CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Ed Markey (D- MA) on Impeachment Trial Q&A

Interview

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SCIUTTO: Senator Ed Markey's office has already submitted at least 11 questions. He joins us now.

Thanks so much, Senator, for taking the time this morning.

SEN. ED MARKEY (D-MA): Good morning.

SCIUTTO: Let's begin there. You submitted 11 questions. Can you give us a sense of what kind of questions you're pressing on?

MARKEY: Well, one question that I want to have answered is in response to a tweet that Donald Trump put out that said that John Bolton was never asked by the House impeachment managers to even testify, which is completely false. They did. And so I want to ask the House managers that question. Did you ask John Bolton to testify? And they will answer I think affirmatively and then explain that he then did not want to testify.

SCIUTTO: Yes. MARKEY: He rejected that and said he would fight that. He has now

changed. He now wants to testify but again Donald Trump has just put out a whole series of lies on so many different questions and that's just one of them that needs clarification on the floor of the Senate.

HARLOW: Well, that would get to the obstruction charge. I see where you're going there. Let's ask you about something that just happened this morning.

[09:15:00]

Your fellow -- your fellow Democrat, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who really has not tipped his hat one way or the other on where he's going here.

Just said that he thinks Hunter Biden is a relevant witness. I want you to listen to this exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is Hunter Biden a relevant witness, senator?

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): You know, I think so, I really do. I don't have a problem there because this is why we are where we are. Now I think that he can clear himself.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you vote to call Hunter Biden as a witness?

MANCHIN: If the judge or whoever rules this is pertinent, absolutely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Is he right, senator?

MARKEY: I disagree. Hunter Biden is not on trial, Joe Biden is not on trial. Donald Trump is on trial. Hunter Biden doesn't have any relevant -- and that's the key word -- relevant information about anything that Donald Trump was doing to extort an investigation of the Biden family out of the Ukraine government in return for $391 million worth of American taxpayer, national security aid for the Ukraine.

So from my perspective, there is no relevance whatsoever. And it's just another red herring that Donald Trump and his legal team is trying to put out there. But again, it's just not relevant, and it's a way to distract and ultimately to deny the factual core of the charges made against Trump.

SCIUTTO: So, there's a lot of talk now about whether there are a significant number of Republican votes to vote in favor of witnesses. But as history, if you look at the Democratic caucus, there are some splits there. I mean, seeing for instance, Joe Manchin, and you disagreeing. There's also the question whether Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Doug Jones of Alabama, both in red states whether they might vote to acquit or -- and Kyrsten Sinema, who faces her own tough race. Are you concerned that Democrats would not be united, not just on the

question of acquitting the president, but on the question of calling witnesses?

MARKEY: Well, ultimately, the question of John Bolton is at the heart of this matter. He has firsthand testimony that he can deliver. He took contemporaneous notes of his meetings with the president. He can without question corroborate the allegations that are being made against the president. And so from my perspective, once Bolton testifies, and he cannot be denied that opportunity because a trial without witnesses is a cover-up.

So the first question is, will there be a cover-up? Will there be witnesses that have direct relevant information? And that's John Bolton. Once that happens, we're going to see, I think, additional questions that are opened up, and additional witnesses that may have to be called. So ultimately, the decision as to how people vote will be based upon all that evidence.

But if the evidence is denied to the American people and to the Senate, then it will not have been a real trial. A real trial is a search for the truth. The truth requires --

SCIUTTO: Yes --

MARKEY: Witnesses. It requires documents. And no one should prejudge the outcome until we know whether or not a full and fair trial was conducted. Right now, the Republicans still don't have enough votes to give us the witnesses which we need to put all of the information out there in front of the American people.

HARLOW: Senator Markey, let's end on this. You saw it yesterday, sitting as a juror in the trial. The president's attorney Pat Cipollone used you back a few years ago in 1998 during -- and '99 during the Clinton impeachment trial. See you there, you look exactly the same, sir, making the argument that this is not worthy of impeachment. This is something that should be held, you know, outside of impeachment, in family court, et cetera. They tried to flip the script on you. What is your response to what you saw?

MARKEY: Well, my response is, I was right in 1998, and I'm right today. Ken Starr made a mockery of the impeachment process. He took something which was a personal failing of President Clinton and he tried to turn it into an impeachable offense. That was just completely wrong. Here, what we have is actually a charge that the president compromised the national security of our country.

That he tried to use our national security to advance his own electoral goals to be re-elected in 2020. If that's not impeachable, then nothing is impeachable. What President Clinton did should have been in family court. This case is right where it should be. On the floor of the United States Senate with this Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presiding. This goes right to the heart of our national security and the integrity of our elections, and the differences are vast between those two cases.

HARLOW: Senator Markey, we'll let you get to your job at hand today. Another big day, we appreciate your time.

MARKEY: Thank you.

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