MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Maxine Waters

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

HAYES: One of the most interesting takeaway from the Cohen testimony is  the daunting awareness that there now seems to be plenty of evidence that  the President committed crimes. And the big question is so what are  Democrats going to do about it which might seem to be an odd way to look at  things but inevitable one nonetheless since the only thing Republicans have  done is to insulate the president from accountability.
Joining me now one of the president`s most outspoken critics, Congressman  Maxine Waters Democrat from California and the Chair of the Financial  Services Committee. Congresswoman, do you feel like you learn new things  at the Cohen testimony? Did you change your mind? Did it intensify your  feelings about things you already thought?

REP. MAXINE WATERS (D-CA), CHAIRWOMAN, FINANCIAL SERVICE COMMITTEE: Well,  as you know, I have been looking at this President before he was  inaugurated and I came out early talking about impeachment because I knew  all about a man of fortune, Flynn and Sater, and all of these people. And  so I`m not really surprised, not a lot of new information, but it`s  information that needs to be investigated, needs to be explored because the  Republicans certainly did not do anything with this information.

And so whether we`re talking about collusion or obstruction of justice,  we`re talking about finances, we`re talking about the foundation, this  really needs to be investigated and explored.

HAYES: Well, is it -- I mean, don`t we already -- I guess my question is,  is there not already evidence that he has -- he has implicated in at least  one criminal conspiracy what has to do with the hush money payments and is  that not in your mind a high crime or misdemeanor?

WATERS: Oh certainly. Absolutely. This president has lied. He said that  you know, he had not -- the President said he has not paid off anybody, but  he certainly has.

HAYES: Let me -- let me ask you this. There`s now a movement among --  you`re in Democratic leadership. Of course, you chair the Finances --  Financial Services Committee. There`s a move among leadership sort of  coordinated move that chair of the Ways and Means Committee is going to  move towards the President`s taxes. That`s something you`ve called for in  the past. Are you happy that seems to be happening?

WATERS: Well, as you know, there`s a coordinated effort between all of us,  the five different committees that we chair. I`m on Financial Services and  of course, we have Judiciary, and we have Oversight and Investigations, and  we have the Ways and Means Committee, and Foreign Affairs Committee. We`re  meeting so that we understand what each other are doing and that we`re not  necessarily bumping into each other. And so we`re coordinating our efforts  and I think it`s a very good thing that we`re doing.

HAYES: Do you -- just to be clear. You favor or endorse them moving  forward to try to acquire the president`s tax returns?

WATERS: Oh absolutely. And that`s in the Ways and Means. And yes,  absolutely. This president has lied about his tax returns. He said that  they were being audited and that -- because of that he could not share  them, but he`s never intended to share his tax returns because he knows  we`re going to find out a lot about him when he does and the lies that he`s  been telling.

And what I really want to know and it may not be in my jurisdiction, but  what I really want to know is whether or not he performed services that he  got paid for and he did not want to pay taxes on him and so he told the  people to put the money into the foundation.

HAYES: Right.

WATERS: I believe there`s a lot of evidence for that. I`ve even gotten  some calls from people who are close to this information who`s sharing it  with me. And it may be information that I give to the Ways and Means  Committee. We`ll see how to work it, but there`s a lot of information  about how this foundation was used or misused.

HAYES: Interesting. The foundation -- I want to ask a few other oversight  questions. You already sent a letter to Mick Mulvaney who of course the  head of OMB, the chief of staff and current chief of staff acting, and was  the head of the CFPB for a short while saying that you may want him to come  before your committee to talk about his tenure there. What do you want to  -- what do you want to learn about what he did there?

WATERS: Well, we know that Mulvaney was sent to the Consumer Financial  Protection Bureau in order to dismantle it. The Republicans hate the  Financial Services Protection Bureau. They hate the bureau and so they  want to get rid of it and they have undermined it in every way that they  possibly can. And so Mulvaney was sent there to do it. And basically, we  want him to come and talk about some of the things that he has done to  undermine the Financial Services Protection Bureau and see what he has to  say.

HAYES: Another area of oversight that you`ve been focused on for quite a  while has to do with Deutsche Bank which is in your portfolio at Financial  Services. There`s also the sort of loan bank lending to Donald Trump after  his multiple bankruptcies. There`s some indication they are cooperating  with your committee now and investigating or with the Democrats more  broadly? What`s going on there?

WATERS: Yes, they are. As you know, we started sending letters to  Deutsche Bank last year and they were not responsive because they did not  feel that we had the authority to demand anything from them, the documents  that we wanted. But now that I`m chairing that committee and the Democrats  are in charge of the House, they have said they will cooperate.

We have people that are going up to New York to sit with these people and  to go over our document requests and we`re going to find out a lot about  Deutsche Bank and that banks relationship to the President. We are very  concerned about money laundering. We know that Deutsche Bank has had a  reputation for money laundering for a long time. And it`s the only bank  that would really deal with the President.

The other bank said hands off, they had enough of him. His bankruptcies,  his suing, you know, even Deutsche Bank. And so Deutsche Bank is you know,  the bank that he has been dealing with and his family have been dealing  with Deutsche Bank. They all I think have loans, big loans from Deutsche  Bank. So we`re really interested in his finances. And they have done  reviews. We want to know what those reviews tell them about what he`s  doing.

HAYES: So you have staffers that are coordinating with I imagine  attorney`s at Deutsche Bank on document production right now.

WATERS: Yes I do.

HAYES: Wow, OK. I think I learned something new there. Congressman  Maxine Waters thank you so much for making the time.

WATERS: Well, thank you so very much.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source