MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Maxine Waters

Interview

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HAYES: The President`s closing message down the stretch has consisted  largely of two things, one a gross mix of racism xenophobia and other kinds  of bigoted incitement, and two an unprecedented level of lying even for  him. According to the Washington Post, Trump has gone from telling an  average of five lives a day in the first nine months of his Presidency to  telling an astonishing 30 lies a day in just the last seven weeks.
While Democrats have focused on health care, good-paying jobs, or to  paraphrase House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, they`ve succeeded in not  taking the bait. Joining me now is Congressman Maxine Waters Democrat from  California. And Congresswoman, I`ve noticed that for all the talk to the  Democrats don`t have a message, there has been a real unified effort not to  play on the President`s turf rhetorically. What do you think of that?

REP. MAXINE WATERS (D), CALIFORNIA: Well, I think that we`ve learned a lot  about this president and the way that he manipulates the press and the way  that he tries to divert our attention from the real issues. And what we  have learned is not to allow him to get away with that. And so I think  we`re being very successful talking about our issues, talking about health  care which is a very important issue in this country, talking about  housing, Medicare, Social Security, talking about the infrastructure and we  are winning because of that.

HAYES: California is -- there are a bunch of competitive races in  California, your congressional -- your sort of state caucus might change  quite a bit. What does it say about the sort of changing nature of your  state that you`ve got these Republican-held districts in a plea deeply  conservative, formerly conservative Orange County that are neck-and-neck?

WATERS: Well, what it says is that this is a Trump party and those  Republicans who resent it have not been able to stand up to him and to  actually get him to change and now it`s impacting them and they`re losing  because of him. He is destroying the Republican Party so it`s all because  of the Trump party that I think we`re winning in these deeply conservative  districts like Orange County where so many of the candidates are coming  from.

HAYES: Nancy Pelosi has talked about a kind of corruption package of  reforms that she wants to introduce should Democrats take the House.  What`s your thinking on that?

WATERS: Well, you know, there`s always talk about you know, cleaning up  you know, politics cleaning up what goes on in the Congress of the United  States. That`s not new. Both sides talked about that all the time because  they know that people do believe that there is corruption, that there is  dishonesty. So it`s a continuation of talking about what do we do to  become better legislators, to become better policymakers? What do we do to  get the confidence of the people back again? What can we do to prove that  we`re there about Public Policy, we`re there about dealing with the issues,  and it`s not just about ourselves and trying to better ourselves because of  the titles that we have.

HAYES: You`ll presumably if Democrats were to take the House, you would be  the chair I believe unless something radical changes of the Finance  Committee, it`s a very powerful position. What do you view as your agenda  should you ascend to that role?

WATERS: Well,. it is the Financial Services Committee, it`s a very  important committee and we have oversight responsibility for all of the  financial institutions in this country. The banks, the big banks, the  small banks, we have the insurance companies, we have all of HUD, we have  the International Monetary Fund, we have to deal with some issues that have  not been dealt with properly for a long time. We`ve got to deal with the  National Flood Insurance Program. We`ve got to deal with the EXIM Bank.  And so it is important committee.
And you know, at the top of my agenda is dealing with the reform of Fannie  and Freddie, and trying to make sure that we do something about the housing  crisis. But, of course, I have to make sure that we never again, to the  best of my ability, fall into what happened to us in 2008 when we had the  exotic loans that were, you know, given to people in this country, many  people lost their homes. But, of course, many of the people who lost their  homes were in communities that were target by some of the biggest banks in  America.

So, we have all of those financial services issues, and there is a lot of  work to do. And I`m hopeful that certainly we will take back the House and  that my colleagues will see fit to support me to chair that committee. I  have the seniority. I have the relationships. I`ve spent a lot of time on  Dodd-Frank reforms and trying to same them. The Consumer Financial  Protection Bureau, all that of work that we have been doing to try to give  consumers some protection.

HAYES: Final question. There is a really fascinating item about the  number of sort of enforcement actions the Trump administration has brought  in the first 20 months versus the last 20 months of Obama. Huge decline in  how many enforcement actions against the big banks and financial services  with this administration. Do you think Wall Street and the big banks are  hoping the Republicans keep control of the House?

WATERS: Well, I have to say that they must be thinking that, because they  have found a lot of support from Republicans for everything that we have  tried to do to bring about some fairness and some justice with these  financial services companies, et cetera, we have been absolutely fought  against by the Republicans. And so they see that the Republicans are  certainly more friendly to them, and certainly more supportive of their  ability to continue the way they have continued historically.

The banks really have controlled the congress of the United States of  America. And many of our colleagues have said, oh, you know, all that`s  complicated. We don`t understand derivatives. We don`t know what they`re  talking about when they talk about Volcker (ph). And so they have gotten  away with, you know, the kind of language that they use, in the way they  produce their products. And so many of our colleagues have just shied away  from that and let them do what they want to do. And so they have enjoyed  being in charge of, you know, all of their issues in the House of  Representatives and in the Senate.

And so I think they are a little bit worried that the Republicans will not  perhaps be in charge.

HAYES: All right. Congresswoman Maxine Waters, many thanks.

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