MSNBC "The Ed Show" -Transcript

Interview

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SEN. JOHN BARRASSO ®, WYOMING: This is wrong for a number of reasons, the cost issue, the security issue, and it"s just not appropriate. You talked about that large number. Those aren"t people that actually attacked the United States. That"s not al Qaeda terrorists. Those are people who may have perjured themselves or given some--been issues of illegal immigration. We"re not talking about the terrorists that have come here to kill us and who have killed 3,000 people in New York City.

The cost -- the police commissioner of New York City, Ed, said it was going to cost 200 million dollars to do this. Nobody asked him ahead of time. The attorney general didn"t ask Janet Napolitano ahead of time, didn"t ask Mayor Bloomberg ahead of time. Now they"re all saying we don"t want that trial in New York. I don"t think that trial should be anywhere in the United States. This is not a criminal matter. This is a military matter. It is a war crime and should be dealt from a war crime standpoint, with a military tribunal.

SCHULTZ: OK, 2,000 checkpoints, in the minds of many, is pretty much overboard. That"s what Ray Kelly was talking about. You say cost and security. New York has the best security in this country, arguably. The cost--since when do we put a price on justice? You have the best prosecutors, the best judges. You have a motivated population that wants to see justice. And wouldn"t it showcase to the rest of the world how we do our judicial system?

Senator, I just take issue that it just seems that the Republicans, and some Democrats who are afraid about re-election, want to play the security card and it"s just a political hack job on the president. Why wasn"t this out there with the Moussaoui trial? Why weren"t these same arguments made for the 20th hijacker?

BARRASSO: Well, the president has actually called this rank politics yesterday. But the two Democrat senators from New York said we don"t want it here. The mayor from New York has said we don"t want it here.

SCHULTZ: On a reversal.

BARRASSO: And the people of New York have said we don"t want it here; we"re worried about our own security. This administration has not made people of America feel more secure, whether it"s this, whether it is reading the Miranda rights for the Christmas Day bomber. People of America need to feel safe and be safe. Right now, they don"t have that.

SCHULTZ: It was reported by our Justice Department correspondent Pete Williams tonight that the Christmas Day alleged bomber, who was read his Miranda Rights, is now talking with officials and serving up information that"s very valuable. I should also point out that on December 22nd of 2001, Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, senator, he was read his Miranda Rights. Isn"t this a straw man argument that the Republicans are coming up with? Are you saying that we"re weak because we"re reading Miranda Rights? Why was the shoe bomber back in 2001 read his Miranda Rights? Was Bush wrong?

BARRASSO: I think they were wrong there in 2001. That was only a couple of months after 9/11. They were still trying to make sure they got things right. But here we are nine years later. I think it was absolutely wrong. The people that questioned the Christmas Day bomber were Detroit agents and they did it for 50 minutes. And in spite of what Pete Williams just reported, just a couple of days ago, Robert Gibbs said in 50 minutes, we got out of him everything we could have gotten. But then he shut up for at least a month.

Since that time, I"ve been in the field with the men and women in Iraq and in Afghanistan. And some information goes stale quickly. So I do believe it is a mistake to read the Miranda Rights.

Look at Scott Brown"s election in Massachusetts. What did he say? We should spend--money should be spent to defeat the terrorists, not for lawyers to defend them. And that resonated across the country. I still hear about it in Wyoming. I heard about it at a chili feed the other night by our Meals on Wheels group. People all across the country want to make sure we are safe. We don"t feel it this way, with this attorney general making these decisions, Ed.

SCHULTZ: I give your side of the aisle tremendous credit for the way you message to your base, and how it reverberates throughout some who don"t have all the facts. We are just as safe or safer today under President Obama. Miranda Rights has nothing do with security. Michael Bloomberg did the biggest flip-flop this city has ever seen. And New Yorkers that I talk to are not afraid about their security. It"s just, I guess, a measure of how we want to view it all. Senator, good to have you on tonight.

BARRASSO: Thanks, Ed.

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