Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) is Interviewed About Trump Accusing Biden of Misconduct; Presidential Candidate Beto O'Rourke is Interviewed About Trump Saying Dems Are Going to Lose the Election; Whistleblower: WH Tried To Cover Up Trump's Abuse Of Power
BURNETT: Tonight, President Trump continuing to spread a misleading claim about the former Vice President Joe Biden. Here's what Trump said today while arguing House Intel Chair Adam Schiff is ignoring Biden's actions.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He doesn't talk about Joe Biden firing a prosecutor, and if that prosecutor's not fired he's not going to give him money from the United States of America.</s>BURNETT: And Trump has said again and again that Biden, you know, did this for a specific reason. He wanted this prosecutor fired and held up the money for specific reason which was to protect his son from a corruption investigation.</s>TRUMP: He wouldn't give, I think it was billions of dollars to Ukraine, unless they fired the prosecutor who was looking at his son and his son's company.</s>BURNETT: Now, let's just be very clear, there's been absolutely no evidence that the former vice president did this, did anything wrong. OUTFRONT now, Democratic Congressman Tom Malinowski, who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. So, Congressman, I appreciate your time. Not only are you a sitting member of Congress, you were an assistant secretary of state during the Obama administration. So, when President Trump says that Joe Biden got the prosecutor fired, which he did, to protect his son as a motive, you were there. Tell us what really happened.</s>REP. TOM MALINOWSKI (D-NJ): So here's what happened. The United States, the international community, we were giving a lot of support to Ukraine in 2015, 2016, the IMF was providing loans. The United States was providing loan guarantees and that aid was explicitly conditioned on Ukraine doing better in the fight against corruption. In late 2015, we realized that the main prosecutor, the chief prosecutor in Ukraine was doing nothing about corruption. He had brought not a single significant corruption prosecution including against this company that Joe Biden's son was involved with. He wasn't doing anything about that either. So, we decided, the State Department decided, not Joe Biden, that for assistance to be provided that prosecutor needed to be replaced. The State Department delivered that message, our embassy delivered that message, the European Union delivered that message, the president of France delivered that message, the president of Germany delivered that message, the International Monetary Fund delivered that message, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development delivered that message. So I don't know, maybe Trump thinks that the entire world was engaged in a conspiracy to protect Joe Biden and his son or maybe actually this was U.S. policy, European policy, international community's policy and the right thing to do.</s>BURNETT: All right. So to be loud and clear, I'm not saying he didn't agree, but he did what he was told to do what the U.S. government decided to do. He was the emissary.</s>MALINOWSKI: He was the messenger.</s>BURNETT: The messenger, OK.</s>MALINOWSKI: Yes.</s>BURNETT: OK. All right. So, to the point of why you would be Joe Biden because this is also important. You talked about the immense amount of aid that was going from the United States, right? So we know, obviously, that Mick Mulvaney was told according to sources about a week before this call that Trump had with the Ukrainian president to put aid to put $400 million worth of military and security aid to Ukraine on hold. So, contextualize this for us, as a Ukraine expert, can you tell us how important American aid is? If you are President Trump how much power do you have by Ukraine by withholding that aid?</s>MALINOWSKI: Oh, my gosh, they need us. And it's not just them, this is for our national security. We have thousands of troops in Europe who are there in part to deter Russian aggression against Ukraine and Europe. Russian aggression, attacks that are going on right now and that aid included Javelin missiles which are anti-tank weapons designed to make sure that those Russian tanks cannot invade Ukraine and put our own troops ultimately in jeopardy, and Trump decided for reasons that are otherwise inexplicable to stop that assistance.</s>BURNETT: One other question I want to ask you. "The Washington Post" spoke to the prosecutor that Trump according to the complaint praised and this guy is also now a former prosecutor, but he told "The Washington Post" that Hunter Biden didn't break any Ukrainian laws. This was the guy put in to investigate corruption and the investigation of the company as you point out had gone nowhere and was dormant under the other guy. Do you think this is a credible take? That this former prosecutor is saying Hunter Biden did not break any Ukrainian laws, do you take that as credible?</s>MALINOWSKI: Look, this is not about Hunter Biden. This is about the president of the United States, the current president of the United States basing our foreign policy on whether foreign countries are willing to help him politically, and it's not just Ukraine. I mean, are we going to give a better trade deal to China if the Chinese government gives Trump dirt on Elizabeth Warren? Where does this end? This is why this is so important to our national security and why so many of us including some Republicans are concerned right now.</s>BURNETT: All right. Congressman Malinowski, I appreciate your time. Thank you so much for coming on.</s>MALINOWSKI: Thank you.</s>BURNETT: And tonight, Joe Biden is speaking out after the hearing on Capitol Hill, the former vice president at a California fund-raiser saying President Trump was trying to, quote, hijack an election by asking the Ukraine help for an investigation. He added hat Trump would, quote, like to get foreign help to win elections. This as Trump says Biden and Democrats are doing this just for politics.</s>TRUMP: The Democrats are going to lose the election. They know it. That's why they're doing it.</s>BURNETT: OUTFRONT now, 2020 Democratic presidential, former Congressman Beto O'Rourke. Congressman, I appreciate your time. You heard him. Democrats are going to lose, they know it. That's why they're doing this. Is that what this is about for you?</s>BETO O'ROURKE (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No. This is about the future of this country and saving our democracy at the moment that it's on the line. If we set this precedent that some people are above the law because of the position of power or public trust that they hold then any hope of being able to keep this republic, this democracy together is lost forever. So this is the moment, if there ever was one, for members of Congress, both Republican and Democrat, to put the future of this country ahead of their party, their political prospects, their fortunes in the next election. History will judge this moment will not look kindly upon those who shirk their duty, or become complicit in the president's crimes. We have to hold him accountable. The House must move forward with impeachment. It's the only way that we get all the facts, the truth and justice at the end of the day, and that's what I'm interested in.</s>BURNETT: So let me ask you about where this goes, though. The Democrats in the House, as you know, of course, seem to have the votes to impeach President Trump. But at this moment that does seem impossible in the Senate. Unless something changes dramatically, it's not going to happen there. So if your party impeaches Trump in the House but he stays in office, are you worried this could be a huge victory for him?</s>O'ROURKE: No, I'm not worried. And I don't think it will be a party that votes to impeach. I think it will be members of Congress who see themselves as Americans first before they're anything else. If you looked at the polling on impeachment around Nixon at this point in the investigation, it wasn't the most popular thing in the country, and yet with the advantage of hindsight we know that it was absolutely the right thing to do. And President Nixon did the right thing and resigned before it moved to a trial in the Senate. I'm calling upon those who are close to President Trump right now, the same ones who tried to hide the transcript or the notes from this phone call, who right now are complicit in what the president is doing to advise him to do the right thing and to resign from this office. If we're talking about bringing together a very divided country, unifying once again around the great challenges that we have, then the most divisive president that we've ever had, one who is breaking laws with complete impunity right now tearing this country apart must step down. That's the right thing to do. But should he fail to do that, the House must vote to impeach, and that trial must be held in the Senate. And I believe in this country, I believe in this country and I believe that we will do the right thing at the end of the day.</s>BURNETT: So, the president has been speaking out about you also this week on something that you've become front and center for him on the 2020 race, which is, you know, your passionate stance on guns and a mandatory buyback of automatic assault-style weapons. He blames you for the lack of gun control legislation specifically, Congressman. Here's how he put it.</s>TRUMP: I saw where this character from Texas, I can't imagine he'll get one vote in Texas, he wants to start confiscating guns. That's not a good thing. That's no good. It makes it actually much harder to make a deal when this Beto O'Rourke comes out and starts talking about confiscating guns.</s>BURNETT: This Beto O'Rourke. What do you say to him? Have you made it harder?</s>O'ROURKE: In Texas, 49 percent of my fellow Texans support a mandatory buyback of weapons of war, AR-15s, AK-47s, weapons designed to kill people on a battlefield. Only 36 oppose a mandatory buyback. And that's in Texas, a proud but responsible gun owning state. It's a majority across this country. So, it's not any one person. It's not any one idea. It's the fact that this president is deep in the pocket of the NRA. There are other members of Congress who are bought and paid for by the gun lobby. They need to get out of the way or do the right thing, pass universal background checks, red flag laws, end the sale of weapons of war. And yes, as long as there are more than 10 million out there, buy ever single one of them back.</s>BURNETT: And you believe they're going to get this done and not get really too busy with this whole impeachment thing?</s>O'ROURKE: Well, I believe in this country. I know that we are capable of doing two things at once. And the fact that we lose 40,000 people in this country to gun violence, that we've had these acts of terror like the one that you saw in El Paso or Midland, Odessa or Sutherland Springs or Santa Fe High School, four in under two years in one state, Texas alone, I know that this country is called to act. And those students who marched for our lives, those Moms Who Demand Action, they're more powerful than the NRA. They're going to force us to do the right thing while we still have time.</s>BURNETT: Congressman O'Rourke, thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it tonight.</s>O'ROURKE: Thank you.</s>BURNETT: And next, President Trump personally demeaning the person leading the Intelligence Committee's whistle-blower probe. the man who used to head that committee weighs in next.