MSNBC "The Beat with Ari Melber" - Transcript: "Rep Maxine Waters (D-CA) joins The Beat."

Interview

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MELBER: I`m joined now by congresswoman Maxine Waters. She chairs one of those committees, has been leading this charge to hold Trump accountable. Good evening.

REP. MAXINE WATERS (D-CA): Good evening.

MELBER: What`s change in the past week and is the Ukraine scandal in your view worse than the other issues facing Donald Trump or just a collective - a kind of a collective explosion?

WATERS: Well, the Ukraine scandal certainly, I think, gives us factual information quickly. We know the telephone call was made to the President. Now we know basically what was said on the telephone call and we know who was on the telephone call. And so I think that this gives us a great information to move forward with impeachment. And as the Speaker has said should be perhaps the focus of what we do, but all of the other things that the six committee chairs have been working with, will be discussed and we don`t know exactly how many of these issues will be in the impeachment resolution. But we`re going we`re going to talk about them, but yes, Ukraine is going to be a focus.

MELBER: And Congresswoman, I want to ask about something you said as, you know and many our viewers know, you speak your mind many. People like that. And as I think, many people disagree with you in this politics.

WATERS: That`s right.

MELBER: I want to read something you said today to get a fuller understanding. You said--

WATERS: OK.

MELBER: --with regard to Donald Trump, he`s using mob language, he`s implying people should be killed for whistleblowing. "Impeachment is not good enough for Trump. He needs to be imprisoned and placed in solitary confinement. But for now impeachment he the imperative."

WATERS: That`s right.

MELBER: I ask you tonight are you speaking literally and do you have any concern you`re prejudging the House impeachment and Senate trial process by declaring he should be, I guess, convicted and held in solitary?

WATERS: No, not really. As you said - I said impeachment is the imperative. I did express myself in ways to show how terrible I think he is and how he really should be punished. But of course impeachment is what we`re focused on right now.

MELBER: With regard to allegations of obstruction, one of the things that the facts show this White House has done more extremely than others, including really the Nixon White House, is try to defy a lot of different lawful requests - from your committee from others. When we see chair - multiple chairs say this is now going to be itself evidence of obstruction, what does that mean and do you join the other chairs in that? Are you saying that if you don`t get responses by a certain time what happens to those a White House or agency officials?

WATERS: Well I do agree that. This President has instructed those who we have been subpoenaing not to come before our committee, not to cooperate. It is outrageous in what he is doing. And now that we have more information, factual information, for example, that Pompeo was on that telephone call. He must respond to the subpoena. He must come forward or he could be charged, I believe, with obstruction of the impeachment. And I don`t know everything that goes along with that, but I certainly hope that it means we can drag him in or we can arrest him.

MELBER: Wow. I want to play for you some of what you said during the last time. These issues came up during the Clinton impeachment. Take a look.

WATERS: Yes.

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WATERS: This is a bunch of baloney. I`m not a lawyer, but I could argue this case in court and win. I think Mr. Ken Starr is the poster bar for all of the bad prosecutors in America.

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MELBER: Obviously, many of the facts are different. What do you say to people this time around to argue that Donald Trump`s case - potentially articles of impeachment against him are different than those against President Clinton.

WATERS: Oh, I think decidedly different. I think that - if you take a look at this President ever since he defined himself doing his primary election in the way that he treated his peers, the way that he called names on into the election, the way that he talked about grabbing women by their private parts. What we know about his defense of Putin and the fact that he has ignored the intelligence community in identifying that he - they certainly was involved when undermining our elections, hacking into the DNC. The way he has insisted on private meetings with our enemy, that is Putin, and the way that he`s insisted on private meetings with Kim Jong-un. On and on and on this President has advocated violence. This President, in my estimation, was eligible for impeachment long before this. And it does not even compare with what was going on with the Clinton impeachment. And so I do believe that we now have factual information about him attempting to engage the President of the Ukraine in getting dirt on Biden. The telephone call was made. The information is there and this just adds fuel to the fire.

MELBER: And Congresswoman, I want to move beyond Washington DC, where there`s obviously a lot of important news, to another story that I know is in the wheelhouse that you care about, is something we cover a lot here, and it`s something that`s actually rare. A foreign Dallas police officer Amber Guyger was found guilty of murder. She shot and killed her neighbor last year. She mistakenly entered his apartment and opened fire. Sentencing will be tomorrow. The case has ignited much debate over race and the criminal justice system. And as you know Congresswoman the tendency and the statistics where officers are more likely to use force and deadly force against minorities. Your reaction to this, which viewers will understand, is a rarity - a murder conviction for an officer.

WATERS: Well, this officer certainly didn`t have any credibility in her defense. It is unbelievable that she didn`t know where her own apartment was, what floor it was on. She didn`t know that there was a red a doormat in front of his apartment. It wasn`t in front of hers. To walk into a room and not know that that`s not your furniture and shoot and kill an unarmed man? I mean, she deserves what has happened and the decision that has been made. She committed murder. I don`t care if she`s a police officer. I don`t care who would have done something like that, they deserve to be convicted. And so I`m pleased she was convicted. She didn`t have a good defense at.

MELBER: I wanted to get reactions, as you know it`s a big story. Chairwoman Maxine Waters, always appreciate your time. I hope you come back on THE BEAT.

WATERS: Well, I absolutely will. Just invite me back, I`m happy to come and join you.

MELBER: There we go. Thank you, ma`am. We`ll be watching and watching your Committee quite a bit.

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