WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today joined Andrea Mitchell to discuss Donald Trump Jr. and the ongoing Senate Judiciary Committee investigation.
Full audio and video available here.
Excerpts from the interview:
Senator Coons on Donald Trump Jr.’s statement about the Russian meeting in summer 2016: Well, Andrea, first, I very much look forward to a public hearing in front of the full Judiciary Committee where the questions that many members have could get answered. I heard Donald Trump Jr.'s prepared statement, but did not get to stay for the hours of questioning from staff that followed. Today on the Appropriations Committee, we move forward some critical bipartisan efforts to provide support for a lot of different crises America’s facing, whether it's opioid and heroin abuse, or the response to Hurricane Harvey. There is, in fact, a vote right now on the Senate floor to support moving forward with a $15 billion appropriation to support emergency response. It's going to take much more than that to deal with the fires all across the West and Hurricane Irma, that's already ravaged the U.S. Virgin Islands and is about to hit Florida as well. There's a lot of bipartisan work to do here. My hope is on a bipartisan basis, the Judiciary Committee will have a public hearing later this month where Donald Trump Jr. will answer all the questions that may not have been addressed in today's staff interview.
More on Donald Trump Jr.: One of the questions I have that I hope to ask [Donald Trump Jr.] in an open session that I didn't hear addressed while I was present was the e-mail transcript that suggests that his response to being told that Putin and Putin's regime were trying to help his father win the election wasn't surprise, wasn't ‘I need to report this,’ but was instead, ‘Great, let's go ahead with the meeting.’
Senator Coons on James Comey’s role in the 2016 Presidential election: Andrea, what was striking to me about the choice that former FBI Director Comey made was that he felt compelled to make a public statement just before the election about one investigation. As we now know, at that time, there were two investigations going on, one into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians, and the other into possible misuse of e-mails by Hillary Clinton and a failure to fully disclose. I think the FBI Director should have commented on both or neither, but for him to choose at that time to comment on only one of those two so close to the election was a choice I strongly disagree with.
Senator Coons on Hurricanes Harvey and Irma: But right here, right now, in the Senate, we're working on a bipartisan basis to deliver relief for the folks in the Gulf Coast who've suffered from Hurricane Harvey. We're praying for those who are bracing for the impact of Hurricane Irma in Florida and those who have already been hit in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
Senator Coons on Rand Paul’s proposed appropriations amendment: I'm against it because we're at a moment of record of humanitarian need across the world. There are four different places where there are famine conditions. We have more refugees than at any point since the Second World War, and I support working in a bipartisan way to make our foreign assistance more effective, more transparent, but I don't think this is the time for us to cut it by billions and billions of dollars. The President's budget proposed eliminating the Food for Peace Program, which uses US commodities to feed millions of hungry people around the world. I recently led a bipartisan trip to a refugee camp in Northeastern Nigeria and I’ve seen what a great difference the World Food Program and the United States’ support for humanitarian efforts makes around the world. I'll be voting against Rand Paul's amendment.
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