MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Maxine Waters

Interview

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HAYES:  Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler there holding a hastily scheduled press conference in response to the news that we got today that the Attorney General United States Bill Barr who`s already summarized a four- page summary of the Mueller report that the President said vindicated him completely wrongly claimed, it was a total exoneration despite the fact that explicitly said it wasn`t an exoneration, that Barr is tomorrow morning going to have a 9:30 press conference about the report on the day it`s released.
 
And then after the press conference, the report is going to go there.  They don`t have access to anything.  They don`t know what`s in the report.  Barr is going to tell them.  And then at 11:00 after that`s all over, then Congress is going to get the report and the public presumably after that.  Jerry Nadler you see they`re not happy with that, also saying that he may issue subpoenas and make all Mueller members of his team to testify before their committee in the judiciary.
 
Joining me now, one of the Democrats who`s leading the oversight on the Trump administration House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, Democrat of California.  What do you make of all this?
 
WATERS:  Well, let me just say that I just listened to Mr. Nadler`s -- Chairman Nadler`s statement and of course he`s unhappy about the fact that Barr is going to hold this press conference at 9:30 in the morning, and you know a few hours later the members of Congress will have the report.  He thinks that`s not right, on and on and on.  But I never expected Barr to do anything that would be respectful to the members of Congress or to include us in any real way.
 
He has proven himself.  He auditioned for this job.  He was chosen to protect the President of the United States.  And that`s exactly what he`s doing.  So I`m not surprised, I`m not even disgusted because I knew that once he came out and he said there had been no obstruction of justice and that there`d been no collusion, that he absolutely stepped out early to defend the President, to protect the president.
 
I don`t expect any reversal of that.  I expect him to continue to play the role.  He is basically a lackey and a sycophant for the President of the United States of America, and that`s all it`s got to be.  This report is going to be overly redacted and I don`t know if we`re going to get anything new or important out of that.
 
I just wish that the Mueller team would come forward and I hope that Mueller will come before the committee and have a chance to tell his side of what he has done and have the questions given to him by the members of the Judiciary Committee that will help us to get at the truth about this president.  I mean, this president and his minions are absolutely ridiculous and they disrespect the members of Congress.  And you (AUDIO GAP) involved with each other.  His lawyers and (AUDIO GAP) talking with the White House about what`s in the report already.
 
And they are going to push back, they have advanced information, information that the members of Congress don`t even have.  And so members of Congress better know he`s going to keep doing this, he`s going to keep disrespecting us, the Constitution of the United States of America.  And there is no answer to how we should be dealing with him except impeachment.  I`ve been saying it all along.
 
HAYES:  OK.  Well, you have been saying it all along, although that talk got tamp down for a bit.  I want to follow up on that but first let me ask you this question.  You have served in the United States Congress for a bit, and you`ve been through various administrations Democrat and Republican.  You`ve watched the interplay between Congress and the White House often can be tense even within the same party definitely when it`s opposite parties.
 
This White House`s posture towards Democratic House (AUDIO GAP) stack up in your experience in terms of how resistant they have been?
 
WATERS:  (AUDIO GAP) say this and I`m glad that you brought this up because we have the responsibility to do oversight and investigations.  That is a role that is given to us by the Constitution of the United States of America.  This President does not like that.  He would simply try and have the American people believe that somehow we`re on a witch hunt, that we don`t like him, that we`re unhappy because he won the election.  He doesn`t believe in oversight at all.
 
But I and other members of Congress who are attempting to do our job are not going to back up despite all of the tricks and all the maneuvers that he`s putting into play, I and the other five members committees that have responsibility to weigh in on this investigation, we`re going to subpoena.  I know that his lawyers are going to fight us on subpoenas.  As a matter of fact, we have subpoenaed, as you know, from my committee, finance services, Deutsche Bank.  And his lawyers have already been in touch with Deutsche Bank telling them not to respond to us, don`t give us the documents.  If they do, they will fight him every inch of the way.
 
And so this president obviously has a lot to hide.  He has been hiding ever since he has been in office.  The kind of involvement he had with Russia and with Putin and with the oligarchs, et cetera, et cetera, all of the indictments and the convictions that have been gotten on the people around him, including Manafort, et cetera, et cetera, the president is guilty of so many things.  And of course we
should be outraged, and the members of congress should represent their constituents and stand up against this president and demand that he is impeached, because he doesn`t deserve to be the president of the United States. 
 
He is overseeing a criminal enterprise.  We have never seen anything like this.  And so many of Americans are unhappy.  The Republicans, evidently, are frightened in speaking up, woke do anything.  And Democrats, this man is not going to work with us.  He`s not going to cooperate with us.  He`s going to keep going raising money, getting prepared for the elections, and basically undermining all of us and putting all of the dirt, all of the information, everything that he can put together to be able to promote himself.  And we `re going to be up against it in 2020  trying get rid of him, as he should have been gotten rid of already.
 
HAYES:  One final and follow-up question, and it`s about impeachment, there was a period of time -- you have been talking about impeachment, and you think it`s justified, high crimes and  misdemeanors, the constitution demands it.  You have been saying that for a while.  Leadership has tamped that down.  Nancy Pelosi said he is not worth the effort.  You are part of leadership. 
 
Am I hearing a kind of pris de court  that you are breaking with leadership on this?  I mean, I`ve -- less enthusiastic about impeachment, you sound quite gung ho about it right now.
 
WATERS:  Well, here`s what, I absolutely sympathize with the speaker and the job that she has
to do trying to hold all of the factions of our party together, whether we are talking about new Democrats or progressives, et cetera, she has to try in every way to move our caucus forward and to try and continue to deal with the issues that the American people would like to hear us, you know, making, you know, absolutely moving forward on.
 
They want health care.  They want to deal with infrastructure and all of that.  That`s what she is trying to do.  I absolutely understand that.  But I believe very firmly that he should have been impeached by now.  I believe that despite what she has to do and what others may think, I stand exactly where I started out early on with this president.  That he is not worthy of the presidency of the United States of America, that he is not worthy of us trying to even work with him at this point.
 
He has called us all names.  He has lied thousands of times.  It has been documented.  He has put together a memo.  If you are talking about obstruction of justice, when he sat on that airplane after his son, Junior, had been at Trump Tower basically trying to put together information against Hillary Clinton, he lied in a memorandum and said it was about something else.  It was about I think…
 
HAYES:  Adoptions.
 
WATERS:  Yeah, adoptions, that`s what he said, when, in fact, it was not about that.  And we know what Junior has said.  And so when we lineup all this, his basic defense of Putin, his wrapping his arms around him, even saying he is going to bring him to congress, he`s going to bring him to the United States and he`s going to put him in our face.  And we should be outraged by that.
 
So, I would just say, you know, I appreciate again what Nancy Pelosi has to do, but I`m not  with that.  I am for impeachment.  I`m for getting rid of him.
 
HAYES:  Making that very clear.  Congresswoman Maxine Waters, thank you very much for making some time.
 
WATERS:  You`re welcome.

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