of senators, to Lamar Alexander, the Republican senator from your state. And I'm going to ask you some questions on the other side here, but he's basically talking about how the House handled things versus how he believes the Senate will handle this. Take a listen.

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SEN. LAMAR ALEXANDER (R-TN): Just because the House of Representatives was a circus doesn't mean the Senate needs to be. We're approaching the impeachment trial according to our constitutional responsibilities.

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[10:35:00]

SAVIDGE: So, obviously, a dig at the House there and members, but also the question becomes witnesses. Do you believe that witnesses are essential, and do you believe that they will in some cases be called during the Senate trial?

COHEN: I think they are essential to a trial and they're essential for the American public and their representatives in the United States Senate want to see the truth. The American public does by 70-plus percent want to see witnesses. I don't think that Mitch McConnell and the Republican senators want to see them because it makes their vote not to convict Donald Trump look even worse.

I was surprised at Lamar. Lamar is a gentleman. He's had quite a nice career in Tennessee. He usually doesn't take a shot at anybody. If there was any clownishness in the House during this investigation, it was the Republicans when they dove into the Intelligence Committee and then made a scene for about two, three hours, and it was Doug Collins and others in the Judiciary Committee who made some outrageous comments. Otherwise, the Democrats, who were in charge of the Intel and the Judiciary Committee, I think did a marvelous job at bringing the facts together, bringing the law together, and bringing the Articles of Impeachment. Now it's up to the Senate, my friend Senator Alexander and others, to let witnesses appear and to let the truth come forward so justice can be served.

SAVIDGE: Can I ask you real quick, this new information coming to light about the Ranking Member of the House Intelligence committee Devin Nunes and what he may or may not have known about this effort to dig up dirt in Ukraine on Joe Biden, it's quite striking. And I'm wondering what you think of it?

COHEN: He's obviously been involved with the Trump team since he took evidence from Intelligence over to the White House months and months ago. He's been in on it just like Sondland said, they were all in on it. Lev Parnas said they were all in on it, and they've all been in on it. This has basically been Trump and his allies in the Congress doing an end run around the Constitution and the law.

And now he's got Dershowitz representing him, who has lost much of his credibility. And I think it's unfortunate he's being judged by the people he has represented in the past like Claus von Bulow and Jeffrey Epstein and O.J. and Helmsley, and all, because everybody has a right to a lawyer. But he's going to put a show on next Friday. He's not going to talk about the Constitution the way it really was. He's going to make up his own arguments, which Laurence Tribe has well discussed. It's just sad that he's going into a courtroom at 79 at the end of his career -- not a court, but the Senate at age 79, and make arguments that almost no other constitution lawyer -- and he's not a constitution lawyer, he's a criminal lawyer --- would make. But he's going to do that, and he will probably be effective at it because he's a bully and a showman.

SAVIDGE: He's a man who definitely brings celebrity into the courtroom. We will see how it plays out in the Senate. Thank you, Congressman.

COHEN: He's the new Roy Cohn.

SAVIDGE: Yes.

COHEN: Thank you, Martin. Thank you.

SAVIDGE: Thank you, sir.

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