MSNBC "Hardball" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Joaquin Castro

Interview

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MATTHEWS:  I can`t wait to see a 400-page document reduced to 200 or 300 pages of black paper, just big redaction, redaction, redaction.  Anyway, thank so much.  It`s great to have you on, Neil Kinkopf, and as always, Elliot Williams.
 
I`m joined by Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro of Texas who sits on the House Intelligence Committee.  And, I guess, the question goes to you on intelligence because if you can`t nail the President because you can`t indict him or because you don`t think he has committed a criminal act in terms of collusion, the question of counterintelligence just jumps out at me here.  I mean, what are we going to learn in this document about we are already learning from top journalists that it includes a charge that the President was manipulated by Soviet intelligence -- I mean, Russian intelligence?
 
REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO (D-TX):  Yes.  And that`s been one of the things that actually has not gotten enough discussion is the counterintelligence issue here and foreign interference and foreign influence.  And we just saw in the last week or so the story about a Chinese spy going to Mar-a-Lago and basically trying to make her way in and do who knows what.  But with the Russians, it`s the same thing, trying to have influence over the President and his circle, obviously, what they did to interfere with our elections.
 
And so it seems like during this Trump era, countries are making an even bigger effort to have influence over our politics and to manipulate our politicians.
 
MATTHEWS:  Like inviting the son, the Fredo-like son of the President to a meeting to give him dirt on his father`s opponent in a way that a child would accept that.  Anyone else would say, wait a minute, I`m not going in a meeting with the Russians to find dirt on my opponent.  This looks likes like a honey trap or something, right?
 
CASTRO:  Well, that`s the thing, Chris, yes, absolutely, is when are governments think that you are open or susceptible to their invitations to make trade-offs like that, then they`re going to come back and try it again with a wider and wider circle of people.  And it will not just be Russia, it will be China and it will be other countries as well.  And I think that`s what we`re seeing.
 
MATTHEWS:  Well, Attorney General Barr also said he is reviewing the conduct of the investigators particularly when it comes to the counterintelligence probe that the FBI opened in the summer of 2016.
 
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BARR:  I am reviewing the conduct of the investigation and trying to get my arms around all the aspects of the counterintelligence investigation that was conducted during the summer of 2016.
 
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MATTHEWS:  Congressman, what do you make of the Republican effort to try to not white wash the President but to blacken the reputation of those who began it?  It seems like this is a real effort to come back and get even, just going to get fires (ph) and all that this stuff?  Yes.
 
CASTRO:  Right.  I think you take that statement and then you see what Devin Nunes is doing, aggressively going after folks who talked about collusion.  I mean, look, we can`t get to a point where you come after people who do their jobs in the intelligence community and you try to you`re so aggressive that you chill people from investigating anything else.  And it seems to me right now like that is the agenda, at least of Devin Nunes and some other people.
 
MATTHEWS:  Where are you on the dossier and including all its gory details after all these months?  The dossier had -- what worth would you attach to it right now, all this stuff in the dossier?
 
CASTRO:  I mean, it seemed to me based on everything that I heard throughout the investigation that there were some parts of it, I think, that were absolutely relevant.  There were obviously some parts that were not.  And I`m hoping that with the Mueller report, we`ll get a better sense for that.  I think the whole country should be able to make its own judgment about the dossier and everything else.
 
MATTHEWS:  We`ll see.  Thank you, U.S. Congressman Joaquin Castro of Texas, a member of the House Intelligence committee.

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