MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Richard Blumenthal

Interview

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MADDOW: What goes around, comes around. We have never seen a Supreme  Court nominee come out swinging like that against his perceived political  enemies.

We`ve never seen a Supreme Court nominee come out and name his political  enemies, and furthermore warn them, what goes around, comes around. We  certainly haven`t seen someone naming his political enemies and promising  his revenge against them to be followed by that person actually getting  voted on to the court.

So, now, we have new questions. Nobody can force a Supreme Court justice  to recuse from any particular case. I mean, whose going to tell them to do  anything, right? They`re the Supreme Court.

But how does anybody, any American with any connection to what he`s now  named as his political enemies, how do they handle a potential case before  him at the Supreme Court? It`s not like there is an alternate court you  can go to that doesn`t have a justice on it whose declare you`d his enemy,  and that what goes around, comes around.

Here`s another new question. Right now, there are more than 2400 law  professors who have signed their names to a letter arguing that Kavanaugh  shouldn`t be on the Supreme Court because of what he displayed in his  confirmation hearing in terms of his judicial temperament. What will  Justice Kavanaugh do to them the next time they bring their business before  the court? Law professors have business before the court all the time.  Have they just created their own blacklist?

There`s also, of course, Christine Blasey Ford. What will Brett Kavanaugh  do to her if she asks local police to investigate her claim that he  assaulted her? There is no statute of limitations for felonies in  Maryland. What if she decides to file a civil suit against a sitting  Supreme Court justice? What will justice Kavanaugh do? What could he do  given the position to which he`s about to ascend?

And then there is the flip side of this. What happens if Democrats gain  control of one or both houses of Congress and they follow through on their  threats to continue to investigate Kavanaugh, not only for the sexual  assault allegations, but for potential perjury, for potentially having lied  under oath to the Senate during this confirmation process? How would he  deal with that? How would he deal with that kind of -- what did he call  it? Orchestrated political hit once he`s sitting on the court?

Joining us now is Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, a  member of the judiciary committee. Senator Blumenthal, I know this has  been a difficult and intense week.

Thanks for making time to be here.

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Thank you, Rachel.

MADDOW: First, let me just get your response to the state of play right  now and what we`re expecting in terms of that confirmation tomorrow  afternoon.

BLUMENTHAL: I have never been angrier or sadder as a member of the United  States Senate because it is the result of a cover-up, beginning with the  concealment of millions of pages of documents, a sham straitjacketed  investigation, of course, the refusal to give Merrick Garland even a  hearing. And now, a moment of direct threat, that sickening and frighten moment that caused John Paul Stevens, a former justice of the United States Supreme Court to say it was disqualifying.

And as you mentioned, 2,400 lawyers and professors to say that he was  unfit. I`ve been emphasizing this point about temperament, which I do  think is disqualifying. It was unaddressed by Senator Collins this  afternoon. It`s really the elephant in the room, and the prospect of a  Supreme Court justice having in effect an enemies list I think is truly  petrifying for our democracy.

MADDOW: And what`s the remedy? If you are worried that he`s going to  follow through on what he was threatening there, obviously, the judge has  written an op-ed in "The Wall Street Journal" in which he says he regrets  some of the things he said. He didn`t specify what things he said that he  maybe shouldn`t have said. Maybe that threat was one of the things that he  regrets.

Is there any way to try to assuage these concerns or to try to have any  sort of corrective if he chooses to follow through?

BLUMENTHAL: "The Wall Street Journal" op-ed was in effect an attempt to  offer cover for senators like Collins and Flake and Manchin, but here`s the  awful truth, that the testimony he gave before our Senate Judiciary  Committee was not some spontaneous outburst. He had written it, and he  read it word for not some spontaneous outburst. He had written it word for  word and it was calculated and premeditated.

And what we can do now is very limited. First, there is the request for  recusal that can be made by any litigant. But the Supreme Court is not  subject to the same rules that the court of appeals are. So, they have  placed themselves above both the financial rules and other recusal rules.

The prospect of a continuing investigation, I think, is very real because  there are means that we have to expose the truth. I have in court right  now a lawsuit to force disclosure of those millions of pages of documents  that reflect on potential perjury and earlier wrongdoing in his career.  And there`s also an investigation that should be undertaken of the way the  FBI was straitjacketed, very likely by the White House.

MADDOW: NBC News I was struck reporting even reporting this evening that  witnesses, people who say they have corroborating information particularly  around the allegation that Deborah Ramirez made from Judge Kavanaugh`s time  at Yale are still tonight bringing forward new information, still offering  to speak with the Judiciary Committee ahead of tomorrow`s vote, still  offering to speak with the FBI, even without that investigation being open  in an ongoing way.

Witnesses are still coming forward.

BLUMENTHAL: The truth has a funny way of coming out, even in Washington,  D.C. It`s only a matter of time.
And the report, an excellent report relating to Kerry Berchem who sought to  be interviewed by the FBI again and again, and my office, as a matter of  fact, tried to intervene to help her earlier on was never interviewed, just  one of probably of the 40 people who should have been interviewed, who  never were. They have knowledge. That knowledge eventually will find its  way to public disclosure, and I think will lead to continuing questions and  potential investigation of Justice Kavanaugh if he`s confirmed.

MADDOW: Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, member of the Judiciary  Committee -- thank you. Thank you, sir. And good luck over the next 24  hours. Much appreciated.

BLUMENTHAL: Thank you.

MADDOW: All right. We get to interview senators here, which is privilege.  Very rarely get to interview a senator who is plainly livid as Senator  Blumenthal was right there tonight.

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