The following is the transcript of an interview with Rep. Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on April 13, 2025.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to California Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna, who joins us this morning from another state, Ohio. Good morning to you, Congressman.
REP. RO KHANNA: Good morning, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to get to what’s happening to Silicon Valley in just a moment on the trade and tech front. But first off, I want to ask you, since you sit on the Armed Services Committee, for any insight you might have on one of the announcements made late on Friday, the President authorized the US military to take over a large swath of public land along the southern border, including in the state of California. And I understand that that means the Pentagon’s budget can now be used for things like border security or potentially to even detain migrants in that area. Has Congress been briefed on these plans? Do you have any sense of what’s happening?
REP. KHANNA: We have not. And Margaret, it’s longstanding law that you can’t use the military for domestic enforcement. It’s a violation of the Constitution. I’m hopeful the Supreme Court would nine to zero rule that way, just like they’ve ruled that the deportation of Abrego was unconstitutional, but we have not heard any specific- specifics of it, and it’s blatantly against the law.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You, there, were talking about Maryland resident Abrego Garcia, who was detained and then sent to a prison in El Salvador. The Supreme Court said that the Trump administration actually has to facilitate getting him back, but they didn’t actually rule on whether he was a gang member or not. The Justice Department can’t substantiate it. But why did you bring up that specific case as proof of something?
REP. KHANNA: Well, it just shows that this administration is taking actions that are unconstitutional. Look, Vice President Vance said that the- Abrego was an M-13 gang member with no legal rights here, and the Supreme Court said, well, we don’t know, and he does actually have legal rights. And so similarly, you now have an administration that is using the military for domestic enforcement, which is illegal. And I believe that even this Supreme Court, a conservative Supreme Court, would rule it’s unconstitutional.
MARGARET BRENNAN: On Garcia, ICE said it was an administrative error that led to this man’s arrest in the first place. It seems the Trump administration is saying it’s now in the hands of the President of El Salvador, who will be at the White House this week. So we will watch for developments on that space. But going back to the line of questioning here regarding armed services, we understand that the President sent his envoy, Steve Witkoff, to talk to Iranian officials over this past weekend. We don’t know much other than they’re going to meet again, but in the meantime, the US military has positioned as many as six B-2 bombers in the Indian Ocean. That’s the kind of aircraft that would carry a weapon that could be used to take out underground facilities for a nuclear program. Do you believe President Trump would need congressional approval to carry out a strike, even if it was just in support of Iran- Israel leading that attack on Iran?
REP. KHANNA: Absolutely, and almost a third of our B-2 bombers are there. Look, it’s unconstitutional what they’re doing in Yemen. I said it was unconstitutional when Biden made those strikes. We- they need to come to Congress. And look, the President was elected by the American people saying we don’t want our tax dollars going for more bombing in the Middle East, for more wars in the Middle East. I think he’s ignoring the base that actually elected him, that does not want more of these strikes with- in the case of Yemen, the Saudis had war there for almost 10 years, and though it didn’t do anything to address the situation with the Houthis. The President campaigned on diplomacy. He hasn’t done that, and what we’re seeing is escalation.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, we’ll see what the diplomacy he’s attempting achieves in the near term. But let me ask you, why you’re out in Ohio talking to us this morning? I understand in the coming days, you’re also going to go to Connecticut to Yale Law on Tuesday. Are you trying to, sort of, troll vice president Vance? And if so, why?
REP. KHANNA: Well, no, I mean, Cleveland City Club invited me to give a speech on the economy and- let’s talk about these tariffs. I mean, they were chaotic, and they were totally haphazard. So you had Howard Lutnick on, saying that we were going to bring manufacturing back and- electronics manufacturing back to the United States, and they realized suddenly that that wasn’t going to happen. Actually, the iPhone price would go up to 1700 or 2000 dollars. And by the way, if that manufacturing moved, it would probably move to Malaysia or Vietnam. So they suddenly reverse. They exempt all of electronics manufacturing, which is about a third of our trade deficit. And I’m here at the Cleveland City Club to say, if you want to have electronics manufacturing here, the way to do it is not blanket tariffs. You have to create an electronic manufacturing hub, the kind we did with the CHIPS Act. That means investing in tool engineering and workforce. It means having investment tax credits. It means having government buy things from the United States. The President has no plan of how to actually have high end advanced manufacturing in the United States.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, the district you represent includes Silicon Valley. So you must be hearing from some of these CEOs. Who are they lobbying- apparently successfully, to get these carve outs.
REP. KHANNA: I think they’re talking about sound economic policy. I mean, it really would have been- they’re talking to anyone they can at the White House. They’re talking to anyone they can who has the President’s ear. But what they’re saying is pretty simple. First, they’re saying that Howard Lutnick the screws and the screwing only is about 0.1% of an iPhone’s cost. I mean, you need to- the actual components or memory or camera or RAM. I mean, it’s like, I understand they have 19th century policies of McKinley, but they need to have a 21st century understanding of the economy. And then they’re saying, okay, you really want to do this. The iPhone will cost 16 to 1,700 dollars but we’re not going to be able to bring it back to the United States. We’ll go to India, we’ll go to Malaysia, we’ll go to Vietnam. And if you want to bring back the manufacturing to the United States, you have to invest in the workforce, you have to have some investment tax credit for the facilities, and you have to be able to buy the things we make in the United States. So all I’m saying is, let’s have sound economic policy. And I saw the poll earlier. This is not a hypothetical. This is not something the President will be able to spin. Either we’re going to see new factories come or we’re not, and tariffs just aren’t going to do that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, we didn’t get a clear answer on when the semiconductor tariffs are coming, but the administration argues they’re in the pipeline, and that, you know, China is not going to get a free pass when it comes to tech. What is that going to mean for your part of the country?
REP. KHANNA: Well, it’s- again, they don’t have any sense of when the tariff will come, when it won’t come, and they’re against the CHIPS Act. So how are you going to- let’s say you suddenly put tariffs on China. What it would mean is the production would move to other parts of Asia. It still isn’t going to come here, unless you’re financing those factories here, willing to buy here. Tariffs can be a tool used as a broader Hamiltonian industrial policy, and that’s what I’m here in Ohio to talk about, which is what is actually going to bring advanced manufacturing to this country.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Alright, Congressman Khanna, we’ll be watching. We’ll be right back.
