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

Interview

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HAYES: Caravan. Can I get a caravan question? Here to talk about what  does in fact matter to voters, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of  Connecticut. It is -- it is striking to me that if you look at the ad  data, how much Democrats have prioritized health care and if you look at  the way Republicans are responding from the President on down, how much  they appear to know that this is a bad issue for them right now?

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D), CONNECTICUT: Yes. I hadn`t seen that clip. That  is absolutely hilarious. I`ve been begging for a caravan question because  I don`t want to talk about the fact that I voted to repeal the Affordable  Care Act, I voted to take 30 million people`s health care away, I voted to  strip protections for pre-existing --

HAYES: Let me just -- quickly for the fact here. Just to be clear, the  response was to a question about her staff being on the ACA. I just want  to be scrupulously clear about what the question was.

MURPHY: Right. I think -- but part of this broader pattern to try to make  sure that they are not talking about health care. And listen, it`s pretty  remarkable that from Scott Walker to Rick Scott in Florida, you have lots  of Republicans that are trying to reinvent themselves. Well, their own  attorney generals are in court as we speak trying to rule that it`s  unconstitutional for Congress to protect people with pre-existing  conditions.
Listen, this is still the number one issue out there and I think we have  all recognized that there is a you know, a disconnect right now that`s  happening often between what is dominating the daily news and what  Americans are talking about on the streets. What they are talking about is  that their health care prices are going up, they`re deathly scared that  Republicans are going to take it away, and Mitch McConnell of course, in  the last week or so has given all the evidence we need to understand the  stakes saying that if they win the Senate today are coming right back for  the Affordable Care Act and they`re going to try to fit in some more cuts  to Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid.

So the stakes are really high. Republicans know what they`re trying to  reinvent their records and I don`t think they`re going to get away with it.

HAYES: You know, you mentioned this and it`s striking to me. You have  Scott Walker is governor Wisconsin, Josh Hawley who`s the Attorney General  of Missouri, both running statewide, one for governor and one for Senator.  They`re both part of this suit that would destroy the ACA. Just to be  clear, it would get -- the argument presented in the briefs is that if they  -- if the suit is successful, the whole thing is done, it`s over, and they  could just take the names off it. They actually could make even a big sort  of ceremony and be like hey, this is a big campaign idea. I`ve seen the  like. I`m taking my name off this. But instead, they`re saying they  protect pre-existing conditions while remaining on the lawsuit to destroy  it,

MURPHY: Yes. I mean, it`s really remarkable that they think they can get  away with this. And you know, part of the problem is with all of these  super PACs that can outspend Democrats, they are counting on the fact that  if they have enough ads that say they are actually for pre-existing  conditions no one will notice the fact that they are actually in court as they speak trying to overturn the Affordable Care Act. So it`s absolutely 
stunning but I think voters by and large get this and I think ultimately it`s going to be one of the deciding factors.

HAYES: I think it is a tough sell we should say that how important health  care be voting for Congress, very important according to 71 percent of  people in the -- in the latest Kaiser Family Foundation poll. There`s  another part of this story which is far away from the state of Connecticut  but I thought you might have thoughts on which is about Medicaid expansion  in states like Idaho, Nebraska, Montana, and Utah, Republican, Conservative  red states that all have Medicaid expansion on the ballot this election  which again is one of the radar but speaks to something about what the  desires of electorates are even traditionally conservative ones.

MURPHY: Right. So Medicaid expansion is a fundamentally conservative idea  in the sense that these are states that are sending money to Washington  that are not coming back to their states. So Idaho taxpayers, Texas  taxpayers are sending dollars to Washington that are frankly coming to  states like Connecticut who have expanded Medicaid. And so if you`re a  fiscal conservative, you don`t want to send money away that you`re not  getting back and I think that`s why you were going to see an increasing  number of states step up to the plate and expand Medicaid.

It also just speaks to the tremendous desire, this grassroots consumer  desire for more affordable health care. In Connecticut, last year while  Trump was trying to destroy the exchanges, undermining them, sabotaging  them, we signed up more people for the Affordable Care Act than we did when  Obama was president because the demand is not going away no matter how  intensely Donald Trump tries to destroy the Affordable Care Act, no matter  what the Attorney General`s do in their states.

HAYES: I want to -- I want to pivot to something that just happened a few  hours ago and it has to do with oversight which I think is another big  prong of what a lot of the election is about. Certainly, issues Democrats  have been have foregrounding. Newt Gingrich did an interview the  Washington Post and they were talking about the possibility of the  President`s tax returns being subpoenaed which is something Congress could  do. He said something really striking and I want to play it for you and  get your reaction to it. Take a listen.

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HAYES: We`ll see whether or not the Kavanaugh fight was worth it.

MURPHY: Yes. It`s wonderful when these guys think out loud occasionally.  We all sort of scratched our heads and wondered why Kavanaugh was being  elevated above -- over a bunch of other names that were before President  Trump, especially when Mitch McConnell told him that it probably wasn`t  going to be worth it, especially when all these allegations came out that  would have made it very easy for the president to just pick somebody who  might sail through more easily.

And the guess was it might be because of Judge Kavanaugh`s exceptional  position on executive power. It might be because he knew that Judge  Kavanaugh was his best shot to get around subpoena power from Congress or  ultimately the arm of the law through the Mueller investigation. And you  know, we might now be seeing a window into what the actual rationale was  for the Kavanaugh selection and ability for Donald Trump to try to avoid  the law. There is no question that Congress has the ability to subpoena  those records if we choose. And this preview that the President`s going to  ignore the law and hope that his court saves him is as extraordinary as it  is unsurprising.

HAYES: All right, Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, thank you for your  time.

MURPHY: Yes.

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