MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

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Now, joining me to start off tonight is Congressman Jerry Nadler, who represents lower Manhattan, including Ground Zero.

Congressman, good to have you with us tonight.

REP. JERROLD NADLER (D), NEW YORK: Good to be here.

SCHULTZ: Now, how do you think your constituents feel about this? How do you New Yorkers feel about this move to bring these alleged terrorists back to the ground where the country was hit?

NADLER: I think most of my constituents are solid, intelligent, level-headed people, and they want justice done and they want traditional American justice, which is that a person accused of a heinous crime is tried in the area in which the crime occurred. And that‘s what we‘re going to do here. In fact, I received word today from Sally Reaganhart (ph), one of the leaders of the victims‘ families, who is thrilled that we‘re finally going to get a chance to see justice done and to get these terrorists tried, given full benefits of American law and then the full penalties of the law.

SCHULTZ: The response from the conservatives, the Senate leadership today, Mitch McConnell, said this about the whole thing: "There are needless risks from this decision. Our cities will face enormous security problems and our communities will be potential targets for attack."

Do you agree with that? What‘s your response to that?

NADLER: I think that‘s arrant nonsense and fear mongering. The fact is, the terrorists certainly want to hurt us, and if they could, they would, regardless of any trials.

But we know how to construct trials. We know how to handle terrorists and very dangerous people.

We have very dangerous people in our maximum security prisons in various places in the United States. Nobody escapes from one of them.

We conducted the trials and convicted them and sentenced them to long terms in prison--the people who bombed the World Trade Center, the Muslim terrorists back in 1993. There is no danger from these terrorists. Now, there may be danger from terrorists generally, but no more and no less because of these trials.

SCHULTZ: Yes. What if they had gone a different direction? What if they had tried them down at Guantanamo with a military court? Would you have been OK with that?

NADLER: No, I would not have. In fact, I think that while I applaud the administration for announcing that they‘re going to try these alleged terrorists, who I assume are terrorists, in courts here in New York, they also announced that some others would be tried in military commissions somewhere. They didn‘t say where.

And that‘s unfortunate, because people ought to be tried either in civilian courts or in military court-martials, and not in these jury-rigged military commissions where the evidence is not as reliable and the standards for evidence is not as reliable. And we shouldn‘t have several different standards where, if we think we‘ve really got the evidence, we‘ll give you a full-fledged trial, and if the evidence won‘t stand up to quite that much scrutiny, we‘ll give you a second-class trial. That‘s not justice.

SCHULTZ: Well, the conservatives are out there in full force tonight claiming that this is the wrong move, that we are going to be less safe, that New York is going to be more of a target. And they‘re indirectly, I think, taking a shot at the security forces in this city.

And a response comes from Commissioner Ray Kelly tonight. He says, "It‘s highly appropriate that those accused in the deaths of nearly 3,000 human beings in New York City be tried here. And the NYPD is prepared for the security required."

NADLER: Exactly. There is no danger whatsoever from the people who are being tried. They‘re prisoners.

They will be well guarded. They‘ll be in maximum security prisons. There‘s no danger of that at all. And it‘s frankly a strange notion to me to say that we can‘t try people and we can‘t keep them in secure prisons in the United States. We do all the time.

SCHULTZ: Does this help this country regain the moral high ground or take the high road? What message, if any, does it send to the rest of the world?

NADLER: Well, the fact that we‘re giving these terrorists, or alleged terrorists, a fair trial in the United States, in New York, where they committed the crime, puts us back on a moral high ground. The fact that some people...

SCHULTZ: You think they can get a fair trial? You think they can get a fair trial?

NADLER: Absolutely. I think they can get a fair trial and I think they will get a fair trial.

SCHULTZ: Why did the president and the Justice Department take so long to do this?

NADLER: That I can‘t answer.

SCHULTZ: Are you OK with the timing?

NADLER: Well, I wish it had been done earlier, but better now than later.

SCHULTZ: Do you think it has anything to do with the president‘s poll numbers slipping?

NADLER: No. I don‘t think it has anything to do with that. They‘ve been going and doing what they have to do on this.

SCHULTZ: And what‘s the gamble about doing it this way?

NADLER: Let me just say, the president‘s poll numbers are going to depend on the economy and a lot of other things, not on this.

SCHULTZ: And what‘s the gamble of doing it in civilian court, in your opinion, if there is one?

NADLER: I don‘t think there is any gamble. If we have--and I assume we do--solid evidence that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, for instance, confessed in open court, they will be convicted and they will be given very strong penalties, perhaps even the death penalty.

SCHULTZ: Congressman Nadler, good to have you with us tonight.

Thanks so much.

NADLER: Good to be here.

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