CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Seth Moulton

Interview

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It also remains to be seen whether all truly is well and what happens next. Perspective now from someone who served in Iraq and currently serves in Congress on the House Armed Services Committee, Massachusetts Democrat Congressman Seth Moulton. Congressman, thanks for being with us.

Just as an Iraq war veteran yourself, I just want to get your initial reaction to what's happened tonight.

REP. SETH MOULTON (D-MA): You know, first of all, I'll just say, Anderson, that I remember what it was like to be in the desert in Kuwait on the brink of war with Iraq. And subsequently, later to learn how hard it was on my parents back here at home, worrying about that war. And on the brink of a war that could far more devastating for our troops for our American families, I'm thinking of them tonight.

And I'll tell you what, I also fought Iran on the ground in Iraq. I fought Iranian proxies in Najaf. And as someone who has been willing to fight them and frankly, is willing to go fight them again if necessary, I'll tell you right now this war is not necessary right now.

It is not in our strategic interests to go to war with Iran. So we have to talk about how we prevent that from happening.

I think the first thing is that we got to stop this escalation. Take the opportunity that Iran has presented us to not escalate at this any further. It's not in our strategic interests in the Middle East. It's not in our strategic interests globally to get bogged down in a war with Iran.

The second, we've got to rebuild our relationship with Iraq before it's too late, because they do provide a very important base for us in the Middle East to continue the fight against ISIS. We have a lot of work to do to rebuild our work -- our relationships with our allies to get Iran back in the nuclear deal to stop them from building a nuclear weapon.

So those are some of the steps we can start to think about tonight. But the first thing is to prevent outright war from breaking out. We're clearly on the path to war, and I think it's time to find an exit.

COOPER: In the way that Iran chose to strike, ballistic missiles clearly coming from Iran, you know, claiming responsibility right away, just as the U.S. did for the killing of Soleimani, in terms of the targets that they picked, how they went about this, you see an opportunity for de-escalation, that this was -- you know, there is one statement from an Iranian official saying, you know, this was a proportional response, and it's concluded. That's a signal, do you think?

MOULTON: I think it is. I mean, I don't know any Americans aside from maybe Mike Pompeo who truly want to go to war with Iran. I don't think that most of the Iranian people relish a war, an outright war with the United States.

But we've gotten ourselves into a box here with a president who has promised to start this war if he seems it's -- if he thinks it's necessary, who has already escalated things dramatically, much more so than any other president certainly in my lifetime with Iran.

And, of course, the reaction to killing Soleimani in Iran was to unite everybody behind him and behind the hard-liners, exactly the people that we don't want to empower.

I mean, if you step back for a second, you know, just a week ago, there were mass protests in Iran against people like Soleimani. They had a real problem on their hand after his security forces killed hundreds of Iranian citizens.

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And at the same time, there were protests in Iraq against the Iranian presence. Both of those things were in our interests. That was a helpful -- those were helpful developments.

Well, the president's strike has reversed all of that progress, because now Soleimani is a martyr. He is a hero back at home. Iraq is now in Iran's pocket, not in ours. They're trying to kick American troops out of Iran -- sorry, they're trying to kick American troops out of Iraq, not protest Iran's presence.

So, we've really taken some serious steps backwards, and we've got to reverse course because ultimately, what the president has done is not in the national security interests of the country.

As bad as Soleimani is, he is a bad guy. He's killed Americans. He has American blood on his hands. We all know that. But this was not smart.

COOPER: It just -- the very thing that Soleimani and, you know, his cronies in Iran wanted from the beginning has been the U.S. getting out of Iraq.

MOULTON: Sure.

COOPER: So, they have unfettered access to it and dominance of it. That's the very idea that that might actually result from what's happened is -- I mean, it's kind of -- I think I said early, it's sickly ironic.

MOULTON: Well, Soleimani himself has literally been fighting to achieve this goal of getting America out of Iraq. For the last -- ever since we got there, for the last 15 years. So, it's ironic that his death might actually achieve that goal. And it just shows how stupid the administration's strategy is.

You know, let's just think -- let's just think about this for a second from the administration's perspective, because they've been very clear about what they want to achieve with their Iran policy.

The first thing they say is to deter regional aggression, to stop Iran from attacking us and our allies. Of course, they've done the exact opposite. They've escalated that aggression. Number two, they say they want to prevent Iran from developing a

nuclear weapon. Well, Iran has restarted its nuclear program in full because of the president's strike.

And number three, they say they want to bring Iran to the negotiating table. I'll tell you what, Iran has never been farther away from the negotiating table in my lifetime, thanks to the president's actions. So even if you just take the administration's strategy at face value, they're failing miserably.

COOPER: Congressman Seth Moulton, I appreciate your time tonight. We'll see what happens in the morning, also from what the White House says and what the president says. Thank you.

The sun is up in Baghdad now after a very tense night. We'll talk to Arwa Damon who is there, next.

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