CNN "State of the Union" - TRANSCRIPT Interview With Rep. James Comer (R-KY); Interview With Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD); Interview With Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA). Aired 9-10a ET
Interview
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Joining us now, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin.
Congressman Raskin, we have a lot to cover, but, first, of course, this is the first time I have spoken to you since you announced that you have been diagnosed with a form of lymphoma, which you called serious, but curable. I know the chemo has started.
How are you feeling? How's your prognosis?
REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): Well, thank you for asking me, Jake. I am hanging tough.
My energy is good. I'm losing about 40 or 50 hairs a day, I would think, to chemo. So that's upsetting. But, otherwise, I'm hanging tough. And the doctors are very optimistic and I'm very optimistic that the chemo is going to get the cancer.
TAPPER: All right, well, I just on -- speaking on behalf of all of us, including Chairman Comer, who has said very nice things about you in the context of this, we're all rooting for you.
Let's proceed with the interview, though.
If we could, I want to get your reaction to what you just...
RASKIN: And I should say...
TAPPER: Yes, go ahead.
RASKIN: Yes, I was just going to say that Chairman Comer has been very kind to me. And I have gotten lots of support across the aisle and from all my colleagues, and I'm very grateful for that.
TAPPER: That's nice to hear.
Let's get your reaction to what you just heard from Chairman Comer about President Biden's handling or mishandling of classified information.
[09:25:02]
RASKIN: Well, I think every American has an interest in seeing that classified documents are properly handled by whoever's president and by any administration.
And all we're looking for is equal treatment. We were delighted to learn that the president's lawyers, the moment they found out about the documents that day, turned them over to the National Archives, and ultimately to the Department of Justice.
That is a very different posture than what we saw with Donald Trump, where he was fighting for a period of more than eight months to not turn over hundreds of missing documents that the Archives was asking about. He defied a government subpoena, and they ended up having to go to court to get a court-issued subpoena to go and search Mar-a-Lago.
TAPPER: Yes.
RASKIN: So that's just a completely different posture.
So, when my friend Mr. Comer says, we're just looking for equal treatment, that's all we're looking for. I think it's good that this is in the hands of special counsels on both sides. And the special counsels are both trustworthy lawyers who I think will get to the bottom of it.
TAPPER: Comer raises an interesting question, which is why the president's lawyers, who do not have security clearances, doing these searches at the Penn Biden Center here in Washington and at the president's a Greenville, Delaware, home.
Why are they? I mean, if they don't have the proper security clearance, shouldn't FBI agents or Justice Department officials actually be doing the searching?
RASKIN: Well, that's one of the things we can look at. What is the proper thing for a former president to do if he finds that there are government documents or classified documents that are in his possession?
And my understanding is, they did the right thing by immediately alerting the Archives and turning them over that day? But maybe there's a different procedure for dealing with them that we are unaware of, and that's a meaningful thing that we could look at.
But, obviously, we don't want to turn this into just a political football. And it's a bit disturbing to me that people who are saying there was no problem with what Donald Trump did, which was to defiantly reject any cooperation...
TAPPER: Yes.
RASKIN: ... in turning over hundreds of classified documents, are upset about President Biden's voluntary and rapid turnover of a handful of documents that they found.
TAPPER: Well, speaking of political footballs, take a listen to President Biden's reaction last year when he was asked on "60 Minutes" about declassified documents found at Trump's home in Mar-a-Lago.
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TAPPER: Now, we learned the President Biden had roughly 20 classified documents, including some marked top secret in three different locations.
By Biden's own standard, wasn't Biden totally irresponsible with classified information? And aren't we right to wonder, to use Biden's words -- quote -- "what data was in there that may compromise sources and methods"?
RASKIN: Well, and I think we will get to the bottom of all of that. I mean, that's why a special counsel has been appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland. He did the right thing there to look into it.
I'm hoping that we will keep a sense of symmetry about our analysis of these situations and a sense of proportion about the underlying offenses. There are some people who are trying to compare having a government document that should no longer be in your possession to inciting a violent insurrection against the government of the United States.
And those are obviously completely different things. That's apples and oranges. So, we should keep a sense of proportion and measure about what we're talking about.
TAPPER: The first batch of documents was found on November 2, a week before the midterms, but the public didn't learn about it until it was reported in the press just this past week.
And even then the White House didn't acknowledge that a second batch of documents had been found in December until that too leaked. I mean, Chairman Comer has a point when he says we learned about this because CBS News reported on it and then everybody else followed and got that information.
Now, we have learned they found more documents than previously disclosed in a third location. It's hard to argue that the administration has been transparent and told the American people about this as soon as they could have.
RASKIN: Well, of course, I mean, it was a very rapid clip at which we learned about it, compared to the Trump case where he fought it for nearly a year or perhaps over a year, and the government investigators had to go to court in order to get a subpoena to go to Mar-a-Lago to get dozens of boxes of classified material and government documents that were being held down there.
So, look, I don't know yet and I'm hoping our investigations will reveal what you're supposed to do if one of these documents surfaces. Obviously, presidents and vice presidents are able to take those documents while they are president or vice president home with them.
[09:30:10]
And if some of them get mixed in with their other stuff, well, then they're there. And then the question is, what do you do with them afterwards? And I have not seen a set of protocols or procedures that defines what exactly should happen.
But I'm satisfied that President Biden's lawyers did the right thing in immediately contacting the Archives and turning them over, as well as over to the Department of Justice.
TAPPER: Well, you're satisfied. Chairman Comer didn't sound like he had much confidence in Biden's attorneys.
But let me ask you another question, because we're learning all these side deals that Kevin McCarthy made to secure the speakership. Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz said the McCarthy promised him he would release all of the Capitol security footage from January 6. What do you make of that deal?
And as someone who has seen this footage, presumably all of it, do you think it should be released? Is there any issue with it?
RASKIN: Well, on the Oversight Committee -- and I think Chairman Comer just restated this himself -- what we're interested in is transparency.
And American needs absolute transparency to everything that Speaker McCarthy gave away to that rampaging right-wing faction from the Freedom Caucus on his way to assembling finally a majority after all of those ballots that we saw on the House floor.
I mean, the first thing that they did was to give a huge gift to millionaire tax cheats by undermining IRS enforcement.
(CROSSTALK)
TAPPER: Right, but what about the footage, though?
RASKIN: And now it looks -- yes, but, again, I haven't seen exactly what was extracted or what was demanded.
And my interest has always been in turning over everything that we saw during the January 6 investigation. There are different legal requirements governing different kinds of material that are in there. But, look, the people have a right to know. If they want to rerun the January 6 investigation, then more power to them, because all roads lead to the exact same place.
Donald Trump refused to accept no for an answer from the American people and tried to overthrow the 2020 election. If they think that Antifa was really behind it and Donald Trump, then they can have at it. And we would love to be part of such an investigation.
TAPPER: Congressman Jamie Raskin, thanks for joining us.
And, again, all of us are praying and sending you our best wishes when it comes to your health.
RASKIN: Thank you very much, Jake. It means a lot to me.
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