Rep. Maxine Waters showed up for appearance on All In With Chris Hayes ready to kick ass and name names. Seriously, California congresswoman brought a detailed list of people associated with Donald Trump, his former campaign and his current White House staff, all of whom have ties to Russia and the oil and gas industry. Watch her connect the “Kremlin Klan” dots and read the red hot transcript below:
HAYES: Let's go to congresswoman Maxine waters, Democrat from California. I wanted to have you on to respond to something said by the white house chief of staff reince Priebus speaking about -- we've seen a flurry of activity on capitol hill in which James Comey has briefed both the house and senate intelligence committee. That was briefing last week that everyone was lockstep silent out of. And the chief of staff is asked about what investigations are being pursued, what he's been told. Here's what he said. Take a listen.
[Clip of Reince Preibus interview:
I talked to the top levels of the intelligence community and they assured me that that "New York Times" story was grossly overstated and inaccurate and totally wrong. I know what the intelligence committees in the house and the senate were told by the FBI and what I was told and what I will tell you is that story is total bologna.
HAYES: The story is about the fact that four different people connected to the campaign spoke to senior intelligence officials. Do you believe that when Reince Priebus says that?
WATERS: Let me say this. Reince Priebus has been trying to clean up for Donald Trump for far too long. He's the one that stuck with him all during the campaign when he was making outrageous statements. When he was basically lying and so his time is going to run out. He can't continue to try to defend this president who is entangled with this Kremlin clan of his while they are all seeking really to get rid of these sanctions that are placed on Russia because all of them are connected to the oil and gas industry.
Just take a look at this. Take a look at, of course, Michael Flynn, long history of ties to the Russian government, including a paid speech at a party for R.T. Paul manafort, trump's former campaign manager, paid lobbyist Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian politician in Ukraine who fled to Russia in 2014, Carter page, one of trump's foreign policy advisers during his campaign, frequent guest on Russian state media, held a personal stake in Russian oil and gas interest. Roger stone who worked in the Ukraine. Wilbur Ross, Trump's nominee for Secretary of Commerce was a business partner of Viktor. A major financial project involving the bank of Cyprus and, of course, secretary of state Rex Tillerson who was the one who negotiate it, the multibillion dollar drilling contract with Putin where they were going to drill in the arctic and it has been stopped because of the sanctions that were placed by Obama and I want to tell you, I believe that Tillerson's real job is to get in here and get those sanctions lifted. But all of them want them lifted because this clan, this Kremlin clan is all about getting the oil and gas money and doing the drilling and they need this president. They need this president to get these sanctions lifted. Don't forget, the second executive order that was signed by the president that was 1504 which basically would undo the work we have done with Dodd-Frank and making these oil companies disclose the money that they were using to bribe these countries with in Africa and other places. So 1504 was very important because Exxon and others now not have to disclose all of the bribes they're doing. But these people are all organized around oil and gas.
Why are they fall this administration? Why are they all so close to them? And you alluded to and talked about what is going on with this proposal that is being pushed by Michael Cohen, the president's personal lawyer who delivered the document. Felix Sater, a business associate who helped Mr. Trump scout deals in Russia and a Ukrainian lawmaker trying to rise in political opposition movement shaped in part by Mr. Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort. Can't people see what's going on? Why do you think they hacked into our election? They hacked into the election because they have to make sure that Donald Trump got elected. So this that he could help them with what I think a huge deal. Not only to lift these sanctions but to take over all of these soviet countries and pull them back into the soviet union so
they can have access to all of these resources. It's clear to me and I just think the American people had better understand what's going on. This is a bunch of scumbags. That's what they are.
HAYES: Those are strong words, congresswoman.
WATERS: They're all organized by making money.
HAYES: Who do you mean that when you call them scumbags?
WATERS: All of these people that are organized with these oil and gas interest in the administration and friends of the president of the United States. This back channeling that you see. These are a bunch of scumbags, that's what they are.
HAYES: You mean the secretary of state of the United States?
WATERS: Well, I tell you this, Tillerson is there to get these sanctions lifted. I believe it, just watch him. He's going to continue to work on it. This is important for him. He was there because he negotiated the deal for Exxon with Putin.
HAYES: All right, well that -- there will be a big fight over that if that happens. Congresswoman Maxine Waters, thank you for your time.