MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Cory Booker

Interview

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MADDOW: His confirmation hearings have been extraordinary in a lot of  ways. Not just because of the loud protesters in the hearing room, dozens  of them arrested thus far, or the united front by Democratic senators  demanding that these hearings should be delayed at least till they can  review Brett Kavanaugh`s very lengthy paper trail, which is being denied to  the community for the most part, let alone to the public.

But also because of Judge Kavanaugh`s unusual record of public statements  about whether a president has to submit to a criminal investigation while  serving as president, given that this president is already tied up in  relation to a number of serious, ongoing criminal investigations. During  these confirmation hearings thus far, these first two days, Judge Kavanaugh  has also stood accused, seriously, of not telling the truth on at least  three substantive matters. The last time he was under oath and before the  Senate being confirmed to a judgeship in 2006.

Joining us now, Senator Cory Booker from the great state of New Jersey.

Senator Booker, I know it has been an incredibly long and intense day.  Thanks for being with us tonight.

BOOKER: It`s good to be with you, Rachel. Thank you.

MADDOW: Can you give us your top line assessment of the status of this  nomination and what you make of Judge Kavanaugh thus far?

BOOKER: Well, at this point, we`re going through hearings on the first  day, he`s managed to try to duck and dodge a lot of the very direct  questions that I think a lot of folks want to know. Where is he going to  be on Roe? He can`t -- he won`t speak directly to those issues even though  Donald Trump said it is a litmus test for who he put onto the court.

When it comes to a president being investigated, especially with the  jeopardy growing around Donald Trump and being in effect an unindicted co- conspirator and the investigation ongoing, refused to talk about recusing  himself when we know he wasn`t in those early lists from the Federalist  Society. He appeared thereafter this investigation began and Donald Trump  picked him because, in my opinion, one of the factors in my opinion was his  views on whether a president had immunity or not in effect.

So, it`s been a frustrating day. What most frustrating is how many of  these e-mails, correspondences and papers they`re hiding. I had a tense  moment with a friend of mine on the other side of the aisle, somebody I  have a lot of respect for, Mike Lee, just about some of these things that  are called committee confidential. You have e-mails like the one I tried  to use that literally labeled racial profiling that has this candidate`s  views there but it`s something that they`ve been trying to shield from the  public.

So, it`s frustrating. But we`re going to press through. We have another  day tomorrow and hopefully to make a really good case to the American  people that should this man become a Supreme Court justice, it`s not just  Roe w. Wade, it`s our health care and access to health care. It`s what`s  going to happen as these issues around the president begin to or continue  to unfold. So many aspects of our lives.

The effect -- it`s a lifetime appointment for years to come. All this is  at stake. And we all need to not just senators, all Americans should be  speaking up about this nomination.

MADDOW: And you referenced that e-mail, that document that you are not  allowed to read from and describe in public that you say is labeled racial  profiling and contains Judge Kavanaugh`s views on that subject. We`ve also  seen pointed reference during the course of the hearings today, a number of  different times to documents, e-mails, communications that some senators  have suggested provide evidence that Judge Kavanaugh wasn`t honest under  oath the last time he testified to the Senate in 2006 when he was first  confirmed.

With all these things being labeled committee confidential with this weird  process where it wasn`t the National Archives, it was a lawyer who is a  friend of Judge Kavanaugh who appears to have decided what he gets handed  over to the committee for review, a lot of people have started to wonder  why Democrats are essentially respecting that designation. These documents  have been labeled committee confidential. You clearly believe that at  least some of the ones you were citing today shouldn`t be kept  confidential. The people should see them.

What would be the consequences if you just decided to read it into the  record?

BOOKER: Well, I pressed that very hard today to the extent that it  definitely caused some conflict, let`s say. I think that`s going to  continue to happen over the hearings tomorrow.

But remember, these committee confidential, of which there are rich nuggets  that reveal his thinking, reveal his honesty about some of these issues,  that`s still only about 7 percent of the total documents we`re asking. Of  the universe of his documents of his career, we`ve only got about 10  percent of those documents.

So, we are actually doing a job interview only knowing about 10 percent of  this candidate`s resume. I wouldn`t hire an intern in my office with only  10 percent of their resume. So, there is so much more the American public  should see about this candidate, should know what their thinking has been,  and should be able to see the public eye before we put him on the highest  court in the land, the backstop for human rights, for access to health  care, for so many of the issues for the rest of his life.

And he is a relatively young man. This could affect America for decades to  come and we do not know what his record is.

MADDOW: Senator, you described Judge Kavanaugh`s record on the issue of  the president`s susceptibility to investigation, the question of  presidential immunity, his discussions on pardons and things as essentially  making him somewhat of an outlier. As you mentioned, he wasn`t on the  earlier lists that the Federalist Society put forth for the president to  choose from for picking his nominees. He does seem to be somewhat unusual  for his views on those presidential immunity and presidential  susceptibility to investigation issues.

Given this op-ed today that was published in "The New York Times", a senior  administration official sounding the alarm on the president`s fitness for  office, do you feel like those issues dovetail at all about whether or not  this changes any of the calculus about whether this president should be  making a nomination, let alone this nomination at this time, particularly  when his own White House is signaling that he may be in the position of 
potentially being removed from office by his own cabinet?

BOOKER: I mean, this has been a stunning two days. In the midst of this  debate, it`s going to affect -- people on both sides of the aisle say it`s  one of the most important things we`re doing, these one-two punches land  where people around this president have been sounding the alarm almost like  a Paul Revere moment coming out and saying such dramatic things.

I said to one of my colleagues today, if we were reading this four years  ago and somebody said it was a novel, we would think this is wild fiction,  that this could never going on. There is nothing normal about this, that  you have people making serious allegations that are close to this president  literally talking about invoking an amendment in the Constitution about  taking a president away from power. This is -- this is a very, very not  strange time, not non-normal time. This is an alarming moment in American  history.

And so, my job, and I`m grateful that I have had some partnerships on the  other side of the aisle, people like Lindsey Graham who stood with me to  introduce and get out of our committee, efforts to protect this  investigation and protect Mueller, I`m hoping we can get a vote on that  floor, we`ve got to really start understanding the constitutional  implications, the crisis that can come to our country if we`re not prepared  to deal with these crises. That brings, as you said, these Supreme Court  deliberations back to the center.

And a president who in the midst of all this crisis, unprecedented, that is  in effect an unindicted conspirator, more and more indictments coming out,  more and more guilty pleas coming out, he is not above the law and he  should not be able to pick his own judge. That is an affront to our ideals  of justice which written on the Supreme Court, equal justice under law.  He`s not above the law.

And so, that`s another reason why we should not be doing this. I think  history will look back at this as a moment where you rushed to try to  support a Supreme Court justice at a time when our country was in crisis.  And the White House now, the three C`s, they are in crisis, they`re in  chaos and they`re now revealing true corruption.

MADDOW: Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey -- Senator, thank you  for talking to us again. I know you have a very long day today and another  one ahead tomorrow. Thanks for being here, sir.

BOOKER: Thank you for having me.

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