MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Elizabeth Warren

Interview

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HAYES:  He`s been promising that plan for about three years now.  You`re still waiting.  If the Trump-back lawsuit succeeds and there is no replacement bill, here`s what happens.  21 million people could lose health care coverage between the Medicaid expansion and the exchanges, spending to fight opioid addiction will be slashed, 133 million Americans with pre- existing conditions will lose their protections in buying health insurance.  171 million would no longer have caps in the cost of expensive treatments and the entire health insurance system, the whole thing will be thrown into utter chaos.
 
This is the battleground on which the 2020 election will now be fought thanks to the president.  Joining me now one of the Democrats who wants to take Trump on in that fight who`s rolling out policy after policy.  She seeks to become her party`s presidential nominee Democratic Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.  Welcome to the show.
 
Senator, let`s start on the health care news.  What do you make of the reporting that they tried to convince the president not to do this including the Attorney General and the head of HHS and he did it anyway?
 
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE:  Look, it`s been clear from the beginning that they never intended to repeal and replace right?  All they wanted to do is just burn down the health care system.  And I assume the principal reason is because it helps a lot of people who are not wealthy and part of the Trump energy.
 
And so my view on this is we just got to fight them back.  We have to defend healthcare.  This is -- they have put it in front of us and we said this is part of what Democrats are about.  We defend healthcare.  That`s one of our principle core issues and we will fight this all the way.
 
HAYES:  You know, I`ve followed your writing and your speaking on the subject of sort of corruption in Washington D.C. and the sort of influence of corporate America and big industries.  And I`m curious what you think of this move because the health insurance industry does not want this.  In fact, they`ve explicitly come out against it.  They have tremendous sway on Capitol Hill.
 
This is something that is so destructive, so out past the bounds of what people want even inside the industry with a lot of money and they`re still doing it.  How do you make sense of that?
 
WARREN:  Well, you know, I think it`s -- you have to remember.  In something like the healthcare industry, there are a lot of conflicting areas.  So you may be right.  Some of the insurance companies don`t want it, but the flipside is shoot, a lot of the drug companies, they`re fine, right?
 
However, so long as they can just keep charging high drug prices and nobody`s going after them to negotiate those prices and try to pull them down, good with the big drug companies.  And there`s just a bottom line ugliness about this.  Take away health care from 20 million Americans and then celebrate afterwards.
 
You watched it, I watched it.  I was -- I was in the Senate.  I watched the House after they passed the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and gave each other high-fives.  What kind of people give each other high-fives over taking away health care from 20 million Americans?
 
HAYES:  Is there a way -- I saw some reporting about this.  Obviously, the Democrats don`t have the majority in the Senate.  It`s very hard to bring things up when Mitch McConnell runs floor time there.  Is there any way to legislatively get around this in terms of some sort of defunding of the DOJ`s use of the lawsuit or anything like that?
 
WARREN:  You know, look, there`ll be efforts -- we`ll try, we`ll also try to restore funding as part of the budget negotiations.  As you say, there are a lot of Republicans who don`t want to be here.  But ultimately, I see this is very different.  I see this is the war of ideas.
 
This is about where you think this country ought to go and what you think the 2020 election ought to be about.  Donald Trump thinks what it should be about is he gets his base all stirred up and he shows how tough and manly he is by taking away health care for millions of people.
 
I think there`s another set of ideas that Democrats need to be talking about.  I`ve proposed a wealth tax and out of that universal child care and cutting the student loan debt burden, and building millions of new housing units, and attacking racial redlining head-on.
 
Those are changes that we should be talking about with the American people.  We have this incredible opportunity during a primary to talk about ideas.  And if you think that ideas are important and going to be an important part of what happens to this country going forward, then look, we`re coming to the end of the quarter.
 
And I could use everyone`s help on this.  Go to ElizabethWarren.com.  Pitch in some money.  Volunteer, sign up, but be part of the notion that we need to be in a war of ideas, that we need to push our ideas forward.  I need help to keep putting those ideas in the debate.  We need our Democratic ideas to talk about not just being the tail on the dog that Donald Trump wants.
 
HAYES:  You have -- you have a new policy proposal about antitrust and agribusiness which I want to talk about in a second.  Before I go and get to that, I do want to talk about Puerto Rico because the President -- this is part of the budget fight.  The president has zero -- like really fixated on this.  All the reporting says this is the rare policy issue he`s quite obsessed with.  No more money for Puerto Rico.  What`s your response to that?
 
WARREN:  You know, first of all, we have already allocated money to Puerto Rico that this administration is held up.  And the money we`ve allocated to Puerto Rico is not nearly enough.  So this is ugly piled on ugly.
 
Donald Trump has done this to Puerto Rico and it is -- it is fundamentally wrong.  This is three million American citizens who are held hostage to a government right now that doesn`t want to make sure that they get basic health care, that they have decent housing, that they have enough food for their children to eat.
 
Donald Trump is fundamentally wrong on this and whether you`re Democrat or Republican and Independent, every one of us should be pushing back.  The people of Puerto Rico are part of all of us.  They are American citizens.  They send their sons and daughters to serve in our military in higher proportions than almost any group in the United States of America.
 
And right now this is an island with people who are suffering.  It is our responsibility as American citizens and as human beings to step up on behalf of Puerto Rico.  The entire Congress Republican and Democrat should push back at Donald Trump over this.
 
HAYES:  You do have a new policy today that you rolled out about agribusiness.  And some of it takes on sort of I think using antitrust tools to go after some of the largest agribusiness concerns.  One of them is a specific policy that is very interesting to me and I`ve read a bit about before which is called right to repair.  Can you explain what that -- what is a national right to repair law?
 
WARREN:  So let me just put it in the context.  As you rightly said, I`ve been talking for a very long time about the importance of enforcing our antitrust laws.  The idea is that these giant corporations begin to just take over whole markets, they wipe out competition, they squeeze everybody else`s profits, and that we need a level playing field.  And the way we do that is we simply enforce the antitrust laws or places where they`re incomplete we need to add to them.
 
So Right To Repair starts with this problem.  A company puts out really sophisticated equipment and then says if it breaks, the only one who can repair it is you`ve got to bring it back to the company.  That means you don`t get to repair it at home the way my daddy and my three older brothers used to do.  You don`t get to take it to a shop in town where there are three competing places.  Both of those keep costs down for small farms.  Instead, you got to take it back to the one company that sold it to you and they can charge whatever they want to charge.  Because as long as the thing is broken you can`t get any use out of it.
 
So right to repair just basically says hey guys, you got to make the information and the parts available.  You get to sell them.  You can make a profit on it, but you got to make it available to everyone.  So once a small farm has purchased a piece of equipment, they can either try to repair it themselves if it breaks or they can take it to repair shops in town.
 
It`s just one more way to try to level the playing field a little bit we`re a giant corporation is said no we`re going to scoop up all the profits for ourselves.
 
HAYES:  Let me ask you -- this is a question about your approach here.  And you have rolled out a lot of policy on red line as you said, the wealth tax, this new policy on sort of agricultural concerns.  Do you believe that policy can win people over particularly a general election?
 
In a primary when you`ve got a lot of different kind of candidates, I understand you`re sort of differentiating yourself and is stuff you actually believe in, I`m not saying you don`t.  But do you think in a general election that policy is what people vote on can you win over certain voters with stuff like this?
 
WARREN:  So I believe -- let me do this in two parts.  I believe that in a primary this is our chance to talk about policy and to be able to explain to each other and to the rest of the world these are the things we think are important and worth fighting for.
 
Understand it`s not policy in the abstract, it`s a statement of our values.  When I say millionaires wealth tax two percent, and that we could pay for universal childcare and universal pre-k for every one of our children, we could reduce the student loan debt burden, we can actually build more housing, we could attack racial redlining head-on with that money, that`s not just a statement about budgets, it`s a statement about our values.
 
I think if we keep those ideas in the debate right now, that makes us a stronger Democratic Party.  That`s why I said I could use help on this.  Go to ElizabethWarren.com.  It`s not about even at this point who you`re voting for in a year.  It`s about keeping these ideas.  The Democrats should be the party of ideas.  We should be the party that`s driving the debate.  And that`s how we do it with tangible ideas that will touch people`s lives.
 
You know, an example around this.  That wealth tax is not only popular among Democrats and Independents, a majority of Republicans support it.  And then once you see how much money it produces --
 
HAYES:  It`s a lot.
 
WARREN:  Go out and talk to families about what it would mean to have universal childcare, high-quality childcare available for free for millions of families, what that would mean.  And for low-cost for other families, what it would mean to reduce the student loan debt burden.
 
These are things that touch people`s lives every day and this is how the Democrats show, not tell, show that we really are out there on the side of working people, that we don`t believe that government should just work for the rich and powerful.  We believe it ought to work for all of us.
 
HAYES:  All right Senator Elizabeth Warren, thank you so much for making some time tonight.
 
WARREN:  Thank you.
 
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