CNN "Wolf" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Patrick Leahy

Interview

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BLITZER: We'll see when that does happen. All right, Clarissa, thanks for all the terrific reporting in Turkey. Appreciate it very much.

President Trump, meanwhile, has been cautioned to proceed slowly with regard to Saudi Arabia. That advice coming from his special adviser, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who's telling the president to ignore pressure from Capitol Hill.

Let's go to Capitol Hill right now. Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy is joining us. He's the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D), VERMONT: Thank you very much.

BLITZER: So, as you know, the president told reporters that he's waiting for the results from these three different investigations, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, both investigating. I assume the U.S. is doing some sort of investigation as well.

But do you know specifically if the FBI has been called in to investigate this apparent murder?

LEAHY: I don't know if the FBI has been called in. But it's very obvious that it was a murder. I think Ms. Ward, who just spoke from Turkey, laid it out pretty clearly.

As I say to other people, I'm a former prosecutor. I handled -- I handled a lot of murder cases. This is pretty cut-and-dry. We know Mr. Khashoggi walked into the consulate, the Saudi consulate, and never came out. And yet these two airplanes full of people who had come in just before him suddenly fly out of there.

It doesn't take a genius to know that he met a very bad end in that consulate. And I think to sit around and wait for the Saudis to try to find -- come up with some kind of story, I mean that's "Alice in Wonderland." He was murdered in the Saudi consulate. We know that. And under things like the Magnisky Act, we ought to -- we ought to take steps against the Saudis.

I mean they lied to us about Yemen. They lied to us about the civilian casualties. And anything that we have heard so far has not been the truth from the Saudis. They just lie.

BLITZER: Well, let me read to you the last line of an open letter you've written, senator. And I'm quoting you know, if Mr. Khashoggi was tortured and murdered by or with the knowledge of the Saudi government, it will be long pastime to treat the Saudi royal family as the criminal enterprise that it is. Your words, criminal enterprise. So what would -- what would you want the U.S. to do?

[13:20:22] LEAHY: I don't use words like that easily. I really think them through. And it is a criminal enterprise.

We have -- we can cut back on some of their banking, their visas. Certainly we have the ability to block arms sales. We should have done that after they lied to us about the civilian casualties in Yemen.

I think the Saudis feel that they have friends in the Trump administration and they can do whatever they want and the United States will give in. And I mean when -- can you imagine how -- how Donald Trump would act if they had had a picture of Barack Obama bowing to them as they put a gold necklace around his neck, or dancing with a sword in his hand for the Saudis? That's what Donald Trump did. Barack Obama never would have done that.

BLITZER: Let me get your thoughts on something that happened last night out in Montana in his campaign stop. The president praised Congressman Greg Gianforte for body slamming a journalist, an American journalist, works for "The Guardian," right before the 2016 election. I want you to listen to this clip, and then we'll get your reaction. Listen to this.

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BLITZER: All right, so with the Khashoggi killing fresh in the minds of all of us, what do you think of the president celebrating an attack on a journalist?

LEAHY: I think it's terrible. I cannot imagine any president -- and I've been here since President Ford. I've been with Republicans and Democrats. I cannot imagine any president of the United States saying anything so irresponsible. The First Amendment is one of the great protections that we have in this country, the freedom of speech. In dictatorships, they don't have freedom of speech. They do attack reporters. They do body slam reporters. We should not be encouraging that in the United States. We should be the beacon of freedom. It demeans the United States. It demons or Constitution, and it's wrong.

We are -- we are different than dictatorships and totalitarian governments because we have a free press. And every president, Republican or Democrat, should be defending and supporting our free press, even when it criticizes him.

BLITZER: Yes, this -- talk like that clearly sends an awful message to bad people around the world.

Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

LEAHY: Thank you.

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