MSNBC "Hardball with Chris Matthews" - Transcript

Interview

MR. MATTHEWS: Let's bring in U.S. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat from Florida.

Keeping the air lively here, Congresswoman.

REP. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: (Laughs.)

MR. MATTHEWS: You're one of my favorite people on this show.

REP. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Thank you.

MR. MATTHEWS: Can you respond to the charge from the former leader of the Republican Party? The former ramrod, the "Hammer," says that your candidate for president, who you've been supporting ever since Hillary lost this baby, as a Marxist radical basically out to change the American Constitution.

I think he's talking about bringing in red rights rather than blue rights. Instead of having negative things the government can't do, I think he's charging Barack with trying to create rights of things the government has to do for us; in other words, socialism. What do you think?

REP. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Well, with all due respect to --

MR. MATTHEWS: (Inaudible) -- respond to.

REP. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: With all due respect to Tom DeLay, I think we do have to consider the source. I mean, we're talking about someone who just made those comments that left the Congress in disgrace and presided over the biggest culture of corruption that's ever hung over the Capitol of the United States House of Representatives. So we are --

MR. MATTHEWS: That's with all due respect, huh? Is that how you state with all due respect?

REP. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: It is with all due respect. (Laughs.) Well, he spewed a lot of hate in that last few minutes --

MR. MATTHEWS: Right. Okay.

REP. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: -- and threw a lot of nasty things around. So, I mean, really, the reality is that we're talking about a Republican Party that is in the death throes at this point, and they are trying to throw as much stuff up on the wall, Chris, as they possibly can and hope something sticks.

Barack Obama, in the last few days of this campaign, is going to ask people to reach into their hearts and think about what it is they want for this country and to think about not only whether they're better off now than they were four years ago, because we know the answer to that. Certainly the vast majority of people are not. He's going to ask people before they vote to think about, based on their choice, whether they will be better four years from now. And that's the decision that people need to make.

People know that we need to turn this economy around, and John McCain really has been incredibly erratic on the economy. They know we need to bring our troops home from this misguided war in Iraq and set a timetable for withdrawal, and John McCain thinks that we should pursue whatever his definition of victory is. They know we need to wean ourselves off our dependence on foreign oil, and John McCain wants to give $4 billion in tax breaks to the oil industry.

So stop the ride. We want to get off. It is time to move this country in a new direction. That is what Barack Obama would do. And the nasty name-calling and finger-pointing is -- people are sick of it.

MR. MATTHEWS: What do you make of this? Congresswoman, you're younger than me by many decades.

REP. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: (Laughs.)

MR. MATTHEWS: And I just want to say, what do you think of people calling your party --

REP. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: I don't know about that.

MR. MATTHEWS: -- socialist, communist, sometimes suggestions of anti-Americanism, radical, we've just heard it now; Marxist we've been hearing now from your own -- from the senator from Florida, Martinez now comparing the Democratic candidates and party to Castro, to Castro's communism in the Cuban community; a lot of brickbats being thrown out there.

And yet I look at the latest poll -- it just comes out from Time Magazine tonight -- which shows that Florida, 4 percent advantage for your party; you're moving up. I guess Sarah Silverman is making her mark down there with the schlepping.

REP. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: (Laughs.) We're schlepping the vote.

MR. MATTHEWS: The word's getting out. So I have to guess that the people aren't buying these brickbats. They're not accepting them.

REP. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Listen, what's going on here with the name-calling and the finger-pointing on the part of the McCain campaign is that they are divided, depressed, demoralized and desperate, Chris. And they don't know what else to do. They don't have the issues on their side. They're not right on the issues that matter to Americans. So they have to try to sow seeds of doubt.

And, you know, people are done -- the American people are done with that. They know that they want to embrace change, and John McCain represents more of the same. And that's why on Tuesday we're going to win Florida. We're going to win Virginia and Colorado and Nevada and North Carolina. And this is going to be a fabulous election night. We can finally move this country in a new direction and cast off the culture of corruption that my good colleague from the previous interview presided over.

MR. MATTHEWS: With all due respect. Thank you very much, U.S. Congressman --

REP. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: With all due respect, yes. (Laughs.)

MR. MATTHEWS: I love that phrase -- Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Well said.

REP. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: I mean that in the most affectionate way, Chris. (Laughs.)

MR. MATTHEWS: Okay. Well said. Thank you.

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