'Meet the Press' transcript for April 5, 2009

MR. DAVID GREGORY:  Our issues this Sunday:  At the height of the global economic crisis the president takes an unprecedented step toward saving the auto industry, ousting General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner.

(Videotape)

PRES. BARACK OBAMA:  It's a failure of leadership from Washington to Detroit that led our auto companies to this point.

(End videotape)

MR. GREGORY:  But even as he gives GM a new deadline to reinvent itself, the president says the government will stand behind Detroit.

(Videotape)

PRES. OBAMA:  We cannot and must not and we will not let our auto industry simply vanish.

(End videotape)

MR. GREGORY:  Can General Motors be saved?  With us, the new CEO, Fritz Henderson.

Then, North Korea fires a long-range rocket, sparking international outrage and an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting.  Was it a weapons test?

And President Obama on the world stage.  What did the historic economic summit accomplish, and can this new administration enlist wider support from our allies in the battle against terrorism?  Our roundtable weighs in:  Michael Gerson, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and former speech writer and policy adviser to President George W.  Bush; John Harwood of CNBC and The New York Times; Katty Kay, Washington correspondent for BBC World News America; Joshua Cooper Ramo, author of "The New Age of the Unthinkable:  Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us and What We Can Do About It"; and Dr. Bill Rodgers, professor and economist at Rutgers University, former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor under President Clinton.

But first, we're joined live from Detroit this morning by the new CEO of General Motors, Fritz Henderson.

Welcome to MEET THE PRESS.

MR. FRITZ HENDERSON:  Good morning, David.

MR. GREGORY:  The administration's auto task force tasked General Motors with the idea of coming up with a viability plan.  The company did that and the White House rejected it flatly.  There were some stinging rebukes embedded in that report.  Here's just a sampling:  "General Motors' plan is not viable at is, at is--as it is currently structured.  The assumptions in GM's business plan are too optimistic.  Progress has been far too slow." Pretty harsh reaction from the Obama White House.  How did the company get it wrong?

MR. HENDERSON:  Well, as, as we looked at the situation--first, we're very appreciative of the support, David, of the White House and the automotive task force.  They got up to speed very fast, in a very short period of time.  They, they basically took a very hard look at, at both the assumptions as well as the actions in our plan.  They talked about the progress that has been made. But the, the conclusion was not far enough, not fast enough.  And candidly, that's where, that's where our charge is going forward, how we go deeper, faster.

MR. GREGORY:  All right.  But you were there, you were there as this report was put together, you've been there for 25 years.  Where do you think the company misjudged its own reality and the way forward?

MR. HENDERSON:  David, I have been with the company 25 years.  Through my career I've made a lot of mistakes, as we all do, but I--my, my job is to learn from them and then look forward to make sure we get the job done.

MR. GREGORY:  Do you--your predecessor, Rick Wagoner, was pushed out by the White House.  That, of course, is well known.  Under his tenure GM has lost $82 billion in just the last four years.  The value of the stock has plunged 95 percent.  It was $43 a share a year and a half ago, it's $2.10 as it closed on Friday.  Do you think the firing of Rick Wagoner was the right decision?

MR. HENDERSON:  David, Rick was my--is my friend, mentor.  I worked for him for the better part of my career.  But with Rick it was always about the company, not about him.  And he was asked to step aside and he did, and we need to look forward.

MR. GREGORY:  Well, but part of looking forward is trying to take account for what's gone on up till now, and mistakes that have been made, decisions that have been made that the White House says were not reflective of the idea of really taking account for mistakes that had been made.  Can you point to some areas where you think the company has really faltered?

MR. HENDERSON:  Well, it has been a difficult--you, you, you mentioned it, it has been a certainly challenging last several years.  We've had, we've had challenges in a number of places around the globe, whether it's here in our home market in the United States or in Europe, and in many ways we're not the only ones that have had those problems.  But I don't--I really don't focus on that.  We just need to take the mistakes we've made, learn from them, not get overly invested in them, and go forward and, and learn from them.

MR. GREGORY:  As a prominent member of the business community, I wonder if you agree with the governor of Michigan, who thinks there's a double standard when it comes to this financial crisis; that the government will go in and fire Rick Wagoner, but they don't deal with some of the CEOs in the banking industry at the top banks where there have been such mistakes made.  Do you think it's a double standard?

MR. HENDERSON:  David, I don't really think about what happens in other industries.  It's not for me to say, it's not a worry of mine.  Our worry is how do we get General Motors going forward?  And that's where we're going to spend 100 percent of our time.

MR. GREGORY:  The government role in effectively running GM has been criticized here in Washington, real questions about whether the government ought to be doing this.  Republican from Tennessee, Senator Bob Corker spoke out about it this week.  This is what he said, I'd like to have you react to it:  "They have opened Pandora's box--the U.S. government has decided they know better than the private company.  There's no question that this country is moving down a very different and foreign path.  We have crossed this threshold:  We own this company and we are telling it what to do." Here's an image from BusinessWeek in its current magazine.  There you are in the front seat and a visual backseat driver, President Obama, telling you exactly which way to go.  The president said that the administration doesn't want to run GM, but is that right?  Doesn't, in fact, the government run GM?

MR. HENDERSON:  No, David.  I, I think the administration and the task force has been very clear, they don't wish to run General Motors.  They expect us to get our job done.  But the day we took money from the taxpayer was one of the, one of the most difficult days of certainly my career and of the history of General Motors.  We need to respect the fact that we need to look after the taxpayer, we need to justify to the consumer and the taxpayer that we're going to succeed going forward.  And one of the, one of the happiest days of my future career is going to be the day we pay the loans back.

MR. GREGORY:  But the reality is that the administration has said who should run the company and who shouldn't, the administration is reconstituting the board of directors.  You report to the Obama White House, do you not?

MR. HENDERSON:  David, I report to Kent Kresa, the interim chairman of the board, the board of directors.  But I also have direct line into the president's task force.  In fact, I have several masters.  But in the end it's about getting the company in the right direction, and that's what I'm planning to do.

MR. GREGORY:  You would agree that General Motors needs to be reinvented and badly needs change.

MR. HENDERSON:  I would agree, yes.

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