MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: "Ukraine scandal involves multiple Trump Officials.."

Interview

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HAYES: I`m joined now by Congressman Maxine Waters of California, Chair of the Financial Services Committee, one of the six committees that is now formally working on that impeachment inquiry announced yesterday by the Speaker of the House. Let`s start here, congresswoman. What is different now? You have been on the show a number of times over the past two years talking about this president. You obviously have been very out front on an impeachment before this set of facts came to light. But what`s different to your mind today than yesterday or the day before?

REP. MAXINE WATERS (D-CA): Well, obviously the difference is the Speaker of the House of Representatives is now on board for a formalized impeachment inquiry and she has her caucus support in doing so. That`s extremely different. You`re absolutely right I started a long time ago right after the president was inaugurated talking about impeachment and saying that he was dishonorable, he was a con man, we could not trust him. And of course, I was way ahead of all of this and nobody really took me seriously. But I also knew that this president is so brazen and so disrespectful of the Constitution that he was going to continue to abuse the presidential power. And so he`s done just that. And now I think in everything that we have discovered in the past, it does not even measure up to what we have just discovered over the past few days about him and his attempt to leverage and get the president of Ukraine to do his bidding and find dirt on his political opponent, and so all of this is different.

HAYES: There was some reporting today -- Kyle Cheney who`s a reporter for Politico said that Democrats increasingly agree they should expedite impeachment efforts by focusing exclusively on Trump and Ukraine which some say could bring articles to the floor before the end of the year. As someone who is investigating a parallel set of facts, is held up in the courts right now over document production by the President`s financial firms, do you agree with that?

WATERS: Well, basically the chairs of the six committees are going to get together and go over all of the investigations that we have been involved in, and take in you know, advice and comments from others and come up with what we think should be the items for impeachment. Whether that`s one or several, that certainly has not been decided yet, but we will be working. And we will try and expedite this and work as swiftly as we possibly can to come to what you go into an impeachment resolution.

HAYES: Another question. There has been some suggestion in certain quarters -- I think Jerry Nadler came out and said this, that because of the Constitution specifying the impeachment power, that it would give you and your colleagues some legal force to be seeking document production and subpoenas under that impeachment power. Do you have intention of going back and refilling in some of these cases in which you`re locked in the courts under this new official and formal inquiry?

WATERS: Not necessarily. You know, we have been requesting documents from Deutsche Bank and other banks and other entities of government etcetera, etcetera. And this is slow and tedious work and we will continue with our investigations in the way that we started out. But I do not anticipate refilling of subpoena requests and documents etcetera, etcetera. We`re going to continue with the investigations in the way that we began.

HAYES: Finally, it appears that the number of members of the House Democratic caucus plus Justin Amash who have come out in favor of an impeachment inquiry at the very least is now either at or near the 218 needed for passage on the House. Is that significant to you?

WATERS: That is absolutely significant. We had a number of members who you know, believed that perhaps we should not get involved in impeachment, that it would interfere with the elections and we would be better served if we basically went after this president in the elections, that we had enough information but not impeachment, that it was too complicated, that it was a very, very serious. And many said we don`t believe the Senate will basically support it and he will be exonerated and we don`t want that. So there was a lot of speculation, a lot of uncertainty, and I see that that has diminished significantly, and that we have now more than a majority in the Democratic caucus who favor this formalized impeachment inquiry.

HAYES: All right, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, thank you so much.

WATERS: You`re so welcome. Thank you.

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