CNN "Erin Burnett Out Front" - Transcript: "Interview with Rep. Gerry Connolly"

Interview

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BURNETT: All right. Boris, thank you very much. And I want to go out front now to Democratic Congressman Gerry Connolly, who sits on the House Oversight and Reform Committee. One of the committees heading up the impeachment investigation. And I appreciate your time as always, sir.

REP. GERRY CONNOLLY (D-VA): My pleasure, Erin.

BURNETT: Look, I know you were in the Kent deposition. What did you think when you heard this part of the testimony about Giuliani trying to get a visa for Shokin in exchange for political dirt on Democrats?

CONNOLLY: Caveat. I'm not going to comment directly on testimony behind closed doors. But let me just say, the picture painted of Mr. Giuliani by a number of witnesses and by what we know in the public record is really one that is very disturbing. I think Giuliani in collusion with President Trump is turning the Oval Office into a cesspool.

Giuliani's contacts in Ukraine are with the shadiest of shady characters. Shokin, Leshchenko, a number of oligarchs who are not committed to democratic norms or institutions and are reportedly corrupt figures in their own right. And his association with those kinds of characters, claiming to represent the President of the United States when he interacts with them and not being contradicted by Mr. Trump is very troubling.

BURNETT: So a request like this, if Rudy Giuliani goes and says, excuse me, I'm sorry, Congressman, I'm going to try to get you this visa if you give me political dirt, would that be illegal?

CONNOLLY: In my opinion, if it's tied to extortion, the way the President tied military aid to that cooperation, yes, that's extortion and extortion is a crime.

BURNETT: So do you think the President of the United States was aware of this, something at this level of granularity, the visa for the dirt?

CONNOLLY: My sense is Mr. Giuliani keeps Donald Trump informed of his salacious activities, because the President is interested in it and takes pleasure in hearing the details. But with respect to any specific activity, who knows how much Donald Trump was made aware. But I don't believe Donald Trump is an innocent operating on the dark victim here. I think he's a colluder with Giuliani.

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I think he aided, abetted and empowered him.

BURNETT: You heard Boris reporting from the White House, the President today was talking about the Kent testimony that it was good for him, that maybe this would be the first non fake news. Obviously, that was before he heard this report. Perhaps, what he did here though is that what we understand which is that Kent said he raised concerns in early 2015 when Biden was Vice President, that Kent had raised concerns about his son being on that Ukrainian board, not directly to the vice president but to a staffer who turned Kent away and said, look, his other son is battling cancer. He doesn't have the bandwidth to deal with this.

So it doesn't sound like from Kent's testimony that this ever got to the vice president, but there was a concern about this. Does that concern you that there were people involved who did think that was inappropriate for Joe Biden's son to be on that Board?

CONNOLLY: Well, that's not my recollection. My recollection is that concerns were raised about whether Vice President Biden should go to Ukraine and represent the United States at that time. And the reaction was the man is in deep grieving with the illness of his son and the ultimate loss of a son. This is not the time to confront him with the appropriateness of his representing the United States government as he's been asked to do.

But, again, I can't comment on direct testimony but my recollection is different than what you've described.

BURNETT: OK. Well, I appreciate you sharing yours as we keep going through all of this reporting. I want to ask you one more question, if I can, before we go, Congressman.

CONNOLLY: Sure, of course.

BURNETT: And that is the President saying Mick Mulvaney clarified his remarks. You heard Jim Jordan say that, Mark Meadows, they're all coming out, Kevin McCarthy, I'm sorry, and saying he was cleaning it up. He was clarifying it. That he didn't admit to a quid pro quo even though, of course, he did. Are you clear on what happened?

CONNOLLY: I think all of us are clear on what happened and I think you kind of put your finger in your reporting on it just a few minutes ago, Erin. I mean, look, we all saw it with our own eyes and heard it with our own ears and there are now gas lighting. The classic gas lighting. Don't believe what you witnessed, believe what I tell you.

And there's an Orwellian quality to this that is mind-blowing, but he said what he said. He admitted flat-out in public, in front of lots of witnesses there was a quid pro quo and then he went on to say get over it. And I don't know how you walk back or take back those words.

BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Congressman Connolly. I appreciate your time.

CONNOLLY: My pleasure, Erin. Thank you.

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