CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview With Rep. Richard Blumenthal

Interview

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Joining us now, Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat. He serves on the Armed Services and Judiciary committees.

Senator, thanks so much for joining us,

As you know, the president now claiming Soleimani was targeting four U.S. embassies. Has the administration revealed any intelligence to you that substantiates that claim?

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): There is nothing that substantiates that claim either that has been provided by the president or the secretary of state or secretary of defense either publicly or in our briefing.

And one reason we were so angry coming from that briefing is the lack of specifics, the absence of evidence to justify this claim about imminent threat.

And now, after the vice president says the information was too sensitive, too dangerous to sources and methods, the president is throwing away that claim of need for secrecy, and he is presenting contradictory, shifting stories, which more fundamentally and importantly are a sign of the shifting strategies or, in fact, the lack of any strategy, policy, or plan.

And that has resulted in our being less safe today than we were a week ago at about this time because of the killing of Soleimani, the threat of ejection of our forces from Iraq, the growing resurgence of ISIS, and the withdrawal of our allies from that region.

BLITZER: After insisting that an attack was imminent, the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, told FOX News -- and I am quoting him now -- "We don't know precisely when, and we don't know precisely where."

Our own White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, followed up today. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Secretary Pompeo, what's your definition of imminent?

MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: This was going to happen. And American lives were at risk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Does that meet your definition, Senator, of an imminent threat?

BLUMENTHAL: That vague, nonspecific to allusion to potential risk of American lives in no way, absolutely not, satisfies the definition of imminent.

[18:10:09]

There has to be something immediate about the harm. And it has to be substantial harm to justify action that, in effect, is an act of potential war.

And the reason why it is important is that Congress has a constitutional responsibility. The president has an obligation under the War Powers Act to come to Congress. That's why we are going to have this resolution that will hopefully be debated by Congress this coming week -- in the Senate, that is -- it's already been passed in the House -- because we have a very solemn responsibility, when American lives are put in jeopardy through war, to debate and to approve it.

And the president is showing not only a cavalier attitude, as Chuck Hagel said earlier in your last hour, but also a contempt for the American people and for Congress through these shifting stories that, in effect, are self-contradictory and contradictory to what they have said privately in the supposed classified briefing.

BLITZER: The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, now says she will send over those two articles of impeachment to you, to the United States Senate, next week.

You said you trust her judgment. Was it -- was this weeks-long standoff, though, this delay in sending over those articles of impeachment, worth it?

BLUMENTHAL: I think that her timing has been excellent.

And I said that I would trust her judgment. And now she has decided, after this week has enabled the offer of testimony from John Bolton and additional documents to be revealed, which show the importance of witnesses and documents that can talk directly to what the president did, when he did it, what happened as a result, they know these witnesses, the four that we have asked to be presented, what directly the president did and said.

And the American people in this week have really formed an opinion that these witnesses and documents should be heard. And the best sign of the effect is my Republican colleagues, some of them telling their hometown newspapers, as Senator Collins did just very recently in Bangor, Maine, that she's talking to Republican colleagues about witnesses and documents, that they're hearing from constituents, the American people, who are saying, you know what a trial means?

It means documents and witnesses. And I think the effect of Nancy Pelosi waiting this long has been to galvanize American public opinion; 70 percent of Americans now favor -- in favor of a real trial, not the sham trial that McConnell wants dictated by the defendant, who should not be setting the rules of the trial.

BLITZER: As you know, the majority leader, Mitch McConnell, thinks he has the necessary votes to avoid what you want.

But we will see what happens in the coming days.

Senator Blumenthal, thank you so much for joining us.

BLUMENTHAL: Thank you.

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