MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Jeff Merkley
Interview
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HAYES: All right, Jeffrey Harris, thank you very much. I really appreciate hearing from you tonight. For more on the showdown between the President and Congress, I`m joined by Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat from Oregon. The -- it`s a weird time because we feel like we`re in a crisis though it`s sort of slow motion and it lacks any kind of specific moment you can point to.
So as a member of the United States Congress and the U.S. Senate charged with a constitutional duty to protect and defend the Constitution, how do you understand today?
SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D-OR): Well, I can tell you that the weight of evidence is growing for the House to take decisive action. I have here the letter you`ve been talking about, the statement by the former federal prosecutors. I encourage everybody to read this.
It lays out the witness tampering and -- from the viewpoint of a federal prosecutor. It shows the witness tampering and the false evidence and the effort to fire the head of the operation, Mueller, the effort to constrain the investigation so that the president was outside the scope of the effort.
All of this is classic, classic obstruction of justice, not in my evaluation, I`m not a lawyer, but in the eyes of hundreds, as you said over 800 now former federal prosecutors who said the individual, that is the president, would have been indicted but for the opinion of the White House Counsel that you can`t do so.
This is very serious stuff. And I think what`s happening now with the president saying I`m not going to allow my folks to testify before Congress, I`m not going to send the information whether it`s on children on the border, or it`s related to the Mueller report, this is a complete violation of the checks and balances of our Constitution. So I do believe we have now entered that constitutional crisis.
HAYES: I should just note that was the OLC opinion of the DOJ, not the White House counsel`s office that you`re referring to.
MERKLEY: Yes, thank you.
HAYES: Just to clarify. What do you -- what do you say -- I want you to respond to the same argument I made to Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee which is explain to someone why this fight is different, right. There are fights between the branches all the time. Eric Holder was held in the contempt. There were all kinds of battles over all kinds of things when you had a Republican Congress and a Democratic administration. What is different to your mind?
MERKLEY: Well, in the previous case, it was a single issue. It was a case where lots of evidence was provided to Congress, where lots of negotiations were held to protect sensitive national security information. So it was a deep effort to collaborate and work together to get the information Congress needed.
In this case, it`s an outright obstruction of the ability of Congress to have any oversight of the White House even on issues that are completely separate from the Mueller investigation. So this is a real breakdown in division of three branches of government that provided check on each other.
HAYES: Your colleague Senator Warren took to the floor yesterday after Mitch McConnell`s speech declaring case closed. Although it seemed a little premature since Don Jr. just got subpoenaed before the Senate Intelligence Committee. She says the House should start impeachment. That is her view. She`s on the record saying that. Do you agree with your colleague, Elizabeth Warren?
MERKLEY: I think they should have a committee that does a very intense investigation of these charges. I want them to weigh very carefully the information that`s been provided and analyzed by these hundreds of federal prosecutors. I believe it is substantial. I believe that if a president committed crimes that any other person would be indicted for, then that individual should face an impeachment in the House.
HAYES: All right, Senator Jeff Merkley, thank you for your time tonight.
MERKLEY: Thank you.
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