Colorado’s Morning News, Ken Buck, March 26, 2019
Station: KOA, 850 am
Show: Colorado’s Morning News
Guests: Buck, Ken
Date: March 26, 2019
Topics: Second
CO-HOST APRIL ZESBAUGH: The Mueller report is done, but Republicans and Democrats who saw a summary of it are at odds with the interpretation of what it all means. Republicans say it’s time to move on, while Democrats say they want to read the entire report. Over the next 20 minutes, we’ll talk to both sides. We start with Republican Ken Buck on our live line. Good morning!
BUCK: Good morning.
ZESBAUGH: So, should the public get to see the entire Mueller report? Why or why not?
BUCK: The public should see the entire Mueller report, minus anything that is classified or grand jury. They should see everything that is legally able to be seen. It was just turned over on Friday from the Mueller team, and so I think it is really kind of amazing that the Attorney General’s team was able to go through and summarize in four pages – so the public had some idea of what was going on. But I do think that the public should see. I voted for it on the floor of the House. I do think the public should see things. I don’t think, if there are classified methods or sources in our relationship with Russia – in other words, we should not be divulging the names of spies or the names of how we access Russian information. But everything else, I believe, should be public.
CO-HOST MARTY LENZ: Now, Ken, House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff says there are a lot of questions still left to be answered. Now, do you agree or disagree? And do you have any questions?
BUCK: Well, one question – if we go back to the beginning –. And, first of all, this was an incredibly thorough investigation. There were 40 FBI special agents working on this investigation for over 20 months. There were 19 prosecutors working on this investigation. They reviewed hundreds of thousands of pages of documents. They interviewed hundreds of witnesses. They indicted a number of people. So, the investigation was thorough. The investigation was focused on, “Was there collusion between the President – as a candidate for president – and his campaign and the Russians?” And I think it is just absolutely clear to everybody there was not collusion. The Russians even sent people in to the campaign offering this information, and the campaign rejected them. So, the campaign did the right thing when they were offered illegally obtained information. Now, were there other issues that were raised? There were, but there was nothing that the prosecutor could charge. And we don’t shift the burden of proof in this country. We don’t say that someone is presumed innocent, unless they are running for president. This president – Trump – is presumed innocent. There was no evidence that warranted an indictment, and the special counsel closed the investigation.
ZESBAUGH: What about obstruction? Do you think the summary to the report makes it clear that there was no obstruction of justice? And would you like to see Bill Barr answer questions under oath, I guess – to be subpoenaed by the Judiciary Committee?
BUCK: I’m sure Bill Barr will be subpoenaed by – not just Judiciary, but Intelligence and other committees – and will answer questions about that. But the standard – and I think that what the Attorney General said in the summary, and it’s what the special counsel said also — was that since the President didn’t intend to commit a crime he wasn’t obstructing justice in any way. And I think the obstruction of justice was firing the FBI director. When you look at what happened in the FBI, with the deputy director lying under oath, with the person who was in charge of the Clinton investigation and the Trump investigation having these ridiculous emails and talking about the President in vulgar terms, I think you can see the highest levels of the FBI were out of control, and the President had every right to fire the FBI director.
LENZ: Republican Representative Ken Buck, thank you so much for being with us this morning.
BUCK: Thank you.
