MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Mazie Hirono
Interview
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HAYES: Last summer, after House Republican voted overwhelmingly to repeal ObamaCare, the matter went to the Senate where it was narrowly and memorably defeated. And one of the votes in defeating repeal the Affordable Care Act and every single one counted came from Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono who herself had just undergone two operations to combat kidney cancer. Now, only three Republican senators voted to get that bill and yet now the President and other Republicans up and down the ticket across the country claim to be the party helping people with pre- existing health conditions.
Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii joins me now. I had to wonder, I remember watching this unfold. Every vote was going to count. You came back from the midst of cancer treatment to cast that vote and what must it be like for you to watch Republicans attempt to tell people that they are the party that will protect people with pre-existing conditions?
SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D), HAWAII: I think the people of this country will not be fooled by the party that has been for years trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act which of course protects people with pre-existing conditions one out of four in our country. I do not think that the people of our country will believe that the same people who have been trying to do them in on health care have suddenly seen the light and will protect their health care. So let`s get real people. You know, they`re not going to be fooled and they will have a chance in the election to make sure that they - - all of these people who are lying through their teeth will not be elected.
HAYES: What do you say to someone that says well, look, after the kind of campaign they run and what the president said, there`s no way if they got congressional majorities that they would come back and try to repeal ObamaCare again.
HIRONO: Why should we believe that? Will they -- as I said four years they`ve been talking about repealing the Affordable Care Act. And not only that, very recently Mitch McConnell said that thanks to the $1.5 trillion huge tax cut that they gave to the richest people and corporations in our country, they`re now going to have to deal with what they call the reforming Medicare which means cutting Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. So this is where they are, this is where they`re going, this is where they`ve always been.
HAYES: Do you -- you`ve been in politics for a while and there`s a certain amount of massaging of the truth about politics that happens all the time but it`s hard for me to come up with a direct analog for the kind of bald- faced disingenuousness on display here. Is it new to you?
HIRONO: Yes. Well, it`s certainly not new with the Trump Administration and people who enable him.
HAYES: That`s true.
HIRONO: And every day that Trump lies, I mean whopper lies every day.
HAYES: There`s an interesting story from Martha McSally who`s running Senate in Arizona that sort of gives you a sense of where the politics of this issue are right now. She says I`m getting my ass kicked on a vote to repeal ObamaCare. Well, Sean, I did vote to repeal and replace ObamaCare in that House Bill. I`m getting my ass kicked for it right now because it`s being misconstrued by Democrats, she said. They`re trying to you
know, invoke fear and people who have family members or loved ones with pre-existing conditions. Is it being misconstrued by Democrats? Are Democrats being unfair about this?
HIRONO: Of course not. Democrats are telling the truth. And if any misconstruing is going on or outward lies it`s all of the Republicans who are suddenly seeing the light as to how important health care is to everybody. You know, health care is personal to everybody and I certainly know that from my own experience. It`s not just recently because of my diagnosis and I have said that we are all one diagnosis away from a major illness but of course, when I first came here as an immigrant my mother worked in jobs that didn`t provide health care. We couldn`t afford to go to the doctor and we couldn`t afford to have her get sick so I have had an awareness of how importance medical care is since I was a child.
And going forward, you know, with the awareness that people have of my own diagnosis and the battles that I`ve said families face all the time, there are people who come up to me all over the place to share with me their health diagnosis and to ask me how I`m doing. And some of them say you know what, you give me hope as I`m fighting kidney cancer, I`m fighting you know, whatever illness they`re doing. So we`re all in this together.
HAYES: That`s a good message. Senator Mazie Hirono, thank you -- thank you for your time.
HIRONO: Thank you. Aloha.
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