MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Ro Khanna

Interview

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HAYES: President Trump`s insistence that there is a crisis at the border  for which you might declare a national emergency has focused people`s minds  on what real crisis actually are. There`s a growing consensus,  particularly among Democrats, that the one overarching crisis we face is  climate change.

Take a look at this graphic showing temperature anomalies, both hot and  cold, in countries around the world over the past forty years and watch as  the yellow, orange, and red spots, representing higher temperature  anomalies come on screen with ever increasing frequency.

Just this week, new scientific analysis shows the Earth`s oceans are  warming 40 percent faster than what was estimated just five years ago.  It`s far bigger crisis than anything happening at the border.

Congressman Ro Khanna of California supports efforts to combat climate  change, like the green new deal, a proposal pushed by newly elected  Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, among others. And he joins me now.

What do you think about all this -- I`ve seen a lot of people in the midst  of the last few days saying wait a minute we can declare a national  emergency over this. Why don`t we do it about climate change?

REP. RO KHANNA, (D) CALIFORNIA: Well, climate change actually is the real  crisis. But let me assure Senator Rubio that if a Democrats get elected  president, they actually understand constitutional law and would never do  this.

For example, if Elizabeth Warren were elected president, she knows that in  Youngstown, the Supreme Court explicitly ruled that Harry Truman couldn`t  seize steel mills and that was to win the Korean War.

So this idea -- you know, and actually if the president did declare an  emergency, the House can overturn it in a joint resolution.

So, the level of ignorance by the Republicans on the actual law is  outstanding, especially considering they`re the party that is supposed to  uphold the constitution.

Well, what the Democrats will do is actually build consensus in congress  and in the Senate to argue that this is what`s creating jobs.

Let me just put out two facts, there are more jobs being created in solar  and wind, according to Fortune Magazine, 12 times as fast as any other  industry.

In 2016, solar jobs grew 25 percent, wind jobs grew 32 percent. This is  about economic growth, not just about the environment.

HAYES: You know, the other reason I think this is key at this moment is  Democrats for years have said we should do something about climate. There  was Waxman-Markey (ph) bill that happened  the last time there was unified Democratic control, though it didn`t make  it through the Senate, but that`s different than saying we`re in crisis and  we need to mobilize for essentially a kind of peaceful equivalent to war,  which is what many people are saying. Is that how you see it right now?

KHANNA: I do. I think the crisis is so severe, and as you know with the  United Nations report, we were underestimating, all of us, the scientists,  of how soon the crisis was going to hit. This is not something that we`re  talking about people`s grand kids or even their kids. This is something  that we`re talking in 10 to 15 years. And by the way, people in this country are feeling the crisis. You can feel it if you live in Florida 
with the hurricanes being more severe, because the water is warming. You can feel it in California with the wild fires because of the drought conditions that climate change is causing.

So this is no longer a theoretical issue, and that`s why people want to  act.

HAYES: Right, but that`s different than saying it`s the number one issue,  that there has to be a domestic mobilization akin to something like the new  deal, akin to something like the national mobilization for World War II. I  mean, that`s the scale that I`m hearing people begin to talk about the  government response at. And I wonder if that`s the scale that you think of  it at, and is that something that a lot of Democrats do, or a lot of people  need to be persuaded to think of that in those terms?

KHANNA: I think increasingly people are thinking of it in those types of  terms. And the reason for that is two things. One, people know that we  have to think about the future of work, and there are a lot of parts of  this country where people have been unemployed and we have to figure out  how do we put them back to work, especially with the digital transformation  and so people see that this is a places where you can actually grow jobs.

And secondly, the climate change is an existential crisis. And for the  longest time, we haven`t  been using bold enough language to deal with it. And I give a lot of  credit to the Sunrise Movement,the newly elected freshmen, from bringing  that urgency so that we can address this at the appropriate  scale.

HAYES: Yeah, it`s funny, you mention the Sunrise Movement who sat in.  There was this very sort of amazing thing that happened in Minnesota, Tim  Waltz, who was just elected governor there, and the climate activist  announced, they were going to sit in, and instead once organizers informed  the governor`s office of a planned sit in, the governor offered instead to  meet with the young people. What you`re asking for is concrete changes,  which is what you should be asking for. The move is tangible evidence of  where we`re going to go.
That`s at the gubernatorial level. I think that -- what do you think that  says about how seriously it has been taken that governors are making this a  day-one issue?

KHANNA: I think those can kids have done phenomenal. I mean, I know some  people criticize them for sitting in to offices and coming to congress, let  me tell you there would not have been the creation of the select committee  if they hadn`t mobilized.

Now, the select committee for the green new deal isn`t strong enough. I  wish they had legislative authority. I wish they could subpoena. But all  I would say to the Sunrise Movement is you made an incredible difference in  about 60 days. Keep going. It`s the only way we`re going to get members  of congress to respond and treat this with the urgency that it requires.

HAYES: What is your response if the president does declare -- since that`s  the beginning of this trajectory -- the president does declare a national  emergency? What should the Democratic response be?

KHANNA: We should invoke section five of the National Emergency Act, which  was put in place explicitly after Watergate because Nixon abused the  emergency. Second five allows the House of  Representatives to overturn through a joint resolution the president`s  emergency. The Senate would 15 days to vote on it. I would assume that  the Senate would not vote for the emergency based on all these  conversations.

HAYES: All right, congressman Ro Khanna of California, thank you for  coming by tonight.

KHANNA: Thank you.

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