MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Sherrod Brown

Interview

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HAYES: Last November, liberal Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio won  a third term, and he did so by six points in a state that Donald Trump won  by eight. And that victory in Ohio prompted all kinds of speculation about  Sherrod Brown`s potential as a presidential candidate.

Brown himself told the Washington Post, quote, "I really wasn`t thinking  seriously about this until the day after election."

At least six Democrats have indicated they intend to run in 2020: Senator  Elizabeth Warren, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, former HUD Secretary Julian  Castro, Congressman John Delaney, former West Virginia State Senator  Richard Ojeda, and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who just announced her run  in an interview that airs later tonight on The Late Show with Stephen  Colbert.

Which brings us back to Senator Sherrod Brown who is here with me  exclusively tonight and has an announcement of his own.

Senator Sherrod Brown, welcome. What are you up to? SEN. SHERROD BROWN, (D) OHIO: Well, thank you, Chris.

As you know in all the times on this show, and we`ve known each other for  awhile. I spent my entire senate career for the dignity of work. As you  pointed out, we won a state by a comfortable  margin that Trump had won overwhelmingly, and so I`m announcing tonight on  this show that I`m planning a dignity of work listening tour kicking off in  Cleveland and then the first of February going to Iowa with my wife Connie  Schultz, which Iowa, and New Hampshire and Nevada and South Carolina.

And what I want to accomplish is I want to continue to learn about the  dignity of work from everybody from whether you swipe a card, whether you  punch a clock, whether you work for tips, whether you work on salary,  whether you`re taking care of kids, and I want to hear from people around  and I want this conversation and this dignity of work tour to encourage my  colleagues running for president that this should be the narrative.

It`s the best way to govern, fighting for the dignity of work, and it`s the  best way to win elections.

HAYES: So you`re colleagues running for president. So, going to go to  Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, which is the four first  states in the primary schedule. That sounds like you are running for  president.

BROWN: Well, Connie and I have not made that decision. We will make that  decision in the weeks ahead. I said right after the election, as more and  more people began to talk to me -- you know, we begin to notice that  national Democrats and some pundits say that Democrats, they kind of make  this a choice, either Democrats talk to progressives -- to the progressive  base, or they talk to workers, working class families, regardless of race.  To me, you`ve got to do both, that`s how we run Ohio.

You`ve got to talk to workers, you`ve got to have that progressive message.  You talk to workers regardless of what kind of work they do. You do it  without compromise on women`s rights and civil rights and gay rights and  workers rights. And that what we`ve done in Ohio. I think that because  Ohio is in so many ways the number one swing state in the country, a  message that works there, the dignity of work works everywhere.

HAYES: Well, that`s sort of the question, right. I mean, you are someone  who has run statewide many times in Ohio and I think just as a descriptive  matter, had tremendous political success even in a time when that state has  become more Republican and more conservative, those are just what the  numbers bare out.

You managed to win again this year. Do you think that exports everywhere?  Does that message -- and you`re an Ohio boy born and raise. You got a very  deep connection to the state that you`ve cultivated over many, many years  as an elected official in that state. Does it translate?

BROWN: Yeah, a woman working at a diner in Sioux City, Iowa or working as  a physical therapist in Concord, New Hampshire, or working in Reno, Nevada  as a construction worker, or working in Charleston, South Carolina as a  computer operator, or working in an insurance company, all of us in  government need to respect and honor the dignity of work. We don`t do  that, that`s one reason wages have lagged behind.

We have seen corporate profits go up. We`ve seen productivity of workers  go up. We`ve seen executive compensation explode. And wages are flat.  That`s frankly because this government in Washington, especially the  president, the president at the White House looks like a retreat for Wall  Street executives. This president has betrayed workers, whether it`s GM  workers in Lordstown in Ohio or it`s workers that are working construction  in Nevada. He has betrayed workers, and the message of dignity of work  will work for any Democratic nominee that comes down the line in the next  several months.

HAYES: I want to get to two things, quickly. One, the strike in Los  Angeles -- when you talk about dignity of work, the largest labor action  happening in the United States right now is the strike by  the teachers there in Los Angeles. I saw you come out in support for it.  You support that strike?

BROWN: Yeah, I support those teachers. And you know who else supports  those teachers and what I think tells you about how the country is moving  more towards understanding the importance of collective bargaining, the  importance of pensions, the importance of the dignity of work, is a lot of  students join those teachers on those picket lines walking in and out of  the school.

So, I think that it`s young people especially that are changing this  debate. Look at these new particularly female women of color in congress.  But I talked to two, I talked to two women today from  Nevada -- or I mean, from Iowa, two freshman members of congress that were  elected this year that I talked to. And, you know, they are seeing a  change. They are seeing they are respecting and honoring work more. This  congress is different. This country is becoming different. I think the  Los Angeles  teacher`s strike proves that.

HAYES: The preparations to run for president are obviously large. And  you`re sort of undertaking them whether you get an the off ramp or not, I  saw there are people undertaking on the other side. This is an item from  Buzzfeed, two days after you won your third Senate term in Ohio last  November an operative from American Rising, which is a conservative opo research group, sent a public records request for Kent State University 
where your wife, Connie Schultz, teaches several journalism courses. The group sought Schultz`s contracts and performance evaluations. Kent State responded 20 days later with 37 pages of documents.

Do you have a comment on them starting to look at Connie Schultz`, your  wife`s, career right away?

BROWN: Well, I think it says a number of things. First, it says how great  Connie is, how  accomplished she is, how smart she is, how well she works social media,  what a terrific writer she is. People all over the country know that.

The other thing is they take my potential candidacy seriously, and in the  third thing it says is they will be dirty. They will be nasty. I`ve seen  Carl Rove come into my races. And each time I`ve run, I know what he`s up  to. I know that -- and when I think about Donald Trump, I know that  bullies are always cowards. And we will be ready if it comes to that.

HAYES: All right, Senator Sherrod Brown, thanks for making the time.

BROWN: Glad to, thanks.

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