MSNBC "All In with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: "Booker demands answers from AG Barr"

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

HAYES: Donald Trump and his allies have spent the last couple days engaged in a very obvious and concerted effort to spin his racism because they can`t actually defend it. So what they`ve decided to do is concoct a somewhat ridiculous rationale and suggest that what looks for all the world like an emotionally incumbent bigot lashing out is really just brilliant campaign strategy. Those close to Trump say there`s a lot of calculation behind his race-baiting Axios reported with a presumably straight face. Trump told the Daily Mail he`s not unhappy with the outcry over his racist comments. The New York Times reported he has told aides he is pleased with the Democratic reactions to his attacks. It`s all part of his master plan, just a crafty president playing 3D chess with his racism. Give me a break. Here`s the polling. A whopping 68 percent of Americans who know about them call Trump`s tweets offensive. 59 percent say they`re flat out un-American. Just 28 percent agree with them. And while Republican support for Trump has ticked up slightly since his racist tweets which maybe not that surprising, his approval rating among Independents has fallen ten points. Trump`s racist tweets were the impetus for a new impeachment resolution that was brought by Representative Al Green of Texas who was able to force a vote today on the floor about whether that would get to a full vote. The House voted to kill the impeachment effort with the majority of Democrats along with every single Republican voting to table the resolution. Joining me now Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland, a member of the Judiciary Committee. For those of us not steeped in the procedure of the august body in which you serve, what happened today?

REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): Well, you know, most impeachment resolutions arise from the Judiciary Committee and members of the Judiciary Committee. Our colleague Congressman Green is not a member of the Judiciary Committee but in an expression of his outrage about the events over the last several days, he introduced this impeachment resolution. It didn`t talk about most of the stuff that the Judiciary Committee has been investigating the obstruction of justice, the abuse of power, high crimes, and misdemeanors. It basically asserted that he was unfit for office. It was brought to the floor as a privilege motion which every member has the right to do because it`s impeachment and it goes to the president`s fitness for office and his focus was that the president was unfit for office. But he didn`t enumerate a series of high crimes and misdemeanors. 95 of us voted it shouldn`t be tabled, it should just be referred to the Judiciary Committee and the Judiciary Committee`s job is to sort out all of the impeachment resolutions because Mr. Sherman has one there too and undoubtedly there will be more. But we`ve got a methodically dissect all of the potential high crimes and misdemeanors. And this resolution didn`t do that. And so a lot of people voted to table it and it was tabled.

HAYES: All right. I`m going to give you a theory of the current behavior of the Democratic caucus in the House of Representatives that I want you to respond to whether to rebut or to agree with. Basically, there is frustration growing that there has not been a more confrontational posture towards the president that he`s defied the House time and time again, that you`ve not really been able to produce any actual documents or testimony and Mueller is of course happening next week. And that frustration is kind of leading to this sort of infighting circular firing squad that we`ve seen breaking out a little bit recently. Is that -- is that a fair read?

RASKIN: I mean, it`s not an unfair read. I don`t know necessarily if this is infighting or internal conflict. I think a lot of that has been way overblown by the media. But I think you are getting increasing expressions of frustration about our ability or inability to deal with the most lawless and reckless president of our lifetime. And so we need to put on the table all of the constitutional transgressions of this president. I think a lot of them have to do with him running the office essentially as a money-making operation. He`s turned the presidency into a business for himself and his family and his friends. And they`ve basically turned all of the federal government departments into part of this money-making operation. You know every time they go down to Mar-a-Lago, he makes another $75,000 or $100,000 from federal government payments going down there. And there`s been some excellent reporting recently about 24 different foreign governments that have been filling his pockets with emoluments through the Trump Hotel, the office tower and other business ventures. And I think this is the way to really understand how we got into this situation. He`s a businessman. He`s a failed businessman and went bankrupt four or five times. A lot of the Russian oligarchs have bailed him out through the money laundering schemes that they did and I think that was the genesis of what happened in 2016. But I think that`s going to be our way of recovering the roots of this story and really telling America a narrative about why we`re in this situation.

HAYES: So what about this idea -- a lot of this is playing out for the courts. So you slap subpoenas on them and then they say we`re not giving you anything or we`re not letting a witness come and then you fight it out in the courts.And there`s an argument that the position of the House would be stronger in the courts if there was an impeachment inquiry go -- underway. Do you think that argument has merit?

RASKIN: Undoubtedly. I mean, Professor Tribe has cataloged all of the arguments for why we`re in a stronger position to collect the evidence we need. I mean, it`s basically just because impeachment is an enumerated power of Congress and it`s a repeatedly enumerated power of Congress. It appears four different times. I think we have the power to get what we want regardless and the Supreme Court has been pretty clear that the legislative function implies a fact-finding function. But I think Professor Tribe is correct that our investigative powers are at their zenith when we are in an active impeachment inquiry investigation. Now, what was on the floor today was actual articles of impeachment. That`s the very end of the process. And we have it looks like now over 100 members who would support an impeachment inquiry at this point, and you have lots of members in the investigative committees who`ve seen enough. We`ve read the Mueller report. We know that there`s tremendous evidence of direct presidential obstruction of justice in there and we`re hoping that the appearance of Mueller next week, the special counsel, will allow us to clear the fog of propaganda left by Attorney General Barr and Donald Trump.

HAYES: I`m able to talk to you next week after that. Congressman Jamie Raskin, thanks for being with me tonight.

RASKIN: Thanks for having me, Chris.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

Source