MSNBC "Hardball with Chris Matthews" - Transcript

Interview

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MATTHEWS: -- and to everybody in the Empire State.

Let"s turn now to U.S. Congressman Jared Polis. He"s a Democrat from Colorado.

Congressman, thank you very much for joining us.

And people tell me that you"re the first openly gay person who"s actually been elected as such. You didn"t come out afterwards. Let me ask you about this--this whole question of dealing with this issue of open service. Are we going to get there?

REP. JARED POLIS (D), COLORADO: You know, we--absolutely. We should have gotten there 20 years ago.

This issue is going to meet with a collective sigh when it"s done. The public, the military, they have so moved past this. We"re fighting the battles of 20 years ago here. It"s time to pass this and move on.

MATTHEWS: What do you thinks" going to be implementation? Look, I want this to happen. I have said--I"m allowed to have an opinion on this program, and I"m for it.

I do--I am concerned about the differences it"s going to create. I mean, you don"t have to get weird about it, but asking how you"re going to deal with sexual attraction in the military when you have men in close quarters, women in close quarters. They used to separate by gender in barracks and all that stuff.

How do you deal--is there any need for any further rules, or is it just going to be common sense or what?

POLIS: Nonissue. I mean, look, we have gays and lesbians living in college dormitories today. Oh, gosh, oh, my, what are they going to do?

MATTHEWS: Yes. Yes.

POLIS: And firefighters, police forces.

MATTHEWS: Sure.

POLIS: Look, we have strict rules of behavior that members of the military undertake, whether it"s same sex, opposite sex, around harassment, around fraternization. Those rules all hold.

They"re all important rules to have about what people do and what their conduct is. But it"s just simply a nonissue for this generation.

(CROSSTALK)

POLIS: -- big collective sigh.

MATTHEWS: I agree with you. And you"re a young guy, but isn"t a nonissue for--we look at these polls. We study them intently here.

And, generally, 70 percent of the serving military want this change. They"re all for it. They don"t see a problem in it. But then you see those guys in the fighting--and women--in the fighting units of the Marines and the fighting units of the Army. That"s where you get that pushback. What do you make of that? It"s about 50/50.

POLIS: Yes. Part of the reason that poll was done so well by the military, this research project, is not only did they ask, what do you think, would you be worried about serving with someone who was gay? But then they said, are you serving with somebody who is gay? And many of them thought that they were, and they didn"t have a problem with it.

So, the problems are hypothetical. They"re not real.

MATTHEWS: Well, were you surprised by this? As a gay person, were you surprised by this statement in the polling? I found it wonderful in a way because it showed it"s not the caricature people, older-generation people have.

Five out of six gay people serving in the military said that even if they were allowed to come out, if you will, to use the common term, even if they were allowed to serve openly as gay people, they wouldn"t make any statement to that effect. They would go along in effect with the way it is now, but voluntarily. They wouldn"t make an issue or a statement about their identity.

POLIS: I mean, who goes around making a statement? You don"t wear a sign that says you"re gay or you"re straight everywhere.

MATTHEWS: Yes.

POLIS: But if it comes up with your friends, your partner happens to be the same sex or the opposite sex, they kind of figure out whether you"re gay or not.

MATTHEWS: I got you.

POLIS: But it"s not something that you go around declaring. That is just a really strange way of looking at it. I certainly don"t.

MATTHEWS: You"re so cool.

(LAUGHTER)

MATTHEWS: Anyway, thank you, Jared Polis. Thanks for joining us.

(LAUGHTER)

MATTHEWS: You"re so casual about these--thank you very much. You are the new generation.

POLIS: Thanks, Chris.

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