WTTW: Chicago Tonight

The interview originally aired on WTTW on April 16, 2014. If you have difficulty viewing the video, click here.

Chicago Tonight Anchor:And now to Carol Marin and the Chicago Congressman heading off into dangerous territory, Carol.

WTTW's Carol Marin:Ukraine, is the international hot spot of the hour, on the precipice perhaps of civil war, and raising critical questions about how President Obama deals with Russian President Vladimir Putin. It is so grave a situation that over Easter, a special Congressional delegation is preparing to leave for Ukraine on a fact-finding mission. One of those going, is Illinois Congressman Michael Quigley of Chicago who joins us now, welcome Congressman.

Representative Mike Quigley: Thank you.

Marin:What makes this remarkable about this delegation?

Rep. Quigley:Well I think it's the timing, I mean there's some times you have to be at a certain place, there's some times and some issues you can't just read about in the newspaper or a memorandum that your staff prepares, being at Ukraine now is especially important .

Marin:And is this in fact just fact-finding, or is this a way of planting a flag on Ukraine from the United States?

Rep. Quigley: I think there's a message being delivered, first to the people of my district who are Ukrainian, to the citizens of Ukraine and the people trying to establish a democratic government. But I also think it's a message to Putin and the Russians who are attempting, through aggressive means, to circumvent that process.

Marin:Who's going?

Rep. Quigley:The leaders of the Foreign Affairs Committee and about eight others, most of them are going just to Ukraine.

Marin: You know here's the question I think for a lot of Americans who look around them and say ‘we got a lot of problems here,' what exactly is the role of the United States in Ukraine and why is it in our national interest to do anything?

Rep. Quigley:Well Ukraine has been a strong ally in the past and is a country that has broken away from the Soviet Empire and is attempting to be a democratic nation. It's always been the role of the United States to help our allies in that kind of situation, particularly because United Nations is stymied, you know the Russians can, they have a veto in the Security Council, we need to prod NATO and the European Union to help as much as possible, so it turns to the United States to play that pivotal role.

Marin:But, what exactly do we do? I mean, how deeply does the United States become involved in issues involving Russia; Crimea's already gone, what's our deal here?

Rep. Quigley:Right, I mean I think what we've done so far is appropriate, you know, our billion dollars in loan guarantees, there's an additional security package that we put together with additional financial aid, we have a destroyer in the region, we sent planes to Poland, you know I think it's work, working with our allies in the European Union and NATO, to pushing back against this kind of aggression. Putin is an opportunistic person, that's what he did in Georgia in '08 when Bush was president, it's what he's doing now and he'll go as far as he thinks the world will take him. I think the sanctions are starting to work, I think that the democratic side of what we're attempting to do, that the peaceful side of what we're attempting to do is working, if only because you look at the Russian ruble, it is at an all-time low, the Russian stock market, since this has taken place, has diminished by twenty percent. So I think we let sanctions work as much as possible, try to do this without putting any boots on the ground.

Marin:I know you read widely and you've seen the criticism that President Obama can no longer start doing these ‘you've got a red line here and don't you cross it,' that kind of threatening language doesn't scare Vladimir Putin very much.

Rep. Quigley:Well I think the hawks are out, and I think you have to look at what the hawks in the Senate, in particular, have said during recent conflicts, they probably would have had boots on the ground in five different countries, we're trying to avoid another major conflict, that's the President's role here, while trying to help Ukraine and, it's not a difficult, it's a very difficult process to do given the problems with the United Nations inability to act. We can't jump pass some of those hoops or we're seen in a negative role as well.

Marin:But when the President says, ‘there will be costs,' do you think that that in any way intimidates Putin?

Rep. Quigley:Well I think that he understands the financial aspects of this, and I think he's beginning to understand that conflict is bad for his country's economy, conflict is bad for business. I think it's instructive to see what Secretary Bates, Gates, has said about this, he said ‘there are those out there criticizing the President but they're wrong, no one said that President Bush was being weak when Putin invaded Georgia in '08,' and George Bush did about the same things that President Obama is doing right now.

Marin:What do people really want in Ukraine, because among the many reports are that Ukrainians are, by and large, in that country more sympathetic more Russian centric than they are Ukraine centric and that this revolution that seems to be rising up is from people who want to be aligned with Russia, is that wrong?

Rep. Quigley:No, I think what people don't understand Ukraine is that it's not a country that's totally uniform, I mean there's more former Russians in the eastern section, obviously, Russian speaking people in the eastern section so it's a country divided along a certain line, but overall I think they wanted, that country, the polling seemed to indicate, to move toward the European Union and when the President broke his promise and didn't sign into the European Union agreement, that's when the revolution began.

Marin:You have a lot of Ukrainian constituents, I mean, Chicago is home to Ukrainian Village, in the suburbs and elsewhere, but certainly in Chicago, what are they telling you?

Rep. Quigley:We're going to have a longer conference call with many of the leaders tomorrow, I want to find out exactly the message they want me to bring to Ukraine and what they want me to bring back, but they want to protect Ukraine's autonomy as a sovereign country against Soviet aggression.

Marin:But then, doesn't Ukraine's leadership in country have to do more than it has skillfully done?

Rep. Quigley:Well understand that this a nation that's a new country in a sense, it only broke away in '91, in its independence from the Soviet Union at that time, and is a country that has faced extraordinary problems, it was near financial collapse when this revolution began, it is a country known for historic corruption, it has to overcome all those things, it has democratic elections taking place in May. So it is an extraordinarily complicated issue at a difficult time, all we can do is help move them in a democratic, toward a democratic process.

Marin:And do you think the Russians are playing their own misleading narrative here when they say this is really an uprising from within rather some sort of orchestration from without?

Rep. Quigley:Yeah, I mean obviously you're seeing Russian operations taking place in eastern cities, a lot of what we're trying to discover as we go on this congressional delegation to Ukraine, we believe that a lot of their, the infiltration is taking place in those cities, they're hoping to insight another revolution, they hope for a civil war, because chaos works toward their better interest.

Marin:So the State Department prepares you for this trip, correct?

Rep. Quigley: Yes, and the military.

Marin:And the military. And, among the preparations, they give you special gear, special phones, special stuff?

Rep. Quigley:Well sometimes when we go to certain countries, they ask us to leave our own phones and the phones we use as Congressman at home and they give us, they ask us to use a blank phone, because there are places in the world, believe it or not, where they will hack your phone and get all the information off that and use it against you, and given all the information exchange back and forth as a member of Congress, they're not really all that anxious to share all that. It's an interesting place to travel.

Marin:More than interesting, I think there are certain people who would there's a certain risk involved in going into what is a chaotic situation and a violent situation. Do you have, or does your family have any misgivings about this?

Rep. Quigley:Well I suppose there's a little concern. I believe that we're going to be safe but on the other hand, members of Congress, one of their main responsibilities, duties I guess, is deciding whether or not to send young men and women into armed conflict, into harm's way. At the very least what we can do is to go into those situations and try to avoid a war and to respect the dangers they face on a daily basis.

Marin:Let me switch gears a little bit and let's talk about domestic issues like the recovery, the Wall Street Journal today reported the real median household income in the United States is still lower than the year 2007 and that the smallest share of Americans are working since 1978. For whom is this economy recovering?

Rep. Quigley: I think it's a slow and painful recovery but it's still a recovery, we're still gaining jobs every month. I think we underestimated how bad that break was, how bad this economic down turn was, it was as bad as anything we've had since the Great Depression, so when we're seeing a two percent growth each year, it's coming back from such a horrendous spot when the President took office. So, it is not nearly what it should be but I'm still hearing projections that within a year or so we're going to be at about four or five percent annual growth in the economy.

Marin:But you know, in the have-have not world, the have-nots have even less than they had before and the haves seem to be doing very well.

Rep. Quigley: Which is why we need a tax reform, which is why we need to raise the minimum wage to at least ten dollars per hour.

Marin:Is that going to happen? Is Congress and this mid-term election Congress going to actually get that done?

Rep. Quigley:I think that a lot of the actions that need to take place like minimum wage, like unemployment benefits, like immigration reform, unfortunately are waiting for Speaker Boehner to move forward. I think that, and I'm just surmising here, but I'm thinking that the Speaker is waiting to see what happens in some more of his primaries, and actually, if he thinks that they are beating back the Tea Party challenge, I think he turns more of his moderates lose and moves forward on legislation like this. It's long overdue to anyone of those three or four things.

Marin:And here in Illinois we have a ferocious governor's race, speaking of mid-term elections. Can Pat Quinn defeat a very well-funded and very well produced Republican candidate who's running ads wall-to-wall these days?

Rep. Quigley:You know I don't think Rauner's had a particularly good week, I mean he won the election but I don't think he's had a good week in several months. I think that he's the type of candidate that the more the public learns about, perhaps they don't necessarily like him as much. When you spend a lot of your own money or any kind of money to get known in a hurry, you're support may be a mile wide but just a few inches deep.

Marin:Yeah but you've seen Pat Quinn's numbers, I mean Pat Quinn's numbers are down below the basement.

Rep. Quigley:No political expert can explain Pat Quinn, but I'll say this,

Marin:Well what does that mean, what does that mean?

Rep. Quigley:Last time, four years ago, I heard the same thing, ‘Pat Quinn can't possibly win, his numbers are so low he can't win anything south of I-80 or I-70,' and low and behold he still won. So, he's hard to explain because he's a typical cat with nine lives, so I don't, no one should underestimate his political skills. I recognize where the polling is and was, but after all this money spent by a republican candidate, I've seen polling this weak which show them to be very, very close, that the race is neck and neck. And it also is very, very early, so many things can happen between now.

Marin:It's very, very early, we don't know what's going to happen with either one of them. One last question, I ask it every time, are you still sleeping in your office in your footy pajamas?

Rep. Quigley:(Laughter) I broke away from this after about four and half years and it wasn't for political reasons, we all understand personal situations, my daughters fortunately both graduated from college and it offered an opportunity for me to finally move out of my office and live in a small apartment in Washington when I'm not here in Chicago.

Marin: Congressman Mike Quigley, safe travels for you over this Easter holiday, thanks very much.

Rep. Quigley:We appreciate it.