CNN "Campbell Brown" - Transcripts

Interview

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BROWN: Here now Republican Congressman Darrell Issa who obtained those e-mails. And also with us, political financial correspondent Eamon Javers joining us as well.

Congressman Issa, let me start with you here. You have caused some heartache I think over at the Treasury Department over these e- mails that you made public. These are, of course, e-mails between the New York Fed and AIG from when Geithner was head of the New York Fed. Explain to our viewers why you think these e-mails are problematic or why they are problematic.

REP. DARRELL ISSA (R), CALIFORNIA: Well, because they reflect information that always should have been public. The idea that $62 billion at 100 cents on the dollar is essentially given to Goldman Sachs and other banks through an AIG bailout, never to be returned, should not have been something done in secret. And I appreciate the fact that the White House is saying that Secretary Geithner was not involved, but you can't have it both ways. You can't say he's the one that steered us through a difficult period and then say every time something went wrong he had nothing to do with it and knew nothing about it.

BROWN: But, I mean, is it possible that he isn't involved here? I mean, are what you're saying by releasing these e-mails and sort of going on the war path is that you believe he was explicitly involved?

ISSA: Well what I believe is that you know, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch's problems happened on his watch. Certainly $62 billion or more dollars that will never be returned to the taxpayers went out in these counterparty claims or these AIG insurance claims as most people understand it, that didn't have to go out, it happened on his watch. So the real question is, you know, has he been a good steward of the American people's money or has his organization in this case the New York Fed simply taken care of their own at the expense of the taxpayers?

The latter seems to be the case. We want full disclosure. We want transparency. We now have Chairman Towns saying he will have Secretary Geithner there to talk about those days and how we lost so much money never to be returned in the case of the AIG bailout.

BROWN: And just to be clear here because you've said this before, you think he should step down. Geithner should.

ISSA: As far back as March, I failed to have confidence that he was the right person for the job. Now the president can have anyone he wants advising him, but there are statutory powers, things which Secretary Geithner does every day, does much of it without good oversight of the Congress that I'm still concerned about so he doesn't have my confidence and will unlikely get it. But I certainly want to know why he gave 100 cents on the dollar to AIG to pay off foreign banks when clearly it could have been negotiated for less. And that's really where these things come from, is our trying to get to the bottom of why we gave away more of the American taxpayers' dollars than was necessary or appropriate.

BROWN: All right. Let me go to Eamon on this.

Eamon, we just heard Congressman Issa say that his chairman is calling Geithner, who is a Democrat, by the way, to Capitol Hill to testify.

EAMON JAVERS, POLITICO: Right.

BROWN: You heard Barney Frank, a Democrat, and possibly one of the most influential members of the House on Treasury and banking issues saying that he thinks Geithner needs to answer some questions here. What does that tell you if Democrats are willing to take this on or frankly do you think they really are going to take this on?

JAVERS: Well, you know, that remains to be seen how intense of an effort Democrats make. I'm sure Congressman Issa and fellow Republicans will make a pretty intense run at this. But the question here is, you know, are there holes in the dike of Democratic support here for Secretary Geithner. We don't see a lot but you are right. You know, Barney Frank, who's an important player on the Democratic side did come out and say he finds this issue troubling. But what the folks over at treasury are trying to do is they're trying to put a wall around Tim Geithner on this e-mail issue and say Tim Geithner at the time this happened had already been chosen by Barack Obama to be the next treasury nominee so he recused himself. He said I'm not going to be involved in any decision about any individual company. Therefore, they're saying, he had nothing to do with this particular thing which is handled by lower level aides. They're trying to put a damage control wall around Geithner here on those and really protect him.

BROWN: So let me push you a little bit, Eamon, though. That's what they're saying but, you know, objectively, does it looks like there's anything there?

JAVERS: Well, we don't know. And Congressman Issa has been getting some of those e-mails out. I'd love to see more. I'd love his office to send me some more whatever they have. But, you know, as a reporter, you know, it's our job to investigate and find out. I mean, there are clearly thousands of pages of documents here. There are lots of meetings. There are lots of people who are witnesses to this. We should continue to find out what happened exactly inside the New York Fed at this time.

The New York Fed is saying today that Geithner didn't have any role in this, and so we had to take them on their word unless there's some evidence to indicate otherwise.

BROWN: And let me just finally ask you, Eamon, this isn't the first time Geithner has had to defend himself, you know, from his very initial tax problems to some early missteps at treasury. Does this become a narrative, sort of the hapless Tim Geithner? Or is that unfair? I mean, does it inhabit his ability to be effective as treasury secretary?

JAVERS: Well, it is far too early to start writing the obituary for Tim Geithner here. But you're right, he has had trouble in years. He started off the year with some tax problems. Now we have this thing.

This issue on its own if nothing more comes out beyond what we know right now is probably not enough to cause major political damage for Tim Geithner. The White House is saying that the president has, you know, Geithner's confidence. This is not going to cause Geithner to go away, but these things do cumulatively sort of add up for a major political figure like Geithner and at some point, you know, after 18 months in office or two years in office, you know, he's been there a year, you might see the treasury secretary move on, somebody else would come in. And that would be portrayed as sort of, part of the natural evolution of that job. Treasury secretaries don't stay around for all that long in administrations after all.

BROWN: All right. Congressman Issa, we know you're going to stay on this one. We appreciate your time tonight. And Eamon Javers from Politico as well, thank you very much.

ISSA: We sure will. Thank you, Campbell.

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