MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Mazie Hirono

Interview

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HAYES: There is no evidence for that, we should note. Chuck Grassley, Susan Collins, Donald Trump, Joe Manchin all have the same message today.

Either we don`t believe you or we believe you and we don`t care. The midterm elections are now 32 days away and the stakes could not be more crystal clear. With me now Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii a Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, she voted no today. Your reaction, Senator, to what happened tonight.

SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D), HAWAII: Well, I was particularly disappointed with Senator Collins because she is a person who has said that she`s very concerned about women`s reproductive rights and that she cited to a case but she didn`t name where Judge Kavanaugh at bottom said Catholic Church, you folks you know, can deny contraceptive coverage to your employees because it isn`t too much but you don`t have to file a two-page form. And interestingly she did not cite to a much more relevant case in which Judge Kavanaugh was the dissenter. It was just the Garza case wherein he said bottom line, a 17-year-old girl who should have been able to have an abortion. He dissented from that right.

That is a much more relevant case and for any of us at this point to think that any of these nominees who could who come before us and say Roe v Wade a settled law, that is just -- you know, they don`t have to overturn Roe v Wade. States like Texas, Louisiana are very busy adopting all kinds of laws that would limit our ministry to choose and these cases, these laws will be challenged, go up to the Supreme Court and I fully expect Judge Kavanaugh decide with these limiting law. So you don`t have to repeal Roe v Wade. You can pretty much make it a novelty.

So I was very disappointed with Senator Collins but I`m proud of the fact that of my other friends Joe Donnelly and Claire McCaskill, clearly Lisa Murkowski and Heidi Heitkamp voted their conscience and listened to their people into the cries of the women who by the way, to think that George Soros hired thousands of women, my god what is this some kind of a conspiracy dream that they have? Give me a break.

HAYES: Let me ask you this. A few weeks ago, a sort of prominent conservative legal thinker think-tank guy named Ed Whelan had this entire Twitter thread where he appeared to in a wildly defamatory fashion point the finger at another person for the assault that Dr. Ford said she suffered. He then had to take it down, he had to apologize, he was ridiculed, it was embarrassing, it was terrible, everyone agreed that was terrible. Two weeks later, that appears to be the mainstream position of the Republican caucus including Susan Collins and others that someone assaulted Dr. Ford, she just doesn`t correctly remember who it was. Do you think -- what do you think of that?

HIRONO: I think that that is telegraphing to America that the Republicans can`t deal fairly with sexual -- the issue of sexual assault and the survivors and we`re saying, they are saying to Dr. Ford and all those in her shoes of which are thousands that one, we don`t want to hear from you, two if we have to hear from you we`re going to rig it so that there`s no FBI investigation and we`re not going to call any other witnesses. This is what we`re telegraphing, the Republicans are telegraphy and I think it`s a terrible message. And you know, when the President Trump and his son say things such as all the men in this country should be really afraid, this is what men who are threaten say you know, what are they afraid of.

If they treat women with respect, do not sexually harass them, or my goodness engage and sexual assault, they have nothing to worry about because guess what, all you men out there we women don`t sit around try to cook up these kinds of stories about you. This is this is a tremendous fear and mistrust of women that we have to overcome in this country. But sadly that is not what the Senate did, the Senate Republicans did and dealing with Dr. Fords credible reports.

HAYES: Senator Chuck Grassley who`s the Chair of the Committee on which you serve was asked why there weren`t more women on that committee I think particularly for the Republican side. He said the committee has a lot of work. You got to remember, we got an executive meeting every Thursday, maybe they don`t want to do it. Later his spokesperson somewhat frenetically and with great panic tried to walk that back. What do you think of that?

HIRONO: I think that is one of the more ridiculous things that Chuck Grassley has said and it just goes to show, is this where the Republicans are that they think that women can`t to engage in hard work, that we can`t do more than you know, cook and clean and all that? Are you kidding? We, women, have had to do all this stuff for eons and for him to say what he did just goes to show how out of touch and sadly clueless he is.

HAYES: How do you think finally he has conducted this entire affair?

HIRONO: This entire hearing for Judge Kavanaugh has not been normal because for one thing, they`re just rushing this like crazy. They wanted to get him on the court by the October term so that it could be the fifth vote on so many issues that are going to affect all of our lives so that`s that was all a rush job. Two, it`s not normal that we wouldn`t have access to the thousands and thousands of documents that we normally would have access to regarding Judge Kavanaugh. Three, when we had a hearing you know, of a credible report by Dr. Kavanaugh -- Dr. Ford, that not to call any other witnesses, not to have an FBI investigation, nothing normal about how this whole process was handled.

For the life of me, what we are telegraphing something very, very damaging about the Senate, the Judiciary Committee`s operations, and of course should Judge Kavanaugh get on the Supreme Court which is where he`s heading, we`re going to send yet another person with a huge cloud over his head to the Supreme Court. It`s bad enough we send one person like that and I think it affects the credibility of the Supreme Court. And let`s not forget that he just ripped the veil of objectivity by showing us what a partisan operative he`s going to be. He is.

HAYES: Senator Mazie Hirono, thank you for being with me.

HIRONO: Sure.

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