MSNBC "The Beat with Ari Melber" - Transcript: Trump Campaign and Immigration

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

MELBER: Breaking news this hour, NBC News reporting Paul Manafort`s former son-in-law has flipped. He`s cut a secret plea deal with federal investigators which could have implications of both in Paul Manafort`s prosecution and potentially in the Mueller probe. I`m joined by Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro from Texas. He serves on the House Intelligence Committee. Thanks for joining me, a busy news night. Your view of this breaking news and any idea of whether it is connected to the Mueller Probe?

REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO (D-TX), HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: I would suspect that it is. I think most of all, it`s probably for Bob Mueller and his team, a way to put pressure on Paul Manafort to cooperate with them. And that can have a real significance for Donald Trump and his other campaign associates.

MELBER: You`re on the Intelligence Committee, so you know more than most, and you know more than I think sometimes you are allowed to say under those rules. But how do you feel when you -- when you learn this information, that the reporting, starting with the Wall Street Journal, (INAUDIBLE) Jones and NBC confirming alleges a January secret plea deal. So that while everything else have been going on and we`ve been doing all these discussions and reporting and (INAUDIBLE) around the water cooler across the country, that would suggest the whole -- the whole year, Paul Manafort`s son-in-law has been secretly cooperating with somebody.

CASTRO: Well, I mean, personally, it makes me wonder if it`s just coming out now, what he`s been doing for them since January. How much he`s been cooperating and in what ways? And you know, when all of this started, when the investigation started over a year ago now, obviously a year and a half, shortly after that I was asked a question what I thought the eventually outcome of this would be, and I said, I think in March of last year, that I thought that many people would end up going to jail. And we see that there have been 22 indictments, people are on their way to jail now. And my sense is that this will continue, that more folks will be headed to prison.

MELBER: More folks headed to prison. That`s an interesting statement from you, as I mention, on the House Intel Committee. Congressman, while I have you, we don`t want to just talk Russia. A lot of other important things going on including the ongoing debate about immigration. The President making these comments yesterday, referring to animals crossing the border, which today he emphasized was a reference in his mind he says to MS-13 gang members. Take a listen to both of those comments.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

MELBER: Do you accept the White House argument that plenty of politicians talk tough about criminals and gang members, or do you view this as a wider attack on immigrants?

CASTRO: It`s true that politicians talk tough about gang members, but it seems like every time the President talks about immigrants, he basically seems to assume that everybody is part of MS-13. Whenever he talks about immigrants, he always leads with MS-13 as though he`s casting everybody that`s an immigrant as an MS-13 gang member or somehow saying that MS-13 gang members are the embodiment of who immigrants are. And so it was very strange to hear a president of the united states speak in such dehumanizing terms. The other thing, Ari, it`s clear that the Justice Department and this administration are going after people and claiming that people are gang members, simply because they have something like a tattoo on their body, which to them signifies that somehow somebody is automatically a gang member because they`ve got a tattoo. So there`s not only been very disturbing and dehumanizing language that the president has used but very harsh and draconian and cruel policies that he`s pursued.

MELBER: You say dehumanizing, take a listen to something that`s gone viral when we talk about the strings around immigrant communities in this country.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

MELBER: Is this a Trump effect and are you worried about how we relate inside this country with people, that individual referencing whether people speak Spanish which of course is a perfectly legal and fine thing to do in the United States.

CASTRO: I do think that it`s at least partly a Trump effect. He is basically emboldened people to let loose on their prejudices and let those prejudices fly and become very open about that. That`s one video that`s gone viral, but as you know, there have been very -- there have been many others. And so you know, I suspect that when the President continues with this kind of rhetoric, we`re going to see more of this.

MELBER: Congressman Joaquin Castro, thank you for touching on a couple of this important story with me tonight. Up ahead, we`re looking at the dangers for Trump to go well beyond the Mueller probe, including new corruption allegations, a leading voice Zephyr Teachout is here on THE BEAT.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source