Fox News "The Story with Martha MacCallum" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. John Ratcliffe

Interview

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REP. JOHN RATCLIFFE, R-TX: Good to be here, Martha. Thanks for having me.

MACCALLUM: You know, one of the people that you spoke to today was Andy McCarthy, and then you had a couple of former FBI officials who were also in the room talking a little bit about how substantive the Steele dossier was and whether or not it should have been used to get to these FISA releases. What did you learn there?

RATCLIFFE: Well, Andy did a terrific job outlining a lot of the questions that go to the origins of this and why the Obama administration used an uncorroborated, unverified dossier that was commissioned and paid for by Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party for a verified application. And frankly, there is no good answer for that.

It's one of many questions that go to the actions that were taken by the Obama Justice Department and the FBI that were far out of line with what the Department of Justice and the FBI typically does in counterintelligence investigations and FISA applications.

MACCALLUM: Yes. We know that the DOJ is looking into this through John Durham who is -- has been assigned to investigate all the origins of this. And we know that that Bill Barr, the Attorney General, got a lot of heat for saying that he thought that spying did occur during the course of the beginnings of looking into the Trump campaign.

And we're going to start to get you know some more testimony and more information with regards to that as he continues to dig in. And we're learning tonight that the DOJ will talk to top senior CIA officials about that, also top counterterrorism officials. Is that you know, sort of a productive next step in your mind and what do you want to know from them?

RATCLIFFE: I think it is a productive step. I haven't seen the story but it's consistent with what I would have expected. There's been so much focus on the FBI and the Department of Justice, Martha. But a lot of the questions that relate to the origins of this go to the CIA. It was Alexander Downer who was John Brennan's CIA counterpart at one point in time for Australia that supposedly had this random conversation with George Papadopoulos that served as the predicate.

There's a lot that Attorney General Barr I think has said doesn't jive with respect to that and that's why John Durham is looking at the issues that the Democrats aren't willing to look at. You know, it's funny Martha. We all waited two years for Bob Mueller to come out and say very clearly no collusion, no conspiracy by Donald Trump, but you wouldn't have known that in the hearing today.

The Democrats repeatedly said there was collusion, there was conspiracy, but somehow Bob Mueller and his team of nearly 60 FBI investigators and FBI agents somehow just missed it. Well, you know, one of the interesting things to me is that Horowitz's report can't really look at people who used to work at these agencies. It's an Inspector General report of current people at the intelligence agencies.

But John Dunham -- John Durham could -- he can and his investigation will be talking to them so you got to wonder what's going through the minds of some of the people that you just mentioned like John Brennan for example.

I want to play something for you that just came in this evening. This is an interview that ABC's George Stephanopoulos did with President Trump in the Oval Office talking about whether or not candidates should listen to foreign governments who are volunteering information about the opponents. Let's listen to this and get your reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, ABC NEWS: -- campaign this time around. If foreigners, if Russia, if China if someone else offers you information an opponent, should they accept it or should they call the FBI?

TRUMP: I think maybe you do both. I think you might want to listen. I don't -- there's nothing wrong with listening. If somebody called from a country, Norway, we have information on your opponent. Oh I think I'd want to hear it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACCALLUM: It's getting you know, a lot of response from that in a lot of places. What's your response to that? Is it OK for a president to listen to that information from another country?

RATCLIFFE: Well, I think any candidate that gets information from another country about their opponent should talk to the FBI. That's certainly what I would do. And I wish in this case that's exactly what had been done. But none of that really does anything to undermine the real questions about whether or not in this instance the FBI should have opened a counterintelligence investigation based on a single unvetted source that came in.

The extraordinary part about all of this, Martha, is the counterintelligence investigation of a presidential campaign by our own law enforcement, that's where the questions need to be asked and answered.

MACCALLUM: Well, we're looking forward to that part of the equation as well. Congressman John Ratcliffe, always good to see you, sir. Thank you.

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