MTP Transcript for Oct. 8

SEN. TALENT: Well, yeah. I mean, look, all this is speculative. They haven’t, they haven’t been able to clone an embryo, they haven’t been able to get cures yet out of pluripotent stem cell research. But we do have alternatives that MIT is working on, Harvard’s working on, the President’s Commission on Bioethics has talked about, and that’s what—I supported vigorous funding of those alternatives, the Senate passed a bill to do that.  That’s the direction I think we’re going, and it’s a win-win proposition.

MR. RUSSERT: Ms. McCaskill, the senator believes that, in fact, cloning embryos is, in fact, cloning life and then it’s being discarded, and how can you possibly support that?

MS. McCASKILL: My faith directs me to heal the sick. God gave us the miracle of human intelligence to find cures. Our country has never turned its back on medical research and we shouldn’t in Missouri. This provision strictly prohibits human cloning and provides a framework of ethical conduct and laws that are going to restrict the kinds of things that no one wants. I respect people who disagree with me on this issue on principle, I understand there are differences. I come down on the side of hope, hope for cures and supporting science. And I think it’s very important that someone be principled, strong and not muddled, but very clear and straightforward about their position on this issue.

SEN. TALENT: Well, Tim, in fairness, my opponent’s not stood for the protection or the dignity of life in a, in a prenatal stage, really in any context. She didn’t support the ban on partial-birth abortion. The...

MS. McCASKILL: That’s not true.

SEN. TALENT: ...the—well, she...

MR. RUSSERT: Do you support a ban on partial-birth abortion?

MS. McCASKILL: I do, within the constitutional framework that we currently have, with the exception for the life of the mother. I also support parental notification. On the whole issue of abortion, what we need to do—I, I, I certainly believe that abortion should remain safe, legal and rare in the early term, but why don’t we concentrate on prevention? Why don’t we all—none of us want abortion, none of us support abortion. Let’s come together and work on preventing abortions in this country, making adoption easier and, and, and do the right thing to, to drop the number of abortions instead of making health care more unavailable to poor women, which in fact drives up the number of abortions in this country.

SEN. TALENT: Tim, in 1999, the Missouri legislature passed a ban on partial birth abortion. The governor vetoed it, and the state auditor said she was against any ban on partial birth abortion. She doesn’t support a ban on partial birth abortion.

MS. McCASKILL: That’s not true.

SEN. TALENT: She never—well...

MR. RUSSERT: Did you support the ban?

MS. McCASKILL: I was not in the legislature in 199...

MR. RUSSERT: Did you support the veto?

MS. McCASKILL: I, I believe that he vetoed it because the version that passed was not constitutional, as the courts have determined.

MR. RUSSERT: But you would vote for a ban on partial-birth abortion if it had an exception for the life of mother?

MS. McCASKILL: Correct.

MR. RUSSERT: Let me turn to George W. Bush, because he’s become an issue in the campaign. Ms. McCaskill, you were quoted in the pubdef.net giving a speech which was blogged, saying, “She reminded people that ‘George Bush let people die on rooftops in New Orleans because they were poor and because they were black.’” One, why would you say that, and do you believe it?

MS. McCASKILL: Well, first, I was acknowledging how thousands and millions of Americans felt. The visual that we all saw in Hurricane Katrina was frankly, something none of us will ever forget. Incompetence turned tragic because the people there were unable to help themselves. This administration...

MR. RUSSERT: But do you think the president let people die because they were poor and black?

MS. McCASKILL: I do not, I do not believe the president is a racist. I was acknowledging the feelings of many, many Americans that this administration has left the most vulnerable, helpless—this administration has been about Wall Street and not about average Americans.

MR. RUSSERT: But do you apologize for this statement?

MS. McCASKILL: I, I think if it is misinterpreted that I was calling the president a racist...

MR. RUSSERT: Misinterpreted? “George Bush let people die on rooftops because they were poor and because they were black.”

MS. McCASKILL: That was—I was acknowledging what Americans believed at the time.

MR. RUSSERT: So you stand by it?

MS. McCASKILL: Absolutely, that’s what Americans believed. Now, I don’t believe he’s a racist, and if that—if people think—and maybe I shouldn’t have said it that way, Tim. Maybe I should have said it another way. I probably should have said it another way. But the feelings are real.

And by the way, if we had that tragedy, how ready are we for a disaster in this country? After the billions of dollars spent—once again, no accountability—they still are not looking in Congress at how all the money was misspent in Katrina. With all the billions spent on homeland security, our citizens died because we couldn’t get them food or water. This is not an administration that is ready to protect us.

MR. RUSSERT: Senator Talent, President Bush has been to Missouri at least four times in this campaign, raising money for you. And he has given a series of comments about you, which we have put together. Let’s just watch.

(Videotape, June 28, 2006):

PRES. BUSH: Thanks for supporting Jim Talent. One thing about old Jim Talent, he understands what I understand.

Talent and I don’t believe...

Jim and I believe...

I am proud to have worked with Jim Talent.

I am proud to be standing side by side with Jim Talent.

(End of videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: In your three years in the Senate, you have voted with the president 94 percent of the time. Why shouldn’t voters in Missouri say “Jim Talent is a rubber stamp for George W. Bush. If I disagree with George W.  Bush, goodbye, Talent”?

SEN. TALENT: Well, with surveys, it all depends on the issues you look at, Tim. I mean, if you survey immigration, if you survey farm policy, if you survey highway and transportation infrastructure funding, you’ll find the president and I disagreed. I mean, there are surveys that show I’m one of the most independent Republicans. It all depends on...

MR. RUSSERT: Well, the Congressional Quarterly says you voted with him 94 percent of the time.

SEN. TALENT: I think it was the National Journal that said I was, like, one of the most independent Republicans. Yeah, and why don’t they ever say in those surveys that the president agreed with me a certain percentage of the time? I mean, I’ve been in public life a lot longer when he has. When I went into Congress, I think he was still running the Texas Rangers. Now, he’s come a little bit further, I guess, than I have since then. The point is, I have a set of views, a set of things I want to do to make the system work for Missouri. Let me take just 60 seconds, because the election’s really about the state auditor and me...

MR. RUSSERT: Well, let me ask you—but, but the issue of President Bush’s...(unintelligible). Do you believe that President Bush is a great president?

SEN. TALENT: History judges presidents, and I think it’s going to make a judgment based on his record when it’s completed...

MR. RUSSERT: But you supported him 94 percent of the time, and he’s been in the state four times campaigning for you. Why not?

SEN. TALENT: I think he’s going to be—I think history’s going to say there were some things he did that were right, and some things he did that were wrong. Certainly, he’s going to end up better than Jimmy Carter, probably not as good as Ronald Reagan, and a lot depends on what happens on whether we complete the mission, and, and—in, in Iraq, and win the war on terror. I mean...

MR. RUSSERT: But...

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