MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show - Transcript: "Trump inaugural facing federal & state investigations."

Interview

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REID: The first time we saw anything on this scale was the summer of 2009. All over the country, voters descended on town hall meetings hosted by their members of Congress. The Obama administration was on the cusp of passing health care reform and lots of Republican voters spurred on by groups funded by some of the richest people in America organizing under the Tea Party banner turned out to try and stop it by any means necessary, essentially organizing massive resistance against expanding health care. But Tea Partiers flooded congressional town halls in huge numbers, demanding that their members say no to health care reform, which the Republican methods machine dubbed Obamacare. We saw the inverse in the summer of 2017, when Republicans tried taking that very same health care, Obamacare, away. Democratic activists made schedules to show up at town halls organizing through the group Indivisible. They occupied the local offices of their members of Congress to tell them to save Obamacare, which unlike in 2009 had become really popular, as millions of people got access to health coverage in some cases for the first time in years. This kind of ground-level action, this level of organization as a way to talk to lawmakers has become kind of a thing that happens in the month of August. It`s become part of the atmosphere of the House of Representatives August recess. The lawmakers go home to their districts, their month-long break from D.C. is not strictly vacation. They use the time to check in with their constituents. And in the new model for activism, they really do hear from them a lot. The August recess for the full Congress, House and Senate, officially started this week. Lawmakers have already scheduled dozens of town hall meetings all across the country over the next month, and already, there`s a crystal clear message breaking through from the voters who plan to show up. A coalition of four different progressive grassroots organizations are teaming up to pressure members of Congress during the August recess to start impeachment inquiries against the president. They`re calling it impeachment August. And in the tradition of Indivisible, it comes with an instruction manual. Quote: Find a town hall or plan your own district office visit and ask a representative this, will you uphold your oath to support and defend the Constitution and support an impeachment inquiry into crimes committed by Donald Trump? So, keep an eye on these town halls over the next few weeks. I expect some interesting answers to that question. Meanwhile, the number of lawmakers getting on board the impeachment train continues to tick up in the weeks since Robert Mueller`s testimony. Just in the last few days, a handful of House Democrats has said they now support impeachment inquiries. That brings our count here at NBC to 118 House Democrats who support impeachment, plus newly minted House Democrat Justin Amash. One of those new calls for impeachment inquiry comes from Colorado Congressman Jason Crow. Congressman Crow is a freshman member of Congress. His district has been a Republican stronghold for more than a decade until he flipped it blue in 2018. Which means coming out for an impeachment inquiry is kind of a gamble for a Democratic congressman running for re-election in a recently red district. Congressman Crow says, quote: I didn`t run for office because I dislike Donald Trump. I ran because I love our country. It`s that same pride in our democracy and respect for our Constitution that fuels my support for an impeachment inquiry. And joining us now is Democratic Congressman Jason Crow from Colorado. Congressman Crow, thanks so much for being here.

REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): Hi, Joy. Thank you for having me.

REID: And I know there`s a slight delay, just for the audience to know. So there were -- so there was some surprise among members of the media when Justin Amash who also he comes from a Republican district, he still was a Republican at a time, went to a town hall and heard, you know, just an uprising from people in that town hall about Donald Trump and about the things that he is accused of doing. Have you been hearing from your constituents with regard to impeachment thus far?

CROW: Absolutely. I mean, I have heard from my constituents on both sides. I mean, it`s a very deeply rooted issue. People have strong feelings on both sides in a district like mine where we have a lot of unaffiliated voters. You know, you have people from different backgrounds and I`ve had to take that into account in my seven-month process of assessing this issue.

REID: Yes, and I grew up not too far from you. So I know that Colorado can be an interesting state and that it`s you know there are a lot of people who are hunters, there`s a lot of people who sort of lean Republican for a lot of reasons, but they`re environmentalist. People are interesting, right? You don`t have a lot -- you have some hard rights, but, you know, you have a lot of people that are sort of in the middle. When you`re looking at impeachment are you thinking of it from the point of view of the electoral aspect of it or for you is just a purely principled issue that you think that you`ll be able to pull over some of those people who are kind of in the middle Coloradans?

CROW: You know, my life has been defined by the oaths that I`ve taken. I took an oath when I first enlisted in the Army. I took another oath when I became an army officer and then yet another oath about seven months ago when I raised my right hand and joined 116th Congress. And all of those oaths had the same phrase that I swore to defend the Constitution of the United States. And I`ve seen people, I`ve known people who have made great sacrifice to do that. So, for me being where we are now and seeing the actions of this administration, the stonewalling of Congress, I know that that for me and for my district, the next steps are to give Congress all of the tools that it needs to conduct the oversight and to hold this administration accountable.

REID: And if there`s one thing that Donald Trump is alleged to have done that really pushed you over the line, what would it be?

CROW: You know, there have been a number of things, right? You look at all the obstruction elements that have been outlined in the Mueller report, which he again you know underscored last week. You look at the fact that he`s just continuously stonewalled Congress. When I was in Iraq and Afghanistan, I saw in the eyes of those people what it is like to live in a society where there`s no rule of law, you know, where there`s hopelessness and where people know they can`t have justice from their government. And then I fast forwarded from my time in Iraq and Afghanistan to on the campaign trail a couple of years ago, and very early on my time in the campaign trail, I had people that would tell me, you know, you seem like a nice guy, they liked what I had to say, but you know they just were so disenchanted with the system. They said the system was rigged and they`ve had lost hope. And I thought back to that time in Iraq and I started to see the same elements of that hopelessness in our system here at home. So, for me, rule of law and upholding our checks and balances is so important and if this Congress can`t do that, if we can`t uphold our obligation in rule of law in our system, then, you know, I think we have a real problem and that`s what I know we have to do.

REID: Very eloquently said. Congressman Jason Crow, Democrat from Colorado, thanks so much for some of your time tonight. Really appreciate it.

CROW: Thanks for having me on, Joy.

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