MSNBC "All In with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: "Mueller warns about future attacks."

Interview

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HAYES: Despite that warning, only hours later, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican, blocked not one but two election security measures saying that Democrats were just trying to give themselves a political advantage which itself is interesting. The Democrats are trying to give themselves a political advantage by preventing foreign actors from penetrating the election. Now today, the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee, Republican-led, just dropped the first volume of its findings on Russia`s 2016 election interference. And I got to say, the report is heavily redacted which makes it a little hard to read, but it contains some really shocking, kind of heart-stopping revelations. Including this, the Russians targeted voting systems in all 50 states, every single one. But perhaps the most chilling line is about Russia`s access to Illinois`s election system. "Russian cyber actors were in a position to delete or change voter data." Now, we`ve had press reports indicating that was true but this is the official Senate Intelligence Committee run by a Republican saying the Russians were in a U.S. voter system in one of the largest states and could change data. That`s the nightmare scenario. That`s it. It already happened. There`s no evidence they changed vote tallies but think for a second of the specter of that right now. Joining me now Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut. He`s a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Am I -- am I freaking out unnecessarily or is this an extremely big deal?

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): Yes, freak out, Chris, and help the American public realize how disastrous this could be if we don`t respond in the way that we should. The idea that the Russians had the ability to go in and delete people`s names to mess around with voter files is absolutely chilling. And what we know is that they have developed new capabilities since 2016 such that they are clearly in a position to try to do this again. And as you mentioned, what is I think most disturbing is that Republicans seem to recognize the electoral advantage that comes to them in a Russian government that may once again try to elect Donald Trump and other Republicans and seem to be admitting that on the floor of the Senate blocking our attempts to try to make sure that Russia doesn`t get into these systems. Now, we are in a better position than we were in 2016. There`s no doubt there`s a lot of good civil servants working in this administration who are trying to keep the Russians out. But when they don`t have the resources to do the job because McConnell is blocking it in the Senate, it leaves us vulnerable.

HAYES: Here`s one of the sort of parts of the nightmare scenario and responding to the idea that we actually have hardened and we have improved. You know, if I -- if I think about an election that comes down to one state, say Wisconsin by a thousand vote margin, and there`s an automatic recount and we`re in a post-election day battle over legal things, and then it just the Russians just leaked like oh by the way, we were in that system. Now, it might be true, it might be not, but all of a sudden there`s like an irresolvable legitimacy black hole that we`ve all been sucked into.

MURPHY: Well, and remember, that is the Russian endgame, right?

HAYES: Yes.

MURPHY: The Russian endgame is to destroy legitimacy in democracies. And you do that you know, in a number of different ways most often not by just electing candidates that favor your positions, but by making everyone believe that the whole system is corrupt, rigged, unworkable. And so of course, just the hint of impropriety, the idea that the results that are shown on election night are not actually the right results, seek to get to Russia`s end.

HAYES: I want to talk about something the White House did very quietly yesterday as Robert Mueller was testifying which was they issued a veto. They vetoed bipartisan legislation in both houses to block an arms sale the neighborhood of a billion dollars to both the Saudis and the UAE largely for the Saudis to continue prosecuting a war against Yemen that has resulted in what many call the worst humanitarian disaster in the world, tens of thousands dead. What is the White House doing?

MURPHY: So it`s a great question. I think there`s two motivations for this bizarre off the rails Trump policy towards Saudi Arabia in which as the Saudi conduct gets more outrageous, as they lock up more Americans, as they perpetuate a war in Yemen that is leading to the world`s worst cholera outbreak in recorded history, Trump rewards them instead of resetting the relationship. OK, so here`s the two explanations one. Well, he might just want to do everything opposite of what Obama did. And because Obama sort of checked the Saudis and did a deal with the Iranians, he`s just getting as close to the Saudis as he can. But then, of course, there`s the other explanation which is that we have clear financial connections into the Trump family, clear financial connections into Jared Kushner that may easily explain why he is seeking to make the Trump family which is right now in the White House as close as possible to the Saudi family.

HAYES: He literally said at one point in the campaign trail, I like the Saudis. Was I supposed to not like them? They buy lots of toys from me. They buy lots of apartments. They spend lots of money. And that you know, relates to what`s happening on the floor of the Senate with Mitch McConnell blocking election security in the testimony yesterday from Robert Mueller which is do you and can anyone have any confidence the president makes decisions for the good of the nation or for his own narrow financial interest particularly as regards the nation`s security, cybersecurity, election integrity, or foreign policy?

MURPHY: Of course, we can`t. We can`t because we`ve never gotten a full picture of the president`s finances. But of course, you don`t really need to because as you mentioned when it comes to Russian investment and Saudi investment he`s been pretty out in the open about how important that was to the Trump family. And given the fact that he is currently as we speak continuing to make money off of Trump properties, it, of course, is important to him in real-time. It used to be Chris that we as a body could come together when we thought that an administration`s policy had gone too far afield and that we could stand up to a president override a veto. We can`t do that with this Republican Congress. We got a few Republicans to support us in these arms sales resolutions today in the Foreign Relations Committee. We passed another bill cutting off arms sales for a year, but there aren`t enough to actually stand up to the veto and the compromise nature of American foreign policy today possibly explained, likely explained by the President`s financial intertwinement with many of our adversaries. It`s just absolutely bone-chilling.

HAYES: I will note that the Impeachment Clause in the U.S. Constitution which everyone quotes as high crimes and misdemeanors includes treason, bribery, and high crimes and misdemeanors. Just a little note about our Constitution. Senator Chris Murphy, thank you very much.

MURPHY: Thanks.

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