Transcripts For WUSA Face The Nation 20150510 : comparemela.

Democratic candidate. Senator Bernie Sanders will be here to talk about his chances. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and democratic strategist Stephanie Cutter will be here to add perspective. All that and deflategate, what did tom brady know . And when did he know it . Because this is face the nation. Captioning sponsored by cbs and good morning and happy mothers day. We will have more on the weird weather if developments warrant but we begin with the newest entry in the republican primary field, former arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. He is in destine florida this morning, good morning, governor. The fbi director warned everyone of the increasing danger of homegrown terrorists this week. You had some very tough words on terrorism. You said, you know that we will no longer merely try to contain jihadism. We will conquer it. But you didnt say how. What do we need to do that we are not doing here . Well, locally, and here in our own country, we need to have some control of our borders and instead of spending a gazillion dollars looking at everybodys metadata of phone records and email what you really need to be concentrating on those people who have been tweeting out threatening comments people who ought to give us some real concern. The attack in garland, texas in week there were all kind of indications these two young men were being radicalized and had pretty nefarious thoughts going on. Why didnt we see that coming . Internationally, bob, i think one of the chall is you cant beat an enemy if you dont define him and this administration has done something i never thought would happen. It actually has brought israel into a closer alliance with egypt, jordan, the saudis the emirates and you waits than perhaps those nations are with the United States anymore. Schieffer governor, yes, i take your point on all of that, but apparently we did know about these two men and warnings went out, the ones who attack that, attacked that were bent on attacking that convention in dallas. I dont hear the details, the specifics on how you go after them. I mean, are we basically at war with islam now . We are not as war with islam. We are at war with radical islam. We are at war with jihadism. The people who believe that their purpose on earth is to kill everybody who doesnt, who dont agree with them religiously, yes, we are at war with that and as soon as we come to grips with it and the sooner we realize that that level of religious fanatacism that is all about killing everybody even other muslims, the sooner we are going to be able to identify it, surround it and ultimately defeat it. Schieffer governor, when i listen to your announcement sphweech the other day from Hope Arkansas when you get to that part about saving Social Security, you sounded more like a democrat than a republican to me. How is that going to go over in these republican primaries states . Well, i think i sounded more like an american. I sound like an american who understands that people have been paying in, in my case, since i was 14 years old, when i got my first job people pay into a system for 50 years people act like, why act on people when they are on welfare when they get a Social Security benefit, it is like wait a minute, didnt the government take that out of my check for all of these years involuntarily . And i understand the program has some real fiscal problems, but why would you punish the recipients who played by the rules that they were forced to play by . Social security and medicare arent voluntary programs and so my point is, that you dont go out there and tell people now you have paid all of these years, we are going to change the rules, because we screwed up the system and we didnt act as good stewards of your money like we said we were going to do. Schieffer well even some democrats say there has to be reforms enacted if Social Security is going to survive. Would you favor some kind of reforms . Well, reforms dont mean you are going to start cutting peoples benefits or changing the rules and say instead of 65 it is going to be 75. If you want to go back and say look, for those of you who are 14 years old and you are just starting the workforce and getting ready to go into your first job look we are going to make some changes because the actuarial schedules upon which Social Security and medicare were based have drastically changed, but about the only way we can really make these reforms is to hurt somebody. I dont think americans believe that after having paid in all of these years, again not a choice, it wasnt voluntary, it was forced out of their checks that somehow the government who didnt take good care of business can come in and say, yep, we are going to make you end up paying for our sins, i just dont think that is something most americans are willing, anymore than i do that americans are willing to let veterans sit and rot in a waiting room because we didnt take good care of the va and keep our promises to the veterans even though they kept their promises to us when we sent them to wars that we chose for them to go to. Schieffer governor, let me ask you, ron fournier of National Journal who will be on this broadcast later today writes that while you are talking as a populist, a blue collar populist, you have lent your name for money to questionable products, and he points out that an infomercial you made for a diabetes cure is simply not supported by the medical community. What about that . Well, there is going to be a hot of criticism thrown my way. One of the things that i have said is that the particular plan you are talking about is about the Healthy Eating watching the kind of foods one takes in and you know, i dont have to defend everything i have ever done, i am not doing those infomercials obviously now as a candidate for president , but if thats the worst thing somebody can say to me is i advocated for people who have diabetes to do something to reverse it and stop the incredible pain of that, then i am going to be a heck of a good president. Schieffer well governor i have diabetes, and i agree with you, and most doctors will tell you you have to lose weight, you have to have a nutritious diet but you also were selling pills of some sort, were you not . No, no. There was not that is a misnomer. One of the elements of the plan was Dietary Supplements but it is not the fundamental thing the fundamental thing is always as both you and i know, it is exercise, it is good eating habits, it is maintaining sugar levels, it it is not eating a butch of junk food processed food lots of cashes carbs sugar those type of things, it is not Rocket Science or some may say it is not rocket surgery it is really Pretty Simple but it requires some discipline and it is one of the four big things that are costing americans in the Healthcare System along with cancer, always imers and heart disease, if we approach this as i suggested. Which is looking for cures rather than just treatment, we then not only save lives we start saving serious money and thats one of the reforms we need to be talking about nationally. Schieffer all right. Well, governor, we will be talking to you again down the line and now you are out on the campaign trail officially, thanks for joining us, we return now to the democratic side and Hillary Clinton finally got a declared challenger. He is not a a democrat but senator Bernie Sanders calls himself an independent socialist. Senator welcome. Let me just start out by asking you, what is a socialist these days . I mean, i remember when a socialist was somebody who wanted to nationalize the railroads. Thats not the case. Schieffer is that what you have in mind . I am proud to be the longest serving independent in the senate and proud that my states allows me to do that. When we talk about democratic socialism i think it is important to realize that there are countries around the world like denmark, norway, sweden finland, who have had social democratic governments for many, many years and we can learn a whole lot from some of those countries, for example the United States is the only major country on earth that doesnt guarantee healthcare to all people as a right and if you look at the Healthcare Systems in those countries, you know what . Not only do they cover all those people, much more Cost Effective than we are. Wewe are spending twice as much as they do in terms of education, bob, all of those countries in germany, austria, many other countries you know what they say . They are in at that highly competitive Global Economy all people, regardless of their income, should be able to get a college education. College education is free in those countries. That makes a lot of sense to me. In terms of childcare, our childcare system today, talking about mothers day is a total disaster. Those systems are much better by and large what they do is many of these countries have higher voter turnouts than we do, they have governments which do a lot better job representing their middle class rather than a billionaire class, which are so much power today in our economic and political landscape. Schieffer you do consider yourself more liberal than the most liberal democrat . I think it is fair to say that i am perhaps the most progressive member of the United States senate and by the way, bob, i have made a decision to run within the democratic primary process and i will abide by all of the regulations that come down in each of the states, i have made that decision thats what we are going to do. So in states you need to be a a democrat i will run, i am running as a democrat in the democratic primary process. Schieffer let me just ask you right now, do you really think you could beat Hillary Clinton . And if so how and where is she absolutely nucial . Vulnerable. The answer is yes, because there is in my view massive dissatisfaction in this country today with corporate establishment and the greed of Corporate America and incredibly unequal distribution of wealth and income which currently exists. Bob, when you have 99 percent of all new income generated today going to the top one percent when you have the top you have the top onetenth of one percent, as much income as the bottom 90 percent, working for low wages and all the money is going to the people on top you know what . People dont think that is a good idea. In terms of the politics of america, as a result of this citizens United States Supreme Court decision clearly the billionaires Koch Brothers are in the political process they will determine who the candidates are. When. If elected president , i will have a litmus test in terms of my nominee to be a Supreme Court justice. And that no, maam fee will say that we are all going to overturn this disastrous Supreme Court decision on Citizens United because that decision is underfinding american democracy, i do not believe that billionaires should be able to buy politicians. Schieffer Hillary Clinton says she is going to have a super pac, says she has to do it, she didnt like it but she has to do it to compete. What about that . I understand where she is coming from. I will not have a super pac. Look we announced a week and a half ago bob and since that time we have had 200,000 people go to Bernie Sanders. Com to sign up for the campaign. We have had close to 90,000 contributions, you know what the average contribution was . It is about 43. 43 bucks. For, from middle class working families so i dont think we are going to out spend Hillary Clinton or jeb bush or anybody else but i think we are going to raise the kinds of money that we need to run a strong the and winning campaign. Schieffer well threshold question why would you be better in all of that than Hillary Clinton . Well, first of all, let me say that i have known Hillary Clinton for 25 years. I respect her and i admire her. But i think we are living in a very strange moment in american history. And that is the problems facing us, in terms of income and wealth inequality and the fact real employment is 11 percent youth unemployment is 17 percent, in terms of the fact that Climate Change is threatening the very foundations of our planet, that we need strong and bold leadership, i would ask people to take a look at the worldwide for the last 25 years standing up for working families and i have had a record which is taking on the billionaire class, taking on wall street, taking on the private insurance companies, and the drug companies. Schieffer but why the question was why are you better at it, what is wrong with Hillary Clinton . Where is she vulnerable . I will give you an example, right now as you know, congress is in the mist minimums of a debate on the trance pacific partnership. I am strong he opposed to that trade agreement because it follows in the footsteps of other disastrous trade agreements which cost us millions of jobs. In terms of Foreign Policy Hillary Clinton voted for the war in iraq. I voted not only did i vote against it i helped lead the effort against what i knew would be a disaster. In terms of Climate Change, i have helped lead the effort against the keystone pipeline, i am not quite sure hillary Hillary Clinton has come out with a position on that. So those are just some of the areas where we differ. Schieffer Bernie Sanders we thank you for being here, we hope to talk to you again as we get down the trail and we will be back in one minute with more on the campaign. Schieffer and to help us sort all of this out, a little perspective from form former House Speaker Newt Gingrich who ran for the republican nomination in 2012 and Stephanie Cutter who was a top aide with president obamas 2012 reelection campaign. Mr. Speaker, how does it look different this year than when you ran in 2012 . I think it is totally different. First of all, in the, when the top four candidates on the republican side are basically bunched at 12 or 11 or 10 percent of New Hampshire there are no front runners. In fact you might even say they are walkers there is nobody out there right now who has got figure like a strong lead bush, jeb bush will raise a lot more money than anybody else but there is no evidence that is automatic. In 2008 john mccain was broke and got the nomination, in 12, mitt romney had a huge amount of money and got the nomination we have no idea what year it is and what is going to happen. Schieffer so stephanie, on the democratic side, is Hillary Clinton going to face any real challenge . You heard Bernie Sanders, Bernie Sanders makes a good case for his cause. Yes. Schieffer whether the country is ready for that, i think is another question. Yes. Schieffer what is your take . I think that it is pretty likely that Hillary Clinton is going to be our nominee. You know, do i think that senator sanders has a role to play . Absolutely. And i think that Hillary Clinton believes that also. I mean, he made a very strong case and he will influence the debate but in all likelihood you know, he has not made a viable case for a candidacy. I think that matters. Schieffer can a person who is the overwhelming front runner at this part of the campaign, i mean, my god, we are a year and a half from the election, mr. Speaker, can that sustain . Well, if you ask me do i think senator, secretary clinton can be nominated, yes, there is no guarantee it will be sustained because there are things that happen, and there are patterns of voting, but it wont be because if she nomination it will be because not hillary beats hillary, it wont be because some candidate beats hillary, we dont know how all of these fights are going to work out, but if you were betting today you would say he is the overwhelming favorite to be the nominee. I absolutely agree. I think that there is nobody in the race right now who presents a real challenge to her in terms of taking the nomination away but we are it is important to remember and we have been through this process many times, that we are many, many months away from a nomination, never mind the election, and there is going to be lots of twists and turns on the republican side, certainly, there, there is no front runner we saw in 2012 that there were Something Like five or six front runners by the end of that nomination process, so anything can the very beginning stages and i think it is going to be interesting to watch particularly on the republican side. Schieffer kept your campaign alive, at least for a while there because he poured a lot of money into your campaign. Do you see any kind of either of you any kind of a backlash coming . Because it looks like now we are going to have these super pacs and the system is going to be totally overwhelmed by big contributions. I think, first of all, they tend to be countervailing, that is century senator clinton secretar