MSNBC "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" - Transcript: "New Inspector General report."

Interview

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VELSHI: House Democrats were floored today by what they saw at a children`s detention center in Homestead, Florida. Their trip comes just one day after Democratic lawmakers also stopped by a facility in Clint, Texas. It was at that location that members of Congress said one woman told them she was ordered to drink water from the toilet. NBC News has not verified that woman`s story. But tonight, the New York Times reports, "At a news conference on Tuesday, doctors in Texas who care for children released from the facilities said they were surprised more had not died. They described children having lifesaving medication taken away, or released with serious ailments but without any medical records from the time they were detained." With us for more, one of the members of Congress who had seen all of this firsthand, today, Congresswoman Madeleine Dean, Democrat of Pennsylvania. Congresswoman, good to see you, thank you for being with us. Please tell us what you saw in your visits to Texas and Florida.

DEAN: Thank you for covering this, Ali. I was on both trips. I was yesterday in Texas. It was actually at border station, El Paso Border Station 1.

VELSHI: My mistake, I`m sorry.

DEAN: That I was among colleagues of mine -- not at all, not at all, it`s confusing. I was among colleagues and we visited there where there were adult women held in a cell. The border patrol had no interest in us speaking and told us not to speak to any detainees. But we did not mind that. So we went into that -- half a dozen of us went into a cell, a very cold concrete cinder block cell holding 15 women and spoke to them. They were seated on the floor or lying on the floor, quite resigned, most tearful, some sobbing. And they talked to us and told us, many were from Cuba, that they had been held there for 56 days, that just yesterday they had come inside. That was their first day inside in what they called a refrigerator, this cold cell. 15 of them, if they lay on the floor, side by side, there would be no floor space.

VELSHI: When you say the first time they have been inside, they were living outside? They were made to remain outside, sleep outside?

DEAN: They were in some other temporary shelters, outside temporary shelters, and they did not have blankets. They had those thin metal aluminum things that you`ve seen. In fact, they gave me one that I have in my suitcase I brought home. They were lying there with sleeping bags that they said they had only recently received. They had been outside with just the metal blankets, no pads, no cots. And by outside I mean temporary shelter. They came inside to this location. We looked past a little partition wall and saw that they had for the 15 of them a metal stainless steel toilet with no seat, a prison toilet, a sink that was not operational. And when we asked the guards, what about drinking water, the women said to us, oh, they told us we can drink out of the toilet, that water is clean.

VELSHI: I want to play for you --

DEAN: A person that had been there --

VELSHI: I want to play for you a comment -- I`m sorry to interrupt you, by Kellyanne Conway about that reference to drinking from the toilet. Let`s listen.

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KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez going down to one of these facilities and claim -- making this outrageous claim that a woman`s drinking from a toilet, which everybody who has control over that facility over control for the Border Patrol has said that`s not true, they`ve not heard of this.

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VELSHI: Anybody who has control over that facility --

DEAN: I was there.

VELSHI: -- or control from the Border Control has said that`s not true. But here`s the problem, Congresswoman. We have just heard from the Department of Homeland Security`s own inspector general, things that stand in stark contrast to what we`ve heard from Department of Homeland Security officials and this administration. So we are left with a situation where we`ve got reports from members of Congress and we`ve got reports from the administration and they clash with each other.

DEAN: We heard from the women themselves. And I have to tell you, they were fearful to tell us what was going on. The practice of drinking out of the toilet didn`t start with their housing in that one location yesterday. They said that that was common before. Guards stood there and denied it. I will tell you that. But the women in communication with us, with members of Congress, explained that that was the case.The women then said to us, whispered to us, they were fearful. Fearful that there would be retribution because they talked to us. Two of the women have epilepsy. They`re very worried about their own conditions. Another woman asked me to touch her back because there`s a large lump on it. And they -- she was told she needs a biopsy but that will not happen there. Two of the women were sobbing because their adult daughters had been separated from them and they had not been in communication, didn`t know where they were. They were fearful for retribution. So I asked the guards and a woman who worked there at the facility and is a lawyer. I said, can you guarantee me there will be no retribution? That these women spoke up and told us of the conditions they`ve been held under. And the woman lawyer said to me, well, of course, when you leave they can just report to us if there`s been any retribution. I pointed out the strange notion of that. I said they`re worried with six members of Congress standing inside this cell. When we leave do you think they`re going to feel more free to say something and to speak up? I said, it is your obligation to protect their rights. They have rights as detainees. They have human rights and they have legal rights. And then they did assure me that they would protect their safety and that there would be no retribution.The women feared retribution of even taking out a snack. They showed me a snack in their backpack -- excuse me, in their sleeping bag. They had no personal affects. It was just grievous.

VELSHI: Remarkable. And I thank you for -- I know you just literally got off a plane and rushed over to talk to us. And we appreciate you giving us your firsthand account.

DEAN: I`d love to tell you sometime about the children. But thank you.

VELSHI: We will talk more about this, Congresswoman. Thank you. Congresswoman Madeline Dean.

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