MSNBC "The Beat with Ari Melber" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Richard Blumenthal

Interview

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MOHYELDIN: All right. Strong words there you heard at the very end from  Senator Richard Blumenthal. He joins us live now from Washington.  Senator, good evening to you. Thank you very much for joining us.
BLUMENTHAL: Good evening to you, Ayman.

MOHYELDIN: Let me begin with what you said there at the very end. You  said that everything should be on the table when it comes to Trump  including indictments, what does that mean?

BLUMENTHAL: That means that the president of the United States is  potentially indictable. Right now, he has been named as an unindicted co- conspirator which means that there is credible and significant evidence  against him in connection with the crimes committed by Michael Cohen in  those last two, seven and eight counts.

And make no mistake, if he were anything except president of the United  States, he would be under indictment right now. There is no constitutional  bar to the president of the United States being indicted. There is a  serious legal question about whether it can be done and I would be in favor  of postponing the trial and perhaps current (ph) proceedings until he is  done serving as president. But indictment should be on the table as a  potential remedy. And we need to allow the special counsel to proceed  without political interference or intimidation so that he can follow the  facts and determine whether an indictment is appropriate.

MOHYELDIN: So senator, help me connect the dots now between Michael Cohen  and what happened yesterday in his guilty plea and then the president`s  Supreme Court pick, Brett Kavanaugh, and the hearings. Why are Democrats  drawing a line between those two events?

BLUMENTHAL: The president of the United States now, as an unindicted co- conspirator potentially subject to criminal penalties and proceedings  himself would be appointing a justice who will sit on his own criminal  case. People don`t get to appoint the judges who sit on their cases.

Number two, this president by appointing a supreme court justice for life  highest court in the land will be tainting and staining that court for as  long as Brett Kavanaugh serves on it. And third, Brett Kavanaugh`s own  views of presidential power are extreme. He has said in effect the  president cannot be forced to comply with a subpoena. That is a momentous  and important view of the law. My hope is these bombshell convictions  should shake my Republican colleagues out of their moral stupor?

MOHYELDIN: Are they, senator? I want to get to that point. Are  Republicans expressing the same reservations that you have? Same concerns  that you have that just highlighted? Because the Republicans that weighed  in on this today are saying no. In fact, they are going to go ahead with  Kavanaugh`s hearings on September 4th.

BLUMENTHAL: It should be postponed. But equally important my Republican  colleagues need to stand up and break the purposeful inertia and the moral  stupor that so far they have demonstrated repeatedly and if they fail to  show more backbone and moral fiber, they will be punished this November the  American people in the election to come.

MOHYELDIN: All right. Senator, Richard Blumenthal, we`re going to have  leave on that. I`m sure we`re going to have this conversation going  forward in the days and weeks ahead. Thank you very much senator. We`ll 
be right back.

BLUMENTHAL: Thank you.

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