CBS "Face the Nation" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Elizabeth Warren
Interview
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Good morning. And welcome to FACE THE NATION. We begin this morning with the already packed field of potential candidates for 2020, and there are signs that former Vice President Joe Biden is planning to enter the race next month. A new poll out this morning shows him leading in Iowa with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders close behind. A handful of those candidates appeared over the weekend at the SXSW festival in Austin. CBS News political correspondent Ed O'Keefe caught up with one of the big names in the race--Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren; and asked about her new proposal to break up tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook.
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SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN (D-Massachusetts/@ewarren): The giant tech companies right now are eating up little tiny businesses, start-ups, and competing unfairly. Look at it this way: Someone like Amazon runs a platform, you know, the place where you buy your coffeemaker and get it delivered in forty-eight hours. And that's great. But in addition to that, they're sucking up all that information about every purchase, every sale, and every one of the other little businesses that are offering their products on Amazon, and when Amazon sees one that's profitable, they say, hmm, I think we'll go into business against them now that they've got all this extra information. And they put their own business out there to compete on selling coffeemakers, put themselves on page one, put the competitor back on page six, and the competitor's business is just gone. So what I'm saying is we've got to break these guys apart. You want to run a platform, that's fine. You don't get to run a whole bunch of the businesses as well. You want to run a business, that's fine. You don't get to run the platform. Think of it this way: It's like in baseball. You can be the umpire or you can own one of the teams, but you don't get to be the umpire and own the teams.
ED O'KEEFE (CBS News Political Correspondent/@edokeefe): And let me just get this clear, if you had your way, Facebook would have to sell off Instagram.
SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: Mm-Mm.
ED O'KEEFE: Amazon would have to sell off Whole Foods.
SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: All those little businesses that they're running, competing businesses. Yep.
ED O'KEEFE: Who-- who is the federal government to tell these companies they have to do that?
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SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: There's anti-trust law. It's been around for more than a hundred years. And the federal government has done this many times, for example, broke up Standard Oil, broke up the-- the great monopolies of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. And the reason for that is so that we can keep a competitive economy.
ED O'KEEFE: This idea has gotten a lot of criticism.
SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: From?
ED O'KEEFE: Howard Schultz--
SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: Yeah.
ED O'KEEFE: --the guy who's thinking about running as an independent.
SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: A billionaire, right?
ED O'KEEFE: Yes.
SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: Uh-huh.
ED O'KEEFE: And he-- he suggested that your proposal is, quote, "Inconsistent with our free enterprise system" and said that "it's emblematic of Democrats imposing," his word, "fantasy ideas that will never be implemented," and that, instead, perhaps you could just find ways to discuss with these companies ways to make it more competitive.
SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: You mean we could ask these multibillion-dollar companies nicely if they would not eat up the competition and just behave better in the marketplace. Really? We've had laws around against antitrust activity and predatory pricing for over a hundred years because we understand that the way markets work are when there's real competition in that market.
ED O'KEEFE: And you know that this kind of proposal feeds into the arguments that Republicans have been making to label Democrats as anti-capitalist adopting these socialist ideas.
SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: The reality is it is not capitalism to have one giant that comes in and dominates, a monopolist that dominates a market. What I have supported all the way through are the kinds of things that help level the playing field. So I think a level playing field says that the big guys have to pay kind of like everybody else does and they have to pay to help create some opportunities--
ED O'KEEFE: But you know you're getting labeled and you're getting coupled in with a few of your other Democratic contenders as someone who supports socialist ideas. Can we-- do we describe you as a capitalist? What's the best--
SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: Yeah.
ED O'KEEFE: --way to describe you?
SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: I believe in markets. Markets that work. Markets that have a cop on the beat and have real rules and everybody follows them. I believe in a level playing field.
ED O'KEEFE: So if you get labeled as a socialist--
SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: Well, it's just wrong.
ED O'KEEFE: Silicon Valley has, obviously, been a reliable source of Democratic financial support especially in recent cycles. Given this proposal, are you going to decline financial support from tech executives or tech employees if they decide to give to your campaign?
SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: Look, nobody has been beating down the door. But let me be clear I'm not in Washington to work for billionaires. I'm in Washington to help level the playing field so that everybody gets a chance to get out there and compete. Right now with giants like Amazon and-- and Google and Facebook, do you know how venture capitals talk about the space around them? They call it the kill zone because they don't want to fund businesses in that space because they know Amazon will eat them up, Facebook will eat them up, Google will eat them up. We need a chance for every one of the young people in that room to thrive, to get their idea out there and if it turns out to be the next Google, good for them.
ED O'KEEFE: You said nobody is beating down the door. How is fundraising going for you?
SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: As far as I know it's going great. You know, it's a lot of small dollar fundraisers and here's been the fun part, I've actually been calling people who donated twenty five dollars, five dollars, fifty dollars, ten dollars and had some great conversations with folks. I get a chance to ask them why you've gotten-- what-- what pulled you into this? And people talk about the things that matter most to them.
ED O'KEEFE: The House this past week had the vote on a resolution condemning hate of all sorts because of what one congresswoman had said, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
REPRESENTATIVE ILHAN OMAR (March 5): I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is okay for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country.
ED O'KEEFE: Well, many consider it anti-Semitic. Others said it's being misinterpreted. What's your view on what she said?
SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: Look, my view is that we condemn anti-Semitism and Islamophobia wherever it appears. We are a democracy and in a democracy we have to talk about our differences. We need to do so with respect. But, ultimately, we need to hammer out the best policies for this country and that means a lot of frank and full discussion.
ED O'KEEFE: Was she unfairly targeted?
SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: Right now what we've got is a condemnation of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia and other forms of hatred. Hatred is not how we build a democratic dialogue.
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