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‘Meet the Press’ transcript for Jan. 6, 2008
John McCain (R-AZ)
Broadcast videos, highlights |
 Netcast Jan. 6: Two days before the N.H. primary, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) talks about his presidential campaign and recent rise in the polls. Plus, insights and analysis with two veteran campaign strategists -- Democrat Steve McMahon and Republican Mike Murphy. |
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MR. TIM RUSSERT: Our issues this Sunday: In Iowa, it was Obama for the Democrats...
(Videotape)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL): You have done what the cynics said we couldn’t do.
(End videotape)
MR. RUSSERT: ...and Huckabee for the Republicans.
(Videotape)
FMR. GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Well, tonight we proved that American politics is still in the hands of ordinary folks like you.
(End videotape)
MR. RUSSERT: And now it’s New Hampshire, as Hillary Clinton and John Edwards try to bounce back. And John McCain, in a must-win comeback against former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Can he re-create his victory here in 2000? Our guest, Republican candidate for president Senator John McCain.
Then, the candidates debated last night. A look at the tactics, the strategies, the messages. He worked for Howard Dean and Richard Gephardt, Democratic strategist Steve McMahon. He worked for John McCain and Mitt Romney, Republican strategist Mike Murphy. The New Hampshire primary, 48 hours to go.
Senator McCain, welcome back to New Hampshire. This is it.
SEN. JOHN McCAIN (R-AZ): Yes, it certainly is. By the way, I saw that intro. I don’t know about the Democrat, but you can’t trust Murphy, OK? I know him.
MR. RUSSERT: You paid him.
SEN. McCAIN: Yeah, that’s right.
MR. RUSSERT: Let me go to the very latest MSNBC/McClatchy newspaper poll. Here it is: John McCain, 32; Mitt Romney, 24; Mike Huckabee, 12; Rudy Giuliani, nine; Ron Paul, eight. What does that tell you?
SEN. McCAIN: It tells me that there’s about—in that poll I think they’ll say that 50 percent of the voters are still undecided. So we have, you know, it’s all-out these last 24 hours--48 hours. And a lot of voters in New Hampshire, we all know, make up their minds in the last few hours or even when they go into the ballot booth. So we’ve still got a lot of work to do.
MR. RUSSERT: Many had given your candidacy up for dead. Are you surprised by your current situation?
SEN. McCAIN: I’m pleased. I can’t say that it’s surprise. But I know we were at a very low point. We came here to New Hampshire, and we’ve been traveling around the country telling people the truth. And here in New Hampshire people, frankly, don’t mind it if you disagree with him as long as they think that you’re telling them the truth. And that’s the beauty of the town hall meeting here. We had, we had our 100th town hall meeting here yesterday in Peterborough, and it was well attended, and we had some very spirited exchanges. I think, I think that’s what, what the people of New Hampshire want.
MR. RUSSERT: I had a chance to see you out in Urbandale, Iowa.
SEN. McCAIN: Mm-hmm.
MR. RUSSERT: And you said something that caught my attention. I want to play it for our viewers and come back and talk about it.
SEN. McCAIN: Mm-hmm.
MR. RUSSERT: Here’s John McCain.
(Videotape)
SEN. McCAIN: I think we all know that the American people have lost their trust and confidence in their government of the United States. Our failures at Katrina, the war in Iraq, corruption and spending in Washington. We know that.
MR. RUSSERT: Lost their trust and confidence.
SEN. McCAIN: Mm-hmm.
MR. RUSSERT: Katrina, the war in Iraq and spending.
SEN. McCAIN: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
MR. RUSSERT: That’s a denunciation of George W. Bush.
SEN. McCAIN: Well, it’s certainly a criticism, but I also have pointed out, as I did last night in the debate, we’ve not had another attack on the United States of America. I think he deserves credit for that. He led this nation after 9/11 and united us. There’s a number—at least he’s had the good judgment, finally, to change the strategy in Iraq so that we now have a winning strategy. Look, I think the president of the United States has made mistakes, but I would say the biggest one is spending. That, that’s what our base is unhappy about. That’s what I’m going to fix. That’s what I’ve fought against for years, and I’ve done so pretty effectively. Saved the taxpayers a couple of billion dollars in a Boeing tanker deal. I—the reason—I led the investigation of Jack Abramoff. But our base has got to have—restore—got to have their confidence and their trust restored because they have lost it, and there’s no doubt about that. And spending...
MR. RUSSERT: But you say...
SEN. McCAIN: ...on the part of Congress has been one of the big factors. The approval rating of Congress is far lower than it is of the president.
MR. RUSSERT: But Katrina and Iraq...
SEN. McCAIN: Yes. Yes.
MR. RUSSERT: ...and spending, that’s George Bush.
SEN. McCAIN: Yes. It’s, it’s, it’s George Bush with a lot of help from a lot of people, and one of them was Donald Rumsfeld, who I said I had no confidence in, and I believe that he should be—should have resigned long before he did.
MR. RUSSERT: Let me turn to your contest with Mitt Romney.
SEN. McCAIN: Mm-hmm.
MR. RUSSERT: Governor Romney’s on the air here in New Hampshire...
SEN. McCAIN: Mm-hmm.
MR. RUSSERT: ...with a television ad. Let’s play part of it and come back and talk about it.
(Videotape of ad)
Ad Announcer: He voted against the Bush tax cuts. On immigration, McCain supported this year’s amnesty bill. Higher taxes, amnesty for illegals, that’s straight talk for being in Washington too long.
FMR. GOV. MITT ROMNEY: I’m Mitt Romney, and I approve this message.
(End videotape)
MR. RUSSERT: Let’s talk about it. Bush tax cuts. You did vote against them in May of 2001, May of 2003...
SEN. McCAIN: Mm-hmm.
MR. RUSSERT: ...and, in fact, you said “We can’t afford tax cuts for the fortunate at the expense of the middle class who need tax relief.”
SEN. McCAIN: Well, I also said that the reason—major reason why I was opposed to it was because there was no spending cuts. I was proud to be part—a foot soldier in the Reagan revolution. And we had tax cuts, but we had spending cuts that went right along with it. And without spending cuts, it was clear that the—we would be facing the financial debacle that—fiscal debacle that we are in today. I had a tax cut proposal which had significant tax cuts, but it had spending restrain in it too. And unless we cut spending then, then we are going to end up in a—the serious situation we’re in today. I will cut spending. And I will continue to support making the tax cuts permanent, which I’ve voted already twice.
MR. RUSSERT: But you voted the third time for the tax cuts, but there weren’t spending cuts.
SEN. McCAIN: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. No, but I thought that we ought to keep the tax cuts permanent because if we had increased taxes, which that would have had the effect of, if I had voted in the other way. So, look, we need to have spending cuts. I know that, everybody knows that, and if we had done what I wanted to do in 2000, we would now be talking about more tax cuts because we would have had spending cuts to go along with it. And it’s just facts.
MR. RUSSERT: Do you believe that voting against the Bush tax cuts was a mistake?
SEN. McCAIN: Of course not. As I just said, I believe that we needed spending cuts to go along with it, the way we did in the Reagan years. In the Reagan years, we cut spending along with the tax cuts. Unfortunately, later on, we did away with Gramm-Rudman and some of those other requirements for spending cuts, then that—and that caused us problems. But, look, you can’t—Ronald Reagan used to say you can’t expand the size of government without paying for it. And if you’re going to pay for it, obviously, you can’t have tax cuts. So it has to go hand in hand, and that’s, that’s what I will do as president.
MR. RUSSERT: Bob Novak, in his column, wrote this: “McCain has admitted to me that those tax votes were a mistake.”
SEN. McCAIN: I, I, I can’t, I can’t account for, for Bob Novak’s comments or anybody else’s comments. I know what I’ve said on the record thousands of times.
MR. RUSSERT: Let me turn to immigration, an amnesty immigration bill.
SEN. McCAIN: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
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