MSNBC "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" - Transcript: "Interview with David Plouffe."
Interview
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O`DONNELL: At the beginning of the impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump, all 100 United States senators will raise their right hands and take this oath as jurors. I solemnly swear that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of Donald J. Trump now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the constitution and laws. So help me God. Joining us now is one of the senators who will take that oath if the House of Representatives impeach the President. New Jersey Democratic Senator Cory Booker. He is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committees. And he is now a candidate for President of the United States. So nobody saw this coming as Presidential candidates but you could end up as a juror in an impeachment trial of the person you`re running against. Could you take that oath that I just read and then fairly play your role as a juror in the side?
SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Absolutely. This is a sobering thing and it should be separate and apart of. Look, I`m confident about our ability to take down Donald Trump. I wouldn`t be running if I didn`t think I could beat him but those are for all the political reasons. This is something entirely separate. Did he or did he not betray his oath? Did he or did he not create potential treason against his country and put his own interest in front of our national security interests? So I think those questions could be held independently. He still could be a very bad person, a very - all the things that I think could be the reason why I`m running but to be independent from this. We have to in this time. All 535 people should be sober. 535 Congress people should be sober, should be deliberative. This is not a gleeful time. This is a time - a sad time that we should be putting patriotism before partisanship. We should be putting our oath to defend the constitution ahead of our political agendas for the future.
O`DONNELL: Have you talked to any other Presidential candidates, the five others who are senators and may be potential jurors in this about how you all approach this?
BOOKER: You know, I`ve got good friendships among the Senators who are there and I`ve had a very brief conversations since it`s all been breaking as are leading into this recess we`re in right now. But all of us, I think had a similar feeling when we were down in Iowa for the Iowa Steak Fry which is great thing for vegan to say. But we all were saying sort of the same sentiment up, we thought he could not shock us anymore but when this stuff was breaking, it was still pretty damn shocking.
O`DONNELL: Would you suspend your campaign and stay in the impeachment trial?
BOOKER: I`ll - I think that the impeachment trial should go on. I have an obligation to be there - one of the more I think solemn obligations of this office should it ever come to impeachment to sit in that jury trial and do what you have to do.
O`DONNELL: And this actually goes to the - in a in a certain kind of way incentive of the jurors. Would you as a candidate, as the nominee of the Democratic Party, would you prefer to be running against Donald Trump as the nominee of the Republican Party than any other possible Republican nominee?
BOOKER: Let me - let me make this clear as much as I find what Donald Trump does is deeply distasteful, deeply hurting and wounding to our nation, to our character, he commits moral vandalism every day, I would prefer us not to be where we are today. I would prefer it not to be a point where we need impeachment proceedings because this is a sad day for America, that we should have a President that would engage in such behavior to necessitate an impeachment. So I wish this was not going on. I wish we were going towards what would be the show down about 13 months from now. I`ll be prepared to beat him. I`ll take a lot of pleasure in going up against him but that`s a fight that I will take one way or the other whether he`s there or not. So this this is something, I`m hoping all of us who really want him gone will step back and understand that our constitution is at stake here. There are - there are principles that are far deeper than our partisans beliefs or our political ambitions. This is a moment we should all look at this with sober eyes and deal with the facts and the evidence.
O`DONNELL: You`re a member of Judiciary jurisdiction or the Justice department. You`re a member of Foreign Relation Jurisdiction of the State Department. You discovered something about the heads of both of those departments today. The Secretary of State Pompeo was listening to the call. Attorney General Barr is trying to get help for Donald Trump from other countries in his re-election campaign.
BOOKER: They both are implicated now and they both have to answer a lot of questions. Where were they, what did they know? What did they do with what they knew? Obviously we`ve seen evidence of cover ups. Were they involved in that because we know many times a cover up can be as bad or worse than the crime? This is an administration that seems to be rotting from the core and infecting a lot of people around. I`m happy to see that there are more than one whistleblowers it seems. People that are willing to tell the truth or talk about what`s going on. So there`s a lot of investigation to do. I hope we do it quickly as possible but this thing has yet to begun. I think we`re in the foothills of understanding the mountains of challenges and potential violations that are going to be coming out.
O`DONNELL: Senator Cory Booker, thank you very much.
BOOKER: Thank you very much.
O`DONNELL: I appreciate it.
BOOKER: Thank you.
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