they may be cambodian or women let me say one thing about rick perry. i know him pretty well and one of the things about him is he understood how the state was having to fight against the department when he was the governor and they were fighting all the time in a place where you have a lot of interaction in texas with this department and forget diversity for a second. what s more important? actual understanding my point is you shouldn t just say i ll check a box because the department of energy is an easy box to check based on the color of their skin but the american people want someone who is not checking a box except for do they understand this department let me respond to that, please. very clear, ben, again, you keep misrepresenting my argument. you do it masterfully. i never said pick someone who isn t qualified. if you choose among the people who are qualified who would have picked it? ben, let me finish. i m asking you a question.
you know what, hold some private meetings. pick someone. let the senate confirmation process begin. this preseason, is he, will he, won t he, punk him. this is not the most efficient way to staff the federal government. when you look at time line and pace, president-elect trump is not behind where other presidents have been when it comes to cabinet selections. it took president obama a couple weeks to name his first, clinton a month to name his first. we live in a world now where there s news all the time. everybody s on twitter all the time. the president-elect of the united states, that s the world in which we live. really quickly, if you re going to drain the swamp, is he the guy to do that? the dnc is asking that question. i think it will come up at his confirmation as well. hallie jackson. er since you ve come back from thanksgiving, you ve been feisty. i don t know what happened over the holiday, but you ve been on fire ever since. we should send you away more often. as w
and particularly for a trump administration because this is someone that doesn t have a record as a politician or military leader going back like we ve seen with presidents before him. so this will give us an indication of where he plans to go because we don t know where he s been. it was interesting to hear senator rand paul say to the president he was talking to us, talking to the world but he was also talking the president-elect trump who says pick someone who thinks the iraq war was a disaster, pick one slyke you who thinks removing qaddafi was a disaster, pick one like you who thinks the regime change has been a disaster. that was a strong message he was sending to the president-elect. very unambiguous. trump has no record in office that gives us a sense of his inclination, he s said so many conflicting things on the campaign trail. he didn t formulate a big sheaf of foreign policy white papers on his web site. he d say one thing on the stump
never easy to beat an incumbent. the best thing i can do to help republicans is to run a good race as a president, and to make sure, by the way, that we get independents and women voters. you know, matt, i don t know you that well, but i ve always thanked you for coming on this show and respect your strong views. and clearly, the question is gut, perhaps, versus calculation. people that have strong views about this president and don t really like him being in the white house, period, there may be all kinds of factors involved, but they really want him out of that white house deeply. will that drive them to pick someone who may not share their deep feelings about the president? in other words, pick someone who doesn t want him out as much as they do, but will get him out? well, the problem with mitt romney is his argument with electability is only about an inch deep. and i think and i think every tea party believes that good policy is good politics. and if we find a candidate that c
race as a president, and to make sure, by the way, that we get independents and women voters. you know, matt, i don t know you that well, but i ve always thanked you for coming on this show and respect your strong views. and clearly, the question is gut, perhaps, versus calculation. people that have strong views about this president and don t really like him being in the white house, period, there may be all kinds of factors involved, but they really want him out of that white house deeply. will that driver th them to pic someone who may not share their deep feelings about the president. in other words, pick someone who doesn t want him out as much as they do, but will get him out? well, the problem with mitt romney is his argument with electability is only about an inch deep. and i think and i think every tea party believes that good policy is good politics. and if we find a candidate that can both run a national campaign and be a credible candidate, but stands for something, stan