MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript: Interview with Jason Crow

Interview

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MADDOW: Will make you pay. And we will continue the mission to get our -- our allies out. Even after what today was the most deadly day for U.S. forces in Afghanistan since the worst day of the war and the worst day in special forces history, that day ten years ago this month.

Joining us now is Congressman Jason Crow. As an Army Ranger in the 82nd Airborne, he served in both the Iraq War and the Afghanistan War. He`s a member of the Intelligence Committee and the Armed Services Committee. I should also tell you that Congressman Crow has spearheaded efforts in Congress to speed up processing of visas for Afghans who helped U.S. troops during our long war there.

Congressman, sir, thank you so much for making time to be here tonight. I know it`s a tough day.

REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): Thanks, Rachel. Yeah, it is a tough day and I join you in extending our sympathy to the families of those we lost.

MADDOW: I have to ask you just as a -- as a veteran, I have heard from so many friends today who are veterans just about how this is something for which there isn`t really words. The veteran`s community, military families talking to one another about this but it`s -- it`s a different kind of loss.

CROW: It is a different type of loss. I actually had a friend who`s been manning the gates. The gate that was under attack and he survived the attack, thankfully. But this is very personal to all of us.

And one of the things that I have heard a lot from my friends in the last couple of weeks, and you actually indicated this in your lead-in is, you know, this has been happening for 20 years. We have been fighting this war for 20 years, day in, day out, hundreds of thousands of Americans. Over 2,400 have given their lives and this was a tragic day. There is no doubt about that.

At the same time, we need to make sure we`re having the conversation -- the tough conversation that we`re having right now as a country, matter of fact. Why we have done this. Why we are 20 years in the making here.

This is not a one-week problem. This is not a one-month problem. This is a 20-year problem for our country.

MADDOW: I`m struck tonight by the explicitness of the recent warnings we`ve had from U.S. officials about an attack of exactly this kind. Um, I am struck by the president saying the threat of exactly this kind of attack which they knew was a real possibility has been a big part of why he`s committed to limit this operation and get out as soon as possible. I am also struck by his simultaneous and now-repeated commitment that we won`t leave anyone behind. I mean, all of those things are -- are coming together into what feels like a very difficult decision tree about to do, hour by hour and day by day.

What -- what do you hope to happen here? Balancing those risks and the -- and the commitments that we`ve made?

CROW: There is no doubt this is hard and it`s easy to sit here in the comfort of a living room and to Monday-morning quarterback this. But I think back to my time as Private Crow, I think back to my time as a ranger, as a paratrooper when I was on the ground, it`s hot, it`s dusty. There is yelling and screaming, there`s gunshots. There`s bomb blasts.

You are largely sitting here with 18, 19, 20-year-olds carrying rifles trying to figure this out, and under very, very difficult circumstances. So there is sometimes a huge gap between the intelligence we gather and the information we know and how we can put that into practice on the ground.

And then, that`s no reflection on our men and women because they are doing an incredible job. We are asking them to do almost impossible things sometime. But it`s hard and it`s imperfect, it`s dirty and that`s why it`s important, you know, as we sit here on the Hill in Washington, D.C., and we have conversations about these policies, we have to understand that downstream, downrange is an 18 or 19-year-old that has to carry it out.

So what I hope is that we actually have the tough conversation and we learn from it, in the long term. In the near term, we need to protect our troops. We need to expand the perimeter that`s -- that`s necessary to protect them. At the same time, we do have an obligation to get U.S. citizens out and as many of our Afghan partners out as we can.

That is the mission and I don`t believe that should have a calendar deadline. I think we should pull out when we accomplish that mission.

MADDOW: We know from talking with your staff, Congressman, that you and your team have helped push through hundreds and hundreds, more than a thousand, evacuation and visa requests just over these past ten days. Given that hands-on work that you have been doing, what do you think the American people should know? What can you tell us about how you see the scale of the task that remains, how hard it`s going to be to get it done?

[21:20:06]

I know that you said it shouldn`t be a date certain on the calendar. It should be about getting that mission done. Tell us about that -- that scale and the enormity of -- of -- of what -- what you`re talking about in terms of what remains.

CROW: Yeah. Well, the scale is obviously very challenging. We know we have a certain number of American citizens. I`m not going to say that number for obvious reasons. We don`t want to jeopardize certain folks. But we do know that there is a certain number of American citizens who have said that they want to be evacuated from the country.

I think it`s also important to -- to note that there are American citizens who have said they don`t want to leave the country. We can`t force them to leave. And there are some folks that have said they want to stay.

And then, there are others who we don`t even know. That didn`t inform the U.S. government or the state department that they`re there. We`re trying to find them. But that`s extremely challenging and tough work.

So there is kind of these three categories of American citizen. In addition to that, we have our Afghan partners. We have the special immigrant visa holders. We have the priority one and priority two folks, other at-risk and vulnerable populations. We`re trying to sort them out as quickly as we can. It`s tough. It`s challenging.

But that`s also why I have been, as you know, Rachel, since April sounding the alarm, banging the drum saying let`s start the evacuation. We would be in a very different position right now if we had started the evacuation of our Afghan partners back in April than we certainly are right now. But that doesn`t change the position we`re in right now. And it just makes it more challenging and that`s why I have is said we have to get it done.

MADDOW: If this mission has to go -- I mean, we`re -- we`re in August now and the date certain is supposedly August 31st. But if this mission, in order to get it done the way that you are describing, to get not only Americans but priority one and priority two visa holders, those SIV visa holders and applicants. If that took into -- to the end of September, to the end of November, to the end of the year, would that be okay with you?

CROW: I don`t think it needs to go that far, actually. I think that you looked at numbers we are well in excess of 100,000 people that have been evacuated at this point. The numbers are very high. You know, 10,000 to 20,000 a day.

We actually have a sense for the numbers we are talking about. There is a certain number of American citizens. There`s a certain number of SIV applicants and their family members.

I`m of the belief that we can get that done probably in a matter of weeks substantially. I don`t think there`s a path to get that done between now and the end of the month and that`s why I`ve said we have to make sure that we`re focusing on the mission and the actual numbers, as opposed to a date on the calendar.

But I`m not talking about a mission that goes in perpetuity or even months. I think we can do this in a couple of weeks but we certainly have to be diligent about it and it`s not without risk.

MADDOW: Colorado congressman and combat veteran, Jason Crow -- sir, thank you very much for your time tonight. I know there are a lot of demands on your time right now. I appreciate you spending some of it with us.

CROW: Thanks, Rachel.

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