CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Seth Moulton

Interview

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HARLOW: Let me bring in my next guest, Democratic Congressman Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, who served four tours in Iraq as a Marine Corps officer. He has been sounding the alarm his entire career, advocating bringing Afghan translators and others who have helped the United States and Afghanistan back to the states by streamlining the special immigrant visa program. On the night Kabul fell to the Taliban, Congressman Moulton wrote

this. To say that today is anything short of a disaster would be dishonest. Worse, it was avoidable. But there is still time to debate how we manage our retreat. America and our allies must drop the onerous visa requirements where a typo can condemn an ally to torture or death and the military must continue the evacuation for as long as it takes.

Congressman Moulton joins me now.

Congressman, good morning.

You just saw and heard Clarissa's harrowing reporting that Afghan man showing his green card on his phone and saying the Taliban have turned him away.

[09:10:06]

What is your reaction?

REP. SETH MOULTON (D-MA): I mean, it's heart-wrenching. I mean let's just put this in perspective. We went into Afghanistan 20 years ago because the Taliban harbored the terrorists that attacked us on 9/11. And now we're relying on that same Taliban to keep Americans safe, to keep American citizens -- they estimate between 10,000 and 15,000 American citizens are still in that crowd or cowering in their houses in Kabul and surrounding areas right now trying to get into the airport.

And that's not to mention the other 50,000 or 70,000 allies, like some of the people that we just heard from, who put their lives on the line, put their lives on the line alongside our troops and diplomats, not just for Afghanistan, but for America. We have a moral obligation to get them out, and I still don't see how we're going to do that.

HARLOW: You don't? Well, you have said, just as recently as this week, it is still within the power of the United States to do this. So it's not a question of ability, it's a question of how far will we go.

I want your reaction to this from a former Afghan interpreter to my colleague, Jake Tapper, just yesterday. Listen.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is not a system for them to get out. If these guys (INAUDIBLE) in Afghanistan or people (ph) we (ph) left behind, trust me, they're going to be hunt down one by one and people get killed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: How imperative do you think it is that the Biden administration publicly commit to keeping those operations going at the airport past August 31st if necessary to get everyone out that wants to leave?

MOULTON: It's absolutely imperative. They must make that commitment. And they must follow through.

And this is a commitment I've been asking them to make for months now when I told them to starts the evacuation before we get to a point like this.

HARLOW: Actually, Congressman, can we listen --

MOULTON: But I stand by what I said. We can do this.

HARLOW: Let's let everyone listen to that moment. This is you questioning Defense Secretary Austin and General Milley in June.

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MOULTON: It takes 800 days or more to process a special immigrant visa. So it's too late for the special immigrant visa process.

Secretary Austin, why have you not started an evacuation yet?

These Afghan and American heroes, people who we asked to risk their lives, not just for Afghanistan, but for America because we had their backs. Their future is -- is in your hands. And this much is certain, the Taliban will kill them if they can. And they will rape and murder their wives and kids first if they can.

Chairman Milley, if the service chiefs were ordered to evacuate our Afghan allies today, is there a plan in place to get that started immediately?

GEN. MARK MILLEY, CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: We have the military capability to do whatever is directed by the president of the United States with respect to our allies and those that have worked with us. And I consider it a moral imperative to take care of those that have served along our side.

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HARLOW: General Milley calls it a moral imperative. You call it a moral imperative. Have you had any response from the White House or the State Department to your call now to get them out and deal with the paperwork later?

MOULTON: I mean, essentially, no, they're moving in that direction. They talk about how many people they can evacuate per hour on planes. But if people can't simply get into the airport -- even green card holding people like you saw on TV --

HARLOW: Yes.

MOULTON: Then very quickly we'll get the people out who are at the airport right now. But there will be tens of thousands who are stuck outside that wire under the Taliban's control.

HARLOW: So is it your assessment, at least in terms of where we stand this morning, Congressman, that America will leave come August 31st, or perhaps later, and those who aided us will be left behind? MOULTON: I refuse to believe that. I'm certainly not going to agree

with that. It is absolutely within our power today to make sure that that doesn't happen, to see this operation through. This is a harrowing situation because in many ways we are relying on the Taliban to not start massacring people today. I mean they could massacre that crowd outside the airport at the drop of a hat if they wanted to.

[09:15:02]

HARLOW: Have you talked to the --

MOULTON: And taking aside how terrible the situation is, we've got to do everything we can to get people out. We're the United States of America. If we can put a man on the moon, we can figure out how to get people out of Afghanistan.

HARLOW: Yes. Yes. Have you talked to the president since Sunday?

MOULTON: I have not. Look, I'm not -- I'm not sitting here on TV and criticizing President Biden because I'm trying to get attention or something. This is just the right thing to do.

HARLOW: Yes.

MOULTON: So, I don't really care whether the president wants to talk with me or not. I just want him to execute this mission. I want him to get it right. And I want him to get it right because it's good politics, but more fundamentally, it up holds our values and it's the right thing to do.

So I don't care who gets to the president and tells him how important it is to see through this mission, I just want to make sure he does it because thousands of people, men, women, young children are counting on him.

Poppy, I was sitting in bed last night going through emails that had been forwarded to me from all over the country, from veterans who were trying to get their friends out. And just looking through some of these passport documents, seeing the innocent faces of these young kids who may very well die because their fathers or mothers worked for us.

HARLOW: Right.

MOULTON: And it's just heart-wrenching to think that we might leave them behind.

HARLOW: They could -- they could be our children.

Congressman Seth Moulton, thank you very much.

And to be clear to our audience, you have been calling for this, not for months, not for a year, but since 2014. Thank you for staying on it.

MOULTON: Thank you, Poppy.

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