MSNBC Interview - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC Interview - Transcript

MSNBC INTERVIEW WITH SENATOR JOHN THUNE (R-SD)

SUBJECT: AIG BONUSES AND THE DRUG WAR

INTERVIEWER: ANDREA MITCHELL

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MS. MITCHELL: Joining us now from Capitol Hill, Republican Senator John Thune from South Dakota; serves on the Armed Services, Commerce and Small Business Committees.

Thanks so much, Senator, for joining us.

SEN. THUNE: Good afternoon, Andrea.

MS. MITCHELL: First of all, the president has said that he takes full responsibility for what happened; ultimately said it's -- you know, that they -- we've got a big mess, and it's his job, and he's in charge, the blame rests on his shoulders. Do you guys begrudge him a trip outside of Washington, going out West and going on the Leno show tonight?

SEN. THUNE: (Chuckles.) Well, the president sets his own travel schedule, but there is some serious business that needs to be attended to here in Washington, D.C. And first and foremost is fixing the economy.

I think there are lots of unanswered questions about AIG, and I appreciate his willingness to say he assumes responsibility for that. But you've got a real intra-family fight among Democrats here to try and determine how this provision got into -- slipped into an economic stimulus bill here recently that allowed these bonuses to be paid between the White House and congressional Democrats.

And the reason that no Republicans have any knowledge of this is because none of them were in room. So much for accountability and the transparency that the president promised during his campaign.

But what we need to be focused on is getting these questions answered. And also his team needs to be focused on fixing the economy.

MS. MITCHELL: Do you think that the approaches that some of the Democrats are taking -- and there's a tax bill on the House side today to tax, I think, 90 percent or more of the bonuses back; there are callback measures that are being proposed -- are those legal? Are they constitutional?

SEN. THUNE: Well, I think that's a really good question. I'm not sure that when you -- you can tax someone retroactively or that you can single out a narrow group of taxpayers like that. They're going to vote on that in the House today, but I think it's an attempt to change the subject. They don't want to answer the hard questions about how this happened.

I mean, Timothy Geithner and the administration obviously had an opportunity a couple of weeks ago when they issued new TARP money, about $30 billion, to impose some conditions on the issuance of that new money. The Congress also, evidently, in the stimulus bill inserted a provision at the very last minute that allowed this to happen. And now everybody's sort of running away from that and there's a lot of finger-pointing. But I think we need to get some answers to these questions before we proceed with trying to figure out how to go about fixing this.

But right now, you've got all these unanswered questions and all this finger-pointing, and nobody's taking responsibility. And I think, frankly, we need to have a fuller look at this. And if that requires some hearings, then we should do that.

MS. MITCHELL: Will you vote for the bill if it gets to the House -- to the Senate floor from the House, the tax bill?

SEN. THUNE: I don't know what -- I have not seen it yet. I don't know what version it's going to be in. Like I said, to me, it's going to important that it be constitutional and that it be legal. But at the same time, I -- you know, I think there are many of us who might be persuaded for it, but we're -- we've got to see it first.

And first off, I mean, we think we need to focus on the fundamental question. The fundamental issue is, how did this happen? And as like you said, I think the Democrats want to sweep this under the -- under the bed and sort of wipe it away by just trying to pass this bill and move on. But there's a lot of shenanigans that went on here in the conference committee, and a lot of things I think the administration and the congressional leadership, the Democrats in the Congress, need to answer for.

MS. MITCHELL: Let me just switch gears for a second before I let you go, Senator.

The Homeland Security secretary, Janet Napolitano, is announcing at this hour, we believe, more Border Patrol forces to go the border to try to combat the drug cartels that are just plaguing the border area. Do you support that? And what if the resources for that means taking forces away from immigration, from checks in workplaces -- not Border Patrols, but workplace checks to try to prevent illegal immigration? What -- do you think that the drug war is now a higher priority?

SEN. THUNE: Well, I certainly think they hopefully have the manpower and the resources to multitask over there, but the drug war is a very high priority. We've got some serious issues that have to be addressed. There is a tremendous amount of violence, a lot of -- a lot of people, over 6,000 people killed in Mexico this last year. And we need to work with the Mexican authorities to try and get this under control.

MS. MITCHELL: What do you think we should be doing?

SEN. THUNE: Well, I think that we are doing as many things as we can be doing by being partners with the Mexican government, but I do think that if necessary, the steps that are being taken to try and ensure that safety and security along the borders is protected is a step we ought to be taking. I think that whatever -- whatever we --

MS. MITCHELL: Do you agree with those?

SEN. THUNE: Go ahead, I'm sorry.

MS. MITCHELL: No, I'm sorry. I interrupted you. But Mexico has been complaining that 90 percent of the guns that are fueling this war are coming from the U.S. And of course, it's the U.S. drug consumers that are creating the demand. What about the Mexicans blaming us for a lot of this?

SEN. THUNE: Well, I -- obviously, the U.S. is a big market for that, and we need to be doing everything we can to try and reduce it.

Now, the price has gone up. I think it's gotten more difficult to get drugs into the country. But you know, clearly there's a lot of room for improvement on this. You know, we aren't -- we aren't, obviously, doing enough because a lot of these problems continue to persist, and we need to attack them.

MS. MITCHELL: All right. Senator Thune, thanks so much for joining us today.

SEN. THUNE: Thanks, Andrea.

END.

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