MSNBC "Hardball with Chris Matthews" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Richard Blumenthal

Interview

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MATTHEWS: Thank you so much, Andrea Mitchell.

Former CIA director John Brennan who`s also an MSNBC senior national  security contributor, showed serious alarm about Trump`s performance today.

Brennan tweeted, Donald Trump`s press conference performance in Helsinki  rises to and exceeds the threshold of high crimes and misdemeanors. It was  nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump`s comments imbecilic, he  was also wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican patriots, where are  you?
Let me go to Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.

Sir, I don`t know what to say except to ask you that question. What do you  think of the phrase high crimes and misdemeanors right there by the former  CIA director?

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D), CONNECTICUT: Unquestionably, Donald Trump  failed to fulfill his oath of office, namely to protect our nation against  all enemies, foreign and domestic. He was a patsy, a puppet, a pushover,  an appeaser. And he blamed everyone except himself and Vladimir Putin. In  fact, instead of putting America first he blamed America first. Our own  intelligence community.

And Chris, you know, my mind went back to that first day in office, all of  us remember it, when he went to the CIA and he stood before those stars.  Each of them a memorial to a member of the intelligence community who has  given his or her life for this country. Today he threw that intelligence  community under the bus, choosing to believe Vladimir Putin instead of  them.

And the threat is real. We are talking about a real and urgent threat to  our national security because there are ongoing and pervasive efforts, as  Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, said today, and there is  unvarnished and objective evidence. Those are his words too that it is  continuing. We need our allies now more than ever because they are under  attack too and there are actions we can and should take on a bipartisan  basis in this Congress.

MATTHEWS: What do you make of this harmonizing? It`s one thing to say my  opponent here, my competitor, whatever, I agree with him on one or two  points. He harmonized with him. Like the Everly Brothers when we grew up.  Absolute agreement with everything, every single syllable of what Putin  says he agreed with.
What is the motive for that? I don`t even -- the most right-wing, most  pro-Trump person doesn`t want to hear this lickspittle from an American  President. Why was he lip-syncing the words of Mr. Putin? I don`t -- it`s  ungraspable.

BLUMENTHAL: I tend to put less stock in this theory that Donald Trump is  just a novice or a newcomer to diplomacy. My question is what does Putin  have on Trump? That`s a question that only the special counsel will answer  with proof and evidence. That is proof beyond a reasonable doubt, as he  did about the involvement of Russian foreign intelligence agents in that  indictment on Friday. And then the arrest today of a Russian plant. That  investigation by the department of justice, our intelligence community, is  moving forward meticulously and methodically.

To answer the question, why is Donald Trump putting Putin and Russia above our own national interests and in effect colluding with the criminal leader of a hostile power, as the "Washington Post" said so well today.

MATTHEWS: Thank you so much, senator Richard Blumenthal. And thank you  NBC`s Andrea Mitchell.

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