CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: "Interview with Sen. Michael Bennet"
Interview
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BLITZER: Breaking news. House Democrats today began releasing transcripts of the question and answer sessions with impeachment witnesses.
In today's release, two veteran diplomats told of their deep concerns that U.S. foreign policy was being undermined by President Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.
Joining us now, Democratic presidential candidate Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado. He's a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Senator, thanks so much for joining us.
SEN. MICHAEL BENNET (D-CO), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thanks, Wolf.
BLITZER: How concerned are you to hear these details from the testimony of Ambassador Yovanovitch and Ambassador McKinley?
BENNET: Well, I'm deeply concerned. It confirms really what the whistleblower had said and it just put more of a face on the interference that Rudy Giuliani was running for Donald Trump as he was on the one hand blowing up the careers of respected diplomats on the Democratic side -- on the American side while at the same time trying to get the Ukrainians to investigate his political rival, in this case Joe Biden. It is very, very troubling.
BLITZER: What are the implications of Rudy Giuliani, the president's private attorney, effectively running his own foreign policy with Ukraine and do you know if Giuliani had security clearances?
BENNET: I don't have any idea. That is something that we have to look into, but it is very clear that he's been running his own foreign policy away from the State Department for much of his presidency.
He's doing a lot of it by tweet just this weekend and to reminder of why it would be good to have a president who actually followed the law and followed the protocols that are required for the commander-in- chief.
BLITZER: There are new documents --
BENNET: Think about this --
BLITZER: Yes, go ahead.
BENNET: -- think about this Wolf. Just think about this in the context and all that is happening. He spent the entire weekend sending out tweets that would get you fired from any company in America while at the same time Iran was doubling the number of centrifuges it's choosing to enrich uranium.
China was entering into a trade pact with six other Asian countries and a whole bunch of other countries as well that we would like to trade with. And now you've got this stuff going on with Ukraine. And oh, by the way, he's pulling us out of the Paris Agreement making us the only country in the world that is not part to the Paris Agreement.
This is a radical position and it is a dangerous position that he's put the United States in while he's tweeting in a way that any other -- one of us would have gotten fired.
BLITZER: New documents from the Mueller probe just released including the CNN that show that as early as 2016, Paul Manafort, who was then the president's campaign chairman was peddling a theory pinning election meddling on Ukraine not Russia.
BENNET: Right.
BLITZER: Does that appear to be guiding still to this day President Trump's actions?
BENNET: I think it is. Look, the guy still hasn't admitted -- the guy, meaning President Trump -- still hasn't admitted that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.
The last time he was on the record on that was standing next to Vladimir Putin in Helsinki where he rejected our intelligence agency's assessment and said I don't see any reason why Putin would lie about that.
Now, we knew then and we have known ever since then that our intelligence agencies, all of them, and every intelligence agency in the world said that Russia was the one behind it not Ukraine.
And then President Trump went to Japan and again made it all into a joke. It is not a joke. The rest of the world, there is western democracy throughout Europe that are desperate for leadership from the United States to stand up against Russia and they're getting none of it.
And instead what is Trump is trying to do is mask his own tracks by pointing toward Ukraine instead of admitting that Russia was to blame.
BLITZER: Former Vice President Joe Biden who is a fellow 2020 contender says the impeachment inquiry should be looking more broadly at President Trump's conduct beyond Ukraine going back to what was in the Mueller report for example. Do you agree?
BENNET: I do agree. I think that when you've got an impeachment inquiry like this and it's been, you know, on both sides, during Watergate and then when Bill Clinton was impeached, I think it is perfectly appropriate for us to look wherever the investigation leads us.
BLITZER: You have --
BENNET: And I think that is one of the things that Donald Trump is so worried about. I mean, that is why every day he goes out on his twitter account, tries to intimidate the whistleblower and any subsequent whistleblowers.
You know, he's trying to demonstrate that you won't be protected, you know, by the whistleblower's statute. And can you imagine a president doing that. We now have one doing that as a way of trying to intimidate other people from testifying. I don't think it's going to work.
[17:24:57]
BLITZER: Our final political question, you haven't qualified for the November Democratic presidential debate. Will you stay in the race even if you aren't up on the stage?
BENNET: I'm going to stay in the race, Wolf. I've just spent three days in Iowa. We had a tremendous time there. People have been on the debate stage. There are people that are actually polling below me, if you could imagine such a thing is possible.
It happens to be true. And I know that Iowans and folks in Hampshire haven't made up their mind yet. In Iowa, the last poll shows that undecided voters are actually the largest portion of the voters that they have ever been. So, I think this race has ways to go.
BLITZER: Senator Michael Bennet, thanks so much for joining us. Good luck out there on the campaign trail.
BENNET: Thanks, Wolf. Good to see you.
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