MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Mazie Hirono

Interview

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HAYES: Republican Senator Lamar Alexander today making it clear to his  constituents, he wants nothing to do with the president`s government  shutdown. Earlier, the senate had the opportunity to vote on reopening the  government with Democrats asking for unanimous consent to bring up a  package of spending bills, knowing they would pass, but that request was  shot down by Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

For more on where things stand on day 20 of the shutdown, I`m joined by  Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii.

Senator, I want to read you something the senate majority leader had to  say. He says the Democratic leaders who have to find compromise with Trump  and then deliver their colleague`s vote  for that accord. I haven`t been sidelined. There is just no particular  role for me when you  have this setup. Do you think that is true?

SEN. MAZIE HIRONO, (D) HAWAII: That`s one of the lamest excuses I`ve heard  from somebody who has the power to bring the House passed bills to keep  government open and who had no reluctancy to use those powers to force a  vote on eliminating the Affordable Care Act for millions of people or to  change the requirement for how many people it would take to put a Supreme  Court justice on the court starting with with Neil Gorsuch and then  Kavanaugh. He had no problems using his power to prevent Merrick Garland  from being considered, and yet, and yet, he will say I have no power to  bring these bills to the floor. That is so lame and that is the excuse he  gave.

So, we are a separate branch of government. I don`t think I need to remind  Mitch McConnell that the congress is a separate branch of government and  what we should do and what he should do, because there are two people to  stop the shut down right now, one is the president, who is a hostage taker,  having taken 800,000 people hostage, not to mention the thousands and  thousands of contractors. He is a hostage taker. We do not negotiate with  hostage takers.

The other person who can end this shutdown right now is Mitch McConnell,  because he has the power. He won`t do it.

So, everyone should be asking why aren`t you going to use the power that  you had no problems using to force $1.5 trillion tax cut for the richest  people in our country and basically screwing the middle class. Why don`t  you do it? And he says, oh, because the president won`t sign it.

There is thing called overriding of a veto.

So, Chris, I know you have a lot of people who watch your show all over the  country. I would say to every one of your viewers who live in districts  represented by Republican senators, they should call up their senators and  say go and tell Mitch McConnell to do his job, bring these bills on the  floor, because we already in the Senate passed these last year and make  sure that everyone gets paid. He won`t do it.

So it`s very clear to me who can end this shutdown. I do not rely on the  president who is amoral, makes no distinction between right or wrong, nor  does he care. So I`m not going to rely on this guy whose word is no good.  But Mitch McConnell can do something about this.

HAYES: There seems to be, the president has been sort of, you know,  running this up the flag  pole that maybe he`ll declare a national emergency.

HIRONO: Yes.

HAYES: There is reporting indicating they are getting closer to doing  that. It`s very unclear if that`s legal. Here is what they appear to be  looking at. And I want to get your reaction to it. That Fox confirmed the  White House has directed the Army Corps of Engineers to see if they can  divert money to the border wall from disaster funding bill to cover  wildfires in California, hurricanes in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico.  What do you think of that idea?

HIRONO: You know, how much lower can you go? So, it`s bad enough that  he`s preventing 800,000 people from getting their paychecks tomorrow. You  know what, most of us live in a world where we actually need our paychecks,  and now that is bad enough. But now, he wants to take money from victims  of disasters?

See, there seems to be no depth to the cruelty of this president, the  cruelty that he will impose on innocent people so that he can get his  vanity wall. The person who can stop it is Mitch McConnell.

HAYES: Well, what`s the -- I mean, you got Lindsey Graham who basically is  now urging the president to go the emergency route because I think he, like  Lamar Alexander, doesn`t want to deal with it. It`s sort of a strange  situation.

What is your plan? What`s the Democratic Party`s plan if tomorrow the  president says I`m declaring an emergency and we`re going to order them to  build the wall?

HIRONO: The only reason that he`s going to declare an emergency is that  the president figures that since he can`t deal with the issue of the wall  separately, he has to take people hostage is to declare an emergency and  that he thinks is going to get him out of this corner that he`s in.

The rest of us do not have to buy into that. I think we should continue to  focus like a laser beam and there will be legal challenges to him declaring  an emergency and grabbing money from victims of disasters. There will be  challenges. But the rest of us don`t have to wait around for this court  challenge to wind it`s way. We can get Mitch McConnell to bring these  bills to the floor.

And what I don`t get is why more Republicans are not finding their votes  and consciences to  do that. Because we already voted for these bills.

HAYES: You -- I think you sound confident you have the votes, and I think  that Mitch McConnell is confident you would have the votes, which is why  you`re not getting the votes. Senator Mazie…

HIRONO: That is exactly right. You`ve got it.

HAYES: Senator Mazie Hirono, thanks for your time tonight.

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