MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript: Interview with Jeff Merkley

Interview

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SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D-OR): Thank you, Rachel. Good to be with you. It`s a significant event tomorrow.

MADDOW: What are you expecting to happen tomorrow in the Senate?

MERKLEY: Well, I anticipate and I hope that we will have 50 votes to proceed. I want Democrats to be united.

We`ve had engagement from every member of the caucus and engagement from Joe Manchin, working hard to lay out a vision of how we protect these fundamental values in our Constitution, the right to vote, the ability to keep billionaires from buying elections, the ability to keep politicians from gerrymandering districts to attack equal representation, how to make sure there aren`t conflicts of interest so public servants serve the public -- four core values in this legislation important to every American.

It`s why this bill has such bipartisan support across the country, everywhere except in the Senate.

MADDOW: I`m struck by the very high levels of support in public polling for the legislation both as a whole and when you break it down into constituent parts. Our previous guest was talking about how it gets, you know, 70 percent and 80 percent support in some states around the country. Nowhere is it unpopular.

The stark contrast with it having zero Republican support, no Republican senator saying that he is or she is going to vote for it or potentially even vote for a motion to debate it. Does that surprise you since you debate -- since you first introduced this back in March that it hasn`t picked up any Republican support?

MERKLEY: It hasn`t surprised me too much in that we`ve seen this Mitch McConnell play before. It`s kind of that split between principle and power politics. On the principles, Republicans across the country supermajority embrace this. They believe in this. They believe in defending the ballot box, they defending in billionaires not buying elections.

But in the Senate, Mitch McConnell is all about winning the next election. And the next election will be funded by dark money, so he wants to defend dark money. He wants to have gerrymandering in place so that the House is more likely to be a Republican House rather than a Democratic-controlled House.

And he certainly wants to get his members elected. And that means putting obstructions and barriers in the way of folks who tend to vote Democratic. Black Americans, communities of color, maybe American tribes and college students. And this really is horrific.

This is pre-1965. This is undermining the most fundamental vision of citizens participating in their democracy. So, it is shameful. And I would hope that a number of my Republican colleagues would like to vote to say, yes, we should have this bill on the floor. But they`re facing the intense power politics of Mitch McConnell and they`re wilting under that pressure.

MADDOW: Senator Jeff Merkley, the lead sponsor of the for the people act getting that first key vote tomorrow afternoon in the Senate -- good luck to you, sir. We would love to have you back soon to talk about next steps once we see what happens in that important vote tomorrow. Thank you.

MERKLEY: Thank you very much, Rachel.

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