CNN "Erin Burnett Outfront" - Transcript: Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) Discusses About The Briefing That Russia is Trying to Help Trump Win 2020 Election

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BURNETT: All right. Kaitlan, thank you very much. And I want to go now to Democratic Congressman from Illinois, Mike Quigley, who sits on the House Intelligence Committee. So let me just start, Congressman, with, is there anything you can share with us about this briefing?

REP. MIKE QUIGLEY (D-IL): I can't talk about what took place in any particular briefing. I'll just remind your viewers that from January 2017 on, the entire Intelligence Community with a high degree of certainty said that the Russians were the ones who attacked the Democratic process. And they did it to favor one candidate, President Trump, over the other, Hillary Clinton.

DNI Coats who was ousted because he disagree with the President said most recently, the lights are still flashing red, they're warning lights, they're still going to do this. The Russians have never left. So we should be protecting the Democratic process and there's no coincidence.

The President oust people who disagree with him, who hurt his, in his mind, political advantage or personal advantage and I think that's what you should see this for.

BURNETT: All right. So let me ask you, because you're saying it's no coincidence. You hear they're trying to say, oh, it's a coincidence that he's trying to put in Rich Grenell, a loyalist, into the job and Maguire out.

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You're saying no coincidence at all. I wanted to see if you believe this goes one step further. Is this the President of the United States trying to cover up the fact that Russia is trying to help him in the election?

BURNETT: I think the President of the United States is trying to take over the Intelligence process in the same manner we saw this week, where he's trying to take over the Justice Department. He doesn't want the truth to get out when the truth hurts him. That's extraordinarily dangerous when it comes to Intelligence.

The truth, the intelligence truth keeps us safe. We are less safe when the President does things like this. The fact of the matter is, nobody has to weaponize this. The Russians have weaponized social media and they have hacked and dumped and a lot we have to do to prepare for the primaries in November election.

The Russians attempted to attack the Democratic process during the primaries. This has been reported and the President getting people out who want to talk about that has an extraordinary chilling effect on anybody willing to come forward, as we saw with Colonel Vindman and others.

BURNETT: OK. So let me ask you, though, because obviously the President, we understand, was furious when he found out about this, didn't want people to know about it. We're also hearing though that a source is telling us that when you were briefed in your committee and you would think that everybody would uniformly be up in arms about Russian interference in the election, that it's confirmed it's happening regardless of who it's trying to help.

But, of course, the understanding is that the Intelligence Committee saying it's helping Donald Trump. The Republicans were mad. They launched an attack. They didn't want to hear it. Is that true?

QUIGLEY: I can't speak to a particular briefing. I can speak to a pattern of behavior. It's been very difficult to pass election grant, to fight against this. I've been the sponsor of those measures. It's been tough to get bipartisan support and I will say this broadly, it has been a pattern of behavior by my Republican colleagues of resisting this information and siding with the President.

Whether they're doing this because they agree with the President or they just want to protect him, I'm often asked, are they true believers, I can't tell anymore. But unfortunately, they're complicit.

BURNETT: All right. Congressman, I appreciate your time and I thank you. And I want to go now to the former General Counsel for the Director of National Intelligence, Robert Litt, Asha Rangappa who was a Special Agent for the FBI and New York Times Reporter Julian Barnes who was breaking this story.

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