MSNBC "Hardball with Chris Mathews" - Transcript: "Kurt Volker, meets with lawmakers."
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MATTHEWS: Welcome back to HARDBALL. In the eye of the storm and under siege, President Trump today publicly called on two foreign countries to help him get dirt on a political adversary. It was a stunning public admission, confession, really, after a week of being accused of doing the very same thing in a private call with the Ukrainian president. For more, I`m joined by presidential candidate U.S. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey. Thank you, Senator, for this. You`re frowning. And I see why. But tell me, what do you make of this news breaking tonight from a number of sources, diplomatic, civil servants, foreign office -- Foreign Service officers, that this president was determined to cut a deal whereby he sold U.S. goodwill, military support, whatever, the whole shebang, to get dirt on a potential rival for reelection?
SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So, Chris, I think we`re going to continue to find more and more disturbing things as this investigation goes on. But these facts, as I see them right now, are absolutely unacceptable. Remember, Ukraine is under attack, a hot war, the invasion by the Russians. We share that common adversary. They`re attacking the United States. And we were holding up aid that both parties in Congress agreed to deliver because this president was trying to pursue his own petty personal political agenda? That is absolutely outrageous, absolutely unacceptable, violating his oath of office. And, again, this is just the beginning of this investigation.
MATTHEWS: When do you think of his allies in this? And the more I cover it, and the more you see it, as a political leader, it seems like he`s not in this alone. He`s got people in cahoots with him. He`s got Rudy Giuliani, who was once looked up to in this country in a great way, as America`s mayor. Now he`s working for him. It looks like Pompeo, the secretary of state, is in it with him. It looks like certainly Attorney General Barr is with him on this. And it just seems like it`s a new political party. There`s not a Republican Party. It`s a Trump party. And they`re up to no good.
BOOKER: Well, clearly, there`s a lot of implications, shadow of implication extending over other administrative people, other Cabinet secretaries. And this investigation must continue. But just understand this. We have his private attorney seemingly dictating not only foreign policy, but whether even an ambassador stays in their position. This is absolutely outrageous and unacceptable behavior that is a violation of the values of not for both parties, Republicans and Democrats, but these are just basically American values that are being undermined here by a president who seems to think that office is his and not -- doesn`t belong to the people of the United States of America.
MATTHEWS: Well, back in 2016, a bipartisan group of your Senate colleagues sent a letter to the then Ukrainian president urging him to press ahead with urgent reforms to the prosecutor general`s office and judiciary. The letter was co-signed by Ohio Senator Rob Portman, Former Illinois Senator Mark Kirk, and Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson. In other words, Senate Republicans, including Mr. Johnson, joined the vice president in calling for the Ukrainian prosecutor to be pushed out. And earlier this month, Senator Johnson, apparently forgetting he signed that letter, urged Attorney General Bill Barr to look into the Bidens` contacts with Ukraine for corruption. This seems to be a problem mentally. I know you`re a Rhodes Scholar. I don`t want you to be condescending to these people, but they don`t seem to be able to remember anything. The other day, Kevin McCarthy didn`t know that the president conditioned the military aid by saying, "I want a favor from you, though." He thought the reporter cooked up the word. They`re not -- how can these people on the other side of the aisle get so distracted from this horrible situation the president has taken us into? Your colleagues, they`re out to lunch.
BOOKER: This -- look, this is time where it`s unacceptable. We cannot be blinded by partisanship. There is enough here for everybody in Congress to be agreeing that we should be doing a thorough investigation.
MATTHEWS: Right.
BOOKER: And both parties, none of us should take glee in this. This is a sad, very sobering moment where we should look with an objective eye on where the facts take us. And so partisanship, you`re surrendering your deeper patriotism in this country if you`re just falling into your partisan stance. This calls for -- right now for us to be statespeople in the United States Senate and demand that we follow the evidence and get to the facts of this, because, if it goes where it seems to be leading, this president has betrayed his office and the American people.
MATTHEWS: Let`s talk about the American people and your concerns about young Americans, especially kids, really young kids, who are in poverty, in tough situations. What can you do? You`re talking about a new proposal.
BOOKER: Yes. I`m frustrated. This is one of the reasons I`m happy to be running for president, to bring issues up. We have 170 policy plans between all of us candidates, but we`re not talking about child poverty. So I put forward a very comprehensive plan that, according to Columbia University, which doesn`t even take the totality of my actions, would cut child poverty by about two-thirds. We, as a country, don`t understand poverty has its costs. Children living in poverty cost our economy about a trillion dollars a year. In a global knowledge-based economy, the most valuable natural resource we have it the genius of our children, and we`re squandering it by regulating a disproportionate amount of our population into poverty than our peer nations. So, we can do something about this. There are evidence-based plans we can do to reduce poverty. And I have a very aggressive plan to do it, and that will ultimately empower millions of children to be successful, to add to our economy, as opposed to the costs we`re seeing right now by being a nation that doesn`t have that courageous empathy to really address these issues.
MATTHEWS: Senator Cory Booker, thank you so much for coming on HARDBALL tonight. Good luck out on the campaign trail. You got another debate coming up.
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