MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Jamie Raskin

Interview

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VELSHI: All right, I want to turn now to Congresswoman Jamie Raskin,  Democrat of Maryland, who is a member of both the House judiciary and  oversight committee. Congressman Raskin, thanks for being with us.
Talk about this Donald Trump refusing to rule out a pardon when asked about  it this morning. What do you make of that?

REP. JAMIE RASKIN, (D) MARYLAND: Well, back when he pardoned Sheriff  Arpaio and Scooter Libby and Dinesh D`Souza, he was clearly sending a  message to the people he stands by his friends, and now again he`s making  positive noises about pardons in order to make certain that Paul Manafort  stays on his side.

I mean, essentially what I read the strategy to be is, well, go through the  trial and see if you can get off, and if you can`t, I will take care of you  later. This is a president who from the firing of James Comey all the way  through the constant denunciation of Attorney General Sessions, Rod  Rosenstein, Mueller, has been doing everything in his power to destroy and  disrupt and derail this investigation.

VELSHI: You heard Daniel Goldman saying that this jury seems to be  diligent. They wouldn`t probably break their rules by listening to  something the president said today. I think it was awfully strange though  that the president decided to opine on what a great guy Paul Manafort was  and what a terrible case this is and how sad and unfair it is during jury  deliberations.

RASKIN: Well, it`s important to remember how extreme and abberrent his  behavior is as president. I mean, it`s very hard to think of another  president who has worked so doggedly to contaminate the jury pool of the  eastern district of Virginia or the District of Columbia, or indeed the  jury pool that is the United States of America. He wakes up thinking about  it. He goes to sleep thinking about it. It`s all he does.

He doesn`t work on infrastructure. He doesn`t work on health care. He`s  not working on any public policy issue of importance to the American  people, he is just focused on this investigation.

And as one of my Republican colleagues, Trey Gowdy, said several months  ago, he is certainly not acting like an innocent man.

VELSHI: Let me ask you about what happens if there is a pardon involved.  You are on the judiciary committee. Is there anything you can do about it?

RASKIN: Well, let`s start with the legal analysis. Some people have said  that the president`s pardon power is completely unlimited in the  constitution. And that is not true. There are very few things in the  constitution that are not limited by other powers that are built into the  constitution. If you take an extreme example, if a president decided to  put pardons up for sale, it may be that the actual pardeons themselves are  unreviewable in court, but they certainly would be reviewable by congress,  that is those could be impeachable events, that is if he takes bribes for  passing out pardons, or if he passes out pardons in order to thwart justice  and intefere with the rule of law, that in itself could constitute an  impeachable event, or it could constitute certainly an event that congress  could look into through the oversight power.

Now, unfortunately because of the GOP`s decision, basically, to disregard  its constitutional duties, we are not using the oversight power of congress to look into each of these sequential events of obstruction of justice that the president has engaged in, but it`s very important at least for us to use our first amendment rights and for the media to surface exactly what`s going on.

VELSHI: If the House flips in 81 days, what is your first priority because  there are a lot of things you are talking about here. What would you do?

RASKIN: Well, we have got a backlog of literally hundreds of requests into  everything from  the abuse of the president`s pardon power to the abuse of the power to give  people access to national security secrets, to obstruction of justice, to  the emolument clause. I mean, it`s -- we are going to have a hell of a  time trying to figure out how to prioritize everything that`s going on.

But we`ve got to do everything in our power to restore the rule of law and  respect to the constitution, the first amendment, the free press and the  rights of the people. I mean, that is what we`ve got to do, that`s what  congress needs to be doing.

The president`s role under our Constitution is not to be a king. The role  of the president is to take care that the laws are faithfully executed.  This president has been taking care that the laws are successfully thwarted  and derailed at every turn, and so we have to do everything for making sure  that they`re not twarting the Affordable Care Act, that people are getting  the health care that they need, that they are not giving the Department of  Education away to private for profit schools in ways that override the due  process rights of students and that override the rules of law. In every  department…

VELSHI: It is an impressive to-do list. You know, it`s kind of  interesting when your to-do list starts off with restore the rule of law  and protect the constitution you know it`s going to be a busy day if that`s  what it starts with.

Congressman, good to see you. Thank you for being with me. Congressman  Jamie Raskin of Maryland.

RASKIN: My pleasure. Thank you very much.

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