CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview With Rep. Jackie Speier
Interview
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All right, let's get some perspective on what this new information means about the expectations and the possibilities of the Senate trial of the president of the United States. We have Democratic Congresswoman Jackie Speier of California, member
of the Intelligence and Armed Services Committee.
Always good to see you, Representative.
REP. JACKIE SPEIER (D-CA): Thank you, Chris. Great to be with you.
CUOMO: All right.
So, first, let's do a little housekeeping. And then I want to get into what you think this new information could mean to the Senate trial and what do you think it means to the overall argument.
The idea of the vote tomorrow to present new evidence to the Senate and appoint managers, what is the strategy here? And what do you think about this offer of new evidence?
SPEIER: Well, this offer of new evidence is compelling.
And I think what we have seen just in the last two weeks -- and kudos to Speaker Pelosi, who was right in postponing sending the articles over, because look what has happened in just the last two weeks.
You had John Bolton come forward. You now have Lev Parnas with documentation. And now we know the Russians have been hacking into Burisma.
There is more and more evidence of a cover-up going on by the White House and the administration. And the fact that we have so many who did not come forward to testify by subpoena, they defied the subpoenas both for documents and for witnesses, suggests that we have obstruction of Congress in a way that is both criminal and compelling.
CUOMO: First, let's do the possibilities. And then we will get to the argument of why this is valuable.
The Senate rules. Are you allowed to introduce information post- impeachment?
SPEIER: I believe that the documents that we send over will be the basis on the deliberations by the Senate, not including any witnesses that they call or documents that they seek.
CUOMO: All right, one more question about process.
The idea of this House vote tomorrow to transmit the articles of impeachment to appoint the managers, what does that look like?
Well, it will be a process where we will have, I think, a half-an-hour debate on the Democratic side and the Republican side. There will then be a vote taken and then a vote taken on the appointment of managers.
CUOMO: You think you're going to be a manager?
SPEIER: I have not sought to be a manager. And I think that one of the criteria were that you had to seek to be a manager. CUOMO: What if they came to you and asked you to do it anyway? Would
you accept?
SPEIER: It's like anything else. If you're called to duty, you do it.
CUOMO: All right.
Now, in terms of the value of this, let's dialogue this out a little bit. Senate said, hey, you had your bite at the apple, Speier. You didn't bring this evidence up when you guys were doing your impeachment. You didn't get Bolton to testify.
Now it's our rules. And this evidence, we're only going to go on what was adduced during the impeachment phase. This is post-phase. It's to our discretion. We're not going to use it.
SPEIER: So, I would say to that the Democrats certainly have a basis on which they can request questions to be answered.
[18:15:06]
That's one of the ways that this process will move forward. Questions will be asked through the chief justice, and will be responded to by the attorneys for the president and the attorneys for the House.
So, that's one way in which much of this evidence can come into play, and then, of course, calling witnesses as well.
Now, don't forget that there were probably 17 witnesses that were subpoenaed by the House impeachment committee that were absolutely denied and defied by the president and his administration, documents that we didn't receive.
And, certainly, we found out over the holidays that some of those documents that were provided under a Freedom of Information Act to the Center for Public Interest suggests that there was a lot of cover-up going on there, and that's why they didn't want to share those documents with us.
CUOMO: Congresswoman Jackie Speier, thank you so much for your perspective, as always. Appreciate it.
SPEIER: Thank you, Chris.
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