MSNBC "The Beat with Ari Melber" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Anthony Brown

Interview

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MELBER:  And even if voters were not fooled, this is real life.  This is not a drill tonight.  The U.S. soldiers are still down there long after Trump and Fox News have moved on and covered this stunt far less.  And as you see on the screen you are also paying for it.  I`m joined now by Congressman Anthony Brown, a Democrat from Maryland and an Iraq war veteran.  Thank you for joining me to dig in to what matters in this story, sir.
 
REP. ANTHONY BROWN (D), MARYLAND:  Ari, great to be on with you.
 
MELBER:  What do you think of the substance as a legislator and a veteran that these soldiers are still down there even though Trump seems to have completely moved on that this was an election stunt?
 
BROWN:  You know, look, as a soldier who deployed to Iraq for a year, I spent Thanksgiving, Christmas, a number of other important family events deployed and away from my family.  I`m very disappointed that the President used our military as a plaything quite frankly.  Men and women who raise their right hand do to join the Armed Forces, they know they`re going to be deployed, they`re going to be deployed at times when they`d rather be home, but they`re willing to do it when the mission is real, when they`re -- when they`re doing what they`re trained to do and what they`re asked to do in defend their country.
 
 But to send thousands of soldiers to the southwest border when there`s no threat, the mission is dubious at best, it can be -- it`s demoralizing and I think it has a real impact, negative impact on the military`s readiness.
 
MELBER:  Secretary Mattis gave away part of the game and obviously he`s got a follow lawful orders but he directly said they`re not going to be stopping any invasion, they`re not even to be making direct contact.  Take a look.
 
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
 
JAMES MATTIS, DEFENSE SECRETARY, UNITED STATES:  At the present, I do not anticipate military personnel coming into direct contact with migrants.  The military police will provide force protection for the service members who are supported custom border police and putting in the obstacles.
 
(END VIDEO CLIP)
 
MELBER:  Given all that and what we`ve learned, I guess I want to take part of our setup to this conversation and put it to you.  How do we do a better job distinguishing between these stunts and covering what our actual national security or migration issues?
 
BROWN:  Well, first of all let me say I`m very disappointed with Secretary Mattis who otherwise I have considerably high regard for.  Earlier this year when the National Guard was being deployed to the southwest border I introduced an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act.  It wouldn`t have prevented these deployments because if they`re necessary then we ought to do them, but it said hey if we`re going to deploy men and women to the southwest border, we need to have a strategy, you need to be able to lay out to the American people, to Congress what`s the cost, what`s the benefit, what`s the impact on readiness, and what is the long-term play, what is the long-term strategy.
 
This afternoon Secretary of Mattis could answer in the short-term you`re going to lay concertina wire but in the long-term, he couldn`t articulate to soldiers which is very disappointing why they`re there and what they`ll be doing.  That`s not how you operate a military and I know that Secretary Mattis knows a lot better than that.
 
MELBER:  I`m almost out of time, but you mentioned the Authorization Act.  Are there are other things that your party can do now that you`re coming in the majority to constrain this type of potential abuse of the military in the new Congress?
 
BROWN:  Absolutely.  We`re going to have oversight Authority, we will be bringing the civilian and military personnel into Congress with very some probing questions.  We also have the power of the purse and we`re going to put restrictions on this needless deployment of active duty soldiers so that we can ensure that our military is ready to face real threats that we face in many other areas around the globe.
 
MELBER:  Right.  And the money matters.  I mean all spending bills originated in the House, you`re about to have a lot more party on your side of the aisle and that $200 million was spent on this.  It`s always a question in a democracy an addition to the soldiers time, effort, and risk, whether this was the right spend.  Congressman Brown, thank you so much.
 
BROWN:  Thank you, Ari.  Thank you for having me.

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