MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Richard Blumenthal

Interview

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HAYES: Donald Trump conceded a humiliating defeat today, agreeing to  finally end the Trump shutdown without a single concession from Democrats.

The president deals announcing that he would sign a bill to fund the  government for three weeks until February 15 without getting a dollar for  the border wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for. The Trump shutdown  has lasted 35 days, making it by far the longest in U.S. history. As Matt  Fuller noted, it took Trump about 35 days, two missed pay periods, 40,000  delayed immigration cases, federal workers resorting to food pantries, and  one hour of halted flights at LaGuardia to end the shutdown.

That`s right, Trump did not cave until after his shutdown grounded incoming  flights at the New York City Airport where he keeps his private jet. In  addition to LaGuardia, there were delays at airports across the eastern  seaboard this morning, as well as some cancellations as many of the air  traffic controllers who had been working for a month for free declined to  show up for work.

It was just the latest disruption caused by Trump`s decision to shut down  the government in a fruitless effort to fund his wall, a decision that  drove his approval rating to some of the lowest levels of his presidency,  and ultimately did not even satisfy his far-right base. After Trump caved  today, Ann Coulter tweeting, "good news for George H.W. Bush. As of today,  he is no longer the biggest wimp ever to serve as president of the United  States."

Trump could have had this exact same deal that he has now on day one with  no shutdown. Instead, he inflicted pain and suffering to the country for  absolutely nothing.

Joining me now for a reaction and his thoughts on what happens now,  Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.

Senator, I want to read you a tweet from the White House, "because of the  president`s actions, federal workers will be paid in the coming days." Do  you agree with that?

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, (D) CONNECTICUT: Well, they will be paid, but you  said it best right at the beginning, Chris, it`s a bad day for Donald  Trump, but a good day for America. The only difference I would have it`s a  bad day for individual number one, as he`s known in the Southern District  of New York where he was identified as an unindicted co-conspirator. And  he was essentially, I think, backed into this corner by the overwhelming  evidence that America disagrees with his holding hostage, our country for a  vanity project, a campaign applause line, and the country was really going  into crisis.

And the apprehension and anger are going to be enduring.

HAYES: OK, so now you`ve got -- the government is going to reopen. The  president -- we don`t know when he`s going to sign it, because a lid is  called, which means he`ll be signing it in private away from cameras. 

Three weeks, there`s a conference committed to figure out border funding,  is that correct? What happens now?

BLUMENTHAL: There will be a conference committee that hopefully will seek  common ground, because there really is a crisis at the border, it`s a  humanitarian crisis. It`s a crisis involving children separated from their  families, and detention centers that are inhumane, and asylum seekers pushed back into Mexico while their case for fleeing persecution is considered. And we need to seek that common ground to meet that crisis, 
not just border security.

I`m strongly in favor of border security involving smart and strategic  steps like fencing and sensors and surveillance, better technology, more  manpower, but also a path to citizenship for the Dreamers and for the 11  million people who are living in the shadows working and paying taxes. We  ought to see comprehensive immigration reform through that conference  committee, and through the common ground that we have.

HAYES: Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second. Wait a second. Are you telling  me that the mandate here is to try to craft a Dreamer path to citizenship  for Dreamers, some sort of expansion of capacity at the border, border  security and comprehensive immigration reform in the conference committee  on the DHS approps (ph) bill?

BLUMENTHAL: Not necessarily in that bill.

HAYES: OK.

BLUMENTHAL: We should not over aim…

HAYES: OK, those issues are aside, right? I mean, what`s going to be  hammered out is essentially what money for -- how much money for what and  then the hope is that we don`t go into another shutdown, correct?

BLUMENTHAL: That is not only the hope, that has to be absolutely the goal.  And the conference committee has to arrive at some common ground, but it  also ought to be a prelude to broader immigration reform that deals with  that humanitarian crisis.

HAYES: I want to also get your reaction, since I have you here today, to  the indictment of another one of the president`s close aides and  associates. And Nancy Pelosi saying some very strong words just a few  moments ago about we need to know what the president -- what the Kremlin  has on the president personally or politically. What does today mean from  your perspective?

BLUMENTHAL: Today means that for the first time Robert Mueller is pointing  to probably the president as colluding with Russia in releasing those  stolen documents. Roger Stone is clearly named as the intermediary, the  conduit between Russia, WikiLeaks, and the Trump campaign.

And it casts in very dangerous context the president, but also his son  Donald Trump Jr. who came before the committee where I serve, the Judiciary  Committee, and made some statements that are very, very seriously in doubt  as to their truthfulness now after some of what is in this indictment.

HAYES: You think that he -- you think that the president`s son, Don Jr.,  because of his testimony before the Judiciary Committee, then chaired at  the time by Chair Grassley, that he made false statements to that  committee?

BLUMETHAL: He has some explaining to do. And I think it`s (inaudible)  that very seriously in doubt as to some of the statements that he made  about the Trump Tower meeting, his father`s knowledge of it, and about the  statements also involving the WikiLeaks release of these documents, and  some of them are in this Roger Stone indictment, but he needs to be called  back to the Judiciary Committee.

I`ve asked the new chairman, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, to  do so if necessary by subpoena. I think it should be done.

HAYES: All right, Senator Richard Blumenthal, thank you for being with me  tonight.

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