CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee

Interview

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[14:31:49] SAVIDGE: Congress is gearing up for what will be a critical week on Capitol Hill. After three months of waiting, Robert Mueller will finally testify about his bombshell report. The former special counsel is set to meet with two House committees this week.

That'll be the Judiciary and Intelligence Committee. CNN is learning more about how the Democrats are game-planning their line of questioning to maximize the limited time with Mueller. The Judiciary Committee is expected to tackle volume two of the Mueller report. Their focus -- five instances of potential obstruction of justice by the president.

Here with me now is one of the members of that committee, Texas Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. And Congresswoman, thank you very much for joining us today.

REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE, (D-TX): Martin, thank you so very much for having me. Hello to all of your viewers on this wonderful 50th commemoration, if I might say sitting in Houston, of Apollo 11. Congratulations to all of my fellow Houstonians and Americans for an exciting, historical moment, and a moment for our future. I'm just excited.

And I must add to that, the freedom of A$AP. I am a member of the Judiciary Committee. You're getting ready to ask me questions of justice, and I hope Sweden listens to the fact that he should be released because his rights have been denied, and he should have his rights preserved.

SAVIDGE: I'll get to that in just a moment. Let's start by talking about the Mueller report. We know that it was of course released in April. It's 448 pages, and most of it now has been unredacted. So what is it that you hope to learn next week that hasn't already been made public?

LEE: Well, I think the most important element of this is for the voice of Robert Mueller to be heard truthfully and under oath, capturing the two volumes, volume one and volume two, for the American people, and laying out a block by block story of the 10 obstruction of justice issues that really are the crux of the final sentence that Bob Mueller wrote in volume two, which is, if I could have exonerated the president, I would have. And the question of whether or not the president, if the president had not been the president, whether or not he could be indicted. I think those are telling moments for the American people.

And so we will lay out questioning that will really call on Mr. Mueller to indicate what he wrote, his feelings about what he wrote, if he edifies his answers. And how complete, how rigid, how strong that report is. I think Mr. Mueller believes it is a very strong and solid report. He directed the Congress to do our job. He gave it over to the Congress. And he would not have done so if he had not felt that he had presented in this 22-month investigation a very solid report.

SAVIDGE: It's no secret, of course, that Robert Mueller is a reluctant witness. He is only testifying, he says, because of a subpoena. He has stated in the past that he does not intend to answer questions beyond the contents of the report. And I'm wondering whether this could all prove to be a great disappointment for Democrats.

[14:35:00] LEE: Absolutely not. Let's hope for Republicans that they don't make a mockery of this very somber and serious hearing. Let's hope that they don't try to probe and kick and malign Director Mueller but ask serious questions. We have been investigating wrongdoings of this administration now for almost a year ourselves. And we are focused on facts. We're not focused on drama. We're not focused on excitement. And what we intend to do is methodically draw from Mr. Mueller the hard facts of this report.

We know most of the American people have not read this report. It's two volumes. But I can tell you that it is filled with, of course, over 150 moments of contact of this campaign, of Mr. Trump, in the first volume with Russian operatives. That is certainly absurd and not what we're used to at presidential campaigns. The American people need to know that, and those questions will be heard in the open arena.

And then of course they will focus on these obstruction of justice matters, in particularly asking Jeff Sessions to un-recuse himself. I think in Mr. Mueller saying it, people will understand a little better. Telling McGahn to lie, his special counsel, of course. Although Hope Hicks will not be in the room, we know now that, just as an aside, when we were questioning her and said she knew nothing about payments on the matter of his encounters with a number of women, now we find out that that was the case.

So we expect that with Mr. Mueller we may find out things because of his own answering of his accord. We delayed this because he wanted to prepare more. I think that's a good sign.

SAVIDGE: Let me interrupt you, and I apologize for doing so, Congresswoman.

LEE: Not at all.

SAVIDGE: But I do want to ask you about some of the rhetoric that we have seen this week in Washington. We've all seen President Trump's tweets telling freshman members of your party to go back to where they came from. We've heard the chants at a rally in North Carolina, "send her back." What is your reaction? What do you make of all of this?

LEE: Not at all, Martin. And I will just conclude by simply saying we expect this hearing to be fair and for the American people to hear the facts. And that's not what we're hearing from President Trump. We're not hearing the facts.

I usually don't say this, but I'm really sick and tired of the presidency being maligned and distorted by words and leadership that are not befitting of the United States of America or the people of the United States. I'm in my district, and I've been to a number of events before I've spoken to you, and I've said to the people there, we are good people in America. We do good things.

And to talk about these outstanding members of Congress who have been dual elected by their constituents and particularly women of color in one instance, an African-American woman, we have been maligned as others, and certainly one who is an immigrant who is a naturalized citizen, outstanding member of New York's delegation, outstanding member of the Massachusetts delegation, it is a point where we need to put up a red Stop sign. Enough is enough.

And although words are protected by the First Amendment, I would simply say that the misconduct of the president continues on and on, and this behavior is misconduct. Why do I call it misconduct? Because you're endangering people, you're inciting things, you're calling people to shout out, "send her back, send her back." We know what happened when one of his potential officers in the White House said to jail her up, or jail her up. That individual is near a jail at this point. You just don't play with that.

And so as members of Congress, we have denounced it on the record, on the floor of the House, with Republican members doing it. We've had senators denounce it. They need to pass a resolution. But I think the American people have to say to this president, enough is enough. You can talk about the economy all you want, all you want. But we are in danger internationally. We're in danger with Iran because you decided to break up the Iran nuclear agreement. Everything that's going on in this administration is endangering the American people, and enough is enough. And I just simply hope that the good people of America, the good

people, will stand together and say, this is unacceptable. No matter how much you disagree with someone's speech and someone's position, that they do have the right to speak in different tones.

You don't have the right, however, as a commander-in-chief to attack people, to endanger people, to call people names because of their ethnicity, their religion, their race, their sex, their orientation. You don't have that right. And certainly, as one who has experienced discrimination, Martin, I simply say, he does not have that right.

SAVIDGE: Congresswoman, thank you so much for joining us today. And we do congratulate the people of Houston and all those involved in this momentous anniversary we celebrate with space. Thank you for joining us.

LEE: Exciting. Thank you, sir.

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