CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview With Rep. Ryan Costello

Interview

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HARLOW: It is, with a consequential public hearing that is set for Monday. How will Republicans respond?

Joining us now with his take, Republican Congressman Ryan Costello of Pennsylvania.

Thank you for being here. We appreciate it.

A few yes or nos for you here and then we'll dive a little deeper into this.

But first, yes or no, should Judge Kavanaugh be the next Supreme Court justice?

REP. RYAN COSTELLO (R), PENNSYLVANIA: I believe that he's very well- qualified and that it's appropriate for him to reappear before the committee. That's -- I'm sorry I couldn't give you a yes or no.

HARLOW: All right. No, that's -- so that's a question mark.

Do you believe Ms. Ford, his accuser, and her account of what she says happened 36 years ago to her?

[09:40:05] COSTELLO: I have -- I have no way of knowing. It's very difficult to take an allegation from 36 years ago, coupled with a blanket denial by Judge Kavanaugh, and be able to extrapolate much from it. And that's why this is such a difficult issue, the timing of it. And by the timing I mean to say to have it come about midstream through a confirmation hearing makes it all the more difficult to evaluate.

And I need to say this. If you are Judge Kavanaugh, what are you supposed to do at this point? If this did not happen and he's issued a blanket denial, how are you supposed to proceed in a manner to have people believe you and to move forward? And that is not, in any way, attacking the credibility or the character of the accuser, who I believe wished to remain anonymous. And I don't believe that anyone on the Republican side of the aisle has sought to out her identity in this process. It is a political hot potato of the sort that I have never witnessed ever in my lifetime.

SCIUTTO: Congressman, because the questions you raised there they get to timing. Does there need to be more time to get to the bottom of this? Your party, you remember when P\president Obama was president, did not even consider his Supreme Court nomination with nearly a year before the election under the claim that let's let the American people pipe in on this before we move forward.

There is a midterm election less than two months away. The Senate's divided 51-49. You know, Senate control could conceivably flip here. Wouldn't that same argument hold here, particularly in light of new questions about the nominee, let the American people have their say on this?

COSTELLO: The hearings are -- have already taken place or were already midstream through the hearing. I understand your point. And certainly there is a lot of Democratic ire over the way this was handled. But Republicans do control the Senate. And Republicans have put this nomination forward. We're in the middle of hearings, and we've now extended, I believe, the committee vote by a week in order to hear from both of them. Not discounting what you said, at the same point in time the political reality is, we are here and now and we are midstream through a nomination process.

HARLOW: Sure. I understand that. But I think to Jim's point, I mean, 13 months is how long the Merrick Garland nomination was held up. There were eight justices on the court, on the high court, for months and months on end when it came to Merrick Garland. And it's completely up to the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Chuck Grassley, to determine how fast or slow this should go. In the name of justice, for the American people, regardless of party --

COSTELLO: Sure.

HARLOW: Should time be valued here?

SCIUTTO: And this was an accelerated process, too, you'll admit.

COSTELLO: So if we are -- if we can agree that the confirmation hearing process thus far has afforded both sides the opportunity to have full time to ask whatever questions they'd like to ask, and at this point in time the sole remaining issue is now something that should have been handled confidently during the confirmation process, and --

HARLOW: Look, I think Democrats would take real issue with saying they had, you know, the time to fully examine this given the documents that they had been requesting, as you know.

COSTELLO: If I -- if I understand correctly, the documents that they are claiming that they didn't get to see were documents that passed through Judge Kavanaugh when he was White House secretary. If I'm also understand correctly, Judge Kavanaugh has issued or been a part of hundreds of decisions over the past ten years as an appellate judge.

HARLOW: Right.

COSTELLO: And, for whatever reasons, Democrats have not focused on a lot of those decisions. I actually felt the most probative, interesting part of the hearing was when Senator Leahy was asking about the role of technology in 21st century jurisprudence.

So Democrats have decided not to ask about his --

HARLOW: I mean we -- Jim, we watched the hearings. Democrats focused very much on his hundreds of decisions in the D.C. Appellate Court.

SCIUTTO: Let me, if I can, just while I have you, because we're short on time, on another issue.

You've seen that the president has ordered the declassification of a number of e-mails of current and former Justice Department and FBI officials, including James Comey, the FBI director, the FBI director that he fired. Unusual for a president to declassify these text messages, information contained in a FISA warrant here.

We should also note, this is, of course, an investigation the president himself has an interest in. Do you believe that that is undue interference in the Russia investigation?

COSTELLO: It's a little too early for me to render an answer to you. And I'm not trying to skirt the question in as much as I'm still. -- this Kavanaugh thing has really dominated -- I mean that's -- I've been reading a lot about that.

[09:45:03] I do think this, that, number one, it's highly unusual. Number two, I think we're going to hear from law enforcement as to what -- I'd really like -- be curious as to what Rosenstein and Wray have to say about this. I would anticipate that Mr. Schiff and others will speak to their ire over this. But I don't know at the moment.

I will continue to say this, though, for base Republican voters, they feel that this is a witch hunt. I do not agree with that. I believe it's a legitimate investigation. But I think in the coming days I'll have a -- we will have a much better understanding as to why they were released, what it actually means in the grand scheme of why he did it. I just don't have a good answer for you at the moment.

HARLOW: Before you go, on women, you have talked publically about it, in your words, a, quote, Republican suburban purge facing ahead of the midterms in 2020. You know --

COSTELLO: 2018, yes.

HARLOW: In 2018, but also, you know, for 2020 for the general. Are women -- I mean is this all dependent on how your party can do with women?

COSTELLO: I think it is even a little bit broader than that. College educated suburban voters, but in particular women, are looking at the Republican Party and they have concerns over the president's rhetoric and style. I've said this so much that people say -- you know, think that I don't support the president at all, although I do support many of the policies. But that is -- that is a real challenge for Republicans moving forward.

My feeling is that when Republican members agree with the president policy-wise, they should say that. But when they disagree, they also need to say that because in this day and age the president dominates just about every single news cycle. And if you're not going to lean in and say where you agree and also disagree, you're going to have voters feeling that that's -- you agree with some of the stylistic and rhetorical things that he says and does, which I don't think many suburban voters do, particularly suburban women.

HARLOW: Congressman Ryan Costello, appreciate you being here. Thanks.

SCIUTTO: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Thank you.

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