MSNBC "Hardball with Chris Matthews" - Transcript "Robert Mueller testifies."

Interview

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MATTHEWS: I`m joined right now by U.S. Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney of New York State, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, and Congresswoman Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, a member of the House Judiciary Committee. Thank you both for joining us. You`re on that busy carter (ph) again, but let`s get to the question. The President since March when William Barr put out his distorted notion of what the findings were of the Special Counsel, the President has been bragging that he was exonerated by Special Counsel Mueller`s investigation. What was the truth that came out today, Congressman Maloney?

REP. SEAN PATRICK MALONEY (D-NY): Well, I`m reminded of the old saying that a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth gets its shoes on. And I think what you saw today is the truth is getting in the game, that the Attorney General went out and just flat-out misrepresented what the report said. The President has been lying about it all along. Today was the beginning of a serious effort to get the truth to the American people.

MATTHEWS: Congresswoman, the same question to you, because it seems to me that the President was successful in lying. It is a direct lie. He was not exonerated. The committee counsel made that clear today many, many times. In fact, he is vulnerable for criminal prosecution the second he leaves office.

REP. MADELEINE DEAN (D-PA): Well -- and you actually are getting to an area that I actually focused on in my questions with Mueller, the role of Attorney General Barr in creating public confusion around what the findings were of this report. The Special Counsel wrote to the Attorney General and said, there is now public confusion as a result of his characterization of the report, which gave cover to this president to go on over and over again to say no collusion, no obstruction. Guess what Mueller said today? Neither of those things was the case. In fact, in volume one, we see sweeping wrongdoing by Russia that continues to this day. We see incredible collaboration, not criminal according to Mueller, by the Trump campaign, more than 100 contacts with Russia and not a call to law enforcement, and then ten instances of obstruction of justice by this president, and he couldn`t charge simply because of the Justice Department ruling that you cannot charge a sitting president.

MATTHEWS: For which the President, according to Robert Mueller, now faces if he leaves office tomorrow morning, criminal action against him. Anyway, under questioning from Congresswoman Val Demings of Florida, I believe, Mueller acknowledged that the evidence he gathered contradicted the President`s written testimony, which was not always truthful. Here it goes.

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REP. VAL DEMINGS (D-FL): In fact, there were many questions that you asked the President that he simply didn`t answer, isn`t that correct?

MUELLER: True.

DEMINGS: And there were many answers that contradicted other evidence you had gathered during the investigation. Isn`t that correct, Director Mueller?

MUELLER: Yes.

DEMINGS: Director Mueller, isn`t it fair to say that the President`s written answers were not only inadequate and incomplete because he didn`t answer many of your questions, but where he did his answers showed he wasn`t always being truthful?

MUELLER: There -- I would say, generally.

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MATTHEWS: He is careful there, of course, Congressman. It looks like he is getting to the point there of saying the President perjured himself.

MALONEY: Well, let`s remember, there was no in-person sworn testimony by the President. And I asked him why. And I think the interesting explanation is that Director Mueller actually thought he had laid out substantial evidence, sufficient evidence in the report to divine the intent and to assess the Presidents culpability in that area. By the way, that`s the most he can do under the DOJ guidelines around prosecution and around accusing without charging. And so the fact is that he ran right up to the line there, I think, of saying, we didn`t even interview the President because we had enough and it`s in the report.

MATTHEWS: Congresswoman, good ahead.

DEAN: More than that, yes, take a look at what both the President and Attorney General Barr claimed, full cooperation by this White House, full cooperation by this president. But he refused to come in, and then he testified so many times in his written words he didn`t remember, he didn`t know, and contradictory things. This is not a transparent, accountable White House. What we have seen today is the lawlessness, the corruption that has permeated both the campaign and this administration.

MATTHEWS: Amazing testimony today. Thank you so much, Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney of New York State and Congresswoman Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania.

DEAN: Thank you.

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