Connecticut representative on ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill’ passing, Russia-Ukraine War and more

(CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Representative Jim Himes (D-CT) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about the House's passage of President Donald Trump's "One Big, Beautiful Bill."

The House-passed budget bill's SALT cap increase "is going to be good" for Connecticut, which has one of the highest state and local tax burdens in the U.S., says Rep. Himes who also says the bill "fails spectacularly" otherwise.

"The American people want basically three things out of their federal budget. Number one…Americans want the wealthiest of Americans to pay more taxes and to give tax relief to the middle class and below. Number two, they want us to address the deficit, which is now spiraling out of control to the point where we got a downgrade in one of the U.S. credit ratings. And third, they want a simpler tax code. This bill fails spectacularly on all three counts," Himes says.

During the interview, Brennan and Himes talked about the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, with Brennan asking Himes, who is a member of the House Intelligence Committee, what "changes need to be made, if anything, to how the U.S. provides support," and Himes said:

"We're at a fork in the road with respect to the Russia-Ukraine war. And you know, Donald Trump and his acolytes in the Congress will go along with one of these two choices: Either we will continue the trajectory that started when the president and the vice president humiliated President Zelenskyy in the Oval Office and paused aid, and Vladimir Putin will learn from that experience that he can count on the U.S. to support his murderous incursions into neighboring countries. Or we can take another path, which I hope the president will take, which is to say, what we need to do right now is generate maximum leverage against Vladimir Putin, and I see the president getting a little frustrated by him, but that maximum leverage comes because we really uptick the sanctions. We stop the export of oil. We pressure India to stop buying Russian oil, and of course, we keep arming the Ukrainians. Again, for this guy who considers himself the master of the deal, maximize the leverage of the West so that we can bring this war not just to a conclusion, but to a fair and just conclusion that will keep the Russians from invading countries in the future."

Later in the interview, Brennan and Himes talked about President Trump's deportations of Venezuelans after he designated the Tren de Aragua (TdA) as a foreign terrorist organization.

Last Sunday, Brennan spoke with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said he rejected the National Intelligence Council's assessment saying the Maduro government does not control the Tda, and says he was in favor of the FBI's finding that "some of the members of the Venezuelan government do influence" them.

This prompted Brennan to ask Himes why does it matter, with Himes explaining:

"It matters because I'll remind you that in the George W. Bush administration, exactly what is happening right now happened. It was a different topic. Right now, despite the conclusions of the intelligence community, the president, the Director of National Intelligence and the secretary of state are saying that Venezuela directs Tren de Aragua. Now they're saying that because they need this no due process mechanism of deporting people, the Alien Enemies Act, which, by the way, the courts are now laughing at. But the reason it matters is because the last time the White House did this, when they were determined that the intelligence community be forced to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which there turned out not to be, 4,400 American servicemen perished in a war that was fought on false pretenses, not to mention, by the way, the many hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who perished in that war, which was a catastrophic strategic mistake driven by the politicization, the notion that George W. Bush had that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. That's why intelligence matters. There's 4,400 families in this country who lost people because the White House decided they would override the conclusion of their $90 billion a year intelligence community. That's what Marco Rubio is doing. That's what the president is doing, and that's what Director [Tulsi] Gabbard are doing when they contradict what their own organization is telling them."

Brennan followed up by asking about Joe Kent, Trump's nominee to run the National Counterterrorism Center, who is, according to Brennan, "under scrutiny because emails show that while acting as chief of staff to DNI Gabbard, he pressed analysts to amend an assessment of links between the government and TdA."

According to redacted emails obtained by CBS News, Kent wrote, "We need to do some rewriting, a little more analysis so this document is not used against the DNI or POTUS," while adding, "we need to...incorporate the FBI's assessment."

This prompted Brennan to ask Himes if he believes Kent was asking for more context, to which Himes immediately said:

"No, he absolutely was not. And I have seen the redacted emails. He was pressuring the National Intelligence Council to alter their conclusions. And look, he gave away the game. You just read the line. He told us why he did that, so that this report would not be used against the president or the Director of National Intelligence. Think about that. The chief of staff of the Office of the Director National Intelligence wasn't saying, we need the very best intelligence here. We need you to go back and make sure you're 100% true. He was saying, we need to make sure that your product is not used to embarrass the president and the Director of National Intelligence. That is the very definition, the very definition, of politicizing intelligence. This is not about embarrassing or not embarrassing anybody. Again, back to those 4,400 dead Americans. So no, Joe Kent must never be confirmed for any Senate confirmed...look, it's all out there for the Senate to see. So no, he may...he must never be confirmed for any Senate confirmed position because of what he did."

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