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

Interview

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HAYES: Now to discuss what if anything Democrats can do to stop the  President I`m joined by Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of  Connecticut, a member of the Judiciary Committee. Is this the flagrant  power play that it appears to be in your mind?

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D), CONNECTICUT: It is a break the glass moment,  an attack on our democracy and it should precipitate exactly the kind of  firestorm that we saw in the wake of the Saturday Night Master under  Richard Nixon. It is in effect a slow-motion Saturday Night Massacre. And  the reason that they are doing it in the slow-motion way is to avoid that  uproar and uprising that I think now my Republican colleagues have an  obligation to show. So first point, he must recuse himself. Whitaker has  not only demonstrated hostility to this investigation, he`s also provided a  roadmap for strangling the funds that are necessary for it.

Ultimately, the Congress has the power of the purge and the Democratic  victories just last night demonstrate that the American public wants checks  on this kind of abuse and overreach. So my Democratic colleagues and I on  the Senate Judiciary Committee and on the House Judiciary Committee should  press for an investigation and for legislation. I`m going to be proposing  legislation that will stop the defunding or cuts and funding for the  Special Counsel and also require a report.

So that all of those thumb drives that were referred to earlier are made  public through a report prepared by the Special Counsel, even better  indictments and charges brought by the Special Counsel which he may be on  the verge of doing.

HAYES: I want to play for you what Chuck Schumer who of course is the  Minority Leader in the Senate had to say on this today. Take a listen.

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HAYES: I just want to say, there are people who are watching that clip and  they are screaming at the television, have you not been paying attention  for the last two years?

BLUMENTHAL: And they are right to be screaming at the television and  they`re right to be screaming at our Republican colleagues. They have a  constitutional duty which they have been avoiding. They have been  succumbing to the apparent political advantage of avoiding this crisis but  there`s a reason that the President waited until after the Midterms to fire  this Attorney General. He knew how deeply unpopular would be.

HAYES: Right.

BLUMENTHAL: And my Republican colleagues have to recognize they are going  down a very, very dangerous path here.

HAYES: What do you mean by that?

BLUMENTHAL: Well, they`re embarked on a policy of undermining the rule of  law, thwarting the will of the American people. The American people want  this investigation to be completed fairly and fully and the Special Counsel  is just finishing a kind of quiet period which everyone expected before the  Midterms. There are reports and reasons to believe that he may be on the verge of indicting some of the President`s closest associates, maybe even members of his family. So those indictments will speak louder than any of 
our words. And I think that the Special Counsel has always been one step ahead of the rest of us. He has prepared for this moment. It is a break the glass moment and I`m hoping that all of my colleagues will rise to the occasion.

HAYES: All right, Senator Richard Blumenthal, thank you for being with me  tonight.

BLUMENTHAL: Thank you.

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