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'Meet the Press' transcript for April 27, 2008
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 Netcast April 27: Exclusive! Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean joins us this Sunday to talk about the Clinton-Obama race and the effect the extended primary season is having on his Party. Then, a political roundtable on Decision 2008 with David Broder, John Dickerson, Gwen Ifill, Andrea Mitchell & Richard Wolffe. |
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 | 62 years of ‘Meet the Press’ A photographic look back at the longest-running program in television history and the guests who graced the broadcast – from Martin Luther King Jr. to Jimmy Hoffa. more photos |
MR. RUSSERT: Now, Senator McCain's campaign is saying that you take those words totally out of context. Here's how Senator McCain explained what was actually said at the town hall: "It's dishonest because anyone who looks at the entire transcript of the exchange that I had at a town hall meeting with a man who came there, who had a legitimate point of view that he was against the war and asked--we went back and forth about how long, quote, America would be there, and I said, `Well,' he said, `How many years?' I said, `Could be a hundred.' But the case is, it's after we've won the war. And I immediately said it's the same as we have troops in South Korea, we have troops in Japan, we have troops in Germany, depending on the security arrangement that we have.
"No one could have interpreted that exchange as me saying that we're going to be in a war for a hundred years."
DR. DEAN: First of all, we're not arguing that he's going to be at war for a hundred years. We don't think we ought to be in Iraq for a hundred years under any circumstances. Think of the hundreds of billions of dollars that are being spent in Iraq, which we need right here at home right now to preserve American jobs. That's the first thing.
Secondly, if Senator McCain believes that you can occupy a country like Iraq for a hundred years without having a long war and violence and our troops being hurt and, and killed, I think Senator McCain is wrong.
Look, our folks don't want, I--our folks, our country--70 percent of our country does not want to be in Iraq for a hundred years under any circumstances. Senator McCain is wrong. He is out of step with the American people, and he is wrong.
MR. RUSSERT: He is saying it's analogous to Germany or to Japan or to Europe.
DR. DEAN: And South Korea. I have the same quote that you have right here.
MR. RUSSERT: Where you have troops there, but they're not involved in conflict.
DR. DEAN: That is correct. Now, does anyone think, who's watching this show, that if you keep our troops in Iraq for a hundred years, people won't be attacking them and won't be setting off suicide bombs and won't be having militias go after them? I don't think so. And most Americans don't think so. What Senator McCain is saying doesn't make any sense. We cannot be in Iraq for a hundred years. Those dollars belong in America. We're in trouble in this--in, in America. And, frankly, the Bush-McCain economic program has put us in trouble in America. That money needs to be here in America.
MR. RUSSERT: The Republican Party in Virginia has filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission saying that your previous ad and no doubt this one, they will insist, is being coordinated with the Obama and Clinton campaigns, it's all anti-McCain, and that it violates the election rules.
DR. DEAN: Yeah, that is a joke. There's no evidence for that whatsoever, and it's plain untrue. Neither one of the campaigns ever saw this ad or knew anything about it before we put it on.
MR. RUSSERT: Before you go, back in February of '06, when you were pushing hard to have the Democrats take over the House and Senate, which they did, you made some firm commitments, promises what the Democrats would do. Let's watch.
(Audiotape)
DR. DEAN: We will promise you that if you elect a majority in the House and Senate, we will not permit Iran to be a nuclear power; we will make a deal with China to get nuclear weapons out of North Korea; we will catch, capture Osama bin Laden or kill him.
(End audiotape)
MR. RUSSERT: Two years later...
DR. DEAN: Well, two, two years later, there is a deal with North--with China to try to put an end to the nuclear weapons in North Korea. It turns out that there have not have been, had not been nearly as much progress, according to the National Intelligence Estimate, in Iran towards nuclear weapons in the first place, and we have not captured Iran--Osama bin Laden, nor have we gotten out of Iraq. And I have concluded that you can't get out of Iraq or capture Osama bin Laden unless you have a Democratic president. It's not going to happen with George Bush or John McCain in the White House. We don't need four more years of what we've had for the last eight years, and that's what you get with John McCain.
MR. RUSSERT: Well, that was not the fine print. You promised the Democratic Congress could do it.
DR. DEAN: Well, I was wrong because we had a president that wasn't interested.
MR. RUSSERT: John, you don't think George Bush is interested in capturing Osama bin Laden?
DR. DEAN: Well, he--the proof is in the pudding, and it hasn't happened, and we haven't gotten out--gotten ourselves out of Iraq. We know--we knew, and one of the reasons we won the election is 2006 is we knew the American people wanted us to get out of Iraq. We tried every way we could. Senator McConnell in the Senate filibustered and made it impossible for us to get out, wouldn't allow the vote to come to the floor. The president vetoed several measures, just as he then went on to veto things like children's health care. This is a, this is a party, a Republican Party that's completely out of step with what the American people want, and we now are going back to get more senators and, and, and the presidency, so that we can do the things that the American people want us to do: get out of Iraq, spend our dollars here at home to help people who have been victimized by the mortgage crisis, and to have a health care system that works for everybody, particularly our, our children. How hard-hearted are these Republicans who veto and uphold the veto, as Senator McCain did, of, of children's health care? Shouldn't we at least have health care for all our children? We need change in this country.
MR. RUSSERT: And yet Senator McCain is tied or beating both Clinton, Obama in most of the national polls.
DR. DEAN: That's because Senator McCain's not being challenged by anybody yet, and we intend to do that. And this ad's part of it.
MR. RUSSERT: Dr. Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, we thank you for joining us and sharing your views.
DR. DEAN: Tim, thanks for having me on.
MR. RUSSERT: Coming next, what to look for in the upcoming primaries in Indiana and North Carolina on May 6th. Our roundtable: David Broder, John Dickerson, Gwen Ifill, Andrea Mitchell, Richard Wolffe, coming up next right here only on MEET THE PRESS.
(Announcements)
MR. RUSSERT: Our political roundtable after this brief station break. The race for the White House 2008.
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