CNN "Erin Burnett Outfront" - Transcript: Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) is Interviewed About Iran Firing Missiles at U.S. Forces in Iraq
Interview
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BURNETT: All right. Arwa Damon, thank you very much. We're going to go back to Arwa as she gets more. Of course, there are 5,000 American troops stationed around Iraq at this moment.
I want to go now to Democratic Congressman Eliot Engel of New York. He's chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Chairman, is this now war?
REP. ELIOT ENGEL (D-NY): Well, it could very well be, and the president and his crew better figure out a way to sort of tone down everything because we could be in the middle of a full-fledged war, and I don't think that's something anybody wants. There's no doubt that America would win any kind of war, but the casualties would be horrific.
And I don't think the American people are ready for it. I know Congress is not ready for it. And, you know, you had to expect that there would be some retaliation such as this.
I don't like the regime in Tehran, but I don't think we want to go to war with them.
BURNETT: So, the president earlier today said he would attack. That's his word, he would attack, in retribution if Iran were to strike any sort of an airbase or anything like that. And he also, as I mentioned a few days ago, said that he would engage in a disproportionate response if he felt like it and it didn't matter what Congress said, that he could do that.
Do you believe that Secretary Esper, Secretary Pompeo are going to be able to talk to him tonight and get him to not do something like that?
ENGEL: Well, I would hope so. You know, talk is cheap and bluster is cheap. And we can, you know, all be the toughest guy on the block and dare someone to knock our head off, but that's really irresponsible.
I think what we have to do now is tone down the rhetoric on all sides and try to see how we can sort of extricate ourselves fro this nightmare because I don't think the American people want to go to war. And the irony is we talk about the Iran and Iraq, you know, the United States is really, in my view, is really responsible for making Iran the hegemonic power in the region because by knocking off Saddam Hussein in Iraq -- and you remember Iraq and Iran kept having these wars fighting each other.
So, what we did was drove Iraq closer to Iran and made Iraq -- made Iran the hegemonic power in the region which is not what we wanted to do.
So, I hope the president and his aides are thinking this one through very carefully.
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I don't believe there's any good ending if we're in a full fledged war.
BURNETT: What should the president do? I mean, whatever you are -- whatever your feelings about how we got to this point, you now have a dozen ballistic missiles fired where U.S. troops are stations. Unclear if there are casualties, unclear if Iran intended for there not to be American casualties. We just don't know.
But we do know that this is a game changer, right? They launched them from inside Iran. They're a sovereign territory. They launched at American interests. Doesn't the president have to do something?
BURNETT: Well, the president has to do something, but he doesn't need to exacerbate the situation and make it tit for tat and before you know it we're in a full fledged war. Look, you can't be belligerent and then when it doesn't work the way you had hoped turn around and just walk away. There are consequences here.
One of the things that I've had difficulty with this administration is that we don't seem to be utilizing any of our allies. We don't seem to care about any of the groups we belong to like NATO. The president seems to trash them. And we could be using the help of some of our NATO allies right now. And hopefully the president -- calmer heads will prevail and the president will do something like that.
BURNETT: Right.
ENGEL: But, you know, again, they're not sweethearts in the government in Tehran. But on the other hand, do we really want a full fledged war? I think the answer is no.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Chairman Engel. I appreciate your time tonight.
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