CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: House Intelligence Rejecting FBI Conclusions

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Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon is joining us. He's a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Senator, thanks for joining us.

The report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on January 6, 2017, concluded with these words. "We also assess Putin and the Russian government aspired to help president- elect Trump's election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him. All three agencies agree with this judgment. CIA and FBI have high confidence in this judgment. NSA, the National Security Agency, has moderate confidence."

What does it say that the Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee are now rejecting that specific conclusion?

SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D), OREGON: Wolf, this is the moment that the term House intelligence becomes an oxymoron, because, clearly, the Russians weighed in with their thumb on the scale.

Everything we know in the public realm about who they hacked, what types of information they released, how they doubled down to accentuate the divisions that Trump was promoting in his campaign, how they disliked Hillary, how they liked Trump, all of that paints a very clear picture.

And for the House to say there's no evidence that there was any weight put on one side or the other just discredits them completely.

BLITZER: Is the Republican majority on the House Intelligence Committee, their investigation effectively exonerating Vladimir Putin by arguing he didn't order the election interference to actually help President Trump?

[18:25:05]

MERKLEY: Well, I don't think it really helps Trump that much. It is what Trump wants to hear. It's what Trump will recite.

But the Intelligence Committee in the House has so little credibility to begin with. Remember, the chair, Nunes, was part of the -- one year ago, the bogus Deep Throat episode, where he went to the White House to get information, came back over to Congress, and said, oh, I have got this, outsider gave me information, isn't that great, goes back to the White House, presents the information to the very people he got it from, as if it was an outside party.

He has been a partisan player from the beginning. We have had absolutely no productive engagement in the issue of getting to the bottom of the issues that the committee should be addressing.

BLITZER: Based on all of the evidence you have seen, Senator, do you think any of the contacts between Russians and Trump campaign officials were simply inadvertent or ill-advised, as the House Republican majority on the Intelligence Committee conclude?

MERKLEY: Well, I think as James Clapper just said on your program, that it depends on how you define collaboration or collusion.

But, certainly, there was a lot of contact, and contact in the context of trying to get information and influence the election. So we are looking forward now. It all turns, goes to -- now goes to special prosecutor to get to the real bottom of the information. His report is going to be the one that really directs where we go from here. BLITZER: Clearly, the House Intelligence Committee is deeply divided

between the Republican majority and the Democratic minority.

Do you have confidence that the Senate Intelligence Committee will come up with a more bipartisan conclusion?

MERKLEY: Well, Senator Warner and Senator Burr, they are working very closely together. They both believe that this is an issue of national security, that this is an issue of patriotism that we get to the bottom of this, that they work together.

So, their attitude has been very, very different from the House. And I commend them for it.

BLITZER: Senator Merkley, thanks for joining us.

MERKLEY: You're welcome.

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