MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript: Interview with Gov. Jay Inslee

Interview

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MADDOW:  People usually throw the phrase "one issue candidate" around like it`s an insult.  Like it`s some sort of epithet.  Oh, you`re just a one- issue candidate. 
 
Washington Governor Jay Inslee is running with that himself and he`s running with it now, it`s also how he`s been governing.  He blocked construction of a huge terminal on the Columbia River to export coal to Asia.  He threw up roadblocks to stop a huge oil train facility that was going to be built that was going to be built at the port of Vancouver.  He signed a tax on pipelines, putting pipeline operators on the hook for funding oil spill response.  He was a key co-sponsor on the last big climate legislation that passed anything in Washington.  It was the cap and trade bill that passed the House in `09, but then died in the Senate. 
 
Years before that, he was co-sponsoring, he was sponsoring, excuse me, comprehensive legislation to cap emissions, switch us from fossil fuels to renewables, and priorities making a gazillion new jobs on those new energy sectors along the way. 
 
It was in some ways the precursor to the Green New Deal that so many Democrats are endorsing now.  He was just doing it 15 years ago, waiting for the rest of the country to catch up. 
 
Joining us now for the interview is Jay Inslee, governor of Washington and candidate for president in the Democratic primary. 
 
Governor, nice to see you. 
 
(CROSSTALK)
 
INSLEE:  Yes, thanks for having me on.  I kind of enjoyed that saga.  I like those --
 
MADDOW:  This is your life. 
 
INSLEE:  Thank you very much. 
 
MADDOW:  Well, let me -- let me -- I know that you are running your campaign about climate change and I want to talk to you about that.  But let me ask you sort of the counterpoint right off the bat.  One of the things that you said in interviews when talking about that cap and trade bill, the last thing that ever passed Washington on climate change in 2009 was that that was essentially an opportunity cost problem.  The Democrats under President Obama decided they wanted to do health care.
 
INSLEE:  Yes, right.
 
MADDOW:  That didn`t leave enough in the tank as it were to get cap and trade done. 
 
If you run on climate change, what are you most worry that you are leaving out?  You`re trying to run as a single issue candidate.  What are you most regret thinking isn`t going to be on your agenda because you`re going to one as this one-issue guy? 
 
INSLEE:  Well, fortunately, we don`t have to do that because what I`ve demonstrated in my state that we can advance a climate action agenda while doing all these other things. 
 
First, net neutrality.  Best paid family leave.  We got rid of the death penalty and pardoned people and we`ve legalized marijuana.  We got great transportation.  We took on Trump on the Muslim ban. 
 
So, we were able to do those things but the experience that we had in Congress and my experience as a governor -- look, to govern is to choose and when you`re a governor, you learn to set priorities.  And what I`ve learned is, is that this is such an enormous lift, we have to make it a commitment that we`re going to use our political capital first and foremost in defeating climate change and building a new clean energy economy. 
 
And I`m committed to that and I`m the only candidate who is committed to that and has said so, because it will not get done unless we do have presidential leadership to make it that type of priority.  So, it needs to be first. 
 
We have to put our capital, political capital into it, in our intellectual power and everything we have, because listen, this is not just a single issue.  It`s not just about the economy.  It is the economy. 
 
Our economy is getting ravaged by climate change right, like forest products industry is burning down.  We`re losing tourists dollars because of floods.  Houston flooded.  Miami Beach, we have to invest money and raising the roads instead of our schools. 
 
So, this is an economic issue.  It`s a health issue.  The asthma our kids are having is just traumatic for families.  If you ever heard a kid wheezing -- you know, climate change is a health issue, it`s a national security issue. 
 
You talk about national security and do a great job and we all appreciate it, but it`s going to get a lot worse if we have mass migration due to desertification, creating political stability around the world.  And you know what agrees with me on that, our generals and admirals in the Pentagon. 
 
So, it really is an all-encompassing issue and we cannot solve our other problems unless we do to fight climate change.  So, I do believe it`s all encompassing and this is the right priority. 
 
MADDOW:  I know that you have made this a priority before it was cool, before people are talking about it for a long time, and you`ve worked on it both in the legislature in Congress and in -- and as governor.  And I think now we`re at a point where anybody is going to vote in the Democratic primary for president will tell you that climate change matters to them. 
 
INSLEE:  Right. 
 
MADDOW:  They will tell you that it`s a priority for them and they want a candidate and a nominee who`s going to be good on that issue.  The other thing they want more than that if they are voting in the Democratic primary this year is to beat President Trump and make him a one-term president and a big part of the narrative that Americans have told each other and told ourselves about how Trump won in 2016 is that he won the coal states, that he won states the Democrat used to win and he won them basically by going in and saying, I`m going to revive the coal industry. 
 
And so, what happens in Pennsylvania and Ohio and other states like that, West Virginia even, where the president made that his point of a -- made that his point of attack. 
 
INSLEE:  Well, what I have shown is we can win Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois and Kansas because we won it this year.  I was chairman of the Democratic Governors Association and I worked with our candidates to fashion an economic development message that will create jobs for people in all kinds of industries, including manufacturing industries, in part around clean energy jobs, and we flipped five seats right down the heartland of the Midwest. 
 
Don`t say we can`t win in them (ph).  We won in the Midwest big time with my governors who I was associated with, because we came up with smart messages, not just the Midwest.  We picked up two governor`s seats not Southwest where Michelle Lujan Grisham campaigned on top of a wind turbine and Steve Sisolak is going to be building solar farms. 
 
So, this is a message that can connect to the economic anxieties of people with whom we did not connect in 2016.  Look, somebody who was challenging me, you know, Senator McCain`s daughter was challenging me today on another show. 
 
MADDOW:  I`ve heard of that show. 
 
INSLEE:  And I point -- she said, how can you have economic growth?  I said because we`re going to build a General Motors Volts, I`ve got a General Motors Volt sitting in my driveway, built I think in Orion, Michigan. 
 
Iowa has wind turbines like crazy.  Nevada is building solar farms.  In my state, you can`t turnover a rock without seeing clean energy jobs. 
 
This is not just a hallucination.  The clean energy jobs today are growing twice as fast as the average in U.S. economy.  Number one fastest growing job: solar installer.  Number two: wind turbine technician. 
 
So, this is a perfect way to connect with those economic anxieties and win those states, which is critical to beating Donald Trump. 
 
I think there is a deeper contrast with him.  I really believe in contrast.  Look, he is a pessimist.  He`s a fearful person with moronic ideas that wind turbines will say you can never have a television set to work, what a bunch of baloney that is.  We are the optimist. We are can-do people. 
 
We don`t fear the future, we build it.  We don`t fear challenge, we embrace it.  We don`t fear the world, we create new worlds.  That`s who we are as American people. 
 
So, I think that we hewing to the deeper character that was alive when John F. Kennedy said we`re going to the moon.  And I believe that America can respond and they are responding, and we`ve had contributors from the last day and a half from all 50 states.  Proud to say we raised our first million dollars.  So, apparently, people out there share my passion for the subject and confidence.
 
MADDOW:  We`ll be right back with Governor Jay Inslee of Washington right after this.  Stay with us.
 
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
 
MADDOW:  Back with us again is Washington Governor Jay Inslee who`s running for the Democratic presidential nomination. 
 
Governor, thanks for sticking with us.
 
INSLEE:  Thank you.
 
MADDOW:  Let me ask you about your state vis-a-vis the Trump administration.  I mentioned in the introduction that you were the first state to sue over the Muslim ban.  We got a question from a constituent of yours today because we advertised the fact that we`re going to have you.  Her name is Mary Lockett Johnson (ph). 
 
And she asked us about the lawsuit from 16 states challenging the president over his national emergency for a border wall.  Your state has not joined that.  She said curious why Washington did not join the lawsuit against Trump`s national emergency declaration. 
 
Is that related to the governor`s presidential bid? 
 
INSLEE:  No, we are going to sue the president as we have on at least 16 occasions or 20 by now and we`ve been very successful.  I`m glad that we were the first to shut down the Muslim ban.  Bob Ferguson is a great attorney general for us, and I`m proud to have been the first governor to fight against it. 
 
But in this case, we will sue him at the moment that he purports to take a dollar out of our state.  But that yet --
 
(CROSSTALK)
 
MADDOW:  You want standing. 
 
INSLEE:  We want to have standing.  We want to make sure we win.  There`s a concept in the law you have to have standing to be able to bring the lawsuit.  We want to make sure we win that. 
 
When we have standing, the moment he says he`s going to take a dollar out of this for his vanity bumper sticker project on the southern border, we will sue.  The complaint has been drafted. 
 
So, Mary, be confident.  We will continue to be very aggressive protecting our rights. 
 
MADDOW:  One of the ways that Republicans tried to rally other Republicans to oppose the emergency on the national emergency declaration was by saying, you let him declare a national emergency something like this, you`re going to get some crazy Democrat in there somebody who`s going to declare a climate emergency and that was supposed to be such a terrifying idea that it would rattle Republicans -- 
 
INSLEE:  Right.
 
MADDOW:  -- into abandoning the president on that.  What`s your reaction to that for -- 
 
(CROSSTALK)
 
INSLEE:  Well, first off, listen, there is no national emergency on the boarder.  There is a political emergency, which is Donald Trump is in trouble because of his multiple depredations, OK?  It is a vanity project, and we have better things to spend those billions on. 
 
I`ve got kids that need college education who are trying to expand early childhood education.  We`ve got things to do with the money number one.  Number two, I do believe it`s unlawful and unconstitutional, and it is very clear for this reason -- look, the president went to Congress and asked Congress for the money to build the wall. 
 
The Congress on a bipartisan basis, both parties, his party and Democrats, agreed we will not do that.  That is a terrible idea.  They rejected his request. 
 
MADDOW:  A resident Inslee who went to Congress and said, we need a moon shoot for renewable energy, Congress said no, a President Inslee would not declare a national emergency. 
 
INSLEE:  Not under the current -- not under the current system that we have in place today, not under our understanding of the law because we believe that would be a violation of the separation of powers and it would be a consistent refusal to honor the decision by Congress. 
 
This is not like we all of a sudden had an emergency in Congress and hadn`t had a chance to think about it.  He went to Congress, Congress said no.  Now, if the rules changed, look, if the surprise court changes the rules, all of the presidents have to follow whatever those rules are then. 
 
And we know that climate is an emergency.  If you go to Paradise, California, as I did, a town of 25,000, and you walk through or drive through like I did at dark, it looks like a neutron bomb went off.  It looks like an apocalypse, and 80-plus people died.
 
We have a true national emergency.  It is climate change.  It demands an immediate response.  But the best way to do it is to have Congress and the president pass legislation and get this job done.  I will be proposing very specific propels on how to do that. 
 
MADDOW:  Governor Jay Inslee of Washington state, congratulations --
 
INSLEE:  Thank you.  Appreciate you having us.
 
(CROSSTALK)
 
MADDOW:  -- success thus far.  Keep us apprised as this goes on.
 
INSLEE:  All right.  We`ll be around. 
 
MADDOW:  Thank you, sir. 

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