Nov. 15 Democratic debate transcript

Blitzer: All right.

Senator Edwards, he made a specific reference to you.

Kucinich: This is a fact, though. I mean, I'm not backing down from this. This is a fact. People have to take responsibility for their position.

Blitzer: Let's ask Senator Edwards to respond.

Was that vote a mistake?

Edwards: I'm not sure what I being a trial lawyer has to do with it, but -- wait, what my response is...

Kucinich: Product liability.

Edwards: Cute, Dennis.

I think America's trade policy has been a complete disaster. I do believe that NAFTA, CAFTA, Colombia, Korea, Peru, which we're now considering, has been a complete and total disaster.

And I think it's really important to prove what's been happening with trade into the bigger picture of what's happening with America. Because what I believe is that powerful interests, particularly big corporate interests, have literally taken over this government.

And they've taken over against the interest of ordinary Americans. And the living, breathing example of that is, in 1993, when we were in control of the White House, of the United States Senate and the United States House, we made an effort to pass universal health-care.

The big drug companies, insurance companies and their lobbyists killed it.

Edwards: The same time, NAFTA was put on the table.

Blitzer: All right.

Edwards: The big corporations in America were for NAFTA. So, what did we get with a Democratic Congress, with a Democratic president?

Blitzer: So...

Edwards: We didn't -- no, let me finish this. We didn't get something that America desperately needed, which is universal health care. But we got something America did not need, which is NAFTA, which has cost us millions of jobs. We will not change this country...  if we replace a crowd of corporate Republicans with corporate Democrats. We have to give the power in this democracy back to the American people. That's what's at stake in this election.

Blitzer: All right. I'm going to let Senator Clinton respond. But let me just rephrase the question. Was your vote to normalize trade relations with China a mistake?

Edwards: I think what is a mistake is allowing China to operate unfettered, to send dangerous products into this country, to not have the president of the United States hold them responsible for their trading obligations to the WTO, which has not been done.

Blitzer: So it was a mistake.

Edwards: I think it was right to bring them into WTO. It's wrong to not hold them responsible for their obligations.

Blitzer: All right. Senator Clinton, all of us remember the big NAFTA debate when your husband was president of the United States. A lot of us remember the debate between Al Gore, who was then vice president, and Ross Perot.

Ross Perot was fiercely against NAFTA.

Knowing what we know now, was Ross Perot right?

Clinton: All I can remember from that is a bunch of charts.

That, sort of, is a vague memory.

Look, NAFTA did not do what many had hoped. And so we do need to take a look at it and we do need to figure out how we're going to have trade relations that are smart, that give the American worker and the American consumer rights around the world.

And I want to go back to Campbell's question for a minute, because it's really related to this.

It is something that every parent should be worried about. It's not only the toys. It's the pet food. It's the medical components in prescription drugs.

If we don't impose a third-party, independent investigative arm on our corporations that do business in China, as well as the Chinese government, we should not permit any items to be imported into our country until we're sure they're safe.

Clinton: I mean, that, to me, is rule number one.

Blitzer: All right. So let me rephrase the question. I'll rephrase the question. Was NAFTA a mistake? Was NAFTA a mistake?

Clinton: NAFTA was a mistake to the extent that it did not deliver on what we had hoped it would, and that's why I call for trade timeout. When I am president, I'm going to evaluate every trade agreement. We do need to get back to enforcing the ones we have, which the Bush administration has not done. They have totally abdicated that.

But I think we have to get broader than that. We've got to have enforceable labor and environmental standards. We've got the WTO that enforces financial and corporate rights. We need the International Labor Organization and other mechanisms that will be there to enforce labor rights and environmental rights.

And that's what I intend to do as president.