MSNBC "The Beat" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Joaquin Castro

Interview

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VELSHI:  All right.  Joining me now by phone, Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro of Texas.  Congressman Castro is a member of the Intelligence Committee.  Congressman, thank you for joining me.
 
I want to get your reaction now to this "New York Times" reporting that they had an investigation open.  I don`t know what you can tell me.  You and I always struggle with how much you can tell me as a member of the House Intelligence Committee.  But this seems to many people like a major development, that the president might have actually -- or at least the FBI suspected the president might have actually been acting in Russia`s interests.
 
REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO (D-TX), INTEL COMMITTEE (via telephone):  Yes.  Even as somebody who sat through all of those interviews at the House Intelligence Committee as we did our investigation, reading that article was jarring.
 
But it`s also, I think, something, at least just speaking for myself, that I have feared but something as an American, it`s just hard to imagine that, that somebody that runs for president, certainly someone who becomes president could be acting as an agent of an adversarial country, particularly given the history between Russia and the United States, an agent of Russia.
 
But, you know, as the article lays out the facts and as we`ve all seen as Americans, this president has done some very troubling things that give credence to the idea that it`s certainly possible.
 
VELSHI:  As John Harwood said earlier, these things could all be coincidences, all of these things that have been happening in plain sight, but what we don`t know is how deep this investigation has gone, what sort of investigation it was. 
 
We know it was a counterintelligence investigation.  We don`t know -- we know it was handed over to Robert Mueller.  We don`t know where it`s gone from then which obviously makes your work on the House Intel Committee all that much more important now.
 
Now, Democrats control that committee.  When Republicans controlled that committee, no disrespect to the committee intended, it did not do its work in investigating the connection between the Trump administration and the Russians.  What do you do about this information now that you have it?
 
CASTRO:  Well, I mean certainly we`re going to want to call in witnesses who may be able to shed some light on this.  A lot of the folks that we`ve spoken to, you know, we still have some unanswered questions about.  There are basically big gaps in information.
 
There are still very important questions that we have relating to what kind of leverage Russia or Russian oligarchs who are close to Vladimir Putin may have on Donald Trump.  Because the committee under Devin Nunes basically foreclosed any way to subpoena information, either from witnesses or from third parties, travel records, bank records, phone records.
 
Because they didn`t allow us that, it was very hard for our committee to get to the bottom of some of those fundamental questions.  And in this case, the question of leverage, does Russia, does Vladimir Putin have something on Donald Trump that is getting him to basically comply with what Russia wants to see from the United States and see in the world.
 
They want a weaker NATO.  They want the United States to be closer to authoritarian powers rather than democratic countries and longstanding allies.  They wanted the United States to get out of Syria.  And so these are things that we still have a lot of questions out there to get to the bottom of.
 
VELSHI:  Congressman, you and I talked several weeks ago when I asked, look, what happens now?  Democrats take control of Congress.  There are a lot of Americans who just want Congress to get on with the business of America, not seem as dysfunctional as it`s been in the last couple of years.
 
And, of course, now we are on the 21st day of a shutdown.  We are displaying our dysfunction to the world.  That also is something that plays into the hands of American adversaries.  That is a concern that our security and intelligence officials have, that America is looking quite weak in the eyes of the world right now, certainly quite divided.
 
How do you manage the fact that you now have to investigate whether or not a president has betrayed America possibly with the idea that you`ve got to get on with governing this country?
 
CASTRO:  You`re right.  I mean we have to be able to for the sake of the country achieve and accomplish those two things at once.  We`ve got to be able to re-open the government.  You`re right about the fact that Russia generally wants to disrupt American politics but also enjoys seeing an American government that is unsettled the way it is now.
 
But at the same time, we have to be able to investigate whether the president or people close to him.  We know that they had strong connections and there was collusion with Russia, but just how deep that was.  Because if we don`t get to the bottom of that and we don`t do things to stop it, then Russia will continue and get more aggressive and it will invite other countries to do the same thing to our country in the future.
 
VELSHI:  Congressman, thank you for taking the time to join me tonight. 

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