MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Joaquin Castro

Interview

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HAYES: From the -- from the first day a week ago when Donald Trump  declared a national emergency to pay for a border wall and while Mexico was  supposed to pay for, Democrats have vowed to stop him. Today introduced a  resolution to terminate that so-called emergency, Speaker Nancy Pelosi says  the house is going to vote on it on Tuesday.

If it passes, and it will almost certainly will, it goes to the Senate  where by law it must be voted on within 18 days. Texas Democratic  Congressman Joaquin Castro wrote the resolution that would block the  president`s emergency declaration and he joins me now. I read the  resolution. It`s basically a paragraph saying the emergency is withdrawn  fairly straightforward.

REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO (D), TEXAS: Yes, it is, you know. And about six weeks  ago when it started -- the rumor started that the President might call a  national emergency to build his border wall, my staff and I started working  with the legislative council to figure out the most foolproof way that we  could get Congress to take a vote on it and not just the House but get the  Senate to vote.

So this should pass in the House. We have about 228 co-sponsors now, and  then the Senate will have to vote on it. Susan Collins has already said  that she`ll support the resolution so we need about three more Republican  Senators. I believe that we can get them between now and the Senate vote,  and then after that it`s up to the president.

HAYES: Am I correct that you only have one Republican co-sponsor in the  House?

CASTRO: That`s right. So far Justin Amash of Michigan who`s been very  libertarian minded Republican is the only Republican co-sponsor so far even  though, Chris, we tried to make it very bipartisan in how we`ve approached  it. I have said that I believe this is a matter of a constitutional power  grab by the president, yet this president has sought to undermine the  legitimacy of the judiciary and now he`s basically going after Congress.
And I think that if we allow him to do it this time, this will not be the  last time he tries to undermine the Congress and take power from the United  States Congress.

HAYES: What`s striking to me is that you`ve had numerous senators voice  their unease, right, whether they actually end up voting against it or not  is another question, but a bunch of senators voiced their unease. We know  from reporting McConnell and Cornyn tried to get the president not to do  it in the first place, right.

CASTRO: Right.

HAYES: People that…

CASTRO: Yeah, Jon Cornyn said this was a terrible idea, that this was a  terrible idea. So, I wanted to make sure that they have an opportunity to  express that perspective by voting on this resolution in the near future.

HAYES: But it`s striking to me that, you know, the conservative  intelligentsia has said the same thing. This opens the door. It`s  striking to me you`ve got one -- you can find one Republican in the House  of Representatives our of the -- what are there, there`s 200 of them there  now, the one to co-sponsor?

CASTRO: Yeah, well I still have until Tuesday. So, we still have a few  more days.

Look, we`ve been working the phones…

HAYES: Maybe you`re not working hard enough, yeah.

CASTRO: Yeah. It`s tough, as you know. I mean, I think a lot of these  folks, they are just deathly afraid of how Donald Trump commands the base  of the Republican Party. They`re scared of a primary challenge. They`re  scared that he`s going to say something bad about him over Twitter and  they`re going to get a primary opponent.

But this is -- this is a time when they really need to step up and put  fears of losing their own primary -- they need to put that aside and stand  up for the country.

HAYES: I want to play something the president said for you today, because  it`s -- it continues to just tell patent and obvious, easily discreditable  lies about the situation at the border. This is what he had to say today.  Take a listen.

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HAYES: Apprehended more people than we`ve gotten in many, many years.  It`s just not -- here`s the chart. It`s just not true. And this has been  the strategy from the beginning. That`s what apprehensions look like.

CASTRO: Yeah. That`s right. I mean, look, we -- apprehensions are at a  four decades low.
We also have more federal, state and local law enforcement presence at the  border then we`ve had in the nation`s history. We literally have more  manpower there then we`ve ever had in the nation`s history.

What`s going on here for Donald Trump is that Mexico refused to pay for the  wall, congress refused to pay, and now he`s insisting that the American  taxpayers pay for the wall.

HAYES: Are you growing a beard so that people don`t confuse you and your  twin brother Julian Castro who is running for president? I read that  somewhere.

CASTRO: I said that I would try not to look like a certain presidential  candidate. So, I hope you like the beard here.

HAYES: You know, I read -- I think I read into you -- I actually don`t  know to this day whether it was you or Julian I ran into at…

CASTRO: Well, that`s the problem, see.

HAYES: At Beto`s event on election night and had a whole conversation.  Afterwards, I was like, which one -- I don`t know.

CASTRO: That was my brother. He lives in El Paso.

HAYES: We figured that out. I`m glad you`re going with the beard., it`s  helping everyone out here. All right, Congressman Joaquin Castro, thank  you for your time.

CASTRO: Thank you.

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