Interview With Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA); Senate Finalizing Border Deal That Trump Aims To Kill

Interview

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"Well, I mean, look, the General and Clarissa are right that what we are trying to achieve is deterrence. Deterrence is hard, but war is worse, Anderson, and we don't want to get involved in a direct war with Iran. That would play right into our enemy's hands. So what the Biden administration is trying to do is find a way to send a clear and decisive message to these militant groups, that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated. We're not going to stand for it.

But at the same time, we're not going to allow them to instigate a war that will not only play into our enemy's hands in the Middle East, but frankly, it's just what Russia and China want as well.

So the Biden administration has to be smart and strategic here. That's what they're trying to do.

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Well, look, everything should be on the table. So I'm not going to sit here tonight and say that we should never consider striking inside Iran, if they're calling for a war with Iran then they're not playing on our side.

It's interesting, you started this hour, Anderson, by listing all the nations that are involved in this effort in the Middle East. And you said, none of these nations want a wider war. But these militant groups, these terrorists, they do want a wider war and it sounds like some of these Republicans do as well. That's playing into our enemy's hands. That's not what we need to do.

And let's also not forget that many of these Republicans, some of them actually served in Republican administrations over the last 20 years. Over 20 years, we've had Iranian proxy groups killing US troops in the Middle East.

When I was on the ground in Iraq, we were losing hundreds of US servicemen a year to Iranian proxy groups. And under Democratic and Republican administrations, they all tried to find this balance, sending a message to Iran that you can't keep doing this while not starting a wider war.

It's obviously hard, Anderson, and we wouldn't still be in that situation today.

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I mean, you can certainly make that argument that they could have been more aggressive earlier, but to think that by doing something a few months ago, they would have suddenly solved a problem that the Bush administration, the Obama administration, and the Trump administration could never solve, I think is fanciful.

I mean, there are a lot of people who support Trump right now, who are saying that you know, that Biden needs to be tougher and saying that that's exactly what Trump did. But look, if Trump had been successful over four years, we wouldn't be in the same situation we are today.

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Well, there's nothing that this administration or anyone can do to bring back the lives of those three heroes and the loss that their families and their units, that Army Reserve Unit in Georgia are feeling right now is something that we can probably never understand.

But the message I want to send to their families, to the unit, and to everybody who is watching this is that they didn't die in vain, that we have troops stationed around the world and including in places like this in the Middle East, because we have a lot of enemies who want to do us harm and they're out there on the front tonight as these three were this weekend to fundamentally keep us safe at home.

So as we mourn their loss, we're also -- we're also just incredibly grateful for their service.

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Thank you, Anderson."

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