MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Cory Booker

Interview

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HAYES: No one consulted more widely, more backgrounds, sounds accurate.  It is of course the same humiliating ritual that all of the presidents  underlings had been forced to undergo showering their boss with absurd  superlatives and you have to imagine that Brett Kavanaugh`s apparent  eagerness to play the loyal soldier in front of the nation as we all  watched helped him win over this president. Kavanagh has arguably been  playing that same role for his entire career. He once called the Forrest  Gump of Republican politics by Senator Dick Durbin. He came up as part of  the anti-Clinton machine in the 1990s investigating the death of Vince  Foster and writing much of the infamous Starr report which by the way is a  truly insane document. He went on to get involved in the custody fight  over Elian Gonzalez then later worked on the Republican legal team in Bush  v Gore. And that earned Kavanaugh a plum job in the Bush White House where  according to Karl Rove, he was central to all policy decisions, maybe not  the best thing to brag about. There they are Rove and Kavanaugh on their  way to take a trip on Air Force One. Kavanaugh was rewarded for his  service to George W. Bush in the trenches in Florida and elsewhere by being  nominated for a lifetime appointment to the second highest court in the  nation, the D.C. Circuit. That despite receiving a less than stellar  ratings the American Bar Association and having never tried a single case  to verdict or judgment. He was very young at the time. Later, about ten  years after co-writing the Starr report which examined the President`s sex  life in excruciatingly minor detail listed all the different offenses for  which it could be impeached and ignited a firestorm that crippled the  federal government, Kavanaugh then decided he changed his mind about  presidential investigations arguing they should not be allowed to go  forward while the president remains in office and that Congress should  consider a law that would change it. "We should not burden a sitting  president with civil suits, criminal investigations, or criminal  prosecutions. The president`s job is difficult enough as it is. My bad on  the whole Ken Starr thing. Now you, have to imagine that Kavanaugh`s  flexibility on that particular matter, he was for criminal investigations  and civil pursuits when the president was a Democrat and then against it  once he`d served a Republican that White House was especially appealing to  the current president. I`m joined now by member of the Senate Judiciary  Committee which will hold hearings on Kavanaugh`s nomination Senator Cory  Booker who has already announced his position. Let me start on this -- on  that sort of instantly infamous now Law Review essay in the Minnesota Law  Review from Kavanagh. His defenders say no, no, no, what he`s saying is  that Congress should change the law not that the current law prohibits it.  What`s your response to that?

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D), NEW JERSEY: Well, I mean, look, President Trump  chose the one justice on his list provided for him by the Heritage  Foundation and the Federalist Society who he knew would give him immunity  to any matters that come before them and to me it`s almost outrageous. We  do not have a judicial system in which someone who is a subject of a  criminal investigation can choose the judge that might have to preside over  them. That`s not or our criminal justice system and the president is not  above the law and the absurdity of that, this is not a partisan issue. I think any senator if you pull away from the partisanship and just look at the fact pattern. Here`s an investigation that`s led to 70 plus charges, 20 plus people in organizations being charged, five people have already been indicted and one has already been sentenced. It`s clear to me that this is a point where matters in this case. All these people swirling around the president are being charged pleading guilty and being sentenced, these are -- there are issues within this that can go before the Supreme Court. The President should not choose somebody who has made it clear to the world where he actually stands.

HAYES: Senator Richard Blumenthal I think has discussed with me the -- an  explicit asset this individual should he be confirmed recuse himself from  such matters given the fact that he was being evaluated and presumably  interviewing one on what the president while all this world around him.  What do you think of that?

BOOKER: Well, look, this is a president that Comey said explicitly asked  him for loyalty, asked him to be you know one of his guys. He literally  has said publicly that Jeff Sessions if he knew Jeff Sessions wasn`t going  to be loyal, Jeff Sessions is going to recuse himself he would never  pointed him. So this is somebody consistently asking of people their  loyalty and also this is a guy who saw it in black and white in that 1998  review that he wrote. So this to me is outrage and it`s absurd. They were  even having a discussion right now where the President is about to put  somebody in the position that can indemnify that can give him immunity  against anything that comes up against him. And again, there is a lot  going on here with this investigation. This is something where we`ve had a  bipartisan committee our Intelligence Committee here in the Senate both the  Republican leader of that committee and the Democratic leader committee said yes the Russians have attacked this  country. This prosecution continues to go on as more people are falling  under investigation. A lot more to come out why are we moving forward on  this. And again I agree with Senator Blumenthal. We should all be asking  him during his confirmation hearings will he recuse himself. And any other  answer than yes to me is unacceptable.

HAYES: Do you think he owes the committee a sort of truthful  characterization of the conversations that he had with the president one on  one given what we know about the conversation he had with James Comey?

BOOKER: Absolutely. He should tell exactly what the President or the  President`s representatives has said to him and what he`s talked about.  But again it`s not surprising to me that President Trump would choose  somebody that he has the greatest assurance already before anybody needs to  talk to them that this person is going to play ball, that this person is  going to give him immunity. So all this has got to be thoroughly vetted  and asked about during the confirmation hearing.

HAYES: Final question on tactics here. Senator Schumer, the majority --  Minority Leader basically saying look we`re going to go to the hearings,  we`re going to ask certain questions, you know, we`re going to try to whip  votes. Is there anything above that basically? Are there extraordinary  measures available to members of the United States Senate over and above  that if this is something as sort of cataclysmic as some people are arguing it may be?

BOOKER: Well, I don`t think this is hyperbole. We`ve seen so many matters  on the court turn on a five-to-four decision where we have seen whether  it`s the ability to marry who you want, whether it`s the Affordable Care  Act and someone stopping insurance companies in discriminating against you  because you have a pre-existing condition from diabetes to high blood  pressure. This is not hyperbole. I talked to a young kid 18 years old  today who had a heart condition, went through his insurance tap max in his  first or second year of life, so he`s lifetime caps if the pre-existing  condition ends he said to me I could die. So let`s not let -- allow what  people on the right are saying oh they`re just being hyperbolic. This  person is going to replace that swing justice on the court and we know  where the cases are now going towards the Supreme Court, how he`s going to  decide and how it`s going to affect the health care, the well-being, the  individual rights of folks. And in (INAUDIBLE) tactics, I know that we  have very few procedural levers to us but every major victory that we`ve  had in this Trump administration has come against seemingly insurmountable  odds, like defending the Affordable Care Act. It came because the people  did not surrender to despair. They would not let despair have the last  word. They kept saying we`re going to come at this. We`re going to  protest. We`re going to speak up. We`re going to demonstrate. So if you  are a person that believes in your individual freedoms to control your  body, your right to access to health care, to marry who you love, even  things like net neutrality and keeping your cable bills low, so many of  these things, do not be silent. This is not a time to say hey I hope Chuck  Schumer does something. This is time for every single one of us to get up  and fight for our country that we love and understand that we are a nation.  It is a perpetual testimony to the underdog to overcoming insurmountable  odds. And we`ve done it before with this administration so we need a  course of conviction in this fight. Don`t sit at home, don`t sit on the  couch, don`t get stuck in a state of sedentary agitation when you`re so  upset but you`re not getting up to do something about it. Remember those  ten two letter words. If it is to be, it is up to me. Even one small  voice can be heard in this fight. Join with others and raise those voices  into that course. They ultimately can help us get the power to stop this  and change. I haven`t given up hope, you should not give up hope and hope  is always born from sweat and work. So get out there and join us in this  fight.

HAYES: All right, Senator Cory Booker, thanks for your time tonight. 

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