ABC "This Week" - Transcript: Election

Interview

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STEPHANOPOULOS: And with that, let's bring in the party chairs.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz for the Democrats, Reince Priebus for the Recub -- Republicans.

Welcome to you both.

And Chairman Wasserman Schultz...

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D), FLORIDA: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Thank you.

STEPHANOPOULOS: -- let me begin with you.

REINCE PRIEBUS, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Good morning.

STEPHANOPOULOS: A lot of evidence piling up that this could be a big Republican night. Gains in the House, closing in on control of the Senate.

Has President Obama been just too heavy an anchor for the Democrats?

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: You know, I'm very proud of this president, George, because he's taken us from the worst economic crisis that we've faced since the Great Depression through 55 straight months of job growth in the private sector. That is the longest sustained period of job growth in American history.

Just the other day, on Thursday, we showed the second straight quarter of significant economic growth, 3.5 percent GDP growth.

We have created more jobs in manufacturing than any time since the 1990s. And we're continuing to make progress. George...

STEPHANOPOULOS: That message is not taking hold. We just saw this new poll coming out in one of the key states overnight, Iowa.

Joni Ernst, the Republican candidate, 51-44 percent over Bruce Braley. That's a state President Obama won.

Harry Reid, the Democratic leader in the Senate, says he will not be the Democratic leader if Joni Ernst wins.

Do you agree?

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: I think we're going to hold the Senate. And the reason that we're going to hold the Senate, George, is because we have a ground game that I know Reince would take ours over -- over theirs any day of the week.

I mean we've got early vote numbers that are up in the most competitive states, in the most competitive districts all across the country.

We've focused on making sure that we bring our numbers up for voters who didn't cast ballots in 2010, but voted for the president in 2008 and 2012. And I'll tell you what's going on here in Florida, I've been here for the last several days. I've seen, really, the most enthusiasm and the best organized ground game I've ever seen in a midterm in Florida.

That's why Rick Scott is going to go down to defeat on Tuesday...

STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me take that to...

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: -- and we'll elect...

STEPHANOPOULOS: -- Chair...

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: -- the first Democratic governor in the 21st century...

STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me take that to Chairman...

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: -- when Charlie Crist is elected.

STEPHANOPOULOS: -- Priebus.

Do you worry the Democrats are going to beat you on the ground?

(LAUGHTER)

PRIEBUS: Well, the problem they have is that their message isn't working and we're -- they're -- our ground game is whipping their ground game.

If you look at Colorado, we're up by 105,000 votes right now. Cory Gardner is tied with women with Mark Udall. We're winning Hispanic voters in Colorado. We're whipping them in Arkansas. We are at a dead even early vote right now in Iowa.

We were down by 21,000 votes in Iowa in the early vote in 2010. Joni Ernst is up by 7, according to "The Des Moines Register" yesterday.

We're winning, obviously, in Montana, West Virginia, South Dakota. I haven't even talked about Alaska, Louisiana. And then we're going to see what's going to happen in North Carolina and New Hampshire.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, you're -- this may be a rejection election of those in power, but how about the continuing problems of the Republican brand?

Our new ABC News/"Washington Post" Poll shows 72 percent disapproval for Republicans in Congress.

PRIEBUS: Well...

STEPHANOPOULOS: And Rand Paul, one of your potential presidential candidates, you know, was very blunt this week. He said, the Republican Party brand sucks.

What do you say to Rand Paul ?

PRIEBUS: Well, let's...

STEPHANOPOULOS: -- and those voters?

PRIEBUS: Well, I mean I'm -- I'm very close with Rand. We just did a conference call together two days ago with our campus captains across the country. And...

STEPHANOPOULOS: What do you make of what he said...

PRIEBUS: -- and we both have talked about this across the country.

Well, what he said is that we're actually on the right track and actually we're doing a lot of the things that we should be doing, which is engaging Hispanic voters, black voters, Asian voters, talking to women across the country, not just for four months before an election, but for four years.

The things I've been talking about -- and, by the way, leading the way on in our party for the last two years.

And the -- and -- and if -- I do think if you've been looking at the polls, but we're -- we're winning with women in Kentucky, actually, McConnell is winning with women against Alison Grimes. Cotton is winning with women against Mark Pryor in Arkansas...

STEPHANOPOULOS: Congressman...

PRIEBUS: -- so the -- what -- what Rand Paul is saying is what I've been saying, which is we have spent way too long as a national party showing up at the end and we've got to do better. And that's why, when he made those comments, he made them at the Black Engagement Office in Detroit, that we pay for.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Congresswoman, let me...

PRIEBUS: So, you know...

(CROSSTALK)

STEPHANOPOULOS: -- let me take another question...

(CROSSTALK)

PRIEBUS: We're going to have a good night...

STEPHANOPOULOS: Hold on. I want to bring in Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz...

PRIEBUS: We're going to have a great night and it's going to be...

(CROSSTALK)

STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me go to -- let me -- if the Republicans do have the great night that Reince Priebus is talking about, and, as I said, there's a lot of evidence they will, won't that demand a course correction from President Obama?

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Well, look, George, going into Tuesday, I'll stack up our ground game against Reince's grain -- ground game. And like I said, he's been trying to throw as much money as he could to stand up a ground game. I know he'd take ours over theirs.

We're doing much better in North Carolina and New Hampshire. We've got candidates across the country who are focused on the issues important to the middle class and working families.

And the Republicans have doubled down on obstruction and extremism.

I'd stack up our policies of increasing the minimum wage and making sure that we can fight for equal pay for equal work, which Republicans oppose.

You know, I'd stack up our surrogates. We've got President Obama, Vice President Biden, Secretary Clinton, President Clinton. And they've got Rand Paul, Chris Christie and Ted Cruz.

So going into Election Day, the advantages that we have are superior to the ones the Republicans have.

The most important things that voters will be asking themselves is who has my back. And they will consistently, across the board, say Democrats have their back. And that's why, in a med -- in a midterm election like this one, where, normally, the president's party loses an average of 29 seats, these races are extremely close. And when we see races close in midterms like this...

STEPHANOPOULOS: A final...

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: -- Democrats win.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, Mr. Chairman...

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: That's what's going to happen on Tuesday.

STEPHANOPOULOS: -- if Republicans don't take the Senate...

(CROSSTALK)

STEPHANOPOULOS: -- on Tuesday, is it a failure?

PRIEBUS: I think we have to take the Senate. Yes, I would be very disappointed. But, you know, here's the thing. I don't know why Debbie keeps using this have your back line. I'm not going to go there again. But I -- I -- I would encourage the media to look at what the DNC is actually spending on the ground with this ground game. The DNC -- in reality, in this mid-term is not our competition, it's the Senate Democrat Committee that's putting the ground game together, not the DNC and not what Debbie's talking about. And we're winning on the ground.

You can just look at early voting, absentee ballot voting. And their message isn't working. So, if they have such a great message about these things that Debbie's rattled off, then they should be winning across the board and they're not.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Thank you both for your time today.

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