CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Himes

Interview

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BLITZER: All right, everybody stand by. I want to bring in Democratic congressman Jim Himes of Connecticut. He's a member of the Intelligence Committee.

Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

So from your perspective, what's most concerning?

What's the most concerning new information you learned in this 400- page report?

REP. JIM HIMES (D-CT), MEMBER, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Well, I think I have two conclusions and I've read most of it but not all of it.

The conclusion number one is, the American people, each and every American needs to read this report so they see with the detail that's only been available to members of the Intelligence Committee and some select few in Congress, about exactly how Russia attacked our election, how they used Twitter and Facebook and social media and fake rallies.

And the reason Americans need to look at that is because if we don't sensitize ourselves to that, the Russians will do it again.

Now there's a whole other piece on the attacks and we knew more about this, the attacks on the networks at the DNC and DCCC. A lot of Americans can do to stay more secure and keep their networks more secure.

The other big thing, Wolf -- and you were alluding to it in your conversation there -- what a remarkable description of just gangster- like behavior on the part of the president, being rescued by the refusal of his subordinates to do things they felt were illegal or ill-advised, ordering people to give messages to Jeff Sessions.

I mean, just lying, knowingly lying; the press secretary knowingly lying. Again, I believe that the leadership in the House is probably very skeptical of impeachment because they know that there is no fact pattern. There is no crime that would cause Republican members of Congress and, most importantly, Republican members of the Senate to turn on this president.

BLITZER: You need a majority in the House for impeachment but you need two-thirds majority, 67 senators to convict. But that's clearly not on the books. Not likely to happen, at least right now.

What big questions -- and I know you say you haven't read the complete report -- but from what you read, what big questions are still left unanswered?

HIMES: Well, from the standpoint of my committee, the Intelligence Committee, the work we have to do now is not to duplicate or to second guess the work of Bob Mueller. One of the good -- we sort of have to take our victories as we can. The report got out. Its redactions weren't as extensive as they might have been.

It would appear the White House didn't demand the exclusion of material they'd exclude as a result of executive privilege. So what my committee now needs to do is to think about this from a counterintelligence standpoint.

Are there elements of the many interactions that Donald Trump and his people and his family and his campaign had with the Russians that could provide the Russians with something to hold over them, starting with the president?

That gets to business dealings. It gets to possible financing mechanisms. And so my guess is that that is, in as much as anything else remains to be checked, that it relates to the counterintelligence questions around the very, very many contacts, many of them lied about, that the Trump campaign had with Russia.

BLITZER: Where do you stand on the issue of beginning impeachment proceedings against the president?

Do you think the president of the United States, Congressman, should be impeached?

HIMES: Well, Wolf, it's a terrible box to be in, right?

It's clear to me, from reading, the report that Mueller did not make a decision about criminality and obstruction because he understood the department he works for had a policy not to indict. So he basically handed it over to Congress to make that decision.

By the way, a whole other topic of conversation, that the attorney general decided he would weigh in on this issue after what Mueller did and said is outrageous.

But here's the thing. It's a terrible box to be in because the Constitution would demand that impeachment proceedings at least be initiated. Remember, impeachment is not necessarily about removing the president.

Impeachment is a process whereby you review the data, the information and decide, collectively as a Congress, whether the president should remain as president.

However, again -- and maybe I'm cynical or maybe I just spend a lot of --

[17:20:00]

HIMES: -- time around the Capitol, there is -- I'm a subscriber to the Fifth Avenue theory, which is that the president could kill somebody and the Republicans would still line up behind him.

So if you begin impeachment, even if you impeach in the House, the probability that the Senate would then convict is, I think, sadly, today, exactly zero.

And so other than the need to sort of hold the president accountable and do that investigation, you've gone through a year, a year and a half of work, where we haven't been working on infrastructure and retirement and student loans and all the things we should be working on, only to have the Senate do what is perfectly predictable and not, not convict the president.

BLITZER: Congressman Jim Himes, thank you so much for joining us.

HIMES: Thank you, Wolf.

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