CNN "Erin Burnett Outfront" - Transcript: Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) Discusses About Intelligence Officials Asking Congress To Not Hold Public Hearing

Interview

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OUTFRONT now, Asha Rangappa, former FBI Special Agent who knows a lot about these briefings, obviously FBI is involved in them. And Republican Congressman Mike Turner, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, which would be holding one of those hearings on the worldwide threat assessment.

Congressman, as we were talking about, as you came out, obviously your committee has these hearings. You get classified briefings behind closed doors, but this is the one that the world sees, the American public see comes along with a document. And you hear the reporting, that top Intelligence officials don't want to do this.

After last year when they did, President Trump go back to school, what's wrong with you, guys. It turned into a big fiasco. Are you OK with them not giving a public assessment?

REP. MIKE TURNER (R-OH): Well, there's a document that is the public assessment that is available for the public. And I know I hate responding to things that are like one source or unnamed sources about what people are saying that the President might think or feel. But I can tell you having served through three administrations, there's a number of reasons why the public portion is different than the classified portion that we receive and sometimes many times administrations are reticent to do the public portions.

[19:30:02]

I've actually sat through one, where an Obama official in the public portion of a Russia threat assessment contradicted themselves, then in the classified version, because the threats you're listening to, and that's really the environment they're in.

It's not really the president of the United States as the audience. The world is the audience. Allies are listening. The threats are listening. And they also take from what this presentation is what they should do next and what U.S. policy is going to be.

BURNETT: So, Asha, the thing is, though, and I understand the point, right, they've got different audiences. And yet last year -- you know, and this is our reporting.

I know, Congressman, you always say what you just said there, but this is reporting from multiple sources. It's vetted. It's how news organizations operate. They're saying they don't want to do it because of what Trump will say. They don't want to be belittled and demeaned and humiliated after they say what they're going to say.

Is that a problem, Asha?

ASHA RANGAPPA, FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT: That is a problem. It tells you off the bat what they would say would not align with what the president has been saying or what the president is thinking. This is exactly why it makes him angry.

And I think what you see here is basically an undermining of two fundamental pillars of democracy which is transparency and accountability. Transparency into what do these intelligence heads think are threats directly from their mouths and accountability in terms of is the president responding to them effectively and for this president in particular, is he telling the truth about them.

BURNETT: So, on this point, OK, you got a closed door briefing on Iran.

TURNER: Sure.

BURNETT: You were told what you were told, and you were red sent about it because it's classified. President is allowed to declassify --

TURNER: Absolutely.

BURNETT: -- which he does sometimes with no rhyme or reason. He appeared to declassify or make up, I don't know, all I know is he said there were four embassies being targeted by Iran and his own national security adviser and secretary of defense are unable to back that up.

This is -- this is what we're talking about. What are they going to say in public? Let me just play the president and play Secretaries Esper and Mr. O'Brien.

TURNER: Sure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I can reveal that I believe it would have been four embassies. MARK ESPER, DEFENSE SECRETARY: I didn't see one with regard to four

embassies.

ROBERT O'BRIEN, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Look, it's always difficult with the exquisite intelligence we have to know exactly what the targets are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Do you want to hear them publicly explain why he said one thing and they have been unable publicly to even say he's right?

TURNER: Well, there's a couple of reasons and I think it's not an inconsistency. One, you have the president is able to say things they're not even if I had --

BURNETT: Once he says it, it's then unclassified.

TURNER: That is not correct. Once he says it, it is not. And the information I have cannot then be revealed.

But the second thing is there's a number of sources of information. There's even foreign intelligence sources that we receive. There's classified briefings that president has that the secretary of defense doesn't have, that depending upon what the need is, what the action is.

So, the information the president is receiving is much broader than the rest of us are going to be seeing. They didn't contradict him. They said we don't have that information. I didn't see that information, which again is -- does not say that they're contradicting him.

I want to say one thing with what Asha said.

BURNETT: Let me give Asha a chance to get in on that. So, when Trump says I can reveal I believe it would have been four embassies, and his own secretary of defense who was responsible for ordering troops to launch a drone attack, I didn't see one with regard to four embassies, you don't see that as a contradiction?

RANGAPPA: I see it as a contradiction and I think if the secretary of defense is not seeing the same information that the president of the United States is, that is a problem in and of itself. I also think that from people who have been in these, you know, highly sensitive meeting that that would be almost impossible that the secretary of defense sees the presidential daily briefing. They are the ones advising him on the options that are available in this particular case with the military strike.

So, I feel like it would -- I mean, I would hope that as a congressman you would be incredibly disturbed.

TURNER: Well, you know, as you know, you haven't had a classified briefing in 15 years. And even the time period you did, you did not have access to the type of information that goes into the policy decision making or even the world threats brief that we have to hear in the intelligence --

BURNETT: But are you saying you want an answer to this question, you're fine with it being behind closed doors or you're just fine with that?

TURNER: No, I think there is certainly a utility to having the public hearing. But what I was going to say to Asha's prior statement is that the public hearing, the public presentation of this information is not about the president of the United States. This is not about challenging the president of the United States and what he said.

This is about people who choose and want to do us harm. And so, all of our questions with president are to national security and this public threats briefing, the world threats briefing, the classified portion should be how do we make America safe.

BURNETT: OK, that's true.

But, Asha, shouldn't it also be aren't our elected leaders responsible for telling us the truth about what the threats we face before we decided we're going to war over them?.

RANGAPPA: The bottom line is, if they're afraid to tell the truth, then we have a fundamental issue on these pillars of democracy that I mentioned before. They themselves are afraid to come forward because of what they think the president will retaliate against them or any other blow back. That is -- that is a big problem.

[19:35:01]

BURENTT: We're going to see what happens with Chairman Schiff and his --

TURNER: And the world report -- the world threats report is public itself, so the transparency is you have the opportunity to read it and you can make your own conclusion about what the administration is saying and what the report says.

BURNETT: But no questions from elected representatives. But I see your point, yes, we will -- we will get the paper --

TURNER: We get the question.

BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much.

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