MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Ed Markey

Interview

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HAYES:  That was part of Mitch McConnell`s gameplan today dismiss the Green New Deal as some socialist daydream that will devastate the livelihoods of the country`s middle class, middle Americans, and then hold a procedural vote aimed at getting Democrats on the record about their support for said proposal.
 
Democrats overwhelmingly voted present when the resolution came up for a vote, though four Senators joined Republicans in voting explicitly against the Green New Deal -- Doug Jones, Joe Manchin, Kirsten Sinema, and independent Senator Angus King.
 
To get a better understanding of what happened today, I`ll joined by the Senate co-sponsor of The Green New Deal, Senator Ed Markey, Democrat from Massachusetts.
 
Senator, did you vote -- how did you vote today?
 
SEN. ED MARKEY, (D) MASSACHUSETTS:  Well, I voted present…
 
HAYES:  Why would you do that?
 
MARKEY:  I voted present because Mitch McConnell and the Republicans, who are making a mockery of the legislative process.  They gave us no hearings.  We could have no expert witnesses.  We could have no scientists.  We could have no people from the states, which have been affected by the massive climate related damage, which has occurred from forest fires in California to the storms across the Midwest, the hurricanes sweeping through Texas and Florida, none of that was allowed to be  presented as part of a hearing process
 
So, they were just making a mockery of the process, a sham to bring it out so they make a political point for the Koch Brothers and for the Exxonmobil and the rest of their polluting buddies.  And we just decided that we would not participate in anything that was such a disgrace in terms of how it was treating the severity of this problem which is in climate change.
 
HAYES:  Today illustrated to me the enormous gap.  I mean, I think the Republicans by and large, your fellow colleagues, they see it all as a joke, as a stunt.  I mean, the gap between what the actual physics are, what the science says, what the scale of the challenge is and where the Republicans are, it almost seems unovercomable to me.  Does it to you?
 
MARKEY:  It is pretty big.  I mean, the United Nations and their scientists at the end of 2018 said that climate is warming so rapidly that it now poses an existential threat to the planet.  The 13 federal agencies with jurisdiction over climate issued their own report at the end of 2018.  They came to a conclusion that said this is very serious a we had to do something about it.
 
Standing on the other side is the Republican Party, led by the denier in chief Donald Trump  who believes that it`s a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese, that doesn`t believe in the science, and is pretty much putting a coal lobbyist to head the EPA, an oil lobbyist to head the Department of Interior.  They have made a complete and total joke out of this. 
 
But unfortunately, it is not a joke.  It is a real threat to this planet.  And that is why the Green
New Deal that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and I introduced has now triggered nationally an incredible response that we haven`t seen in 10 years on this issue.  We`re having the first debate on it in ten years.  And it is now injecting itself into the presidential race and to congressional and senatorial races all across this country and it is not going to go away.
 
HAYES:  So the 22nd elevator pitch for the Green New Deal on Trump TV, and among Republicans is, you know, no cows, no burgers, no milkshakes, no planes, everybody is out of a job.  What is your response?  What is your, essentially elevator pitch for someone that says what is this thing?
 
MARKEY:  Well, first I would say not true, not true, not true.  In fact, Alexandria and I actually took a picture eating ice cream, which we both love saying…
 
HAYES:  That will show them.
 
MARKEY:  And saying we need cows in order to get the ice cream. 
 
So it`s not true.  We`re not banning airplanes.  We`re not banning cows.  What we`re calling for is a response to an existential threat.  And we`re saying that what we need a green revolution -- renewable, clean, non- greenhouse gas emitting technologies in our country.  And what we`re calling on is for this country to respond the same way President Kennedy did when he said that he was going to send a mission to the moon and return it safely within 10 years.
 
He said in his speech we would have to invent technologies that did not exist, alloys that did not exist, propulsion systems that did not exist and we would h ave to bring it back through heat, half the intensity of the sun and we would do so because we are bold.  We are going to do it because it is hard and not because it is easy.
 
We can do this.  We now have 350,000 wind and solar workers in the United States of America.  There are only 50,000 coal miners.  We are going to create millions of jobs in the clean energy sector.  We can actually save all of creation by engaging in massive job creation. 
 
This Green New Deal, it`s not just a resolution, it`s a revolution.  It`s a technology revolution that young people in our country that people of all ages want to see happen, because they know that it
is the national security, economic, environmental health care and moral issue of our time.  And that`s why it`s not going away, and it`s polling at the top in states around the country, and along with health care, as an issue to be dealt with in the 2020 election cycle.
 
HAYES:  That was a long elevator ride, but it was good.
 
Senator Ed Markey, one of the sponsors of the Green New Deal, thank you for taking the time.
 
MARKEY:  Thank you.

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