MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi

Interview

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Joining us now is Illinois Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi. He`s on the oversight committee that`s been investigating DeJoy and his handling of the Postal Service. Congressman Krishnamoorthi has been calling on the postal service board of governors to fire Mr. DeJoy for months now.

He`s also been calling on President Biden to replace members of the postal service board, which President Biden did today, so that the new board could replace Mr. DeJoy. He also introduced a bill called the Delivering Envelopes Judiciously On Time Year-Round Act, which is as awkward as it sounds, except that it`s called the DEJOY Act, to fix the things in the postal service that Louis DeJoy has deliberately broken.

Congressman Krishnamoorthi, I really appreciate you being here. Thank you.

REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI (D-IL): Thanks, Rachel.

MADDOW: From the DEJOY Act to your involvement in the oversight committee`s oversight of this matter, to your direct pleas to President Biden to please replace members on the board of governors so DeJoy can be gotten rid of, you`ve been really, really, really focused on this, perhaps more than anybody else in government. Did you know that president Biden was going to do what he did today?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: I didn`t. But, you know, my pleas really came from my constituents, Rachel. We`ve received more complaints, thousands of complaints about slower mail delivery and raised prices than perhaps any other issue that we talk about in government.

And now we`re on the verge of the holidays, and unfortunately the postmaster general is taking the joy out of the holidays too. It was time to call for his removal.

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And once Mr. Blum refused my plea to remove Mr. DeJoy, I asked that the president also remove Mr. Blum, who is the chair of the board of governors, which he announced today.

MADDOW: What sort of timeline do you think that people should expect here? As you say, your constituents have been giving you more feedback on this than any other issue. A lot of Americans, people who run small businesses, people who just use the mail for normal bill-paying and correspondence, a lot of Americans, millions of Americans, have been really mad. And it is apparently all by design, it`s what he set out to do and what he`s done.

If you can speak directly to Americans who have been mad about this, who have been hurting about this, what can we expect as a timeline in terms of getting rid of him and charting the progress of undoing what he`s done?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: First of all, it`s not going to be done until the holidays. Mr. Blum has until the end of the year to complete his term. So I hope that everybody sends their holiday cards and packages early this year, because unfortunately, even first class mail is slowed by 30 percent at this point.

However, in the New Year, I`m hoping that the new chair of the board of governors conducts a vote with regard to Mr. DeJoy and relieves him of his duties. And so I`m very hopeful that happens sooner rather than later in the New Year.

MADDOW: Let me also ask you about the huge news today out of the House, the final passage of the Build Back Better bill, at least in the House. It will head now over to the senate. A lot of people I think looking in from the outside are -- who support the legislation are happy that it finally got there. But I think are a little spooked at how difficult it was, how long it took, how much fighting there was among Democrats to get this far, to get to this point today.

Now that you`re there, now that you got this legislation across the finish line, I know you`re a strong supporter of it, how do you feel about how this went and any sort of lessons learned?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: I think the biggest lesson is unfortunately the Republican Party has become the party of no with regard to so many priorities of our constituents, whether it`s affordable childcare or investing in workforce training or investing in universal pre-K or even fighting climate change. And so, we have to basically come together as a caucus and do the hard work of governing the country.

The only challenge is to make sure that as we do that hard work, you know, no individual group of people take it upon themselves to exert their leverage and make it harder for us to get to a final passage of such an important piece of legislation. But now we`re there, Rachel. I say this BBB Act gets a triple a rating from most of the constituents I talk to, given what`s in there. I say the triple AAA stands for addressing America`s aspirations. And people are really excited.

MADDOW: Illinois Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, again, who has been sort of playing point on this issue about Louis DeJoy left over from the Trump years, still helming the postal service, doing a job that is infuriating and inconveniencing millions of Americans of every stripe, it now looks like he may be on his way out, something the congressman has been calling for. Sir, it`s been a huge day today, thanks for helping us to talk about it and understand it at the end of this long day.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Thank you, Rachel.

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