CNN "The Lead with Jake Tapper" - Transcript Interview with Mark Warner

Interview

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Here now to talk about election security and more, Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia. The Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Senator Warner, good to see you.

So, President Trump has refused to explicitly say that he will accept the election results. Many Americans are anticipating a problem with that. A new CNN poll finds that if he were to lose, 55 percent of those polled believe that he will not concede. What are Democrats planning to do if the President loses and refuses to leave?

SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): Well, first of all, Jake, I think we just need to take a deep breath and step back for a moment and just hear what you just said. You know, there's never been in our history a time or a President, before an election, says he might not abide by the results of the election.

That is so anti-American, anti-basic democratic principles and it just gets my head spinning when he says this on a repeated basis. And he's saying this in the aftermath yesterday, the fifth volume of our intelligence committee report came out, all bipartisan, that outlined what Russia did in 2016.

End of the day what Russia and foreign governments want to do is undermine the confidence Americans have in our system. And it seems that President Trump seems to be playing into that narrative when before votes are even cast, he's casting doubt on the validity of elections. So, I think we're all going to have to rise to the occasion, whether

in a state like mine in Virginia where we now have 45 days of early voting as well as no excuse absentee voting. You know, write in for those ballots now and you could start dropping them off on September 19th in Virginia.

Many other states will have early voting. Let's not wait until election day, let's vote in record numbers. So there is nothing about the election -- and candidly, the media is going to have to be willing to not kind of do and then on the other hand, as one of the commentators just said, if it takes an extra day or two to make sure all votes are counted, that is not a sign of disarray, that's a sign of an attempt of election officials to be accurate.

TAPPER: Right.

WARNER: I think with this kind of mindset, I think we all -- so much is at stake here in terms of basic confidence in our system that we're all going to have to rise to the occasion.

TAPPER: We've been making that point now for several weeks, the election might not be settled on election night. It might take days or even weeks or perhaps even longer.

Let me ask you about that report that your committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee, released yesterday. A comprehensive bipartisan about Russian election interference in the 2016 campaign. Some really stunning conclusions in this bipartisan report.

Finding that Trump's 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort was considered a counterintelligence threat, was sharing internal campaign information with someone identified in your report as a Russian intelligence officer, that Vladimir Putin personally directed the hack into the DNC.

But like the Mueller Report, this report does not explicitly accuse the Trump campaign of conspiracy or the word "collusion." Why not?

WARNER: Well, Jake, our report was not a criminal investigation. That was what Bob Mueller was supposed to do. Ours was a counterintelligence investigation. And I said to folks, read the report. Reach your own conclusions. I'll accept whatever conclusions individuals reach.

And as you said, all five volumes have been bipartisan. Earlier volumes pointed out Russia's attempt to hack into election systems or misuse social media, this attempt focused on the unprecedented level of contacts between Russian agents and people affiliated with the Trump campaign.

But I would even say to a degree that's still all in the rearview mirror. What do we take from this report going forward into 2020? Ten days ago, the American intelligence community said that Russia will be back and they are back. And other nations may be trying to copy their playbook as well, like China and Iran. And my job as the intelligence vice chair is to keep the pressure on the intelligence community to get that information out as much as possible to the American public.

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We have an obligation, I think, to educate the American public about the Russian disinformation campaigns. Russia's attempts to mess with our election, they do it in democracies all around the world.

TAPPER: Right.

WARNER: But the best is educating the public and Sweden does a good job, Lithuania does a good job, and Estonia does a good job. They're adjacent to Russia, they get this kind of, interference all the time. Educate the public so they can spot that Russian disinformation. We need to do a better job of that going into 2020.

TAPPER: Well, frankly, sir, I mean some of the disinformation that's coming into the electoral system, into the political system these days is being given out by Republicans on Capitol Hill and individuals that work for conservative media. Are you calling it out? Is your chairman, Mr. Burr, willing to call it out?

WARNER: We did this three and a half years in this kind of environment bipartisan and we're going to stay getting out of the facts. And where I've called on the intelligence community is to go ahead and provide the kind of briefs that I've received to those individuals who I want to give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe unknowingly propagating the disinformation campaign. Let's at least brief them.

Then if they continue, they have to do that knowing that they may be advocating a Russian position. But I think it's the intelligence committee's obligation to brief those kind of people who may be -- I will give them the benefit of the doubt again at this moment unknowingly perpetrating this kind of disinformation campaign.

TAPPER: That's very generous of you, sir. So the report that you issued also found that President Trump did speak to Roger Stone about WikiLeaks, which is, of course, the organization that is accused of putting out, disseminating Russian obtained emails through the hacks, et cetera. Despite the fact that President Trump told the Special Counsel in written answers that he had, quote, no recollections that he had spoken with Roger Stone about it. Is your report suggesting that President Trump lied to Robert Mueller?

WARNER: Our report laid out three and a half years of work of the facts that we obtained. I think it is twice the volume of the Mueller Report. It is part five of literally thousands of pages, hundreds of interviews and documents. I think every American ought to be advised, particularly this volume five, read it and draw your own conclusions.

Both looking back in terms of what happened in 2016 but more importantly, how do we make sure it doesn't happen again in 2020. Particularly when we're in the midst of a pandemic. When we've got a President before the election who is saying he may not abide by the results. When we've got his Postmaster General clearly getting caught trying to screw up the workings of the Post Office and there is going to be more people voting this way.

And my hope would be that other institutions, the judiciary, the media, my Republican friends, will realize this cannot stand. I mean our democracy ought to be bigger than any one individual.

TAPPER: But, Senator, it's a pretty simple question. Did the President lie? I mean he was under oath, right?

WARNER: There was the Mueller investigation that did criminal. We're not -- I'm not weigh on what happened in 2016 other than what was put forward in the report and I think the facts speak for themselves.

TAPPER: Well, that would suggest that you're saying the facts are that the President spoke with Roger Stone and the facts are the President told Special Counsel Robert Mueller he had no recollection of it and there's a discrepancy between those two, would agree with that?

WARNER: Jake, I'd say I'm going to stand by the report and the facts speak for themselves.

TAPPER: Senator Mark Warner --

WARNER: The most important thing we can do, Jake, though, is let's make sure it doesn't happen again. So, let's make sure we all get out and vote and have our voices counted.

TAPPER: Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Sir.

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