MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Hakeem Jeffries

Interview

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HAYES: For more on the President and Russia and the rule Congress still  has to play, I`m joined by Democratic Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New  York who was chair of the House Democratic Caucus. First your reaction to  the news the President had yet another undisclosed and it appears  substantive exchange with Vladimir Putin without any American staff  present.

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D), NEW YORK: Well, the more we learn, the more  every single American should be concerned about the relationship between  Donald Trump and Russia and what may have taken place during the 2016  campaign. What is clear to me is that there was definitively a triangular  relationship between the Trump campaign, WikiLeaks, and Russian spies  perhaps facilitated by Roger Stone, one of the President`s best friends.

There`s growing evidence that there was a conspiracy to sell out our  democracy to artificially place Donald Trump in the White House. We`ll  have to allow the Mueller investigation to run its course before we can  determine who exactly is culpable. But the more we learn about the fact  that President Trump continues to play footsie with Vladimir Putin, a sworn  enemy of the United States, the more concerned we should be.

HAYES: There is -- obviously, Michael Cohen was going to come February 7th  before the House Government Oversight Committee. He`s now going to appear  the 8th in closed sessions before House Intelligence.

Shouldn`t there be  open public hearings with him and many others involved in this starting  now?

JEFFRIES: Well, I would agree with that. Let me say two things. First,  we House Democrats will continue to focus on our for the people agenda  where we emphasize kitchen table pocketbook issues like lowering health  care costs, a real infrastructure plan, and cleaning up corruption and the  mess here in Washington D.C.
But second, we do take our Article One constitutional responsibility  seriously as a separate and co-equal branch of government. We don`t work  for Donald Trump. We work for the American people and unlike what has  taken place over the last two years when my colleagues on the other side of  the aisle conducting themselves like wholly owned subsidiaries of the Trump  administration, those days are over. We have a new sheriff in town. Her  name is Nancy Pelosi and we`re going to do legitimate oversight.

HAYES: Right. But legitimate oversight has to be conducted in public  largely. I mean, sunlight is the best disinfectant and I guess my point  is, I know that it`s early and the committees have just been constituted.  There was a hearing today if I`m not mistaken on the first bill HR-1 which  is anti-corruption and sort of pro-democracy a legislative agenda.

All of that has to happen in public though and I think there`s a sense in  which we continue to operate in the black box at a time when there`s a  whole bunch of worrying facts on the public record that people want to get  this at the bottom of.

JEFFRIES: I think you`re going to see active engagement from the House  Judiciary Committee as well as active engagement from the Committee of  Oversight and Government Reform. With respect to the Intel Committee,  however, Chris, I think as you know, much of their work is conducted sort  of behind closed doors because of the sensitivity of the information.

And so that`s the reason I assume that the Michael Cohen hearing on the  other side of Capitol will be taking place. But I don`t believe that we`re  going to give up on making sure that that transparency in terms of what  Cohen has to stay and others have to say are brought to the American  people.

HAYES: In the Senate side, there`s some legislation that is being  introduced to make sure that the -- whatever report is produced by the  Special Counsel would be made public, unclassified version. Is that a  legislative initiative you can imagine happening in the House?

JEFFRIES: Absolutely. I think there`s tremendous support for it. And as  a member of the House Judiciary Committee I can speak confidently and say  that Chairman Jerry Nadler and every single Democratic member of that  committee want to make sure that when the report is issued which as you  know pursuant to law only has to be disclosed to the Department of Justice,  is made available not just to Congress but to the American people. All of  the facts should be known once the Mueller investigation has been  completed.

HAYES: Final question on oversight. It looks like William Barr`s vote is  going to be on -- the committee vote I think February 7th. You have the  current Acting Attorney General Mr. Whitaker before your committee in the  House Judiciary Committee that you serve on the 8th. Are you looking  forward to that?

JEFFRIES: I`m looking forward to that. And I think that we will still  have relevant questions to ask of him. He`s presided over the Department  of Justice now in an interim basis for the last few months and we need to  figure out what he has or has not done to make sure that the Mueller  investigation is unimpeded.

HAYES: Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, thank you making some time tonight.

JEFFRIES: Thanks, Chris.

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