Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said if President Trump recorded his conversations with former FBI Director James Comey, he should hand them over to Congress.
The New York Democrat made the comments Sunday during an appearance on CNN's State of the Union. Schumer was referring to a tweet from Trump last week where he said that Comey better hope there are no tapes of conversations between the president and Comey before he starts leaking to the press.
It hasn't been determined if the president is recording conversations in the Oval Office, but if that happened, Schumer has a warning.
"If there are tapes, the president should turn them over, immediately, of course. To destroy them would be a violation of law but he should turn them over to Congress and to the investigators. If there are no tapes, he should apologize to both Jim Comey and the American people for misleading."
Schumer continues to press for an independent investigation of any possible meddling by Russia into U.S. politics. He said he's disappointed more Republicans in the Senate are not joining him in the request for a special prosecutor to be appointed.
"There's so much factual fabrication and then backsliding and contradiction... we need our Republican colleagues, not every day, but on the occasions when it's necessary, such as for a special prosecutor, such as what's happened in the last week to speak out, because this is country, this an issue of country, not party."
He was also asked about comments by Senator Mark Warner, ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence committee, who talked about trying to block confirmation of a new FBI director until an independent prosecutor is appointed.
"To have that special prosecutor, people would breath a sigh of relief because then there would be a real independent person overlooking the FBI director. SO I think the two are related, I think Mark Warner's idea is a good idea, and I think it'll get some broad support in our caucus'."
Schumer made his comments to CNN, and also to NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday from WXXI studios in Rochester. The senator was in the region over the weekend, stopping by various commencement ceremonies.
