CNN "Wolf" - Transcript: Syria

Interview

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BLITZER: President Obama lays out his ISIS strategy for Congressional leaders today and for the entire country, indeed the world, tomorrow night. So, what kind of support can he expect from the U.S. Congress and does the president need approval from the lawmakers to go ahead and escalate this war?

The Democratic congressman, Adam Schiff, is a key member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence. He's joining us from Capitol Hill.

Congressman, thanks very much for joining us.

So let me pick up on what I was just talking with Dana and Gloria about. You guys up on The Hill, and I'm talking about Democrats and Republicans, you're only supposed to stay in session, what, for another two weeks or so before everyone goes back, starts campaigning, getting reelected. But if the country is about to go to war, don't you think Congress needs to stay in town and get the job done, whatever it takes?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA), SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE: Absolutely. And I think you're exactly right, Wolf, we are really going to war. When the president talks about taking the offense against is, what we're really saying is we're engaged in a long-term military campaign. Now, the military part is only one piece of it but clearly we're going to be risking people. We already are. And this is something that we have a constitutional obligation to take up and to vote and to authorize. We've moved well beyond the protection of American personnel in Erbil or Baghdad. We've moved beyond that already. But certainly if you're contemplating widening that military engagement in Iraq or going into Syria, that's something Congress really has to vote on.

BLITZER: A formal roll call authorizing this kind of operation, that's what you want, but you know a lot of your colleagues, they want to run away from that kind of sensitive vote as quickly as possible. Will the president seek such formal authorization based on what you know?

SCHIFF: Well, my guess is that he won't ask for that. But that doesn't prevent us from taking it up ourselves. We're not some suitor that has to be waited to be asked to the dance. We can take this up, should take this up in Congress. Now, it's going to be tough to draft this. And this is the challenge and probably why the president doesn't want to put all of his eggs in the basket of a congressional authorization. We're a pretty dysfunctional lot, to put it mildly. But we should able to draft something that authorizes and approves of what he is doing already, which has broad support in the Congress, and I assume there will be a buy-in with what the president announces tomorrow. That narrowly cabins (ph) that in an authorization. That's something that we should be able to draft. And I think we ought to stay as long as it takes to get that job done. There are few responsibilities more important in the Congress of the United States than declaring war when that's necessary.

BLITZER: And you know, congressman, it's not going to be cheap. The U.S. taxpayers spent over $1 billion getting rid of Gadhafi in Libya. It hasn't exactly turned out the way the U.S. and so many other countries would have liked. It's a horrible situation in Libya right now. But it's going to be expensive. If there's no formal vote authorizing this escalation of the military campaign against terrorism in Iraq and Syria, there could be some specific votes appropriating additional funding. And that would be one way to get around what you want, right?

SCHIFF: Well, I think that is probably the strategy that the White House will employ, and that is they'll request the money from Congress. And if we appropriate the money, as we are likely to do, they will say that Congress has quite literally bought into this strategy. But I don't really think that's enough. But if we don't do more, frankly, Congress has no one to blame but itself for the weakening of our institutional role in the checks and balances of our system and it's a real abdication on our part. So I don't think we can lay this at the feet of the president, although he has a role here. But this is fundamentally Congress' responsibility to declare war, as well as to fund it. And given the long duration, we're talking about a period of years here, we're talking about a military campaign that will go well into the next presidency, this is really incumbent on us to act.

BLITZER: Congressman Schiff, thanks very much for joining us.

SCHIFF: Thanks, Wolf.

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