CNN "American Morning" - Transcript

Interview

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CHETRY: Well, the late-night comedy host getting a little bit of a fun punch line of what happened. The White House, however, and members of Congress are not laughing. The White House is admitting this morning that it shares some of the blame for the security breach at the president's first state dinner and lawmakers want some answers. The problem is the couple who slipped in uninvited, I'm sure you've seen them by now, right, Tareq and Michaele Salahi, well, they will not testify, they say, before the House Homeland Security Committee today. Also, the White House is now saying that its social secretary, Desiree Rogers, also will not be testifying and answering any questions before Congress, as well.

So, what now? I'm joined by the chairman of the committee, Congressman Bennie Thompson, as well as our senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin.

Let me start, though, with you, Congressman Thompson. Thanks for being with us this morning.

REP. BENNIE THOMPSON (D-MS), CHAIRMAN, HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE: Thank you for having me.

CHETRY: Will you be subpoenaing the Salahis?

THOMPSON: Well, the committee will make that decision before we finish with our hearing this morning.

CHETRY: What do you want to hear from them, though? They're claiming through their lawyers that they provided Congress and the Secret Service with all of the information that they have relating to this incident.

THOMPSON: Well, they've provided the information that they wanted to. They've not provided the oral testimony that we need in the hearing. There's other information. If they'll talk to all the networks and all the other people, then why not come talk to members of Congress who have a responsibility for looking into White House security.

CHETRY: All right. So that's the situation with the Salahis right now. You said the committee is going to be making a decision as to whether or not they will be issuing subpoenas in that situation. Meantime, White House Social Secretary, Desiree Rogers, also will not be testifying today. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs saying that allowing Rogers to testify before Congress would violate the constitutional separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches.

Will you be issuing a subpoena to hear from her?

THOMPSON: Well, again that's the responsibility of the committee to look at it. The Republican Minority on the committee listed Desiree as their potential witness. We didn't see her as a major player in this. White House security is a function of the Secret Service. We want to hear from the Secret Service director, see what he has found out in his review of security and what he plans to do going forward.

CHETRY: I'm going to bring in Jeff Toobin here as well, our legal analyst, about this situation.

How much responsibility, perhaps, do you think that the White House bears in this situation?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Well, Congress will never know, will it, because they're getting stonewalled by the White House.

Let's be clear about what the Press Secretary said. He said that she's -- that there's some -- he's suggested that there's some legal prohibition on her testifying before Congress, Desiree Rogers, the social secretary. That's not true. That's the choice of the White House. Just like the Bush administration, this White House is choosing not to have an administration official testify. If they wanted to let her testify, she would. She would be testifying. So this is a choice of the White House not to disclose information.

CHETRY: So it's not that a law would be violated if she did, it would be that they don't have to be compelled or forced to have her do it by law.

TOOBIN: Correct. And it's the same thing that's going on with the Salahis. Frankly, it doesn't really matter whether they're subpoenaed or not, because it seems very clear, they're going to take the fifth, which they have the right to do. So they're not going to testify, subpoena or not. They're very happy to talk to Matt Lauer at the "Today" show, but when it comes to the possibility of sworn testimony where they could be charged with perjury, they're saying, no thank you.

CHETRY: And Congressman, let me bring you back in here, about -- the Salahis have pointed to e-mails they say they exchanged with Pentagon liaison Michelle Jones, who was apparently trying to get them an invite to this dinner. And they say that they missed a message from her telling them that they indeed did not get an invite, and so they showed up anyway because of a misunderstanding. They claim they did not crash the event.

What are your thoughts on that? Is there a possibility that this is all a misunderstanding?

THOMPSON: Well, I think that's the -- their opinion. We've looked into it.

Our real concern is that somebody can walk in off the street to a state dinner, uninvited, not on the list, and get in. Get to talk to the President, Vice President, other officials. And that is not proper White House security. Our responsibility is to help protect the President from an oversight standpoint. And by having this hearing, that's what we're attempting to do.

CHETRY: You are also -- go ahead, Joe.

TOOBIN: Well, I was just going to say. That's what congressional oversight committees are supposed to do. They're supposed to look into things and see if they're working properly, but this committee is not getting cooperation from the White House and it's not getting cooperation from the Salahis. Let's just be clear about that. CHETRY: And what's your take on that? You say you're doing this to try to protect the President as best you can, to make sure that there are no lapses in the future. You questioned yesterday, hey, what if this had been a terrorist incident? Yet, the White House doesn't appear to be wanting to help you, at least when it comes to getting their Social Secretary to testify before the committee.

THOMPSON: Well, the committee will do its responsibility. We'll start the process with the hearing today. We'll look into whether or not subpoenas will be issued. We will do our job. We hope the White House and other individuals will cooperate. But at the end of the day, the committee will do its job.

CHETRY: All right. Congressman Thompson, thanks for being with us this morning. Jeff Toobin, our senior legal analyst, also great to have your take. Thanks for being here.

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