CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript - Syria

Interview

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Republican Congressman Joseph Pitts from Pennsylvania joins me now live on the phone. Good morning.

REP. JOSEPH PITTS (R), PENNSYLVANIA (via telephone): Good morning.

COSTELLO: Thanks for talking with us. So you heard the opposition leader speaking in British Parliament. Is he right? Should the United States, too, wait for clear evidence that the Assad regime was responsible for this chemical weapons attack?

PITTS: I agree. The President needs to consult with Congress, needs to let the Congress fully be briefed and debate this in an open and transparent manner. The Constitution is very clear on the -- on the declaration of war or reacting to international crimes -- crimes against nations. It is the role of Congress to debate and authorize this before the President acts precipitously.

So I would ask the President to call Congress back in session, have a full and public debate. Let the Congress vote on this before any action is taken.

COSTELLO: The President is -- he's doing this a big conference call later today, I think at 6:00 p.m. Eastern where he's calling members of Congress to inform them of the evidence that his administration has about the Assad regime. Is that enough?

PITTS: No, that is not enough. He should call all the members of Congress in the session. Let them see the evidence and debate it fully. Just talking to the intelligence committee or a few leaders is not the whole Congress.

COSTELLO: What is your biggest fear if the United States does decide to take military action?

PITTS: The question is what do I think what?

COSTELLO: What's your biggest fear? What could happen? What are you worried about?

PITTS: Well, first of all, sending missiles into another country is an act of war. Trying to parse this as something different just doesn't meet the laugh test. And we could get involved in another war or another land war in the Middle East and cause, you know, into a civil war cause disruption to the whole region, yet, you know, other countries involved could impact Israel, Jordan and Iran and Lebanon, you know, the whole area.

So it is a very serious matter. Use of chemical weapons is a very serious matter. This deserves full and transparent debate before the American people before Congress acts.

COSTELLO: So if -- if the United States does present members of Congress with concrete evidence that the Assad regime did indeed gas its own people, what should the United States do?

PITTS: Well, that is something that we're going to have to explore. Rather than just precipitously send missiles in, first of all we don't even know who they would be targeting. We don't know the impact on innocent people in Syria. Going war is a serious matter. And it should be done very carefully and deliberately with clear national interests at stake before the United States or our Commander-in-Chief acts.

COSTELLO: Congressman Pitts, thank you so much for being with us this morning. We're going to take our viewers back to London to the British Parliament to hear more from this opposition leader speaking before the British Parliament and the Prime Minister. Of course he opposes any military action right now against Syria. Let's listen.

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