MSNBC "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" - Transcript

Interview

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OLBERMANN: For more reaction, let‘s turn to Congresswoman Maxine Waters, a Democrat of California.

As ever, Congresswoman, thanks for your time tonight.

REP. MAXINE WATERS (D), CALIFORNIA: You‘re so welcome. Delighted to be with you, again.

OLBERMANN: The president‘s new strategy for Afghanistan. Are you for it or are you against it?

WATERS: Well, first of all, I‘m terribly sad after having to listen to the speech. I felt that for this young, bright, articulate president who wants to do the right thing but made commitments, too, in his campaign that he was going to Afghanistan, he was going to get Osama bin Laden and now, he‘s back against the wall with a strategy that I think has no end. It doesn‘t really resonate for me.

I‘m saddened because 30,000 new troops are going to go into Afghanistan. I guess they‘re going to be fighting in Pakistan, in Afghanistan, al Qaeda and Taliban--and where does it end? And what do we do? We have to kill all of the Taliban and we‘re going to try and transition that government into a democracy? I don‘t get it. It doesn‘t work for me.

OLBERMANN: Was the--the setting of a--of a beginning of the end essentially, and saying that the troop drawdown will begin no later--will begin by July 2011, and we‘ll be fully underway no later than January 2012. Was that not sufficient in terms of an end date or are you suspicious that at some point, the military will have to talk him out of it or try to talk him out of that end date?

WATERS: Well, for me, it sounded as if we were going to begin training the Afghanistan troops in 2011. I did not hear that they were going to have them all trained and we would be able to get out. I think that he meant it to be--to begin the withdrawal. But, of course, we don‘t know when, there‘s no end date to it.

OLBERMANN: Then--if he said or if someone from the administration says, in the next few days, look, this is--this is the timeframe, the withdrawal begins, ready or not--for want of a better phrase--July 2011, August 2011, somewhere within there, will some of your concerns be mollified at that point? Or is this larger than that?

WATERS: Some. I like the idea that we would get involved in a real withdrawal and we would employ diplomacy and that we would engage the 43 other nations that he pointed to, to help us to do all of this. But I‘m not convinced.

OLBERMANN: Have you been able to speak with any of your colleagues about this either since the speech or before it? Do you have sense.

WATERS: Yes.

OLBERMANN: Do you have a sense of this, and have you a sense of whether you and those who think like you are going to be grudgingly supportive of this president? Or will you attempt to stop what he wants to do?

WATERS: Yes, I did have an opportunity to speak with my colleague, Barbara Lee, who is the head of the Black Caucus and who is very firm on it in the progressive caucus. And we both agree that we cannot support the president and this continuing effort. And we will not support him.

OLBERMANN: So, what happens? We‘ve heard from several sources that this will be budgeted through ordinary means. There will be no special bits of legislation the way President Bush handled Iraq. If these regular requests for funding come through you, you will have to vote against them?

WATERS: Yes. I would have to vote against it. As a matter of fact, the president did say that his request would be transparent and that it would be shown in the budget. People are talking about a war tax. They‘re talking about all kinds of things.

But for me, I cannot support this expansion. I cannot a budget that will cost $1 million per year for every soldier that we send there. It‘s too much.

And we‘re losing a lot of young lives. And we have a domestic agenda that‘s unmet, a big deficit. I want to focus more on the domestic agenda. I want to wind out of Afghanistan with some help to rebuilding that infrastructure of being of assistance to the people. But I did not hear that articulated quite that way.

OLBERMANN: Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California--great thanks for your--for your frankness and for your time tonight.

WATERS: Well, you‘re certainly welcome.

OLBERMANN: Thank you.

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