MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: North Korea

Interview

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HAYES: Donald Trump has looked back weeks into Kim Jong-un`s record and decided he really likes the cut of this dictatorship. It`s not particularly surprising. Trump has praised Kim before and has a well- established affinity for strongmen and human rights of users around the globe. And so after spending some quality time with another brutal despot this morning, the President has returned to America sounding more and more like one himself. Today he declared absurdly that there is no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea and that the true enemy is anyone who would tell you otherwise, namely the institutions which keep the American people informed. Our country`s biggest enemy is the fake news so easily promulgated by fools. Congressman Ted Lieu is a Democratic Representative from California and he joins me now. Congressman, your response to the president`s comments about the folks that are trying to keep Americans informed.

REP. TED LIEU (D), CALIFORNIA: Well, today is Wednesday. That means the President is lying again. Clearly, there`s still nuclear threat from North Korea and the parallels to Watergate are striking because the last President that constantly attacked the free press was Richard Nixon. And what the press is actually doing is simply pointing out the facts about what happened at the summit North Korea which is that not very much. So we`re going to have to wait a while to see if it was a success or a total failure.

HAYES: What -- the phrase enemy of the people, what does that conjure for you?

LIEU: It actually conjures as Richard Nixon and Watergate in my mind because that is the phrase that Richard Nixon also used. But it`s very alarming for the President of United States to attack the First Amendment and a Free Press in this manner. And unfortunately, when you watch Fox primetime news it looks like it`s turned into state T.V. so thank you to MSNBC and other networks for not doing that.

HAYES: Well, you know, there`s another interview out today a largely a friendly interview in which the President sort of says about Kim Jong-un, look, you got to handed the guy. He got the job when he was so young. I mean, it`s hard to be that young and the interviewer says, well, he killed lots of people. He says, well, lots of countries do lots of things. Like he has spent the last two days ceaselessly praising the management style, the leadership abilities, the personality traits and the heart of Kim Jong- un.

LIEU: What Donald Trump is doing is totally bizarre. The leader of North Korea killed a relative with poison, he shot another loyalist with an anti- aircraft gun. He has labor camps. If someone does something wrong in North Korea, they could take three generations of their family and put them in the labor camps. All at the same time with the President now attacking Canada of all places. So what Donald Trump is doing makes no sense and I`m alarmed that more Republicans across the aisle are not speaking out.

HAYES: There`s also this report which I thought was interesting that there`s a Trump appointee who is now looking at the loyalty of federal employees. These are civil servants right, not appointees. Senior advisors of the State Department appointed in just two months ago has been quietly vetting career diplomats, again, career diplomats. These are parts of the civil service and American employees of international institutions to determine whether theyare loyal to President Donald Trump and his political agenda. Is that appropriate?

LIEU: Not only is that not appropriate, that also strikes me as it could be illegal because federal employees only take one oath and that`s an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. And it`s gotten so bad with Trump administration that on the House Judiciary Committee I now will ask witnesses that appear sometimes if they`ve taken a lawyer the oath to this President. That should never be a question that any elected official needs to ask because everyone needs to understand they did not take an oath to an administration or a party or a particular person, it`s all in ode to the Constitution.

HAYES: I`m confused. People -- you ask that because people have taken a loyal -- like an explicit loyalty oath to the President?

LIEU: The public reporting is that some officials have taken loyalty oaths to President Trump or at least he`s demanded a loyalty oath from them.

HAYES: All right, well I would love to see them. I wonder who wrote the loyalty oath. Do you think ultimately that the President -- that the President`s performance in North Korea is going to endure in terms of how he thinks about what happened there and has people on Capitol Hill think about it?

LIEU: I previously served on active duty under U.S. Pacific Command and it`s very clear to me the U.S. has no good military options. So I supported this summit. I support diplomacy. So honestly it`s too way too early to tell if North Korea is going to denuclearize or if they`re going to do the same thing they do with previous administrations and break all their promises. But what we do know is as of today, North Korea has not gotten rid of a single nuke, a single missile or any of their chemical or biological weapons so I have no idea how the President can try to tell the American people that North Korea is no longer a nuclear threat.

HAYES: I don`t think this story can end without Kim playing around at Mar- a-Lago. I think that`s absolutely what happened. Congressman Ted Lieu, thanks for joining us.

LIEU: Thank you.

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