CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Jackie Speier

Interview

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Joining us now is Intelligence Committee member and California Democratic Congresswoman Jackie Speier.

Congresswoman Speier, just first off, I'm wondering what your overall reaction is to these documents and how much it makes it all the more important that testimony is given from the people who are actually sending these emails.

REP. JACKIE SPEIER (D-CA): You know, Anderson, I actually feel what is most important is for us to get the documents.

What I've seen over and over again when we've interviewed many of these people is their great ability to forget or not remember. And the documents don't forget, and the documents, as we have seen by this outstanding reporting is -- says it all, that the president demanded this, that Ukraine was put at risk, and that they have consistently refused to turn over any documents to the committees that have had jurisdiction for oversight. So what has been released has been released through a lawsuit that's been filed, and then subsequently, evidently these emails have been acquired through some whistle-blower.

So we are in the dark. The American people are in the dark. The Congress is in the dark. And there is a massive cover-up going on with this administration, and it makes me fearful about what else we don't know.

COOPER: Well, you know, what's so interesting about that is, you know, things are so -- looked through now so, you know, tribally, which is an overused word now, but through a particular lens of who you support and who you like and who you believe. But when you kind of step back from all of this and you just think, wait a minute, so in all these levers of government and at the top, the highest levels of the White House, any -- everybody who knows really and was really involved in this, they aren't talking for a variety of reasons, but they are not giving testimony. They are not sitting under oath. They are working for us for the American people, and yet they are keeping the secret.

And also as -- these documents are public documents. These are -- should be documents that American people can see. And it's -- it is just when you step back from it, it's kind of mind-blowing that, wait a minute, how -- what argument is there really for just not being honest and open in a public hearing?

SPEIER: And what does the rule of law mean in this administration? When all of these individuals have been subpoenaed, all of these documents have been subpoena and they have been ignored?

Now for you and me, if we ignore a subpoena, we go to jail. So for a long time, I have been of the opinion that we should use what Congress has, which is the power of inherent contempt, and bring these individuals in to the House chamber and slap them with fines because that's the only thing that I think will make them talk.

COOPER: Speaker Pelosi, she's still not transferred the articles of impeachment to the Senate. How much does -- do these documents you think change her calculus, or should change the calculus?

SPEIER: Well, it should change the calculus not just for the house but for the Senate more importantly because if this was Barack Obama, there would be no question that these people would be coming forward as witnesses and that documents would be released. And furthermore, whether it was Clinton or Nixon or if it had been Barack Obama, there has been cooperation by the president and his office in the past.

This is the first time we've seen this gross effort to cover up and withhold documents that as you point out belong to the American people, certainly belong to the oversight committees that have the responsibilities to determine whether or not the law is being broken.

COOPER: Congresswoman Jackie Speier, I appreciate your time. Thank you.

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