MSNBC "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" - Transcript: "Trump-GOP divide"

Interview

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TUR: Peter Wehner, thank you. Ruth Marcus, thank you very much. Joining us now is Democratic Senator Gary Peters of Michigan. He is the ranking member on the Homeland Security Committee and he is the lead sponsor of the Hotel Act legislation which aims to prevent taxpayer money from going to Trump properties. Mr. Peters, thank you very much for joining us.

SEN. GARY PETERS (D-MI): Great to be with you.

TUR: Tell us a little bit about this legislation. It doesn`t sound like it has any hope of passing in this current iteration of Congress.

PETERS: Well, we have 37 co-sponsors. They`re all Democrats. But I think it`s important for us to continue to push this forward. The conflict of interest that you get when you have government money going to properties owned by high government officials is very clear. The legislation says that federal money cannot be spent at a property owned by high government official defined as president, vice president, or cabinet official. We have seen numerous occasions where serious questions have been raised. As you`re well aware, we have a situation still unfolding with the Air Force sending crews --

TUR: Yeah.

PETERS: -- to Trump properties in Scotland. But now you have incredibly outrageous situation where the president himself now directs money, not only federal taxpayer money -- and taxpayers don`t want to see their money lining the pockets of the president, certainly folks in Michigan don`t want to see that happen -- but also directing foreign governments to spend money in a property that ultimately President Trump will get the benefit of. That`s outrageous.

TUR: Michigan is such an important state to the president. It helped him win the presidency in 2016. He won by a very narrow margin.

PETERS: Right.

TUR: Are you seeing people that voted for him? Are you speaking to the people who voted for him in 2016, who have watched his presidency unfold, who say there`s no way in heck I`m going to vote for him again in 2020?

PETERS: Well, I`m seeing more of that, especially the last couple weeks. You`re definitely starting to see that change. I`ll say the actions in Northern Syria were particularly profound with folks that I talked to. People said here we are, a friend of the United States, people who shed blood in fighting ISIS to keep us safe, and then for us to turn our backs on them, that just doesn`t fit with their American values, that we are friends that you can trust. When they see the president act that way, people are having a harder time justifying that.

TUR: What are they saying about this Trump Doral situation? The president is lining his own pockets directly with foreign money that seems to be a violation of the emoluments clause. What is more, the president promised in a press conference when he was elected in 2017, his tax attorney came up and said the president is not going to benefit at all from any of his properties. There`s going to be a wall between the two. And as time has gone by, that wall has gotten smaller and smaller. It seems not to exist at all.

PETERS: No, there is no wall there. It`s in a trust, but he can pull income out of that trust any time he likes. Certainly the value of the property increases. He is someone who understands the public relations value. He can promote his brand through this. He will profit from this, so there`s no question about that.

TUR: And he is the one who suggested Trump Doral.

PETERS: Yes. In fact, that`s why we`re asking more questions in my role as ranking member of Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. We`re the top oversight committee. We want to find out exactly what process it went through. It sounds as if the president just mentioned it to his staff and they ran with it. In order to spend taxpayer money, we want to make sure that there`s a competitive process, that the property met the security requirements necessary, that it truly was the best value for the taxpayers. None of that is apparent right now. It doesn`t look as if that occurred at all. We need to get to the bottom of that as well.

TUR: Senator Gary Peters, thank you very much. We appreciate your time.

PETERS: Thank you.

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