MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

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For more, let"s bring in Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, he introduced a resolution today to get the United States military out of Pakistan. Congressman, good to have you with us tonight. The vote just went down. What is going on? We talk about how the infrastructure of this country is being sacrificed for a policy in Afghanistan that nobody knows what it is or nobody can"t define it, yet we just keep pouring billions of dollars into this thing. Is this going to hurt the Democratic Party? What do you think?

REP. DENNIS KUCINICH (D), OHIO CONGRESSMAN: Well, I think that the democrats who are elected to end the war, not just in the Iraq, but, you know, they were elected by an American public, that was war weary in 2006, we have a lot of explaining to do to our constituents if we continue to support wars while we say we want to get out. You know, leaving 50,000 troops in Iraq will hardly be the end of that war. Escalating in Afghanistan is only going to dig us deeper, and now we"re expanding our footprint in Pakistan. So, I have serious concerns about how the public may view the democrats" commitment to get us out of war.

SCHULTZ: I mean, there was no hesitation. Even after the leak of the documents comes out which is absolutely monumental, the vote, it"s like it didn"t even affect the vote or the conversation, or did it? Your thoughts.

KUCINICH: Well, I think that we"ll probably see an effect in the next few months and years. Congress is generally the last to discover the trends that are moving across the country. And I think that Congress will see, with the American people being starved for capital, for their businesses, not having the resources to create employment, with us looking for funds for child nutrition and not being able to find them, with people"s retirement security in many places in jeopardy. I think the American people are going to start asking, you know, what are you doing, promoting war everywhere?

SCHULTZ: Congressman, I have to ask you about your demeanor on this tonight. Are you worn out about war funding, because you--you have been so passionate about what has to be done. We have to get out of this region of the world because it"s not making us safer. Is this a tough fight for liberals?

KUCINICH: It"s a necessary fight for all Americans who care about whether, you know, our country is going to survive. Am I worn out? Not a chance. I"m pacing myself, Ed. This is going to be a long drawn out battle to try to take this country, which is now addicted to war, into a direction where we proclaim that our domestic agenda is our first concern. We have an obligation to defend our country, but what we"re doing now is we"re making America more at risk. We"re fueling occupations. Our occupations are fueling insurgencies. We"re getting deeper into Afghanistan, and through all of our time there we"re worse off and the mission there is worse off.

SCHULTZ: So, this money today in your opinion, big mistake.

KUCINICH: Look, the war is a big mistake. Afghanistan is a big
mistake. Iraq is a big mistake. Our foot print extending in Pakistan is a
big mistake. The way we deal with Iran is a mistake. North Korea is a
mistake. I mean, you know, what are we doing here? We"re going to lose
our country to wars and to this headline momentum which war brings. It"s
like, we don"t even have thoughts of what peace looks like anymore and
that"s why we"ve got to start focusing the American people on the necessity
of taking care of things here at home. We don"t--we have a diminished
capacity to do that, Ed, the more we spend monies for war and another $37
billion today, so we can keep the wars going? Come on

SCHULTZ: I think there"s going to be a lot of people out there in the Netroots world, they"re going to say, nothing has changed. Nothing has changed at all. Congressman, good to have you with us tonight. Appreciate your time.

KUCINICH: Thanks.

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