Fox Interview With Senator John Barrasso

Interview

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MR. SMITH: The confirmation hearings of Senator Clinton have thus far run very smoothly, but serious questions do exist in the minds of some senators. With us now from the Capitol Rotunda of the Russell Office Building on Capitol Hill, the Wyoming Republican Senator John Barrasso. Senator Barrasso is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and will be questioning Senator Clinton following this live interview.

Senator, good to see you. Thank you.

SEN. BARRASSO: Good to be with you, Shep.

MR. SMITH: Have you concerns about Senator Clinton, specific questions for her? And if so, where do those concerns lie?

SEN. BARRASSO: Well, I'll tell you. She's very thorough. She's very thoughtful. She's done a good job today. Of course, we all have concerns about the world. It's a very dangerous place. What's going on in Iran with nuclear weapons, I'm going to talk about that. What's happening in Israel and what we need to do there. Just the issues of how U.S. money is spent on foreign aid. For the people of Wyoming, I'll tell you, we want to make sure we're getting value for that money.

And the issue you raised earlier about former President Clinton and some of his fundraising. There were editorials in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, all pointing to what needs to be disclosed and the frequency that it needs to be disclosed.

MR. SMITH: Are you concerned, still, about that last aspect that you mentioned. And we'll get to the others, but that last aspect I have read from people on both sides of the political fence that he has given up more control, potentially, than anyone in history. In his position, of course, it is the first time that a first lady has become first a senator and then potentially a secretary of State. Are you comfortable with the information that he's given up and the control that he says he's willing to give up?

SEN. BARRASSO: Senator Lugar put up 150 questions. They have written responses for all of those. I'm going to be confident and comfortable with those, as Senator Lugar is. But it continues to be of concern.

Is it going to stop the confirmation? No, I don't think so. Thursday morning there's going to be a vote on that, and I expect that she'll be confirmed. And Chuck Schumer from New York is so convinced, he's already sent out an invitation for a party saying farewell to Hillary Clinton from the Senate for tomorrow evening, and the vote isn't until Thursday morning.

MR. SMITH: The senior senator and good friend in her own state. So I hear you, but that kind of makes sense.

You mentioned the Middle East conflict. Senator Clinton's positions on the Middle East, on the conflict between Gaza and Israel, on Egypt's stand in all of this, on where Iran fits into it all, it's all pretty well laid out. And I wonder if in the early going here you could point out for us some of the differences that you have with the would-be secretary of State.

SEN. BARRASSO: Well, I opposed the idea of Ahmadinejad coming to the United Nations in the past, coming to give a speech to spew forth his hatred of the Israeli people. So I'm going to continue to talk about that. I was going to ask about the upcoming elections in Iran, their nuclear capabilities and what we need to do. You earlier talked about the carrot and the stick, as Carl did on a previous interview here just a few minutes ago. You know, the question is, how do you use the carrot, how do you use the stick? And with Hamas and Israel, as Senator Clinton said today, that that is an area where there's not negotiation. There's not going to be a negotiation on any of those things until Hamas steps forward and recognizes Israel's right to exist.

MR. SMITH: I'm out of time, but I do have to ask you before we go: Specifically, is there an issue regarding the Middle East about which we have knowledge regarding the senator's -- the senator's positions, is there an issue with which you have disagreement?

SEN. BARRASSO: No, there is not.

MR. SMITH: All right, good enough. Senator, good of you to be here. We'll look forward to seeing you on the Hill moments from now.

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