MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Robert Mueller

Interview

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HAYES: All right, Natasha, I want to pause you there, and Matt and Ben,  I`m going to come back to you but I want to first go to Senator Mazie  Hirono. I`m joined by two Democratic Lawmakers who have oversight at the  Justice Department. Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono, Member of the Senate  Judiciary Committee and New York Congressman Jerrold Nadler who joins me  here. He`s the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee. And  Senator, let me start with you.

SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D), HAWAII: Yes.

HAYES: We have -- there`s a flurry of news and activities suggesting the  President might move against Rod Rosenstein including a report that they  are essentially trying to create a pretext for firing him, that members of  Congress are sort of asking for documents. They know he can`t give because  they want to create a sort of paper trail pretext for the President to fire  Rod Rosenstein. What`s your reaction to that?

HIRONO: My reaction to this is that the President is under assault on all  fronts and this is a very bad situation because, in the best of times, he  has a very hard time staying to a course and even thinking through a  course. So here we are. He`s lashing out at everything and everybody and  a lot of us have been concerned about the Mueller investigation and the  President`s attempts to try and derail it. And it seems to be coming to a  head which is one of the reasons that we feel a sense of urgency for Senate  to act on a bill that would prevent the President from firing either Rod  Rosenstein or Mueller because by doing that, he thinks that he is going to  end this investigation which he continues to call a witch hunt. Obviously,  it isn`t, otherwise, he wouldn`t be so worked up about it.

HAYES: Your colleague Mark Warner called for a cooling off period. He  discussed -- told a meeting of Democrats they should take a one-or-two-day  cooling off period. If Trump fires Rosenstein, take that time to reach out  to Republicans, push back against the White House. It will mean more if  it`s bipartisan. What do you think of that strategy?

HIRONO: My hope is that the Senate, especially the Senate Judiciary  Committee will do its job. We see signs -- I hear signs of hope among some  of my Senate colleagues on the Republican side that they want this Mueller  investigation to continue. And should President act irresponsibly and  precipitously, my hope is at least in the Senate, we will enact very  quickly a legislation even after the fact to prevent the President from  going through with any firing of either Mueller or Rosenstein? My hope is  that that is what the Senate will do.

HAYES: The President is also considering at this moment with the National  Security Council, with the Department of Defense strikes on Syria. Do you  support those strikes?

HIRONO: If he`s going to strike against Syria, he needs to come to  Congress and get approval, you know. He needs to come and ask us to do  that because we are no longer fighting Syria because of ISIS. We would be  going after Syria because of their use of chemical weapons. And that  should be done -- that kind of action should be done in collaboration with  our allies. It should not be done by a President whose under fire at all  fronts and he`s going to do something rash and it will have major  consequences, negative for our country as well as the people of Syria.

HAYES: All right, Senator Mazie Hirono, thanks for joining us tonight.

HIRONO: Thank you.

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