MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: Syria

Interview

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For more, let me bring in Congressman John Garamendi of California, who sits on the House Arm Services Committee. Congressman, thanks for your time tonight. I want your reaction to Boehner, saying that we`re going to put this off until 2015. The lame-duck session of the Congress isn`t going to start get to do balls and strikes on exactly how involved we`re going to be in this conflict against ISIS.

And I want our audience to consume this. We have been told before on other issues that the Republicans wouldn`t do something until the next year and that could take months. You know, on 2015, is that the first weekend? The same where they were going to start unemployment benefits which we never got help on? You can`t trust the Republicans and I think they`re hanging the President out to dry on this and this is a big political move.Congressman, your thoughts on all of this?

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI, (D) CALIFORNIA: I`m mad. I am just downright mad. It`s bad enough that we`ve not taken this up before the election and now they say we`re not going to take it up until the next Congress. That is outrageous.

Speaker Boehner controls the calendar. He controls whether in session or out of session. He controls what we take up when we are in session. And frankly, there`s a dire election of his responsibilities and his duties. He ought to call us back.

This is a war. This is a new war. There is very, very thin legalized upon which the President is skating (ph), conducting a war. I frankly think he does not have the legal authority to do any of this. We must...

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

GARAMENDI: ... We must, we must act. We must carry out our responsibilities under the constitution. The President doesn`t declare war. The Congress of the United States does. The President doesn`t fund wars. The Congress funds wars.

We must go back before the election. We should be there Monday, Tuesday of next week. We should be hearing all of this. Speaker Boehner is dead wrong and if he continues this, he ought to give up his speakership and somebody that is willing to lead the Congress of the United States should have that authority.

SCHULTZ: Isn`t this playing politics with national security, Congressman?

GARAMENDI: Absolutely. Absolutely it is. It is. We have known for a long while that there is a problem in this area.

In July of this year, this ISIL thing began to get into Iraq. At that point, I said this is a new war. We must take action in Congress. In fact, this issue has been with us since 2012 when there was an attempt by the Republicans to rewrite the 2001 authorization to use force. I was on that committee, the Arm Services Committee.

In about 2:00 in the morning, I was reading through a 1,200-page document and I said, whoa, whoa, wait a minute here. You mean to tell me you want to give the President unlimited authority to wage war in anywhere he might think there`s a terrorist? No way, no how.

Eventually, that did not get into the law. Thank God. Otherwise, it would be. The power of the President to wage war anywhere, anytime he thought there was a terrorist including in United States. Now, this is something we`ve got to deal with.

And you talked about the money. Ed, there was $30 billion added to what the President requested in June for the Overseas Contingency Account. They`ve got money. They`ve gotten an additional $30 billion that came along in the continuing resolution. Fortunately, that is over under December the 11th.

Mr. Boehner, you can`t avoid this. You cannot put this off until the next Congress because on December the 11th, we are out of money.

SCHULTZ: Well, that`s the point, is that we don`t know what the situation is going to be like financially, on the ground. We really don`t, to this point know, their weapon`s capability or if Russia might get involved. We just -- There are so many unknowns here and it would just seem to me that if there`s no debate and if there`s no clear-cut plan here about what the Congressional members want to do in weighing in on this, this isn`t the America I grew up in.

GARAMENDI: Well, it`s so...

SCHULTZ: Listen, we don`t know where this is going and that`s the danger of all of this.

GARAMENDI: ... Well, that`s why Congress has to weigh in and that`s why I believe a authorization to use force must limit this.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

GARAMENDI: Otherwise, we`re be in for the long-term another decade of war in Iraq, no way, no how. We`ve got to be -- We`ve got to hear what`s going on. We`ve got to make a decision about limiting. You talked United Kingdom, England, they debated it. They limited it. We must do the same.

SCHULTZ: All right. Well, quickly, Congressman.

GARAMENDI: Sure.

SCHULTZ: You`re thoughts about that vote by the Brits? They`re not going to bomb Syria, what do you make of that?

GARAMENDI: Well, I think they looked in international law. They looked at the law and said, no, we don`t have the authority to bomb another country. Apparently, because of the -- not apparently, but because the Iraqi government has requested support, there is a legitimate legal opportunity to support in Iraq, serious amount of matters.

SCHULTZ: So good is the coalition then? So how good is the coalition if you`ve got coalition partners that are only going to go half way? And the Brits, there`s no better ally to the United States and the Brits, but yet they`re saying, well, you know, we`re not going to do anything against ISIS in Syria.

I mean, to me, I think that`s a missing part. This is -- One of the allies in the coalition saying, OK, United States, you want to take on ISIS in Syria? You`re going to do it alone in Syria. And we all know that that`s -- geographically, this is where their stronghold is. The whole thing`s a mess and it`s all because Boehner as you say will not call the Congress back to work.

Congressman John Garamendi, great to have you with us tonight.

GARAMENDI: Sure, Ed.

SCHULTZ: I appreciate your time very much, sir. Thank you.

GARAMENDI: Thank you.

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