BLITZER: Let's talk about all the breaking news in this Russia investigation. Joining us now Republican congressman Ted Yoho, he's a member of the foreign affairs committee. Congressman, thanks for joining us.

YOHO: Thanks for having me on, Wolf. Look forward to talking to you.

BLITZER: Thank you. Do you believe it was appropriate for Donald Trump, Jr. to take a meeting with a Russian national who promised to provide damaging information to him and his associates involving Hillary Clinton?

YOHO: Do I think it's appropriate. I think I probably would have done the same thing. I mean, it's opposition research. Anybody that's been in an election, you're always looking to get the upper hand. You know, keep in mind she wasn't an official for the Russian government the way understand it. She's a lawyer, Russian lawyer. If somebody comes to us and says, hey, we've got information on an opponent, yeah, I think that's an appropriate thing to do.

BLITZER: But she was apparently well known as somebody who had direct connections to the Kremlin. This is not only a presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, but a former secretary of state. There are some Republicans, I should point out, who have suggested that if someone like that, a foreign national came to an American with obviously close contacts to the soon to be Republican presidential nominee, that that person should have contacted the FBI about that information. Do you think that was necessary?

YOHO: I think probably going forward that may be what happens, especially in this case where Donald Trump's the president now. But going back, you have to put yourself back at that time frame. At that time frame, I think it's perfectly appropriate for what he did.

BLITZER: In other words, accepting the meeting and just listening, bringing Paul Manafort, the campaign chairman, Jared Kushner, the senior advisor, the president's son-in-law, into a meeting like that, hoping that they would get, quote, dirt on Hillary Clinton?

YOHO: I think that was probably the premise for that meeting. But as Donald, Jr. says, the information that they got, they saw right away that it wasn't leading where they wanted to. He was there to talk more about adoptions and things like that. And then it broke away from that. And, so, you know, I don't want to fault them for what they did. I think I would have done probably the same thing under the same circumstances.

BLITZER: A lot of, including Republicans, are suggesting it was not appropriate. Forget about what emerged from the meeting in a statement on Sunday. He said, I was told that this lawyer might have information helpful to the campaign. I was not told her name prior to the meeting. I guess the fundamental -- would you go to a meeting with someone, some Russian lawyer, not even knowing this person's name, who this person was, just expecting to get some, quote, dirt about Hillary Clinton? Would that be appropriate? Wouldn't you do some serious vetting before you sit down with someone like that?

YOHO: You know, I look back over my own career. We have sat down with some meetings I kind of wished I would have done more vetting. In the future, and we have, and it's a learning process. Again, I don't think it was inappropriate for what he did. If you've got information about an opponent running against you, wouldn't you want that information to vet it, to see if it's real information? And to use it accordingly? You can't do that if you don't have the initial meeting. So, again, I think what he did for the moment he did it at that time was appropriate.