00:00The answer is we haven't got any answers, and that's a problem, a huge problem.
00:04For me, this is about accountability, right?
00:06We spent over 20 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
00:09We spent trillions of taxpayer dollars, thousands of American lives,
00:14tens of thousands of others who bear the visible and invisible scars and burdens of those wars.
00:21They ended poorly, and that's, I think, because we stopped debating it.
00:25We financed it with debt.
00:27There weren't votes.
00:28There wasn't an accountability loop, and that continues today.
00:32We started that same cycle, again, of conflict after conflict without real debate
00:37and without a real decision by the American people about whether or not this is in their best interest.
00:42So we're going to keep on pushing the Department of Defense and the administration for answers, for engagement.
00:47My immediate question right now is what are we doing to protect our troops,
00:52the tens of thousands of Americans who are serving in that region who are coming under tremendous assault
00:57by missiles and drones, and what are we doing to protect that force?
01:03Congressman, the other what are we doing question I've been getting a lot from folks in the last 24 hours
01:08is what is Congress doing?
01:10And I know there is an upcoming vote.
01:12I know Democrats are trying to move it forward on the War Powers Act.
01:15Even if that resolution is upheld, does Congress really, realistically, have the power to stop this particular president
01:24from doing whatever he wants to do militarily?
01:29We do have the power.
01:30The question is, as you point out, are we willing to take it, right?
01:33We're going to force a vote on Wednesday so that people have to stand up
01:38and let their constituents know where they stand on this issue.
01:43You know, thumbs up, thumbs down, right?
01:45So we need to start taking a role, taking names.
01:47And that's the beginning of that accountability process that I was talking about.
01:52But Congress has all sorts of power if it is willing to use it.
01:56Appropriations, pulling money, pulling funding, putting guardrails on deployments.
02:01Congress actually can do all of those things.
02:03The problem is not whether or not it has the power.
02:06The problem has been, in my time in Congress, it's unwillingness to use it,
02:11which is not just our responsibility, but it's actually our duty to do that,
02:15to take that power back and to put those guardrails in place.
02:19So, you know, all of this, the question is not whether or not the Iranian regime
02:23was a terror regime, it was awful.
02:25All of those things are true, right?
02:26This was a terrible, rogue, terrorist-supporting regime.
02:30It killed American soldiers, destabilized the entire Middle Eastern region.
02:34All of those things are true.
02:35The question is whether or not this is the right response,
02:38whether or not we should be spending tens of billions of U.S. dollars,
02:41whether or not regime change is something we should be engaged in,
02:44and whether it's going to actually turn out better for us in the end.
02:48Earlier this morning, we spoke with Eric Wasson, our colleague who covers the Capitol.
02:51No doubt he's asked you some pressing questions over the course of your career in Congress.
02:56And gazing into his crystal ball, he expressed some,
02:59he suggested that perhaps this war resolution isn't going to pass,
03:02that Democrats are too divided on this issue.
03:04And I'm curious, when you look at your caucus,
03:06do you think that it is going to be a piece of legislation
03:09that gets the wide majority support of Democrats in the House?
03:13I do think we're going to get a lot of support for it.
03:16I even think some Republicans are going to vote for it.
03:18I don't think we're all that divided on this issue.
03:20People have different views on regime change in Iran,
03:23but we are pretty united on this issue of Congress retaking its war powers, right?
03:30Because regardless of what you think about any one particular instance,
03:34Venezuela, Sudan, Iran, Ukraine, what remains true is that the American people,
03:42Americans really want there to be checks and guardrails put in place.
03:45They're very tired of no debate, no public discussion, no votes,
03:51no accountability on all these conflicts, right?
03:53They actually want us to be thinking about what we're doing long term
03:57and whether or not it is in their core interest.
03:59Is it making groceries cheaper?
04:01Is it protecting them?
04:02Is it keeping their families safe?
04:04Is it reducing the cost of health care?
04:06Is it helping them afford homes?
04:07That is the discussion and the debate that has not been happening
04:11and that has to happen and that we're going to force.
04:14To pivot to exactly what you were talking about,
04:16and that's because we do have a midterm coming up and all politics are local.
04:20Do you think this is a liability for the president the longer this conflict continues?
04:25Because even in his world, there is division about this American expansionism,
04:30the Don Roe Doctrine.
04:31Is this something that Democrats are going to hit hard
04:34against their Republican opponents coming to midterms?
04:38Absolutely.
04:40You know, Donald Trump realized something on the campaign trail,
04:42something that I know deeply,
04:44and that is there is a lot of anger and resentment in working class America
04:48where I'm from, the people that I grew up with
04:51and the people that I served with and I fought with
04:53when I went to war in Iraq and Afghanistan three times.
04:56People are angry with this lack of accountability by endless conflict
05:00and it not delivering for them.
05:02So he actually campaigned as an isolationist.
05:05He campaigned to end these wars and to end this constant cycle of conflict.
05:10And now that he's in power, he's just perpetuating the same thing, right?
05:14Seven countries bombed in the first year alone,
05:18tens of billions of dollars spent on these operations
05:21where a lot of Americans are saying,
05:23what are we doing?
05:23What are we accomplishing here?
05:25What is the end game, right?
05:26Because Iraq and Afghanistan was the same thing, right?
05:31We won.
05:32Here's an important point.
05:33We won every single battle in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
05:37We didn't lose a single engagement, a single battle.
05:40We won all of them, right?
05:41But we lost the wars in the end, right?
05:44It's because we didn't have a strategy.
05:46We didn't articulate what our interests were and what we were doing.
05:49And we didn't have an end game, right?
05:51And we're in the same situation here now again.
05:54And people are pretty fed up with it.
05:56So yeah, I do believe this is going to blow back on the president.
05:59And we're going to see who's willing to stand up
06:02and try to end the cycle of madness versus those who are going to perpetuate it.
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