CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: "Interview with Rep. Ruben Gallego"

Interview

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BLITZER: Very interesting indeed. Lauren Fox, thanks for that update.

Joining us now, Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego of Arizona, a member of the Armed Services Committee. Congressman, thank you for joining us. Let me begin with breaking

news.

Are you confident that lawmakers will be able eventually to obtain President Trump's tax returns from Deutsche Bank?

REP. RUBEN GALLEGO (D-AZ): Look, I hope so. What we're seeing is a history of everybody that is involved in the Trump Organization, whether it is family or corporations, whether it is banks, that they are all stonewalling and the question is why are they stonewalling?

What are they trying to hide? And hopefully we do get our way but we have a Secretary of the Treasury not abiding by the law and hopefully we have a Supreme Court that will abide by the law.

But this is a problematic question, what is the Trump administration and Trump corporation trying to hide?

BLITZER: Let's see what happens on that front. Let's get to Tropical Storm Dorian, which could become a hurricane. Forecasters now saying the storm is tracking toward Puerto Rico, could hit Puerto Rico tomorrow. Could even become a hurricane before it makes landfall.

Are you worried that Puerto Rico isn't prepared for yet another storm?

GALLEGO: I am worried. Look, the people of Puerto Rico are very resilient. They have been preparing since the last hurricane. And more importantly, I want the president to be prepared. I want FEMA to be prepared. I want NORTHCOM (ph) to be prepared.

And I want the president to succeed this time. I want to see Puerto Rico secure and I want us to have whatever lifelines need to be sent to the island and hopefully this is a good story that comes out about how well the Trump administration did for Puerto Rico and not the debacle that occurred two years ago.

BLITZER: President Trump once again today cited a misleading dollar amount when he tweeted about aid to Puerto Rico earlier today.

Are you confident that the president --

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BLITZER: -- will sign another emergency aid bill to Puerto Rico if necessary?

GALLEGO: I think the president really has no choice. He may not want to sign emergency aid bill but we are going to make sure, especially Democratic-led caucus, House caucus, that we are going to roll that money in.

So whenever there is other funding bills or whether there is other relief bills, we're going to make sure that Puerto Rico is not left behind. We've already left Puerto Rico behind for too many years and we've treated them as a colony. And we need to start treating them like first class citizens they are. And the president has no choice in that matter.

BLITZER: Let's talk about the fallout from President Trump's trip to the G7 summit in France, where he privately pressured other global leaders to reinstate Russia. Today a group of Democratic senators, as you just heard, wrote a letter to the president, expressing their strong opposition to the idea.

How do you see it?

GALLEGO: Look, it is shameful. This is just another embarrassment on the world stage when you have the president of France actually defending the U.S. interest better than the president of the United States.

This country, Russia, has been consistently interfering in our elections and still have not stopped. They're bad-willed actors, poisoning citizens in other countries, invading other sovereign countries.

We cannot allow them to be treated as if they're some normal state. They're a pariah state and should be treated as such.

And the president is not really fulfilling his role as a leader of the free world by trying to encourage the acceptance of this type of thuggish kind of foreign policy that Putin has.

BLITZER: What would Russia need to do, what would Putin need to do in order to earn a spot back in the G7 and let the G7 once again become the G8?

GALLEGO: There are many things but, number one, stop interfering in democratic elections in the United States and around the world.

Number two, start withdrawing your troops from Crimea and stop engaging in the type of activities and type of warfare in the Ukraine and other parts of the world.

Start allowing your U.S. citizens -- I'm sorry -- Russian citizens to have some modicum of freedom of speech. These are small little steps in addition to many other things that could go a long way to bringing Russia into the forefront as a modern country that is accepted on the world stage.

BLITZER: Congressman, thank you so much for joining us.

GALLEGO: Thank you for having me.

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