Fox News Channel "America's Election HQ" - Transcript

Interview

MS. GLICK: We just heard from Senator John McCain. He said, I was hopeful the rescue plan would have had the voted necessary to pass. Obviously, that did not happen. Joining us now is one Democrat who voted for the legislation, Congressman Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. He is also chair of the Democratic Congressional Caucus.

Good evening, Congressman. Thanks for being here.

REP. VAN HOLLEN: It's good to be with you. It feels like we've gone all the way around and we're back in the morning up here.

MS. GLICK: Doesn't it? It's just unbelievable. You know, we were just listening to Senator John McCain and his reaction to this. And listen, many of the members of Congress, both Republican and Democrats -- is this sort of a black eye for Capitol Hill that we were not able to get this passed? Or is the free market working itself out?

REP. VAN HOLLEN: Well, this is different members of Congress listening to their constituents and exercising their best judgment. I do think it's unfortunate because there was an understanding both on the Democratic side and the Republican side of the leaders of Congress that we would come together with a package. These are difficult issues. Everyone understands they're controversial. But for the best interest of the country, both sides said that they would try and find a majority of their members on each side to get this over the top. And unfortunately --

MS. GLICK: So what happened?

REP. VAN HOLLEN: Well, what happened is, as you can see from the vote, that on the Republican side, they didn't have the votes that they had promised as part of this bipartisan effort to move the country forward in this area.

MS. GLICK: But you know, let's be fair about this because as you very well know there were plenty of Democrats who were not onboard. And some suggested that the speaker in her speech kind of killed the bill from the start. What was the message behind that?

REP. VAN HOLLEN: Well, that's nonsense. And if you think about it, if a Republican member said that they were planning to vote yes because that was in the best interest of their constituents and their country and then they voted no because they were miffed by something the speaker of the House said, that they decided to punish their constituents and the country because of some of the speaker's words, it doesn't ring true. And if it is true, I think their constituents are going to have serious questions about their judgment.

I don't think it should be a surprise to anybody that the speaker of the House, like many of us, believe we got into this message because of Bush administration policies. Now we are trying to focus on how to get out of it.

MS. GLICK: Okay. All right. But here's the situation. There were plenty of Republicans and Democrats this morning who said not enough time to read the 110-page document. Why was Congress rushed into the halls this morning while the Senate was being given Wednesday or Thursday to sit down and vote on that? Was that part of the issue today, not enough time to digest the implications of this bill?

REP. VAN HOLLEN: Look, the Congress moved deliberately but also with the speed when economists from both sides of the aisle, you know, Democrats, Republicans, independents and people of different persuasions said it was important to move quickly. Look, the president and Secretary Paulson said a week ago, Congress, try and get this done right now. They sent up a blank check. Congress did the responsible thing. And again, we were working on a bipartisan basis. We said no blank check. We're going to write in protections for the taxpayers. We're going to limit CEO compensation. We're going to have more transparency and accountability.

But all those things were done on a bipartisan basis. We did not rush the process. We did not get stampeded, as the White House tried to do it. We did take our time. And the fact of the matter is there was an agreement, an understanding going into today. And the fact that the Republicans couldn't deliver, I was disappointed. But the fact that Senator McCain came here, he said he was going to talk to the House Republicans, and then he was clearly not persuasive.

MS. GLICK: All right. Congressman Chris Van Hollen, we have to leave it there. I think the perception out there is that it was a bipartisan fail, but we can debate that issue a lot later. Thank you so much for joining us this evening.

REP. VAN HOLLEN: Thank you.

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