MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript: Islamic State Strategy

Interview

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MADDOW: Let`s bring in Congressman Adam Schiff, Democrat from California. He`s a member of the House Intelligence Committee. He, too, has been outspoken that Congress ought to debate this matter. Congress ought to weigh in, take an authorizing vote.

Congressman, thanks very much for being with us tonight. Appreciate your time.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CALIFORNIA: You bet.

MADDOW: Can I get your overall reaction to what the president laid out tonight? Did he explain the things that you wanted explained? Is there more that you need to hear from the president before you think Congress should take some sort of debate and vote on this matter?

SCHIFF: Well, I wouldn`t say yes to both. I think it was a good solid speech that laid out why ISIL is a threat to the United States, and why we have to act at a broad outline how we`re going to take on ISIL.

But I view this as much more an opening statement than a closing argument. And I think there are going to have to be a succession of speeches and conversations with the American people about how we`re going to accomplish this task to fill in what kind of cooperation we`re going to get from our allies and regional partners.

So, there`s a lot more to be said about, but I think this was a good opening for the president to lay out his strategy and to invite Americans into a very important conversation about how we go forward and how we take on this fight.

MADDOW: Congressman, when the president made the analogy to Yemen and
Somalia and said this is the same type of strategy essentially that we have pursued successfully for many years in Yemen and Somalia. It struck me that one of the differences there is that the president didn`t make a big speech about that to the American people, neither this president nor the previous one in terms of launching that as an ongoing and public campaign that he wants political discussion about. He welcomes Congress` support about, he wants the American people`s support. This is not being done as a covert measure.

It`s also not being done with either the support or tacit support that we`ve had some countries from the government in Syria. This president is talking about doing airstrikes in Syria, a country that`s very troubled and has its own civil war. It would treat airstrikes by anyone else in the world as a hostile act.

Do you think that the president is essentially dialing back what our expectations should be for how big a confrontation this is by making that analogy? Or is he letting us know that this could actually blossom into a larger war?

SCHIFF: Well, I think it`s a couple of things. You are right and Richard Engel as well that the situation in Yemen and Somalia is very different than in Iraq and Syria, for the reason that we don`t have a government like we do in Yemen to cooperate with.

But also for the broader point, that we`re talking about thousands and thousands of fighters who hold a third of both of those countries who are the best resource to really terrorist army, very different situation than in Yemen and Somalia.

But I think the point the president is making is if you look at a couple of the paradigms of how to take on the challenge of ISIL, we have the paradigm of fully occupying countries like Afghanistan and previously Iraq, or you have the paradigm of doing what we can to help through air support, intelligence, et cetera, but relying on local forces to be the ground forces, and he`s saying this, we ought to use the approach that we`re using more in Yemen and Somalia. And with that I agree with him completely.

When you look at the threat that is posed to us by ISIL, yes, there`s a real threat now and that threat`s going to grow, but that threat does not yet justify, and I hope it never will, the wholesale occupation of Iraq or Syria. So I think he`s right to use the approach that he is even if the examples he gave aren`t completely opposite.

HAYES: Congressman, Chris Hayes, how do you interpret or understand the phrase "welcome congressional support"?

SCHIFF: Well, I think what the president is saying, hey, if Congress wants to have a vote on authorization, I would welcome that, I`d love for them to do that, but I`m not going to come to Congress and say that this is required because I don`t know what I`m going to get.

So, I think that`s how I interpret it. At the same time, Congress really needs to step up and do its job. We`re talking about a multi-year military campaign. And Rachel, you pointed out quite accurately, that even if we say this is only going to be in the air, one of those pilots goes down or we have special operators on the ground and they end up in yellow jumpsuits in the desert and you got to imagine we`ll be sending in the troops after that.

So, there is a broad risk of escalation here and that`s something that Americans need to be mindful of.

MADDOW: Congressman Adam Schiff, thank you very much for being with us tonight. It`s very helpful to have you here. Thank you.

SCHIFF: You bet.

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