CNN "Erin Burnett Outfront" - Transcript Interview with Adam Smith

Interview

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And Congressman, I appreciate your time. So tell me what you, well, what you can tell me about what you learned today in the briefing.

REP. ADAM SMITH (D-WA): Well, I mean, it was very disturbing. I mean, the biggest thing we learned is, it doesn't seem like the President or anyone senior in the administration really reacted much to the information that they got.

[19:30:02]

And I can confirm that there is credible intelligence suggesting that the Russians were paying bounties to Afghans to kill Americans and other coalition partners. And, you know, there is some dispute about exactly the level of confidence in the intelligence that they had, but there's clear intelligence that this is distinctly possible.

And as near as we could tell in the brief, the White House didn't really react to it very much, including when "The New York Times" story broke. It seemed like all they wanted to do was make clear that the president didn't know anything. That's not reassuring. We want to know what they're going to do about it.

BURNETT: Right. And, of course, obviously, the intellectual inconsistency I suppose there saying that -- Kayleigh McEnany saying that the president reads the daily brief. Not only do we know that that is not true most of the time but it was included in the brief, so if he reads the brief, then he would know about it. But he says he wasn't briefed on it.

So, just to make this clear to the viewer the issue here.

SMITH: Yes.

BURNETT: So, Chairman, according to a source who says the White House has received intelligence on this threat more than a year ago. Those reports were apparently passed to the top officials of the National Security Council, including then national security adviser John Bolton. So, do you buy that intelligence like this would make it all the way

to the White House to the national security adviser and that no one would verbally tell the president?

SMITH: I would be very surprised, though -- though I don't share his press secretary's confidence in how well-informed he is on issues. I mean, my goodness, look what he still says about COVID-19 and our response.

I sincerely hope that this man is not the most informed person on the planet. Otherwise, we are in serious trouble. So, it's hard to say.

The one thing I do know is that the White House did not react to this in the way that they should. And part of the problem here is you mentioned national security adviser John Bolton, we were briefed this morning by Mark Meadows, DNI Ratcliffe was there, director of national intelligence, and also the national security adviser, the current national security adviser, Mr. O'Brien. And none of those three people have been in the administration for longer than, like, eight months.

And Ratcliffe and Meadows have been in their jobs for three or four months. And a lot of what we were talking about, they always said, well, I wasn't here then. The lack of consistency in the administration I think is really harming their ability to have consistent policy.

BURNETT: So, according to "The New York Times," in April 2019 car bomb in which three U.S. Marines were killed near Bagram Base is being looked at as one possible attack linked to those Russian bounty payments because people said, well, what are the specifics? So, they're looking at this one in particular.

Have you seen any evidence that there maybe a connection in this case or any others to specific American lives?

SMITH: Well, when you say any evidence, you know, I mean, there is evidence that -- which I can't get into in detail. There's not a direct smoking gun link to that particular event, but there are a series of steps that make it distinctly possible that that is true. There is enough evidence there to certainly warrant further investigation and enough evidence to look more deeply into what Russians are doing in Afghanistan.

And I would submit, more -- enough evidence to have a more skeptical view of our relationship with Russia and to put pressure on them, instead of inviting them into the G7, to push back against them and let them know that there is going to be a cost if they are, in fact, doing things like this in Afghanistan.

BURNETT: All right. Chairman, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much.

SMITH: Thanks, Erin. I appreciate it.

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