CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview With Rep. Kathleen Rice

Interview

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But none of this should be surprising. It's a president who is often inconsistent, is also predictably -- predictably unpredictable, and that he was going to react to this angrily should not react should not have surprised anyone.

BLITZER: Yes, he reacted very angrily, apparently dumping the acting director of national intelligence, and, as a result, there's now an acting, a new acting director of national intelligence, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, Ric Grenell.

I want to bring in Congresswoman Kathleen Rice, a Democrat. She serves on the House Homeland Security Committee.

Congresswoman, thanks so much for joining us. You have been following the breaking news as well.

So, what's your response to this reporting that U.S. intelligence officials warned your colleagues on the Intelligence Committee, Democrats and Republicans, that Russia is actively trying to get President Trump reelected?

REP. KATHLEEN RICE (D-NY): So this is a fact that most Americans already know.

I would say that it's shocking, except it's not, because this kind of behavior by this president is happening with increasingly -- it's happening all the time, I mean, increasing frequency. The really disturbing part of this, Wolf, is that it is so important

for us as lawmakers who are privy to this information, this intelligence, to get it openly and honestly, and then figure out what to do about it, and then communicate to the American people what they can believe and what they can't believe, where the Russians are acting, and what they're doing to try to influence this.

The fact that this president time and again puts his own personal and political future ahead of not just every other American, but now our national security, is just so outrageous, it's -- what is there to say?

BLITZER: Yes.

And so what, if anything, can you guys in the House of Representatives or in the Senate, for that matter, do about this?

RICE: So, Wolf, I want to ask. I am appealing to all of my good colleagues on the other side of the aisle, my Republican colleagues, stand up and speak truth to this out-of-control power once and for all.

Put the impeachment stuff behind us. We have another election in November. Put all of that stuff behind. Get a backbone. I know there are Republican colleagues of mine who have backbones. I know that. I see them walking around every day in Washington.

Get that back -- take that backbone and speak to this president and say, this is enough. It's enough. We haven't heard any Republican come out and say, this is outrageous, after the briefing that the Intel Committee got.

Where are they? When are they going to be heard? We can say -- I can get up here and say this is outrageous, this is outrageous, and try to bring the truth to the American people. But you're going to tell me, out of the hundreds of Republicans in Congress, not one of them is going to stand up and say, enough is enough?

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That is the real travesty here too.

BLITZER: And, clearly, the president was furious that the acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, allowed this briefing to go forward. For the U.S. intelligence...

RICE: But, Wolf, that's his job.

Keep that in mind, that that is his job. They have to come before Congress and the various committees and brief them on what's going on. So to act like they did something that -- they stepped out of their lane, and they did something that was totally inappropriate is wrong.

That is their job. There is a separation of powers. Congressional committees exist to have oversight, to get information from our intel agencies, and then figure out what to do with that. And what -- the president is trying to tell the American people that what they did was wrong. That is outrageous, and I'm going to call it a lie, because that's what it is. That's not true.

BLITZER: It's not only their job. It's the law, that the intelligence community...

RICE: Right.

BLITZER: ... has to brief the House Intelligence Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee. That's part of the law of the land.

Representative Kathleen Rice, thank you so much for joining us.

RICE: Thank you, Wolf.

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