On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “New Day,” Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) argued that “It seems that the Trump campaign conspired with Russian spies to sell out our democracy, and now you have members closely affiliated with the Trump administration, and possibly the president, who are engaged in a cover-up.”
Co-host Chris Cuomo asked Jeffries about CNN’s reporting that Special Counsel Mueller is “going to look into an expanded view of Jared Kushner…the president’s son-in-law, senior adviser — into whether or not during the transition period he was trying to work money for his family’s deals. Do you believe in that type of questioning?”
Jeffries answered, “Well, I certainly think that we need to make sure that we have the most ethical government possible for the people of the United States of America, and I recall the president saying he wanted to come to Washington to drain the swamp. How can you drain the swamp when your own senior policy adviser seems to have been engaging in private-sector dealings to benefit his own family or his own real estate business, connected to a project that may drown the family business in debt?”
He continued, “So I think that it is appropriate, but we also have to stay focused here on what the problem is. It seems that the Trump campaign conspired with Russian spies to sell out our democracy, and now you have members closely affiliated with the Trump administration, and possibly the president, who are engaged in a cover-up. That’s a problem, and we should just allow the Mueller investigation to run its course.”
Cuomo agreed that the Mueller investigation should be allowed to play out, but then asked, “Proof of Trump surrogates, campaign staffers, whatever you want to call them, conspired with spies? Where is proof of that?”
Jeffries responded, “Well, first of all, we’ve got the meetings that took place, one of which was at Trump Tower, including with Donald Trump’s son and his son-in-law and his campaign chairman, who’s been charged in an unrelated matter with conspiring against the United States of America. They met with closely-affiliated Russian operatives, were promised dirt on a political opponent, Hillary Clinton, and then refused to disclose that meeting, or indicate to the FBI that something’s taken place there.”
Cuomo pushed back, “[T]hat wouldn’t meet the legal definition of conspiracy all by itself.”
Jeffries then stated, “Well, there’s a whole host of facts that are coming to light that connect the Trump campaign, meeting after meeting after meeting, contact after contact that they failed to disclose, some of which were failed to disclose, possibly in violation of the law in connection with filling out security clearance forms. All of a sudden, there was selective amnesia. We know that there seemed to have been a possible triangular relationship between the Trump campaign, WikiLeaks, and the Russian government. Robert Mueller’s going to explore that. Let’s let the investigation proceed. He can report to the American people what happened. Robert Mueller was widely respected by Republicans and Democrats before he got this appointment. He’s a lifetime Republican. And Chris, as you know, this entire criminal investigation, on all sides, is being led by Republicans. And yet, Donald Trump continues to try to undermine it.”
(h/t RCP Video)
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