CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Tom Reed

Interview

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Meanwhile, Donald Trump Jr., he is back before the Senate Intelligence Committee, run by Republicans, behind closed doors. Joining me now, Republican Congressman Tom Reed.

Congressman Reed, we appreciate you taking the time this morning.

REP. TOM REED (R-NY): It's great to be with you, Jim, as always.

SCIUTTO: So we had this news just in the last few moments. I want to quote to you from the letter from the assistant attorney general, written to the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Elijah Cummings. And it says, quote, "The president has made a protective assertion of executive privilege over the remainder of the subpoenaed documents."

Should the American people be comfortable with a president making a broad protective assertion of executive privilege over all documents related to a question -- requested by a sitting committee of their representatives in Congress?

REED: Well, I know there's been a lot of exchange of information and documents to date. And then the issue of executive privilege is something that's been longstanding between Congress and the White House. And so obviously, this is probably going to end up in litigation. It's going to bog us down, here on Capitol Hill.

And the people that lose in this are the American people. We're not legislating to solve their problems. What we're doing is getting bogged down in these investigations.

SCIUTTO: But you've read the Constitution. The Congress has an oversight responsibility -- this is the Oversight Committee -- over the executive branch. And as you know, while executive privilege has been around a long time, no previous administration has used it to expansively as this one in response to a whole host of subpoenas.

And I just wonder -- I know you're a Republican --

REED: Yes.

SCIUTTO: -- should -- would -- should your constituents be comfortable with a White House of any party refusing to comply with Congress?

REED: Well, obviously, I disagree with the assumption of your question, saying that this Congress -- this White House is doing something that's unprecedented. That's just not the case.

Executive privilege has been around --

(CROSSTALK)

SCIUTTO: They're using executive privilege for every subpoena that Congress is coming out --

REED: That's not true. That's just not true.

SCIUTTO: -- in the last couple of weeks.

REED: Yes, that's just not true.

SCIUTTO: Last several weeks.

REED: What -- that's just not true. There's a tremendous amount of information being exchanged --

SCIUTTO: Well give me an example of a prior president who has used it so expansively.

REED: -- between the White House. Obama has used executive privilege. You got the Clintons, the Bushes that have used it --

SCIUTTO: On every congressional subpoena?

REED: Not on every -- well, and that's just not the case here. I mean --

SCIUTTO: That's the difference.

REED: -- you're not representing the facts accurately. And the bottom line is, we're going to have this dispute between Congress and the White House. It's a longstanding dispute.

But at the end of the day, the people that lose are the American people because now we're focused on investigation. I guess that's the -- and if that's the mission of this new majority in the House of Representatives to complete, I guess that's what they're going to do. But I want to respond to things that are impacting people on a day-to- day basis.

SCIUTTO: Well, couldn't the White House solve the problem by answering the subpoenas rather than refusing to answer them?

REED: And they've turned over thousands and thousands of documents and information and this is the issue that --

SCIUTTO: But not to the --

(CROSSTALK)

REED: -- we're going to --

SCIUTTO: I know that's a talking point.

REED: I guess to your (ph) -- if the question is, do you agree that the president should have no executive privilege and just turn over everything that Congress demands, that's not going to be a realistic situation.

SCIUTTO: Well, that's actually not the --

REED: The problem (ph) is --

SCIUTTO: -- question. The question is --

REED: -- we're going to have a conflict (ph).

SCIUTTO: -- the question is actually, not does the president not have any executive privilege. The question is, does Congress not have any power, via the Constitution, to subpoena the executive branch? That's the question.

[10:35:03] REED: And of course, Congress does. And Congress has been exercising its oversight responsibilities. Thousands of hours, thousands of legislative time has been devoted to this issue now. And the problem is, who loses in that situation are the problems that are impacting people on a day-to-day basis go unattended to.

We need to address that voice in America. We need to solve those problems. And rather than get into this tit-for-tat investigative environment of Washington, we need to make sure that we're getting things done. And we're just not.

And I -- I grow with the growing frustration of the American people, that, you know what, Congress, start legislating and leading and get to the table and come to common ground.

SCIUTTO: I want to ask you about what's happening on the other side of the Hill, there. The Senate Intelligence Committee, you have the president's son, Don Jr., back. He says as he entered those closed meetings, that he has nothing to correct.

But if you read the Mueller report -- and I assume you have --

REED: I have.

SCIUTTO: -- in there, you have witnesses, including Rick Gates, the president's former deputy campaign chairman, appearing to contradict his testimony regarding communications about Russian offers of dirt on Hillary Clinton. I'm just wondering, do you believe that he had hard questions to answer on whether his prior testimony was accurate?

REED: Yes. And that's why this is the oversight role. This is exactly -- the Senate, bringing Don Jr. back up, I mean, that's where the process has gone. And Don Jr.'s going up to speak to the Senate Intel Committee. You know, that is where that -- that back-and-forth needs to occur and it's occurring. So that's a good thing.

SCIUTTO: Right.

REED: The American people should recognize that. We should move forward.

SCIUTTO: Fair enough. OK.

I want to ask you on a national security issue, it's something I cover very closely. And there were comments by the president yesterday that surprised a lot of people.

This regards news reports that the brother of President -- the dictator, I should call him -- Kim Jong Un of North Korea, had been spoken to by the CIA. They discussed, you know, trying to get intelligence from him.

The president said yesterday that under his leadership, that would not happen. And I just wonder, as a sitting representative of the American people, if you're comfortable with that, with the president saying, "No, our intelligence agencies should not gather intelligence on a hostile foreign leader who threatens the U.S. with nuclear weapons."

REED: Well, you know, I don't know the exact exchange that occurred here, if any. But the bottom line is, is Kim Jong Un, as you point out, is a threat to America. I do wholeheartedly agree with that assessment. And we need to use all the tools in our toolboxes to make sure that threat is measured, and that we are in a position to defend any action by Kim Jong Un that's going to threaten American security.

SCIUTTO: Fair enough. I appreciate the straight answer on that.

Final question, if I can. I mean, you mentioned that the American people want work on something other than just investigations, and we talk about that on this program all the time. It's in the polling, right? I mean, people list their issues. They want progress on a whole host of things.

I just wonder as a practical matter, where do you see that cooperation across the aisle? Because the fact is, you got the Senate controlled by Republicans, House controlled by Democrats, and a Republican president. It was going to be infrastructure, but that seems to have blown up. Where's the common ground?

REED: Well, the effort we're leading on the Republican side in the House is the Problem Solvers Caucus. And what we talk about is, is there a sweet spot when it -- and that's the group of bipartisan members, get together to have conversations about issues impacting people.

Drug pricing is a possibility. Mexico-Canada trade deal, there is a possibility. I think if that was on the floor today, we would pass that and get this to the president's desk through the Senate. So Mexico, Canada and drug pricing, to me, are kind of where this is focusing upon over the next 90 days.

SCIUTTO: OK. Let's hope you find the sweet spot there. I think --

REED: We'll keep working at it.

SCIUTTO: Congress Tom Reed, thanks very much.

REED: Thanks, Jim.

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