Fox News "The Story with Martha MacCallum" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Matt Gaetz
Interview
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REP. MATT GAETZ, R-FLA.: Thanks for having me.
MACCALLUM: You listen to Congressman Swalwell there. He is going to be one of the counterparts who's asking questions. What did you think of his reasoning for wanting to have this process tomorrow?
GAETZ: Well, here's what we know, for 22 months, President Trump was falsely accused by my good friend, Eric Swalwell and others of being an agent of the Russian government. And that was the language that they used. So, I think you'll see Democrats focus on how the president reacted to that false accusation.
And I think you'll see Republicans focus on why the false accusation was made in the first place? Who did we mistrust to get to this point where we spent so many millions and so many months investigating something that wasn't true, and I know many in the country are eager to hear when Robert Mueller came to the conclusion that there would be no chargeable criminal conspiracy with Russia and the Trump campaign.
MACCALLUM: Yes, do you think you're going to get a straight answer on that tomorrow?
GAETZ: I hope we do. I think that it's an easy question to be able to answer. If Robert Mueller plays too cute, if this is just a dramatic reading of the report --
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MACCALLUM: Well, Trey Gowdy -- I asked Trey Gowdy when he thought the response to that question would be, and he said, "Probably when we finished the report."
GAETZ: But, we do know of briefings that the special counsel gave to the attorney general prior to the report being released where the special counsel indicated that there was not a chargeable criminal conspiracy on this collusion issue.
So, there was some period of time prior to where that realization occurred, and we'd like to know when it was.
MACCALLUM: One of the things that I'm going to be listening to very closely, and I would imagine everybody else will as well, is the question of -- you know, to Robert Mueller, did you believe that if this wasn't a sitting president, you had enough to indict. What do you think his answer to that is going to be?
GAETZ: He wrote about that quite a bit. He wrote that there were really three principal reasons why they -- were there was not an indictment on collusion apart from the special counsel view. One is that the president has legitimate Article II powers that he was utilizing. Second, the president, you know, was largely acting in public in an open and notorious way. And third, that there was no underlying criminal offense.
None of those considerations have anything to do with the special counsel opinion. They all informed on why there was no charge for obstruction from Robert Mueller.
MACCALLUM: Well, thank you very much. Matt Gaetz, Congressman, good to see you.
GAETZ: Thank you.
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