MSNBC "The Beat with Ari Melber" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton

Interview

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MELBER:  If there`s one person one person the Nancy Pelosi doesn`t need or want door-knocking for her, it`s Trump.  He won only nine percent of the votes in her district and remains unpopular in virtually every district sending new Democratic members to Congress.  Now, let`s get into it now with someone who knows these issues well.  Democratic Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton of Washington, thanks for joining me.
 
REP. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON (D), WASHINGTON D.C.:  Glad to be with you, Ari.
 
MELBER:  Let`s stipulate when you look at this letter that there`s a lot of people here who are happy with Nancy Pelosi`s record that she drove the Democrats to this historic win but that doesn`t mean she`s the only person who could do this job.  If you`re being real regardless of your support for her, how big of a deal, how big of a sign is it that this many Dems are publicly saying no confidence?
 
NORTON:  Not so big.  Nancy Pelosi is the only Democrat with a track record to be Speaker at this time.  She is the only Democrat who has the experience to dealing with the Republicans in the Senate and there were and Donald Trump.  There is no alternative to her.  And the only question is she going to be the speaker now or is she going to be the speaker later.  I mean, she is the only Democrat with a kind of track record that you could put up if somebody were running against her. 
 
For example, what she did with ObamaCare when even the president faltered, what she did with Wall Street Reform, what she did with those few short years when we were in the majority.  There is no case, isn`t it interesting that no one is making a case against her because there is no case to be made.  So why do we want to start off weak, she won`t be weak because she`s got a win at some point.  Who look weak is the caucus itself when its first item of business is not business but the inevitable woman who`s going to be Speaker.  We act like we don`t know how I govern.  That`s not how to govern. 
 
MELBER:  I feel you.  You make a strong case.  When you use the word only though, you know, that sets people off.  There were folks who said well, Hillary Clinton was the only person whose turn it was to be the Democratic nominee, and then there was a wider race and it turned out that at least I think you would agree whatever one thinks of her and Bernie Sanders, there was a pretty wide race to be had there, and we`ve heard --
 
NORTON:  Please don`t mistake me.  I don`t mean the only one in our caucus, I mean the only one with a track record in our caucus.  If you know -- if you`ve been out of the majority for the longest we`ve been out of the majority, not any old intelligent member is going to be able to step in, take on the Republicans in the Senate, the Republican in the White House, get us started on our own agenda.  Remember the word speaker doesn`t have to do with speaking, it has to do with strategizing, it has to do with knowing the speakers.  I`m not going to put myself in the hands of somebody who simply wants to be speaker. 
 
Look, if you want to be speaker, you`ve got the next several years.  Build off the case to why you ought to be speakers the way Nancy Pelosi build the case. 
 
MELBER:  Let me ask you how it works with these 16 and the letter as you know, it`s 15 people who are definitely going to be in Congress.  There`s one person there who may not win their race.  There`s other people like Miss Fudge and Mr. Lamb who have not joined the letter but it publicly talked about opposing.  The House Leader I should say, Pelosi.  So Congresswoman, what happens though if they get to seventeen and they -- and they have a no vote, and they -- and they block her.  Then do you think other people will come in and emerge these alternatives would then run against her.
 
NORTON:  Well, this is a very important question.  We don`t want to go on that House floor in January without the vote.  It would be humiliating to the Democrats.  And what will happen is you`ll have vote after vote until she finally wins.  By then, you`re already a weekend caucus, you haven`t taken up ObamaCare, one of the things that got the freshmen here in the first place.  You haven`t taken up the notion that is so important to the people that we represent and that is that paychecks are not where they should be.  It`s all been about you, selfishly, about you not about the American people.
 
MELBER:  Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton who knows her way around some of these issues, thanks for joining us today,
 
NORTON:  My pleasure.

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