MSNBC "The Beat with Ari Melber" - Transcript: "Hurricane Dorian hits coast."

Interview

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MELBER: Congressman Anthony Brown of Maryland joins me. Two military projects there are being canceled to help fund this wall. First, given your role in that local representation aspect before we get everything else, is this good for your constituent? Is it good for Maryland?

REP. ANTHONY BROWN (D-MD): No, first of all Ari, it`s actually three. It`s bad for my constituents, it`s bad for Maryland and it`s bad for the country. One of them is a child care center, this is - you have children right now who are in a World War II era building that`s dilapidated. We would have build capacity, given them a modern facility. But instead we`ve got families whose children will now be on a wait list and they`re going to spend $10,000 more per family per child for childcare because Donald trump wants to build a wall. It impacts morale and which impacts of military readiness.

MELBER: And sometimes what we have to do is hold officials accountable, take them at their word, even if they lie a lot. I want to play for your - for your response the President, then candidate Trump`s claims about who would pay for the wall. Take a look.

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TRUMP: Believe me. Mexico is paying for the wall, OK? That`s it. If I win, if I become President, Mexico will pay for the wall. And by the way Mexico will pay for the wall, they will pay for the wall. That I can tell you. Mexico is going to pay for the wall, they don`t know it yet, they don`t know it yet. They`re starting to have a very good idea but that`s OK. And Mexico is going to pay for the wall and they`ll be happy to do it.

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MELBER: Are Democrats going to hammer that aspect of this? There`s what he is taking the money from you just spoke to that but there`s also what looks to be one of the greatest now most famous broken promises in modern American history.

BROWN: No, we`re absolutely going to do that because Mexico`s not paying for the wall, it`s American taxpayers. But I think it`s important to put a face on who is really paying for it. It is that family with a child who now no longer has military child care. It is that Special Forces unit in Europe who know longer has a facility to support their important and most often dangerous mission. It`s the residents and service members in Puerto Rico, you mentioned this in the - in the opening who are not going to have a power generation plant that was destroyed in hurricane Maria, restored with that funding. So that`s who`s actually paying for it and that`s the face of the people who are impacted by the President`s misleading statement throughout his campaign.

MELBER: While I have you, I also want to ask on immigration. As you know, a lot of controversy and some backtracking about people inside United States awaiting health care, sometimes for life threatening conditions. ACLU and civil rights groups are now filing against the Trump administration with a lawsuit, they`re calling it an "abrupt termination of this long standing program that protect seriously ill people from deportation and what they call the risk of death." The administration`s action they argue is unconscionable and also illegal. Your view of that suit and what do you and Democrats in Congress intend to do about this issue.

BROWN: Right, well, listen, Congress is going to say vigilant on whether it`s their military construction project issue or whether it`s his healthcare and immigration issue and we also know that there are many lawsuits pending against this administration ranging from the border wall to we saw, a recent case on the citizenship question and now on healthcare and immigration. So those battles need to happen in the courts but that`s a substitute for the work that Congress has to do so whether we`re using our oversight role, appropriations and we`ve got appropriations coming up this month in September as we pass a budget, we`ve got to use all the tools available to make sure that we`re holding this administration accountable.

MELBER: Congressman Brown, thank you as always, good to talk with you.

BROWN: Thanks Ari.

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