Fox News "America's Election HQ" - Transcript
Interview
MS. MACCALLUM: Joining me now is Obama campaign surrogate, U.S. Representative Adam Smith.
Good to have you here this evening, sir.
REP. SMITH: Thank you.
MS. MACCALLUM: What do you think about Bill Clinton's assessment of all of this. He said, look, you know, I'm sure John McCain acted in good faith, basically suggesting that this wasn't a political move. He said he's not afraid to debate Barack Obama, of course. He wanted to have more debates than Barack Obama has on the calendar.
REP. SMITH: Well, the interesting thing is John McCain claims and told us that he was suspending his campaign and coming back to Washington. His campaign ads are still running. Sarah Palin is still doing campaign appearances. So one thing we know for sure. John McCain wasn't honest with us about what he was planning on doing.
And I think the difference between the way Senator Obama has handled this is striking. Senator Obama has been in constant contact with the key leaders, working behind the scenes, not in a political way, quietly to try and help the deal move forward. Senator McCain has inserted himself into the middle of the debate with a bold press conference, a pledge to end the debate, a pledge to end his campaign, and he hasn't even done it.
MS. MACCALLUM: All right. Just to be fair, just so that I can make sure that we're being fair in this discussion, first of all, it's my understanding that the ads that people might have seen today were not put out officially by the McCain campaign. As we all well know, there's a lot of ads that are put out there by, you know, separate entities.
The other thing is is Sarah Palin was at ground zero today, which can hardly be considered a campaign event.
REP. SMITH: Your comment -- and that's not the only place that Sarah Palin has been. And your comment about John McCain not having ads from his own campaign is simply not true. And the overarching point here is that Senator Obama's been working to get a deal. Senator McCain's been working to make a press splash. And I don't think that's what we need. We need leadership here that isn't interested in the politics of it. And that's what Senator Obama has been doing.
And lastly, on the debate, the American public needs to see the two people who want to be president in 45 days right now. That's part of what needs to be happening. And as Senator Obama said, a president is going to have to do multiple things at one time. And Senator Obama has proven himself capable of that. So I don't think we can take Senator McCain at face value just by the fact that he hasn't done what he said he was going to do 48 hours ago.
MS. MACCALLUM: Yeah, but, you know, I mean, some people would take him at face value and just say, hey, you know, a senator is going to Washington to do his job. Isn't that what these two senators, who chose not to abandon their positions, should have been doing all along?
REP. SMITH: But first of all, Senator Obama was doing his job. You know, a big part of this job is not being in Washington, by the way, and you can work with people over the phone in the way that Senator Obama has done. And again --
MS. MACCALLUM: As is --
REP. SMITH: If that was all Senator McCain had done, if he had said, I'm going back to Washington, I'm going to see what I can do, that's fine. But he said he was suspending his campaign and he hasn't, first of all. Second of all, he said, you know, that we shouldn't do the debate at a time when, frankly, Senator Obama thinks, you know, people need to see who the candidates are for president. So I don't believe that Senator McCain has been honest about what he's doing in this process. And I think he's made it more political, not less.
MS. MACCALLUM: All right. Well, we shall see. And you know, it's good to see both of the men at that table, regardless of how they got there. John McCain yesterday deciding to stop campaigning for the time being and to head into that room.
Thank you very much, Congressman Adam Smith. Good to have you here tonight.
REP. SMITH: Thank you.
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