MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Jeffery Merkley

Interview

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HAYES: All right, Bill Karins, that is an ominous update but thank you for  it. For more on the president`s denial of the deaths in Puerto Rico as  another hurricane approaches, I`m joined by Senator Jeff Merkley, a  Democrat from Oregon. Senator, first I want to get your reaction to what  the President said this morning.

SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D), OREGON: Well, the president seems to live an  alternative reality because if you take a look at what happened in Puerto  Rico, I`m not only -- you know, horrifically you have nearly 3,000 people  die either in the storm or in the -- in the months that followed, plus you  have a situation where so much didn`t get addressed in a timely manner. I  went down nine months after the storm, nine months, and what I found were  thousands of homes covered in blue tarps because they hadn`t been able to  get funds from FEMA to repair their roofs.

What I also saw were whole communities that had not yet been hooked up to  electricity. This is nine months after the storm went through so they  didn`t have power. And then I also saw hospitals that were deeply damaged  and the communities were telling me that if you got sick or injured, you  had to fly to the mainland.

So you can -- you can take that analysis or we  can take FEMA`s analysis. I have the 2017 hurricane season after-action  report and what this says, in summary, was that you had a challenge of  disorganized and plagued with logistical problems. That`s described by the  New York Times summary of this.

HAYES: Let me -- let me ask you this. There -- and I want to ask about  you about FEMA right now as we`re looking at the images of Florence as it  makes its way to the Carolina coast. There were four Americans who lost  their lives in Benghazi, there were ten total investigations into Benghazi  including one of the longest permanent committees or semi-permanent  committees in the -- in the Congress`s history in the last century. There  are nearly 3,000 Puerto Ricans who died, American citizens who died. Since  we started getting those numbers back months ago when the first study came  out estimated at 5,000 this one with 3,000, there have been no  investigations and no hearing. There were early hearings last year but  nothing since we have realized the scope. Is this acceptable?

MERKLEY: It`s just a shameful failure of leadership. Republicans decided  they didn`t want to embarrassing the administration and therefore they  weren`t going to examine the cause of so many people dying. And by not  doing so, it means that they haven`t created the momentum to address those  issues so that when the next storm comes we`ll do far better. We`d like to  hear FEMA saying we know that there were a ton of problems.

We did a  report on it. And therefore we`ve worked with Congress, we`ve got more  resources, we`ve placed things in position in advance, we`ve trained more  people, but instead, we`re just hearing well, the president says we did a  great job last time. And that`s that`s no room for improving on what was  done.

HAYES: Given the fact that you have -- as you have sort of blown the  whistle on $10 million have moved out of FEMA for immigrant detention and  that the head of FEMA now faces an inspector general`s report of a possible  misuse of government funds. Do you have confidence in that crucial agency  as it`s about to be tested?

MERKLEY: I do know that there are thousands of people working for it who  are incredibly dedicated and incredibly skilled. They`re going to be up  through the night day after day working. But in terms of the top  management and certainly the message they`re getting from the president to  improve upon the performance last year, I do not have confidence. I mean,  the destruction we had from Irma, and Maria, and Harvey should have said  well, that destruction is probably going to give us a good sense that these  stronger hurricanes, we need to be prepared for them better next year. And  instead, we haven`t had that leadership to take that forward.

And the idea that in the first month of the hurricane season you`re going  to take $10 million out in order to build prison camps instead of pre- positioning supplies, instead of training more people to evaluate the  damage and get resources to the families quickly who are affected, it just  -- it makes -- it makes little sense. It`s a lack of leadership.

HAYES: All right, Senator Jeff Merkley, thank you for your time tonight.

MERKLEY: You`re welcome.

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