Connecticut congressman on midterm elections and ongoing war with Iran

(CBS, KYMA) - Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about the upcoming midterm elections.

Rep. Himes, according to Brennan, released a statement saying the U.S. intelligence community assessed no adversary had interfered or attempted to interfere with infrastructure or vote counting.

When asked why he thought it was important to release a statement if nothing changed, the congressman said:

"We know that the president, as he careens on and I overheard you talking about the Strait of Hormuz and gasoline prices and everything as the president careens towards, a very substantial loss in the election. We know that he's going to deny its legitimacy. And I say we know it because he always does that when an election goes against him. By the way, he does it when an election doesn't go against him in 2016, of course, he famously claimed to have won the popular vote. So this is coming. This is coming. And the only question is how prepared are we for it? And, you know, we could spend two hours on the various scenarios that Donald Trump is going to do to claim that the election is corrupted. You know, that he's going to say that there's illegal aliens voting in Michigan, in Florida. My little piece of this is and we saw a preview of this in his July speech to the nation. He is, quite possibly going to claim that the Iranians have taken control of the voting machinery in Florida or in North Carolina, or that the Russians or the Chinese. And as the guy who has access to that information, I'm making sure to the extent that I can, that people understand what the history is, and that in real time, I'll have some insight as to whether what the president says in that moment is true."

During the interview, Brennan and Himes talked about President Donald Trump openly speculating that Iran's waiting on a deal until after the midterm election.

This prompted her to ask what he thinks, if anything would change after the November midterm election, that could affect how the executive branch negotiates, to which the congressman said:

"You know, it's funny. I read the transcript of your interview with the president of Iran, and it was a whole lot of words. There were some interesting nuggets in it about, you know, we're not inviting the president to Iran. And no, we're not- there was interesting stuff in there. But make no mistake, right. Two things are true. The president's threat to annihilate Iran is nonsensical. You know, he's been trying that for six months now, and he's not wrong. We sank their navy. We destroyed a lot of their planes. But, you know, the Iranians have for six months sustained the very worst that we in the Israelis can throw at them. You know, unless the president wants to start sort of killing civilians in, in cities, we've shown what we can do when the Iranians have shown that they can sustain that. More interestingly, and you ask about this in the context of the election, look, the Iranians now, in some sense, control what happens on Election Day. Why do I say that? Because if the Iranian regime and this is why they're not negotiating before the election, if the Iranian regime wants to make sure that Mike Lawler loses in New York-17, or that Ashley Hinson is not a senator in the Midwest, they will call their friends the Houthis and say, fire five missiles at five ships, or they'll fire a couple of missiles or drones at ships in the Strait of Hormuz, oil goes up to $120 a barrel. Diesel, already at record highs, goes to $8 a gallon. And guess what? Mike Lawler and Ashley Hinson lose their elections. Right? And so the Iranians are not stupid people. They've been negotiating literally for thousands of years. And they understand that they now have a massive impact on what happens in November, simply because they control the flow of oil and fertilizer and other stuff out of the strait. So do you think they're giving up that position before the election? Of course they're not."

To watch more of Brennan's interview with Himes, click here.