MSNBC "Rachel Maddow Show" - Transcript

Interview

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Congressman Welch, thanks very much for coming back on the show.

REP. PETER WELCH (D), VERMONT: It"s good to be here.

MADDOW: You sponsored an amendment last week to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan with a Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz from Utah. How do a Vermont Democrat and a Utah Republican end up on something together like that?

WELCH: You know, here"s the good news, I think that there is a growing sentiment that we"re spending too much on the military, too much on these activities abroad, that nation-building in Afghanistan really doesn"t make sense. It doesn"t make us more secure.

And Republicans and Democrats are telling me that their voters are fed up. They are because they have skepticism about how does it make sense to spend $2 billion a week in Afghanistan. And how does it make sense to be spending money there when we"re having incredible bug challenges here?

You saw, Rachel, a carry over today where you literally had John Boehner and Dennis Kucinich more or less on the same page saying two things. One, if we are going to use military action, that requires the Congress to approve it. Not just a unilateral action by a president. In number two, that there"s skepticism about this rush to war.

MADDOW: In terms of that issue specifically of congress"s role in war time about a constraint, about Congress not being just a constraint on presidential power, but Congress having the power to declare war, which is quietly spelled out in the Constitution--that this is something that Republicans have been less than activist about over this past decade since 9/11.

Do you think the fact that we"ve got a Democratic president now is bringing out that side of Republican politics more so than we would be seeing if it was a Republican?

WELCH: I do. I think that"s relevant. But the fundamental principle here is that Article I of the Constitution says that if American troops are going to be committed, if we"re going to go to war, then Congress has to approve that yes or no.

And, of course, the War Powers Act gives some latitude to the president. But within 60 days any president Republican or Democrat must come to Congress.

And what I sense in the vote today in the Kucinich amendment and the Boehner amendment, was the unity of interest among Democrats and Republicans to assert congressional power. And what"s good about that is that when we in the House of Representatives are accountable to the people who sent us there and they"re concerned about the Constitution, they"re concerned about their taxpayer dollars, then--and they"re concerned about the loves of their sons and daughters who are going to be sent to war, the fact that the Congress has to act is a real break as it"s supposed to be under the Constitution on a rush to military action.

MADDOW: Do you think that there is a big distance between House Democrats who I know you met with President Obama this week and the White House in terms of what the end of the Afghanistan war is going to look like? I know that I have read that this issue was raised with the president in your meeting this week. How far do you see is the distance between host house Democrats and where President Obama is on the issue?

WELCH: It"s not clear. I think what the president said to us in the meeting was that there is going to be the drawdown. He had committed to that. He did not give us any indication of how quick it was going to be.

What we argued and Jim McGovern argued quite eloquently. It was his amendment that nearly passed, was that with these 204 votes in the House, with Republicans and Democrats being so strong about ending nation-building, that we hoped would be wind to his back because it"s a clear indication that there is strong bipartisan support in the House of Representatives for the president to really accelerate that withdrawal from Afghanistan.

MADDOW: So few issues right now that are really big, really important, really substantive issues facing the country on which you can quite legitimately say there is bipartisan discussion and robust debate with without regard to party constraints. And to have that happening on the wars, I have to say is, for me, just as a civics dork is very heartening and for your part in that Congressman Welch, you"re willing to be bipartisan on this--thank you for doing it.

WELCH: Well, the only way we"re going to get from here to there on these major issues is by trying to find ways we can do it together. The combination, the converge of interest, protecting the Constitution, protecting taxpayer dollars, and, of course, most importantly of all, protecting the lives of young Americans willing to put on the uniform, that"s a place where I hope we can find more common ground and give more support to the president to accelerate that withdrawal.

MADDOW: Democratic Congressman Peter Welch live out from outside a picturesque, cut general store in Norwich, Vermont--thank you so much for joining us tonight, sir. I really appreciate it.

WELCH: Thank you.

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