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

Interview

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HAYES:  Chuck Rosenberg and Julie Ainsley, thank you both.  Speaking of Congress, my next guest has access to classified information as a Member of the House Intelligence Committee, Congressman Joaquin Castro, Democrat from Texas.  And I will just follow up with you about the degree of satisfaction you have or where this process stands now with Thursday, the release of the redacted version that Barr has filtered the Mueller report.
 
REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO (D-TX):  Well, I`m glad that we have -- finally have a date.  We know when it`s going to come out.  But look, we need to see all of it.  And I understand they`re going to be redactions that will -- when the report is made available to the public, but Congress needs to be able to see the full thing.
 
Remember, especially those of us on the Intelligence Committee are routinely looking at classified information and oftentimes we`ll have special sessions where all of Congress is invited to come look at classified information.  So there`s no reason that the Special Counsel shouldn`t make this available or I`m sorry, the Attorney General should make it available to all of Congress to see.
 
HAYES:  What -- I want to talk about the first third of this report or at least one part of its portfolio which is just what the Russian efforts were.  You`re on a committee that punitively investigated all that, although there`s a lot of criticism about the nature of that investigation.
 
I guess what are your -- like how curious are you on that part of the report?  Take away the conspiracy with U.S. persons and obstruction, do you feel like you have a full sense of what the Russians were up to and is that something you are looking forward to learning in the report?
 
CASTRO:  Yes.  I mean that is one of the most important pieces of this report because it will tell us basically the methods that they use to try to infiltrate the Trump campaign or influence the Trump campaign.
 
And we know that they`re probably -- in the future are going to be other attempts to do the same thing not just with the Trump campaign but with other political campaigns, and that it won`t just be Russia but that will be other nations especially if other countries feel as though there`s no penalty to interfering with American elections and trying to make inroads with particular campaigns.
 
So the reason that it`s so important we need to devise as a congress the best ways to prevent that from happening.
 
HAYES:  I want to play for you something that your colleague on your committee Devin Nunes who of course is the ranking member, was the chair of that committee had to say about what he sees that the value of the report.  Take a listen.
 
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
 
REP. DEVIN NUNES (R-CA):  I don`t really care what the Mueller report says because the Mueller -- Special Counsel should have never been appointed.  So the Mueller report, you know, a lot of people, oh, what does it say?  You know, we can just you know, burn it up.  I mean, it is a partisan document.
 
(END VIDEO CLIP)
 
HAYES:  What do you think of that?
 
CASTRO:  Well, you know, I hadn`t heard that clip.  That -- it`s just amazing that somebody that was the Chairman of the Intel Committee for a few years basically is completely dismissing a report on Russian interference in our elections and the possibility or the involvement of anybody in the Trump circle.  It`s amazing.
 
HAYES:  What do you think -- what do you see is the sort of willingness for battle on your side in terms of fighting these four categories of redactions and what the sort of processes of thinking about how much and how intensely Chair Schiff and Chair Nadler and others will seek the full underlying body of evidence underneath the report?
 
CASTRO:  Well, many of us have always believed that this is a report that is owed to the American people most of all, before it`s owed to Democrats or Republicans or anyone in Congress.  So I think what you`re going to see is Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler and others fight to make as much of that report available to the public as possible and they`re going to do everything they can to make that happen.
 
HAYES:  Do you have conversations -- I mean -- or do you do you have conversations with Republicans in the House who ostensibly favor transparency as well?  I mean, Devin Nunes himself paired with Adam Schiff to write a letter.  Like is that still the operating conceit of your Republican colleagues in the House that like everything should come out because a lot of other folks seem to have moved away from that in the intervening three and a half weeks?
 
CASTRO:  You`re right.  I mean, my sense is that now that they -- that some people, some Republicans think that the report may have let the President off the hook, it seems like more willing to just kind of put it aside and you know, the words of Devin Nunes consistent with that, and just let bygones be bygones and move on unfortunately.
 
HAYES:  All right, Congressman Joaquin Castro on the House Intelligence Committee, thank you so much for joining me.
 
CASTRO:  Thank you.

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