MR. RUSSERT: Next up, he is the governor of the most populous state in the union. California’s Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He’s right here, next, on MEET THE PRESS.

(Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT: He’s trying to mount a political comeback. The California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is our guest after this brief station break.

(Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT: And we are back.

Governor, welcome back to MEET THE PRESS.

Story continues below ↓

advertisement | your ad here

GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R-Calif.): Thank you very much. It’s great to be here again.

MR. RUSSERT: Let me take a few minutes and talk about some of the issues the congressman and the senator were talking about. Ports. Do you believe that this deal should go forward to allow the United Arab Emirates company control six American ports, operate them?

GOV. SCHWARZENEGGER: Well, first of all, Tim, let me just say that California is not affected by that, which is good. Second of all, I think that the wise thing was, that the Bush administration made and Secretary Chertoff made, was to postpone the decision-making and to say, “Oh, let’s give it some extra time.” Because I think when you see complaints coming in like this, you got to study it further, and I think that’s what they’re doing right now. And it’s a very complex issue, because, you know, we have the globalization, we want to do trades with everyone all over the world, but at the same time, globalization crosses with terrorism now, and there’s that whole fear. And then we have villainized the Arab world also so much that now Arab country—or company taking over our ports and maybe have some influence in our security, it freaks everyone out, and rightfully so.

So I think you have to be really careful. The whole thing as the two gentlemen have just discussed is we have to think it through and make sure that because—and in the end, the number one responsibility of government is to protect the people of California and the United States. This is really the responsibility. That is what you have to watch out for. And if we can accomplish that, then this company should be able to manage these ports. I mean, we have in California, Chinese managing our ports and have facilities that are leased. We have other countries like Japan and South Korea and Denmark and so on occupying space. So I think that the trick is just how do you do it and protect the people and protect our ports.

MR. RUSSERT: But in principle, you don’t have opposition?

GOV. SCHWARZENEGGER: I don’t have opposition, but it has to be really thought through by experts. I’m not an expert in this issue, but it has to be thought through by experts, and we cannot compromise our security because that would be terrible if that happens.

MR. RUSSERT: You mentioned about Los Angeles. And it is interesting because 13 or 14 container terminal operators at the Los Angeles Long Beach Port are foreign-owned: China, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Denmark, as you said. Are you concerned that China operates a port? In terms of security?

GOV. SCHWARZENEGGER: Well, we have the ultimate control over security. I mean, they occupy space. They lease space. They don’t own it. And we have Long Beach, for instance, controlling the Long Beach, the ports there. We have the Coast Guard, we have the customs service, we have the local law enforcement, we have the Port Authority. We have all of those agencies, various different agencies that control it. It’s not the Chinese or any other country that control our security. So I feel very confident with that. And I also feel very confident with the kind of relationship that we have with the national Homeland Security Office with Secretary Chertoff. They have always responded really well to every single one of our concerns that we had.

CONTINUED

< Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Next >

Discuss Story On Newsvine
Rate Story:
View popularLowHigh
Email
Instant Message
Print