MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Rashida Tlaib

Interview

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HAYES: So that exchange happened yesterday at the very end of the Cohen  hearing. And today, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and Congressman Mark  Meadows had a brief conversation on the House floor during some other House  business and that ended with a hug. In the interim, Meadows outburst  prompted some searching through the man`s archives and not one but two  videos surfaced showing Meadows during his first congressional run in 2012  engaging in birtherism.

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HAYES: Not a single racial bone in there.

Joining me now from Detroit, Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of  Michigan, a member of the House Oversight Committee.

Mr. Meadows has spoken about your exchange today on the floor. I wanted to  hear your side of what that exchange was today.

REP. RASHIDA TLAIB, (D) MICHIGAN: Yeah, I was -- I looked up and there he  was, thanking me for being gracious. We had an exchange about what  happened in committee. And we went our separate ways.
It was really, you know, thoughtful of him to come up to me and to thank me  that way. I think some of my colleagues were around were also kind of  watching the exchange, but I did appreciate that he did that.

HAYES: Do you -- are you, do you regret saying what you said yesterday in  the hearing or do you stand by what you said yesterday in the hearing?

TLAIB: Oh, absolutely not. I mean, I really do stand by it. And folks  need to know, I come  from a community that I was raised in, which is the most beautiful blackest  city in the country, and fully around us in what`s happening, I think, in the country right now,  with this sitting president of the United States. Very much, I wanted to  be heard. I wanted to be seen. And for me, at that moment, watching this  young woman stand up behind Congressman Meadows in that way was very  hurtful and it was very disrespectful.

HAYES: Did you -- what is the bigger lesson here? Because I think one of  the things that  happens every day in congress now, the House minority, the Republican  Party, is overwhelmingly white and male. I mean, you know, you really see  it. The majority is a much more diverse coalition of folks from different  ethnic backgrounds, different races. It`s female representation is higher and it kind of seems like we`re watching these sort of two Americas interact tensely with each other in every single committee hearing.

TLAIB: Yeah, I mean, I can tell you, so many of us -- I mean, this is the  most diverse class, the largest class since Watergate, but I think many of  us didn`t run to be the first of anything, many of us, especially the women  of color that are there, really ran because they had a desire to do right  by their communities and their families that they represent. But also, you  know, we didn`t come just to make congress look differently, which I think  is important, but also we, you know, want to speak differently, we want to  feel differently, we want people back home to be able to relate to this  congress, to feel like it is a people`s congress and reflective of who we  are.

HAYES: I thought that moment was an example of that, I have to say. I  mean, if you had not said that -- a lot of people remarked about that, a  lot of people remarked about that moment on social media, a lot of people  we work with remarked about it. Had you not said it, I don`t think it  would have gotten said in that room, so that was -- it was a striking  moment for that reason.

Did you -- I want to pivot to the substance, because you were in that  committee to talk to Michael Cohen and hear his testimony. Did you find  him credible, did you feel like learned new things yesterday?

TLAIB: You know what I did find is -- I mean, this is a man that  represented and was a  personal lawyer for the sitting president of the United States for 10  years, but all of his criminal acts, his lies, all of it is related,  interconnected, to the president of the United States, the man that sits in  the Oval Office right now.

And so much of these criminal schemes continued on into the 2017 year, not  only from the money he paid back, the bribery he paid back to Mr. Cohen but  also this constant just a reflection of  what he is as a president, I mean from the fact that he used fraudulent  schemes, the fact that he`s lied in the past. All of the different  terminologies that I think Mr. Cohen presented to all of us was very much  eye opening.

But at the same time a lot of us knew this was happening, but I think at a  moment, I remember sitting there and when he was saying that as he was  leaving the Oval Office, Mr. Cohen  looked back and President Trump says to him, you know, you`re getting your  next payment, it just takes a little bit longer because the White House  mailing system. I mean, at that moment, it`s just the gravity of the fact  this is a sitting president of the United States, sending, you know, I  don`t even call it hush money, it`s bribery, to continue that scheme while  he sits in the Oval Office. What else do we not know as an American  people?

HAYES: Well, I guess the question, that example you just bring up, that is  something that`s already been charged and pleaded to as a felony crime in  the Southern District, in the jurisdiction ofthe Southern District. Did you hear anything impeachable yesterday? What has it done to your thinking about impeachment?

TLAIB: From day one, and everyone knows this, from the number of public  statements, but also op-eds I`ve written and statements that I`ve made  publicly throughout my district and even in D.C., I can tell you it is so  much interconnected, but most importantly for me as an attorney, as  somebody that even just took the oath of office and upholding the United  States constitution, it is my duty and responsibility to hold every single  person to the rule of law, to the United States constitution.

And I can tell you, the biggest fear, and what makes many of us upset is  the fact that he hasn`t divested in any of his domestic or international  businesses. Much of the decisions he`s making right now is so much in  conflict in what is the best interest of the American people.

And this is the emolument clause of the United States constitution. This  is in there and it`s very clear, because this is not going to be our last  CEO, folks. I mean, America needs to wake up and understand that if we`re  going to let this president not provide and be transparent about not only  his taxes, but the fact that he hasn`t completely cut ties with the Trump  organization.

We`ve already seen leases that have been entered into between the White  House and the Trump organization. We`ve seen over 1,000 illegal contacts  from Saudi Arabian government to a number of other entities with the Trump  organization. That alone is so dangerous and threatens our democracy in  this country.

HAYES: Illegal contacts? What do you mean by that?

TLAIB: I mean, for instance, the Saudi Arabian government spending $270,000 at the Trump Hotel in D.C. To me, that`s an illegal act. I mean, 

you`re spending…

HAYES: I see. In terms of the emoluments. I got you.

TLAIB: Yes.

HAYES: I wanted to make sure that there wasn`t some huge news story I  missed.

TLAIB: No. I would tell people if there was.

HAYES: Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, thank you so much.

TLAIB: Thank you so much for having me.

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