MSNBC "Hardball with Chris Matthews" - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC "Hardball with Chris Matthews" - Transcript

MR. MATTHEWS: We begin tonight with a close and final look at the campaign, starting with the Democrats. Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen is the chairman of the Democratic Campaign Committee, Congressional Campaign Committee, fondly known as the D-triple-C.

Let me ask you, Congressman, you have information in your head right now -- we can see your head on television. Inside your brain is knowledge of every Democratic Congress person running for re-election and running for election in every one of the 435 districts right now. In that swirl of knowledge, what do you know that we don't know?

REP. VAN HOLLEN: Well, the story, Chris, in the congressional campaigns has been very much the story of the presidential election. The fact that Barack Obama is campaigning in Virginia is a testament to the fact that he's broadened the political map. And that's what we've done in these congressional races.

Most people thought that after the big win in 2006, where the Democrats picked up 30 seats, we'd have to hunker down, that we'd have to protect the gains that we made last time around, because historically you lose seats. Instead we stayed on offense. We've gone into not just purple areas, not just pink areas, but traditionally very Republican areas, areas that George Bush carried by large percentages.

And, look, I'm not making any predictions on numbers, but I am confident we're going to break that historical curse where, after winning a lot in one cycle, you don't win any the next. In fact, you've got to go back to 1932-1934 when the Democrats won back -- won the Congress with lots of seats, to see that the party then picked up even more seats in the following cycle.

MR. MATTHEWS: You know, I'm getting all kinds of word from people. I know it's anecdotal. People are calling me, e-mailing me. I hear that Florida is still very much tough for both parties, that it may be going in McCain's direction, that Ohio may be in the same situation, that in Pennsylvania there's questions about what kind of a get-out-the-vote campaign they're going to do in Philadelphia, with or without the help of money.

Are you sure you can win this election at the presidential level tomorrow? Are you sure this thing is in the can?

REP. VAN HOLLEN: Look, we all know, all of us -- you know from your involvement in politics -- it really ain't over till it's over. But as you said, we're coming into an election where the polls uniformly show Barack Obama consistently ahead by a decent margin.

I was in Florida. I've been in North Carolina, seen the early voting. Early voting clearly is trending in the Democratic column. It's not just Democrats coming out. It's independents, a lot of disaffected Republicans. You would have to see something really strange going on out there to see any different outcome than Barack Obama as president.

But they have been very clear -- take nothing for granted. That's what we say to our members. We've got one member of Congress who was elected in 2006. He won by 83 votes, Chris.

MR. MATTHEWS: Yeah.

REP. VAN HOLLEN: That just goes to show the work you do in the next 24 hours on turnout does have an impact.

MR. MATTHEWS: Well, it seems to me, watching Congress for all my life, it seems to me the great strength Republicans have is they've always in the past been able to say, "We'll keep your taxes lower," especially at the federal level, "than the Democrats."

Here's McCain making that case again today in Tennessee on Election Eve. I want you to respond. Is that working for the other side, the fear of your side raising taxes? Here's John McCain in Tennessee today.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ, Republican presidential nominee): (From videotape.) And my friends, he's in the far left lane of American politics and he's stuck there, and that's why he's the most liberal senator in the United States Senate. He's even more liberal than a guy from Vermont that used to call himself a socialist. Tax and spend, tax and spend -- that's what they're all about, my friends.

MR. MATTHEWS: Tax and spend. Is that hammer hurting you, Congressman Van Hollen?

REP. VAN HOLLEN: It's not going to work this time, because he's got his facts so wrong. The big difference here is that Barack Obama wants to give a tax break to middle America, who got left behind with the Bush tax cuts. The Bush tax cuts went to folks at the very high end of the income scale, the people who have been partying on Wall Street until the most recent meltdown there, whereas Barack Obama says, "Hey, for once, let's give middle-income families a break." And he gives them a bigger break than John McCain. And if you're a family making under $250,000, you'll see no increase in your taxes. And 95 percent of working Americans will get a bigger tax break under Barack Obama than under John McCain.

And I actually think that one of the things Barack Obama has done really well in this campaign is make clear, by the end of the day, his tax plan, because Republicans try this every time. But this time --

MR. MATTHEWS: Yeah, and it usually works.

REP. VAN HOLLEN: Yeah, but this time when we talk about taxes, most people understand that they're going to get a better break under Barack Obama, because most people are in that under $250,000 category.

MR. MATTHEWS: Okay, we'll see. It seems like the Republicans know something; you know something. All I know is the Republicans keep banging your party for raising taxes and socialism and tax and spend. They must have research that tells them this is cutting into your vote. You disagree. You think it's not working, right?

REP. VAN HOLLEN: I don't think it's working. I think tomorrow will prove it.

MR. MATTHEWS: Okay.

REP. VAN HOLLEN: I mean, I think if you look at --

MR. MATTHEWS: We'll find out.

REP. VAN HOLLEN: -- socialism out there, it was John McCain whose proposal on the mortgage foreclosure crisis was to simply give all the banks who had made bad loans a total taxpayer subsidy. And then to turn around and say he doesn't like Barack Obama's tax cuts for the middle class just doesn't cut it.

MR. MATTHEWS: Okay, thank you very much, Congressman Chris Van Hollen, who represents all the Democrats running for re-election.

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