CNN "Erin Burnett Out Front" - Transcript: "Interview with Rep. Peter Welch"

Interview

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BROWN: All right. Kaitlan Collins from the White House, thank you so much for that. And out front tonight, Democratic Congressman Peter Welch of Vermont. He's a member of both the Intelligence and the Oversight Committee. Thank you so much for coming on, Congressman.

You sat in on Morrison's deposition. You just heard my reporting that the White House thinks that basically Morrison's deposition was an overall win for them, was it?

REP. PETER WELCH (D-VT): It's hard to see how they interpret it that way. He really confirmed the facts of what has been testified to by people like Ambassador Taylor. What's happening here is that it's really coming into focus with great clarity what the president did.

I mean he made the call. He requested a favor. The favor was to dig up dirt. And the leverage that the President used was to withhold National Security aid to resist the Russians. Now, some on his side like Mitch McConnell and others are saying that there's nothing wrong with that. The president says that's perfect.

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But what we're talking about now with clarity is that the President did something that is against the law. We as federal officials cannot request that a foreign power get involved in our campaigns and that's what the President did. So all of us are going to have to make the judgment, but the spin is it's going to keep coming.

BROWN: Your Republican colleagues, they are downplaying the quid pro quo. They say it's based on second-hand information from EU ambassador Gordon Sondland that all of this testimony is really secondhand. It's not coming from the President directly to the person testifying.

Here's Republican Congressman Mark Meadows.

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REP. MARK MEADOWS (R-NC): Mr. Morrison's testimony is very damaging to the Democrat narrative. That's why you haven't any leaks from my Democrat colleagues today.

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BROWN: And one of the big things they're seizing on is, of course, Morrison said that the transcript was a fair representation of the call and that he wasn't concerned about the contents of the call in terms of it being legally problematic. Does that help the Republicans' case and the White House's case?

WELCH: Well, that is the White House case. I mean the President, he released the transcript where he asked for a favor. He had Mick Mulvaney go out and say there was a quid pro quo. They withheld that National Security assistance. Their conclusion which is self-serving and just disregards the law is

that's perfect, that's fine. So that's what their partisan point of view is, but there is a law and there are facts that are really not in dispute. And if you have been careful as you have been, all of us, you notice that the Republicans are not condoning the conduct, they're not defending the conduct, they're not saying anything about the conduct.

So it's a pretty weak defense going after the character of the various witnesses and then really not acknowledging what the President himself said he did.

BROWN: We also learned that the case involving John Bolton's Deputy, Charles Kupperman, will not be resolved until December 10th. Are you going to wait for the courts to resolve this?

WELCH: We can't wait for the courts. We have to keep moving. I mean, there's two questions that really are profoundly important to the can people. One is, is a president above the law and the facts that I've laid out, each one of us is going to have to make a judgment about that.

And then second, is Congress going to stand up for the constitutional principle of separation of powers and that we have equal branches of government to provide checks and balances? It's been a total stonewall from the Trump administration. They're doing something that neither Nixon nor Clinton did repudiating the authority of Congress to even have an inquiry. So those are the two issues.

The President, is he above the law and will we maintain separation of powers in co-equal branches.

BROWN: And, of course, Republicans still argue that even with today's vote, there's still issues with the process. They're still going to be closed-door testimony. They feel like they're still not due process, but I want to go back to Charles Kupperman and John Bolton as well, because he has been asked to testify. He shares the same attorney as Kupperman, that attorney saying Bolton will not voluntarily testify. Are you going to subpoena Bolton and if so, when?

WELCH: Well, we've been sending out subpoenas. And, in fact, the people who have come forward like Ambassador Taylor received instructions from the White House or the State Department or the Defense Department did not come in, but they received a legally valid subpoena from the House and they responded. Now, Bolton may not do that so we'll have to do two things, one ...

BROWN: But are you going to subpoena him and when will that happen if so?

WELCH: I believe we will, but that'll be up to Chairman Schiff. But we would definitely go to subpoena if they don't agree to come voluntarily.

BROWN: OK. I have to quickly ask, no Republicans voted for the measure today, while two Democrats voted against it. This has given the White House and Republicans a huge talking point tonight, was this a failure of your party's leadership?

WELCH: No, absolutely not. Every member has to - this is a very important vote, you got to vote your conscience and we have two colleagues who weren't there yet. But this is an enormous repudiation. I mean, can you imagine the President of the United States and it gets to this point and a lot of what happened is a result of the information we received from the President himself who released that readout of his telephone call where he was shaking down a foreign leader to get assistance in his campaign.

I mean that's pretty appalling conduct.

BROWN: All right. Thank you so much, Congressman Welch. We appreciate you coming on.

WELCH: Thank you.

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