ICYMI: Senator Collins Discusses Former Director Comey’s Testimony on CNN’s “New Day”

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Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Susan Collins, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, appeared on CNN’s “New Day” with host Chris Cuomo to discuss former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony at yesterday’s Intelligence Committee hearing.

A transcript of the interview follows:

“New Day”
June 9, 2017

CUOMO: One of the more impressive exchanges, let’s say, during James Comey’s Senate testimony was when he revealed he asked a friend to leak his memos. Take a listen.

     COLLINS: Did you show copies of your memos to anyone outside of the Department of Justice?
     COMEY: Yes.
     COLLINS: And to whom did you show copies?
     COMEY: I asked -- the president tweeted on Friday after I got fired that I better hope there’s not tapes. I woke up in the middle of the night on Monday night—because it didn't dawn on me originally—that there might be corroboration for our conversation—there might be a tape—and my judgment was I needed to get that out into the public square. So I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter.

     CUOMO: Joining us now is the senator you just saw there, Republican Susan Collins of Maine. Senator, thank you for joining us after that big day. What was your big takeaway from the Comey testimony?

COLLINS: Well, there were several. One was that it was clear that the president asked Mr. Comey to do an inappropriate action, and that was to drop the investigation of General Michael Flynn. That was clearly inappropriate. It crossed a boundary that the president should not have crossed. Second, I’m still perplexed as to why Mr. Comey did not say to the president at the time, “Mr. President, you can't ask me to do that. That’s not the way our system works.” Or at least in hindsight have a call made from the Justice Department to the White House Counsel talking about what had happened. And third, Mr. Comey's testimony established that he was deeply troubled by his interactions with the president, but that the president was not under investigation as of May 9th when Mr. Comey was fired.

CUOMO: Why is that relevant to you, the last part?

COLLINS: It’s relevant to me in two ways. One is that our investigation before the Senate Intelligence Committee, it’s a broad investigation into Russian interference in our election last fall about which we have considerable evidence and whether or not either President Trump and/or members of his campaign staff had direct contacts with the Russians that led to collusion or collaboration in this effort. So the fact that the president was not under investigation by no means exonerates his aides. It by no means ends the issue because the special counsel will be continuing the investigation.

CUOMO: On the matters that involve dialogue between the president and the former FBI director, whom are you inclined to believe at this point?

COLLINS: I found Mr. Comey's testimony to be credible, candid, and thorough. That doesn't mean that he's right in every detail that he's remembering. It doesn't necessarily mean his interpretations are accurate. But he testified under oath, and I do believe that he's an individual of integrity who would not deliberately lie under oath.

CUOMO: That would mean that the president is lying to the American people about his efforts to meddle in the Flynn probe.

COLLINS: Well, I’m not sure that we can reach definitive conclusions, but I tend to place more credence in testimony that's given under oath.

CUOMO: What about your level of concern about what Comey said about Jeff Sessions, his concerns about the legitimacy of the recusal, his concerns about trust in Sessions when he was confronted by the president and what he could do about it to go up the chain as you guys were talking about, and his need to talk to you in a private session about why he thought Sessions would have to recuse himself?

COLLINS: First of all, let me say that Jeff Sessions clearly made the right decision to recuse himself, and he did so promptly. But there remain a number of questions about his own interactions with the Russians. We on the Intelligence Committee want to know the answers to those questions, and we have begun to request information from the Attorney General to allow us to get to the bottom of that, and I’m sure the special counsel in his investigation will want to know as well.

CUOMO: Two other quick things.

COLLINS: I—

CUOMO: Go ahead, Senator, unless you have something to add.

COLLINS: I will note that the Attorney General this morning put out a press release disputing what happened, and that's why it is so important that we get to the bottom of it.

CUOMO: The word inappropriate keeps being used, and I keep asking whether or not that's a word that will ever carry any accountability. It seems like a word that's used when nothing will really be done about whatever that action is. If it was inappropriate but not illegal, does the president have anything to be concerned about?

COLLINS: Well, he does. I think this reflects the fact that this is the first president in our history who has had neither a military nor a political background, and I think he just does not fully understand or appreciate the boundaries and that it is totally wrong—I’ll go beyond inappropriate—it is wrong for the president of the United States to tell or imply to an FBI director that an investigation should not go forward.

CUOMO: But how could he not know when he asked the AG and his son-in-law and others to leave, and when they tried to reenter, told them to leave so he could talk to Comey? Doesn’t that tell you everything you needed to know about whether or not the president was being -- acting in ignorance or acting with complete intentionality?

COLLINS: Not necessarily, and here's why. The first interaction that the president had with Mr. Comey in early January at Trump Tower, it was the FBI director who cleared the room so that he could have a one-on-one discussion with the president about that salacious dossier. And I wonder if perhaps that made the president think that whenever there is a sensitive conversation to be had with the FBI director that it should be one-on-one because he had two subsequent one-on-one meetings, as well as other phone calls with the FBI director. That doesn't make it right. But ironically perhaps the FBI’s actions in that first meeting send a signal to the president that that is how their interactions should take place. But the point is, by now he certainly should know better. And over several months’ time he should know better.

CUOMO: Senator Collins, appreciate your take on this situation, and we enjoyed watching your questioning yesterday. It was helpful to the American people.

COLLINS: Thank you very much, Chris.

CUOMO: Be well, senator.