MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Rashida Tlaib

Interview

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REID:  First-term Congressman Rashida Tlaib introduced an impeachment resolution of her own last month before the Mueller report came out.  And after it was finally released last week, she circulated the proposal again, earning support from a small but vocal contingent of the House freshman class including Ihan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.
 
And Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib joins me now.  And Congresswoman, thank you so much for being here.
 
TLAIB:  Thank you for having me.
 
REID:  So let`s first talk about this conference call that the speaker held today.  In your view, what did that accomplish and were you a participant in it?
 
TLAIB:  No.  I mean, I was not on the call so I can`t really talk about it.  But one of the things I want you all to know is you know, the resolution that I introduced, it holds the president accountable to anti-corrupt laws that are in the United States Constitution.  Because even prior to Mueller`s report, before it came out, I think one of the things that I kept hammering down on is the fact that we have a president, the first time ever in history that hasn`t divested in his domestic and foreign businesses.
 
Why that`s important is to understand that when he makes decisions, when the president, the person that`s in the Oval Office makes decisions on behalf of the American people, it can`t be in direct conflict with his businesses.  And that`s why they have the emoluments causing the United States Constitution.
 
So in the same breath that we have companies like T-Mobile who wants to merge with Sprint is spending you know, close to $200,000 at the D.C. Trump Hotel in lobbying the federal government at the same time you know, there are worries that that is corruption.  And that`s some sort of way to what I call, the upgraded version of pay-to-play into the corridor of power.
 
And the fact that we have a sitting CEO that is the President United States it`s like a corporation is running our country and it`s lawlessness that we constantly see.  And for folks that are concerned obviously about what`s in the Mueller report, they should be even more concerned about the fact that the President of the United States after he took the oath of office, after he said he`s going to uphold the United States Constitution still to this day hasn`t divested in his businesses and has made profits like $40 million in 2017 while he`s sitting as a sitting president.
 
I don`t care for your Republican or Democrat, you should be worried about this because this sets the precedent, that precedent that it`s OK that you have these conflicts, that there is this corruption that`s happening, and that businesses and including foreign governments can just go stay at the Trump Hotel and lobby our government to support certain positions.
 
And it`s wrong because this will not be the last CEO that runs for president in the United States and we need to send a strong message that you won`t do that.  You will not corrupt our democracy and you will not use the most powerful position in the country for your benefit and putting profits before people.
 
REID:  Well, also, Congresswoman, it sounds like you`re making a case for impeachment based on potential violations of the Emoluments Clause, potential corruption involving Donald Trump`s businesses.  That is not what was covered by Robert Mueller`s investigation.  So would you then to the position of a lot of members of your leadership who say that there should be hearings that then draw out things like what you just talked about and draw out other cases that could potentially lead to impeachment but that are not impeachment right now.
 
TLAIB:  Absolutely.  So my resolution is what we you know, President Nixon and what happened there, same thing.  It was a resolution to investigate whether or not there has been impeachable offenses.  So my resolution that was introduced and that`s gaining some supported and I`m trying to encourage our folks to use this process, use a congressional committee process to actually investigate this president and his actions.
 
You know, if folks want to focus on before that`s great.  But I also say, let`s see if how much of what Mueller is talking about has seeped in to the Oval Office, seeped in to the White House administration, and we`ve already seen that in the Mueller`s report that it has seeped into our democracy in a way that I feel like goes way beyond what Nixon and any other person that was being investigated -- any other president before him was being investigated on.
 
You know, we can`t sit back and do nothing because if anything, even if he`s not impeachable at that time, if he`s doesn`t -- if we`re not successful in impeaching him, at least we`re investigating it, doing our due diligence to hold him accountable.  And you never know.
 
One, a lot of people laugh at me when I say maybe he`ll try to comply and actually do what he`s supposed to do.  But second of it, we`ll look at the Mueller report and look at some of the actions over a thousand contacts between the Trump Organization and the Trump administration since he`s been in office, that alone gets you into criminal corrupt activities that I think as a sitting member of Congress I couldn`t get away with.
 
So we can`t let him get away with not holding them accountable.  Let`s do the process of the committee and investigate and dig deeper into this.  And again we can`t focus on these around political strategy.  It`s around putting our country first.
 
REID:  Well, a lot of your colleagues and it sounds like your leadership are concerned that what Rudy Giuliani said is actually true, that impatiens would be the best thing that happened to Donald Trump.  It`ll make him -- it`ll make his base more fired up for the 2020 election.  What do you make of that argument that is being made by a lot of folks in your own leadership?
 
TLAIB:  Look, at home right here in the 13th Congressional District, you know what I hear people is how come he can get away with that.  How come you guys are not looking into this deeper?  You know, put character flaws aside and this president has a lot of character flaws.  Put it aside.  Look at specifically the actions he`s done.
 
Because a lot of the things we were fighting for, access to health care from holding you know, for corporations accountable, to pushing back on the high rates of insulin, all of those things are directly connected to how this president acts on these policy areas.  And if we have outside you know, corporations and those folks using this upgraded version of pay-to- play knowing that this guy has not, this president, the sitting president has not divested in his business, they know how to get to him and they`re getting to him through his businesses.
 
And that to me is dangerous and we need to hold him accountable to that.  And I`ll tell you, many, many residents are sitting back asking why aren`t we doing more.  And I`ll tell you more and more people when it comes out of the committee process, not through the media, not through articles, not through social media, but through the official United States Congress congressional committee hearing, people will start understanding that this is so much more and so much bigger than being a Republican or Democratic issue or whether that`s a 2020 issue.
 
They`re going to see that this is the United States of America issue and again we can`t set a precedent to allow this president to get away with violating the United States Constitution any longer.
 
REID:  Congressman Rashida Tlaib, thank you very much for joining me.
 
TLAIB:  Thank you.

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