MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Joining me now is Congressman Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. He, of course, is the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Chris, good to have you on tonight.

REP. CHRISTOPHER VAN HOLLEN (D), MARYLAND: Good to be back, Ed.

SCHULTZ: I have to—let me just take a second.

I love to fish. I mean, that is my thing. And, you know, whether you‘re using a live bait rig or if you‘re using a jig, or if you‘re using a jig and a minnow, or a spinner, or a crank bait, when you‘re fishing, you‘ve got to have confidence in your tackle box that what you‘re throwing out there is going to work, baby.

And I need to know, do the Democrats have that? Do you still have the fire in the belly, or have these town hall meetings taken some of that fire away?

VAN HOLLEN: Ed, I like to fish, too. And I think we‘ve got the right bait and I think we‘re going to catch a good fish, legislatively speaking, when we get back.

Listen, these town meetings have been very instructive, because the longer they‘ve gone on, the more our members of Congress have been able to listen to their constituents. And the takeaway that they‘re getting, at least based on my conversations with our members, is that the noisiest people showing up at the meetings, the most disruptive people showing up at these meetings, do not represent the great majority of their constituents. That most of their constituents want to get something done on health care reform.

And so, I believe that our members are going to come back. Our first Democratic Caucus, they‘re going to provide the feedback, and I think they‘re going to have a unified message that we‘ve got to get something to the president‘s desk on health care reform by the end of the year.

SCHULTZ: Is there somebody in the Democratic Caucus that is willing to stand up and squash maybe a nervous voice? Is there somebody there that‘s going to say, sit down, you‘re wrong on it, this is where we‘re going, this is what the people want?

I think that‘s the conversation that‘s got to be had behind closed doors.

VAN HOLLEN: Well, I think a lot of our members are going to come back and deliver that message, because early in August we had the media focused entirely on the people who were disrupting these meetings as if everybody was somehow against health care reform. But as time has gone on, what‘s happened is that a lot of those people have been exposed in terms of the fact they‘re not there just because of health care. They‘re out there because they don‘t like Obama, they don‘t like a whole lot of other things that are happening in the country, and they represent a fairly small group of people.

And so, the more the more misinformation campaign has gone on, the more discredited the Republicans have become, and the more people are looking for solutions. So, I think a lot of our members are going to come back and they‘re going to say, hey, listen, we had a whole lot of town hall meetings. Yes, we had people disrupting those meetings, but our overall take was that most people want to move forward on health care reform and want to do it now.

Now, what happens in the Senate is a whole other story. I don‘t think...

SCHULTZ: Well, one House at a time. You know, I think if we get it out of the people‘s House the way it‘s got to be, I think there will be new life over on the Senate side.

Chris Van Hollen, always practice catch and release but don‘t let this plan go, my man.

Good to have you on with us.

VAN HOLLEN: All right, Ed. Good to be with you.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source