MSNBC "The Beat with Ari Melber" - Transcript: "Trump caves on census"

Interview

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MELBER: I`m joined now by a U.S. Senator on the Judiciary Committee and a 2020 Presidential candidate, Senator Cory Booker. Thanks for joining me. In that press conference the President and the Attorney General, who you oversee on your Committee, said that today marks a victory for the Trump administration`s position. Is that true?

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No this was a another rank failure of his echoing back to when he set up a commission to study the all the so-called illegal voters - the millions of people who illegally voted in his campaign. This is a pattern of his what he`s attempted to do things, get stopped by the courts, public outcries, even people within his own party. This was a cynical attempt in the start and now he`s still standing in the Rose Garden talking about terrorizing immigrant communities, separating families, tearing away business owners and parents and grandparents.This immigration policy is all about fear. And his attempts to inject fear into our culture, to suppress the count and a constitutionally mandated count in the census, and give himself some kind of political advantage by playing from the same playbook that we`ve seen throughout our history by demagogues. In fact, we had an entire political party that rose up using the same language as this President, but then they were against Irish and Italian immigrants. Then it was a know-nothing party. We are a nation of immigrants. It makes us stronger and there are bipartisan ways we can be dealing with this. Not the kind of cynical failure that we just saw where this President has now finally capitulated not only to public outcry, but even the Supreme Court. That if you read that decision by the Chief Justice, seems like he was calling him out for not telling the truth, which is a shocker.

MELBER: Right. Which - and when the court, as you know I know, I think our viewers come to have come to know, the Supreme Court avoids saying that if it can. It does not just blast government officials as liars if they can find out what they call a more benign reading. And yet as you say, I think, that the ruling showed they just said, yes, they said it was contrived. They said it wasn`t a true rationale. And that brings us I guess to the credibility of Mr. Barr who you`ve tangled with here. He was today on a census question. He also, according to The New York Times, has been trying to intercede and prevent Bob Mueller staff from talking even in private sessions to congressional committees, which is relevant to you, as Mueller prepares to testify next week. WHAT is your view of Mr. Barr, of the contempt vote against him, and of what people should actually expect from a hearing that many experts in our own review suggests could be quite dry because of the nature of Bob Mueller`s approach to the job.

BOOKER: You know, someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. This is a guy that has been taking one of the most important law enforcement positions in the entire planet and has shown himself not to be an independent office, but more like Donald Trump`s personal lawyer. And seems to be engaging in practices, now on a consistent basis, that are more about trying to protect a President who seriously need some legal help and legal because of the things he`s done, the misconduct he`s engaged in. And so I am so frustrated, I voted obviously against Barr. But he`s gone so far beyond what I could have imagined someone would do, bending over backwards to be a personal lawyer to a President, as opposed to honoring the sacred and critical role he plays, as he should be playing, as an independent legal actor in our nation.

MELBER: And do you look at the Mueller hearing as a wrap-up of the Mueller report and then people move on or as a beginning of a question of whether impeachment hearings should proceed?

BOOKER: Look, you know, that I`m on the Judiciary Committee and we just got last week and I went down and read some of the unredacted reports. But then I went back and reread it in sections in total. I really hope that Americans go and read this report. It is, as it stands, even with the redactions, it is a deep implication. And Mueller clearly says there are about 10 things that point to misconduct. Here`s someone who has instructed people to lie, instructed people to change documents, had people on his campaign team cooperating with foreign adversaries. I mean, there is just so much there. And now he is - instead of acting like the leader of the free world, he`s acting like an authoritarian leader by denying Congress what their constitutional duty is, which is to pry, checks and balances to the administration, to provide administrative oversight. So this is one of those times I`ve said very clearly. I was not a quick person towards beginning impeachment proceedings. But seeing what I`m seeing right now, that Congress is being stymied by this President, and when there`s real clear evidence that anybody reads the plain black and white other of the Mueller report that there is clear evidence of misconduct there. This is unacceptable what`s going on right now. The Congress should be able to continue its work and it`s a shame that we`re now seeing this, not only having to go into the courts, but potentially being stymied by a President that seems to happy without remorse in his willingness to subvert the Constitution.

MELBER: Strong words. A lot of breaking news on our end. I know a lot going on in your world out on the campaign trail. Senator Cory Booker thanks for making some time for us.

BOOKER: Thank you very much. Appreciate you.

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