MSNBC "The Beat with Ari Melber" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Joaquin Castro
Interview
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MELBER: Betsy, you are laying out some of the key questions as you often do. Everyone stay with me. As promised, I now bring in a current member of Congress, Joaquin Castro from Texas. He serves on the Intelligence Committee which connects with so much of this.
First of all, thanks for joining us on a busy night.
REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO (D-TX), INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: Yes. No, thanks for having me.
MELBER: Second of all, Congressman, before we get to the elections, I know you and your folks have taken some victory laps with a pretty big net gain in the House. When you look at the firing of Jeff Sessions tonight, do you see it as already linked to the Mueller probe inappropriate or is it too early in your view as a sitting member of Congress to determine that?
CASTRO: Well, it certainly looks that way because of how James Comey was handled, McCabe, Rosenstein so far by the president. But it really speaks to the need for the Congress to act in a bipartisan way and actually pass legislation that protects Bob Mueller and protects his investigation.
MELBER: But -- I`m going to cut in because you and I, we`ve talked about this before. That makes a lot of sense. The Republicans have moved further away from that. Lindsey Graham was talking about, it would be bad to fire Sessions. Then as you know, he was supporting it. So if you don`t have that -- and there are no signs, sir, unless you have news to break for us. There are no signs it`s going in that direction.
So what are you going to do? And Jerry Nadler who Betsy mentions and I spoke to last night, he says, "We`ll be issuing subpoenas when warranted." Is this an issue that`s warranted? Are you going to have to bring this new acting attorney general before the House and figure out was he asked for a loyalty oath?
CASTRO: Yes. Well, I think that it would be fair for the House Judiciary Committee to bring the new acting attorney general in front of them regardless. Because every time you get a person in office, that`s what you do is bring them before the committee and basically grill them and ask them questions. So I would expect that that`s going to happen and hopefully, it won`t take a subpoena to get the answers that Jerry needs and the committee needs. But if that`s what it takes, then that`s what it takes.
MELBER: When you look at this in the context of last night, do you think that the president was on his way to doing this regardless? Do you think this relates to his fears about what Mueller may have in store or what you guys may have in store? And how would you ballpark last night`s victory? A ripple of wave, a big wave?
CASTRO: Yes, I think it was a strong victory for Democrats. We took back the House for the first time since waiting in 2016, won a lot of state legislative races and governor`s races. And so I thought that it was a strong night. We saw other states like Texas and Florida get more competitive than they have been in a while. So that was a very promising thing.
With respect to what happens with the Judiciary Committee and with this new acting attorney general, I think that most of all, we`ve got to make sure that we protect that investigation. And Mitt Romney and Lamar Alexander, I believe, have made promising comments today. Now, there is a difference
between Republicans saying something and then actually acting upon it.
MELBER: Right.
CASTRO: But, hopefully, they will actually turn that into legislation with the new blood that`s coming into both the Senate and the House.
MELBER: Congressman Castro, Gene Rossi, Betsy Woodruff, and John Flannery on a big news tonight, thanks to each of you.
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