MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Russian Investigations
Interview
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HAYES: We`re going to find out, I mean, ultimately, where all the money went and if the payments -- if it`s confirmed that Michael Cohen got this $400,000, the other payments are millions of dollars still unaccounted for and where they ended ultimately. Jennifer Rubin and Nick Akerman, great to have you both. For more on this pattern of foreign influence in over the President`s associates, I`m joined by Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator, are you confident that American foreign policy isn`t being essentially auctioned off at this point?
SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT), SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: All the indications are in fact that this administration has a for sale sign at the door, not only domestically but also in its foreign policy. And the stakes couldn`t be higher. After all, President Poroshenko is seeking access to the White House through the fixer, through a payment to Michael Cohen because he needs Trump on his side to defend his country literally under the threat of Russian invasion, through their proxy. So his democracy and future are at stake. And he comes to Trump seeking favor and then very, very importantly, drops the official investigation of Paul Manafort and shuts down cooperation by his government with the Special Counsel. So the links go deeper and deeper here. And this whole administration has a culture and a modus operandi of pay to play and influence peddling. The fish rots from the head because Trump himself through his own organization is receiving benefits from foreign governments, the reason that we have sued for violation of the Emoluments Clause and why we`re also seeking a stronger office of government ethics through legislation that we just offered.
HAYES: The President has very much escalated his attacks on the civil servants in the country, the people that are make up much of the government calling them the criminal deep state sort of ominously threatening the people might find themselves criminally prosecuted. What do you make of the President`s rhetoric over the last several days?
BLUMENTHAL: Over the last several days, he has doubled down on seeking to undercut the credibility of law enforcement. That`s really his modus operandi. He is seeking to diminish the credibility of the FBI and the Department of Justice through these allegations of spies and so forth that are the result of his fantasies and imagination more than fact. And the purpose is to essentially create doubt and distraction but also to undercut the credibility of the investigators before they conclude the investigation of him. And the meeting tomorrow is very, very troubling involving these classified documents.
HAYES: Yes, I want to get your response to that. Democrats have asked to be included in that meeting. They will not be included in the meeting. The White House saying that the gang of eight, which is the sort of top intelligence oversight members of Congress will be briefed later but it`s going to be two Republicans in there in that room with Director of National Intelligence and the Head of the FBI and an official of the Justice Department. Is it -- is it legitimate for Democrats to be excluded from that meeting?
BLUMENTHAL: Highly illegitimate and unprecedented for intelligence to be shared on a partisan basis particularly in the midst of a highly charged partisan controversy as is ongoing right now.
HAYES: Let me -- I want to stop you there because you have expressed faith in bipartisan cooperation to protect Robert Mueller and to protect Rod Rosenstein and protect the integrity of the investigation and the basic institutions of independent dispensation of justice in this country. And I wonder if that faith is starting to wane as you watch what members of -- Republican members of Congress are doing?
BLUMENTHAL: My faith certainly has been challenged. But I still have basic hope having talked to many of my colleagues over these last few days that they will come around to the point of view that Rod Rosenstein needs to be protected as much as the Special Counsel.
HAYES: Do you understand -- let me interrupt you. Do you understand why people watching this play out, watching the House Republican Caucus do what it`s doing feel like maybe that faith is not earned?
BLUMENTHAL: I understand totally. And in fact, there are moments of every day, more than a few moments when my own faith wanes. And I fear and it is an existential fear that our democracy is in danger as never before. That our institutions are in peril because the president has shattered all norms, he is operating without the normal rules that guide our democracy in terms of respect for the basic rule of law and justice, and I fully understand why Americans are losing faith in a system that is failing to react as it should. I can only hope that this wishful thinking on the part of my Republican colleagues will wane also.
HAYES: All right, Senator Richard Blumenthal, thank you for your time.
BLUMENTHAL: Thank you.
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