MSNBC "All In with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: "Mueller warns about future attacks."
Interview
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HAYES: Joining me now Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu of California, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, questioned Robert Mueller yesterday as a member of the House Judiciary Committee. And first I want to get your response to the work product just issued by your colleagues over in the Senate, and I want to read you a portion of the report and get your response. Former special assistant to the president and cybersecurity coordinator Michael Daniel told the committee that by late August 2016 he had already personally concluded the Russians had attempted to include in all 50 states based on the extent of the activity and the apparent randomness of the attempts. Intelligence developed later in 2018 bolstered Mr. Daniels assessment all 50 states were targeted.
REP. TED LIEU (D-CA): Thank you, Chris, for your question. I`m a recovering computer science major and I`ve worked on cybersecurity issues since I`ve come to Congress. It is not surprising that our cybersecurity is very low, very bad, and that these election systems were infiltrated by the Russians. And as you said earlier, it is completely chilling that the Russians were in a position to delete voter data from the Illinois voter database,
HAYES: Yes. I mean, that -- we should be clear that deleting data -- you don`t have to change any vote tallies. If you have the data and you know say, a precinct or an area is predominantly African-American, you delete them off the rolls, you effectively will tip the scales of an election.
LIEU: That`s absolutely correct. Which is why it`s so disappointing that Mitch McConnell refuses to take up the bills that the House of Representatives has passed to the U.S. Senate to improve election security.I think Mitch McConnell gave the game away when he said that these bills would give the Democrats an advantage. Well, yes, because Democrats won free and fair elections where you don`t have a foreign power influencing the outcome. And so I think Senator McConnell should be ashamed for what he`s doing. One of these bills says we should have these voting machines made in the United States. I mean, who could be against that?
HAYES: You ask questions to Robert Mueller yesterday in your role on the House Judiciary Committee which have the morning hearing. I want to ask you about an interesting development. So I`ve been seeing lots of analysis that says well, the windows closing on impeachment. And of course House leadership including Nancy Pelosi came out and said, well, we`re going to continue to fight things in the court and Adam Schiff said today well, if we get to a point where he disobeys a court order then I think impeachment would be appropriate. The same time I think four more House Democratic members including the vice-chair of the Democratic caucus which is the highest-ranking member of leadership so far to do so came out in favor of impeachment inquiry. What do you think the reaction of your caucus is to yesterday?
LIEU: So the Democratic caucus is diverse and Speaker Pelosi is going to make a decision in consultation with our caucus. Whatever decision she makes I`m going to respect it. But what the hearings show yesterday is that the Russians attacked us in a systematic and sweeping manner in 2016, that the Trump campaign embraced it, welcomed it and gave them internal polling data, and then the president committed multiple acts of obstruction Justice which are felonies to try to stop that investigation.Those are the facts and what the American people and other members of Congress choose to do with those facts we`ll know in the next few weeks.
HAYES: You`re going to go home your districts. What`s -- I`m so curious about the timing here. So Mueller testifies obviously was supposed to be a week earlier, that it was negotiated back to yesterday. Then there`s -- you guys past the big spending bill for two years with 219 Democratic votes today which means you didn`t even need any Republicans who got to vote no and whine about big spending even though obviously they`re doing it. What is this recess going to be like for you and what do you expect to hear from constituents?
LIEU: This is an opportunity for each member to go back to their districts. All of our districts are unique. They can hear from their constituents. And then when we come back in September, we`ll see what the American people think and what our caucus thinks about an impeachment inquiry. I do note that it`s actually five additional members of the Democratic Caucus have come out in support of an impeachment inquiry since yesterday.
HAYES: A live fact check from Congressman Ted Lieu for your humble host here. Thank you very much. I appreciate that.
LIEU: Thank you, Chris.
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