BLITZER: Everybody stand by. I want get some more reaction from Capitol Hill. Right now Democratic Congressman John Garamendi is joining us. So what do you think Congressman? React to the news that the former FBI Director Robert Mueller will now be the Special Counsel in charge of this entire investigation of Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election and related matters. GARAMENDI: It's really very very good news, but frankly it's not the end of the news. There's a whole additional piece of this puzzle that has to be brought into play. The American election for president was meddled by the Russians. They actively engaged. They actively hacked. We need to understand, because we're less than a year away from the next primary elections that are going to affect the nature of American democracy going forward. How can we protect our democracy? That's a different thing. This is a criminal investigation that's underway by the special prosecutor. That's good, but we also have to understand how we protect our democracy, how we protect our elections, and that requires a different investigation. I have little confidence in the House of Representatives process through the Intelligence Committee. Not only does it leak like a sieve, but it has been highly political. We need an independent investigatory body outside [of Congress]. We're trying to move a bill through the Congress right now to do just that. 12 people, three appointed by each of the leaders of the House and the Senate, so that we can then fully explore, not the criminal activity, but fully explore how we protect our democracy from the kind of meddling that we found Russia doing. BLITZER: But you don't think that the oversight committees, the intelligence committees the judiciary committees on the Senate side and the House side can do their responsibility, work in a bipartisan way, and tell the American public what has happened and learn some lessons from this? GARAMENDI: No, I do not believe they can. We're a political body. If you take a look at the last Senate hearing, the Republicans throughout talking about, "It's all about leaks," the Democrats were talking, "Oh, it's all about Russia," and so that was a highly partisan divide and so very very obvious. I don't need to comment on the House except to say it has been totally dysfunctional, highly political. Will it get better? We don't know, but the American public has to understand what happened. The American public needs to have all of this out in the public and open. Now, we understand the criminal investigation is going to be secret, as it should be, and that may go on for some months or even maybe for some years. And the American public is going to be in the dark? I don't want that to happen. I want us to know, as much as we possibly can, how can we protect our democracy? We know that it was seriously jeopardized in this last year's election. Going forward, we know that the Russians continue to do this and quite possibly others. Hacking into the actual voter county systems: how do we protect ourselves in that area? What is going on with this entire array of issues. It's critical. It's our democracy. It is indeed the very future of how we govern our nation. So that's the side that needs to be done in anticipation of the next year's elections, and of course the presidential election coming up in just about three years from now. Or less than that, they're going to be campaigning in two years. So we need to really get at an understanding, not just the criminal, but also all these political issues that have gone on and have so seriously compromised our democracy. BLITZER: I just want to be precise that Congressman, you have high confidence in Robert Mueller that he will do the job, and I assume you're praising the Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for this appointment. GARAMENDI: Thanks for putting those words into my mouth. That's absolutely true. Mueller is highly competent, highly capable. Rosenstein made the right decision. He made it at the right time. Now they're going move on. That's going to be moving on with the criminal investigation. They're going to have a good team. They've got a great leader, and it's going to be independent. That's good. That's exactly what should have happened, and it did. And now we have to look at the rest of the story, which is how do we protect our democracy from influence by Russia or anybody else? BLITZER: When the President says this whole Russia investigation is a hoax or a charade simply designed to help the Democrats to have an excuse why they lost the election, he can't be very happy about Mueller now taking charge. GARAMENDI: Well, he certainly can't be happy, and he can't blame the press. His speech at the Coast Guard graduation was a pretty good example of, "Oh, whoa is me. I'm so picked on." Hey man, you're picked on because you totally screwed up. That's what's happening here. He has made some terrible terrible mistakes and terrible decisions, not the least of which we can say, "There's smoke. No, there's actually a fire going on here." And that's why we now have a special prosecutor, a very competent person, looking at the issues of criminal justice. Good. We also have the issue of how do we protect American democracy? And that's in a different venue. Much of the information will be the same, but it's not a criminal investigation. It is an investigation about how we protect our democracy from influence by other nations, by other people that want to do us harm. BLITZER: Congressman Garamendi, thanks very much for joining us. GARAMENDI: Thank you.