MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Mark Pocan

Interview

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HAYES: Alright, Michelle Goldberg and Mehdi Hasan, thank you both.

I want to bring in Congressman Mark Pocan, he`s a Democrat of Wisconsin and  co-sponsor of a recent resolution to curtail U.S. support for the Saudi  lead war in Lemon.

And congressman, I wanted to have you on to talk about that aspect of the  conflict specifically because the president, in that rambling statement,  begins by essentially blaming the Iranians for the war in Yemen, which  seems a rebuke to sort of -- or a justification for continued U.S.  facilitation of a war that is currently causing the worst humanitarian  crisis in the world.

What do you think about that?

REP. MARK POCAN, (D) WISCONSIN: This is something that for about a year  the Congressional Progressive Caucus has been working on. We now have  bipartisan sponsors, Thomas Massie and Walter Jones on the republican side.

Just this week Leader Pelosi actually signed onto this as well. We tried to  force a vote, because Congress, according to Article 1, Section 8 of the  Constitution, says we have to have a vote if we`re going to be involved in  a war.

Right now we have logistic and targeting and we had refueling support going  on. We need to have Congress involved, and yet Paul Ryan, in some arcane  procedural motion, you know, rule and a bill on wolves, de-privileged the  resolution and took away Congress`s ability to have that vote.

Next week in the Senate, Bernie Sanders, Chris Murphy and Mike Lee have a  bipartisan resolution that they`re bringing forward. They think they may  have the votes this time. If they can get it passed we`ll bring it back up  in the House.

But Congress has to have a say on what right now 14 million people are  facing starvation and we are partially involved because we are working with  the Saudi-led  coalition.

HAYES: Why should Americans -- you just spoke to it, but tell Americans  who are watching this and may be skeptical why America has a role to play  and what Americans can do to stop this mass starvation that seems  incipient?

POCAN: So this is the worst humanitarian crisis currently on the planet. The port city that`s been one of the main points of the conflict, 77% of  the medicine, fuel and food comes through there. That`s what`s causing the  starvation.

But we see this on a regular basis, the pictures coming from there, of  what`s going on, and because of this we need to have a vote if we`re going  to be involved.

And the president`s comments were over the top today. I really, truly  believe he couldn`t find Yemen on a map, but he does know the dollars that  are involved, not for the U.S., but maybe for himself when it comes to  Saudi Arabia.

So we`ve had a very difficult time in dealing with this administration.  That`s why Congress, as a co-equal branch of government, needs to have its  say.

Paul Ryan has given up two years of doing that. We`ll do our best in the next few weeks. But if not, when Democrats take the majority in January, we will do something about this and make sure that we stop this starvation.

HAYES: One thing I`d say to people, if you think Mohammad bin Salman  thinks he can get away with killing and dismembering a Washington Post  journalist, imagine what he thinks he can get away with Yemen children.

Congressman Mark Pocan thank you so much for your time.

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