CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) Is Interviewed About Fiona Hill's Testimony;

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Democratic Congressman Jim Himes of Connecticut is joining us. He's a member of the Intelligence Committee. Congressman Fiona Hill the former White House Russia adviser says the White House was dangling a meeting with President Trump and Lieutenant Colonel Vindman. She says there is no doubt the president wanted these investigations, political investigations in return. So what does that tell you?

REP. JIM HIMES (D-CT): Yes, well the story is clear as can be. We've now had and the depositions have been released any number of people who were in the room -- and this is an important statement, they were in the room because you just heard the president of United States say people that didn't have direct knowledge of this stuff, the whistleblower, in fact, did not have direct knowledge. So we followed up on the whistleblower. We found the people who do have direct knowledge and to a person they have said that there was a holding up of military aid of a meeting in the White House that was to be released only -- and these are the paraphrased words of Ambassador Sondland, in the event that those investigations were publicly on television committed to by the new president of Ukraine.

And Wolf, what is amazing about this and what is fantastical is that these are not never Trumpers. These are not Democratic opponents of the president. These are the president's own people who are very literally in the White House, some of them haven't been appointed for political reasons in the case of Ambassador Sondland, others having -- climbed at the latter at the State Department or in the military. But all of them there the president's own people reacting with such horror to what they saw that Colonel Vindman as you see from the transcript, went to the Council's Office as soon as he finished up with these meetings. The whistleblower blew the whistle. You heard Fiona Hill's testimony. Everybody around the president - the president's own people shocked and horrified by what they had seen leading us to this point today.

BLITZER: Both of the witnesses whose transcripts were released today, point to White House Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney's role in establishing this quid pro quo. He has declined to testify before your committees. So what is next?

HIMES: Well, I suspect he has declined to testify because Mick of course is the one person who can answer the question how exactly did the president convey the instructions, what did he say when he asked you -- because I don't believe for one second and I know Mick Mulvaney and I used to serve with him and I don't believe for one second that Mick Mulvaney cooked this up on his own that we're going to hold up military aid and hold up a meeting in the White House and fire a well- respected ambassador in order to advance the president's political interests. That is not a Mick Mulvaney creation.

Now by the way, in the coming days people are going to try to make it sound like it was a Mick Mulvaney creation and Ambassador Sondland creation in that whole story. But Mick of course could tell exactly what was said which is a big reason why we're not going to hear from Mick Mulvaney.

BLITZER: Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, says he was aware that money for Ukraine was being withheld by early July. July 3rd specifically. What do you make of that timeline?

HIMES: Well, you know hard to say when the idea first germinated because remember, in April when Zelensky has first -- first wins the election, there is a positive and congratulatory phone call - very brief and here's where I would like to fill in the blanks.

[17:15:01]

In order to fill in the blanks, I suspected it would require speaking with Rudy Giuliani. But in May and in June, the president reverts to form around this fantastical conspiracy theory that Ukraine in fact meddled in the 2016 election. Forget about all the work that was done by the president's own intelligence agencies. He reverts to that. We know that Rudy Giuliani is applying all kind of pressure in the Ukraine. We don't know exactly upon whom and what that involved but by the time we get to early July, we know that the Ukrainians are being told in very specific terms that you need to come forward with an investigation of Joe Biden and Burisma and his son which is a clear ask for meddling in our elections and that leads of course to the very, very different phone call between the two presidents in the third week of July in which the president and again the transcript is public in which the president sounding like a mob boss tells Zelensky what he needs to do.

BLITZER: Public hearings start next Wednesday. We'll of course have live coverage.

Congressman Himes thanks so much for joining us.

HIMES: Thank you, Wolf.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source