MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript: "Trump says he would "certainly' invite Putin."

Interview

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MADDOW: President Trump has once again called for Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin, specifically, to be invited back into the G8. Used to be the G8 until Putin got kicked out for invading and annexing Crimea, that`s how it became the G7 once again. The rest of the countries in the G7 are not interested in this idea. They are not having it. But since President Trump is also apparently seriously trying to host the next G7 at his own private resort in Doral, Florida, now the expectation is that whether or not the other g7 countries are interested in inviting Putin and Russia back, maybe Trump will just invite Putin, himself. And why not? Another paying customer. Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut sits on the Foreign Relations Committee. He`s tweeting this about this whole idea. Quote: Discussing bringing Russia back into the G8 isn`t a preposterous idea. What`s preposterous is just giving it away as a bargaining chip with nothing in return but this is what we get with stream of consciousness as foreign policy. I wanted to show you that tweet because I feel like it`s actually a glass half-full thing. He thinks some of this is conscious. Joining us is Senator Chris Murphy. Senator Murphy, thank you so much for being here tonight, sir. I appreciate it.

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): Good to be here with you.

MADDOW: I mean, stream of consciousness is a nice idea for two reasons. One, it`s a stream which involves --

MURPHY: Right.

MADDOW: -- which implies that it`s some sort of, like, steady flow in one direction. And consciousness implies that it`s at least the product of an active sentient process. I don`t know that I agree with either of those things after watching the president these last few days.

MUPHY: Yes, this is absolutely extraordinary. I mean, the number of things coming out of the G7 that are nuclear-grade bananas are in the dozens, and yet we`ve just become used to this and so, we move on. The fact of the matter is, is that the United States today is treated as a nuisance country, right? You just have to get through meetings like this and try to go back to cooperating around us when you can. But, you know, we don`t get together in these meetings. We haven`t done decades of joint communiques because it`s fun, we do it because it`s part of how we hold the post-World War II order together. It is by showing that nations that are often disagreeing with each other on political matters, security matters, and economic matters, can, once or twice a year, come to some joint statement of understanding on a number of important topics to the globe. That`s how we keep a lid on conflict around the world. That`s how we make sure that we don`t revert back to the post-1945 world in which great powers were regularly marching armies against each other. And so, things fall apart when all of a sudden you can`t get the G7, the G8, whatever it is, to be able to find minimalist common ground. And that`s the big worry moving forward.

MADDOW: I also wonder, though, part -- I don`t spend a lot of time talking about the president`s behavior or his statements. I feel it`s unavoidable after the G7, if only because the president did just seem so incoherent and random and he was, like, he was, like, refrigerator poetry, you know, like it was just words unrelated to what he seemed to be trying to communicate. Some of the things that he said that weren`t true were things that didn`t even provide him any advantage. Talking about his wife meeting Kim Jong-un, which is a thing that didn`t happen, talking about the climate meeting being in the future, when, in fact, is something that had just ended. He either has to have known that or ought to have known that. I mean, the president`s personal incoherence, is that something that we grow out of as a country in terms of the way that other world powers perceive us once this president is no longer in office, or is that sort of bizarre behavior by the president something that trails us around in the future even after he`s gone?

MURPHY: So, it does, and there`s reputational value that we are losing today that you can`t get back. We also exist today in a multipolar world. It`s not only a choice between aligning yourself with the United States and the Soviet Union. Today, you have lots of suitors for your affections. If you are an economic or political free agent in the world. The Russians are on the march. The Chinese are on the march. The Europeans are doing their own trade and security arrangements now without us. And so as the United States recedes from the playing field, others are filling that vacuum and we are going to have trouble rejoining even if we elect a Democrat who wants to put us back into the center of the American stage. And so, there is absolutely permanent damage that is done to us as the world just decides to make arrangements without us. And I`ve, frankly, seen that in the last two years. The first year when people would come and visit me from around the world, they were freaking out about what they were going to do with Trump. But in years two and three, when world leaders come to my office, they just explain to me all of the other plans they have made that don`t involve the United States and that`s the hard part to get back.

MADDOW: I was interested -- one last question for you, sir -- in your point that you made about stream of consciousness foreign policy, but also about this idea that an invitation to Putin and Russia to rejoin the G7, to make it the G8 once again, is not on its face a preposterous idea but it`s not something that should be traded away for nothing. If the president did want to just invite Vladimir Putin to the G7 next year in Florida, whether or not it`s at his private for-profit resort, as the host of the G7, could he just do that?

MURPHY: No. I don`t think he can do that. He could certainly invite Putin to sit on the sidelines as Zarif did. I`m not sure Putin would accept that invitation. But if he were to try to finagle a way to bring Russia back into the G7 without preconditions, it`s a death blow to Ukraine. Ukraine has been teetering on the balance for years now and to signal to the Russians that the state of play there now with the Russian occupation of the east and Crimea is acceptable and for the United States to give up one of our few points of leverage in getting them to withdraw from those parts of Ukraine would be absolutely disastrous. Again, it is -- we kicked them out of the G8 in order to have leverage to try to get them to change their behavior. And so, it stands to reason that we should be willing to talk to Russia about coming back in as long as they take steps to guarantee the long-term political sovereignty of the country of Ukraine.

MADDOW: And not just getting it for free for nothing. Yes. Art of the deal. Senator Chris Murphy, thank you for making time to talk to us tonight, sir. It`s good to have you here.

MURPHY: Thanks.

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