John Edwards for President-Transcript of Senator Edwards on Hardball with Chris Matthews

Transcript of Senator Edwards on Hardball with Chris Matthews

Senator John Edwards
Hardball with Chris Matthews
Aug 10, 2006

MATTHEWS: We`re going to come right back and talk to a man who many people believe wants to be president of the United States, who wants to accept the mantle of commander in chief to protect all of us. His name is John Edwards. Of course, we know him as the former senator from North Carolina, the former Democratic candidate for vice president.

He`s coming to talk to us right now about this very scary day here in America and across the world. We will be right back with John Edwards of North Carolina.

MATTHEWS: We are back with Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, who served for a term as United States from that state, ran for vice president on the Democratic ticket and is traveling the country right now.

Senator, this is tough one, but when days like this come, do you feel more or less inclined to accept the mantle of commander in chief?

JOHN EDWARDS (D), FMR. V.P. NOMINEE: You know, I hope this is one of those things where all of us -- Democrats, Republicans, all Americans -- can celebrate what happened today. I mean, it was a great victory for security, for the security of the American people and we ought to applaud those who were successful.

MATTHEWS: Let me ask you for your context. We just had Peter King on, who is a tough Republican. He says this is about willing to do the tough things, making decisions about surveillance that are tough, fighting those who say civil liberties shouldn`t be changed at all or challenged at all, making it tough. We need surveillance, we need to be tough guys. He talked about Islamic fascists on the other side. We have got to hit them with everything we have got.

Then there are people like Senator Kennedy today saying, no, this results from the hatred of the United States for its manner in the world, the way we treat other countries. We`re going to get more and more terrorists the more we get tough. Where do you stand on that fight?

EDWARDS: That there are things we have to do and be very tough about. We need to monitor al Qaeda and al Qaeda`s operations in order to keep this country safe. My view is that, as an American, we do not need to violate the law, the laws that have been passed by the Congress and our constitution, in order to accomplish that and be effective at it. But I think what is equally important is to put this in the context of what is happening in the world at large. Because what is happening in the world at large is we are engaged in a failed policy in Iraq that is creating enormous problems for America.

We have huge hostility going on now in the Middle East in Lebanon and Israel. We have a Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, trying to get a nuclear weapon, a huge threat to not only the Middle East, but to America. And we step back from this, America is in a position where it is difficult, more difficult in fact, every day for us to bring other people with us in addressing these problems and we have seen that recently in the effort to deal with Iran and the effort to deal with this conflict in Lebanon and Israel. And that is all, go ahead.

MATTHEWS: I just want to get back to what Ted Kennedy, I know you trust and respect him. Ted Kennedy said today that our policies over sees have led to a lot of hatred and of course common sense tells you if a person is willing to commit suicide on airplane to get at us, they hate us and that is a contributing factor, if not the factor. Do you think our policies in Middle East, our policies of siding with a dictator Musharraf in Pakistan, our policy of going in to Iraq and basically occupying that country basically, of keeping troops in Saudi Arabia for all of those years after the first Gulf War. Do you believe that those, in each case, have contributed to the anger level, the hatred level that leads to all this suicide terrorism?

EDWARDS: Well, I would say in response to that I think you are mixing apples and oranges. I think there are people, Islamic extremists, who would hate us just because of who we are and any policy by the United States would have little impact on those people. But the policies that we have seen over the course of the last several years, I think, have inflamed that anger, made it easier for those groups to recruit, made it easier for them to sell their extreme ideology to those who otherwise might not be inclined to accept it. My concern is I don`t think the rest of the world sees what I would call the goodness of the American people. They don`t see our character. They don`t know what we are made of. As a result, it makes it easier for these extremists to be able to recruit people to their cause and cause more and more people to have antagonism toward us. It makes it more difficult for us to help lead and solve the world`s problems.

MATTHEWS: But doesn`t it worry that you these people who are suspects in this case, the 24 that have been rounded up, are people who have spent many years living in London, living in England. They are British subjects. They know the west. They know a free society and with all of that knowledge and with all that familiarity they say let`s kill these people by the thousands?

EDWARDS: Of course it does. I mean there are dangerous people in the world, including those who were just arrested. Those people hate the United States. They hate what we stand for. Our policies have not had a great deal of effect on them. They are going to continue to feel that way. There is a slice of radical Islam that just believes that and views us that way. But, but, in our effort to fight radical Islam and our effort to fight terrorism our policies matter, because it affects how the rest of the world treats us, whether they will follow our leadership, whether they will join us in acting together to address terrorism, to address the spread of weapons of mass destruction, to address the spread of AIDs and how America is viewed in the world is enormously important in that respect. So these two things don`t operate completely independently of one another. They are, in fact, connected but I do think it is important to recognize there is a slice of radical Islam that hates us and probably always will.

MATTHEWS: Was our decision to invade and occupy Iraq a recruitment poster for terrorists?

EDWARDS: It made it much easier for them. There`s no question about that and I would also, excuse me, Chris, I`m sorry. I would also say that the ongoing problems that exist in Iraq today have aided that effort and it has helped with recruitment, it`s helped them to bring terrorists. Iraq has been in some ways a place that terrorists can gather. So, I think there`s to question it has aided the effort to recruit.

MATTHEWS: Great to have you on Senator John Edwards. He is going to come right back in a moment. We are here by the way still over here at the Department of Homeland Security talking about that, Homeland Security. We will be back with Senator John Edwards in a minute.

MATTHEWS: We are back with Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, who ran as a Democratic candidate, the Democratic candidate for vice president just a couple of years ago. Senator, it must be amazing to be in your shoes right now. You are a private citizen and you watch these events of such enormous caliber take place and you probably wish you had a hand in it. How would you, over the last couple of years, have been a different vice president than Dick Cheney?

EDWARDS: I think I would be dramatically different for a lot of obvious reasons. Number one, I think we would be telling the American people the truth about what is happening in Iraq. I would be doing everything in my power to influence the policy that exists there today. I think we have to start getting out of Iraq. The best way to show that we are going to get out of Iraq is to actually start withdrawing troops. I think that we ought to have at least 40,000 out immediately.

There are safe regions of the country that are secure where that could be accomplished and I think we need to be in the process of getting our combat troops out of Iraq. I would, I hope, help lead an effort to address the huge issues that face us here at home, not just abroad. We have a health care crisis in America. We have 37 million people who wake up in poverty every day, worried about feeding and clothing their children. We are a better country than that. America is a better country than that. We need to be strong. We need to be secure but we can`t just act out of fear. We have to show our strength. We have to inspire this country. Americans ought to be proud of who they are and what our country represents and I hope that I would be helping lead that effort.

MATTHEWS: It`s great to have you on Senator John Edwards who I think is running for president. In fact all the polls show you, sir, at number two behind Hillary. We`re going to have a big show coming back at 7:00. George Pataki, the Republican governor of New York, is going to be on. Brian Williams, the anchor the NBC Nightly News is going to be on. We got a big show live coming back at Seven from NBC studios. Thank you for joining us. Tucker is coming up right now.