FOX "Your World" - Transcript
Interview
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MR. CAVUTO: Authorities in New York foiling a terror attack that luckily never went down. And now, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell here and only here with the lowdown.
Senator, what do you think of the president's push to say, look, if push comes to shove, we can get some of these detainees and deal with them in the U.S. prison system at a supermax-type facility. What do you make of that?
SEN. MCCONNELL: A really bad idea, Neil. Look, we do have dangerous people in these supermax facilities. They were almost all arrested in the United States, trying to carry out some terrorist act, totally different from the people we have at Guantanamo, captured on the battlefield overseas. Now, what happens if you take these overseas terrorists and transfer them to U.S. prisons? The FBI director himself said just yesterday there's a good chance that they will begin to organize the other prisoners, a good chance that they themselves will become targets of terrorist attacks and those around them. There's absolutely no reason whatsoever to bring any of these detainees captured on a foreign battlefield into the United States.
We have a place for them, it's called Guantanamo. It's a $200 million state-of-the-art facility. It has courtrooms there for the military commissions which were established by Congress just two years ago. It strikes me that what we need here out of the president is a real plan, not just another speech.
MR. CAVUTO: Well, he's apparently having some difficulty even getting the funding to shut Gitmo down. I know you were leading efforts in the Senate, twice in fact in a little more than two days. Efforts were rejected by Democrats there. So what happens now? If the money isn't going to be there to shut it down, Gitmo isn't shut down. So what happens?
SEN. MCCONNELL: Well, nothing bad happens. You know, we haven't had an attack since 9/11 here on the homeland. A good part of the reason for it, of course, is a lot of the people who have the ability to plot and scheme against us are down at Guantanamo. Why in the world would we want to bring them into U.S. courts? That generally creates a problem. We tried a few foreign terrorists in U.S. courts. They did it over in Alexandria, Virginia a few years ago. Ask the mayor of Alexandria how he felt about it. It was a huge, huge problem. Look, there ought to be --
MR. CAVUTO: But it's bigger than that, right? I didn't mean to interrupt you. But you know, the vice president earlier today had said that Gitmo still houses some of the dangerous ones, a point he had echoed with me last week in this interview. I want you to listen to this.
(Begin videotaped segment.)
DICK CHENEY: The ones that are remaining, about 243, are the hardcore, the worst of the worst.
MR. CAVUTO: Where do you think they're going to end up?
MR. CHENEY: Well, I think they need to keep Guantanamo open. I think it's a mistake to try to close it. I think if you didn't have it, you'd have to invent it. If you bring those people to the United States, I don't know a single congressman who's going to stand up and say, gee, send me some terrorists, I'd like to have some al Qaeda types living in my district. It's not going to happen.
(End videotaped segment.
MR. CAVUTO: And indeed it hasn't happened, Senator. Do any of your colleagues, who don't share your views, either in the House or the Senate, ever volunteer to bring any of these guys to their district?
SEN. MCCONNELL: I haven't heard any volunteers yet. I mean, we had several votes yesterday related to this very subject. A Brownback amendment passed without dissent related to taking terrorists into a jurisdiction without consultation with the governor and local officials. I don't think there's any community in America that wants these people. And why are we trying to bring them here?
Look, this ought to be not about, Neil, trying to be popular in Europe. It ought to be about keeping American citizens safe. And we know that Guantanamo and keeping these dangerous terrorists incarcerated at Guantanamo has played a major, major role in us not being attack again since 9/11.
MR. CAVUTO: Many in your party kind of roll their eyes, we are told, when Dick Cheney comes to the microphone. Is that true? Or is that a creation in the media, that actually you or many of your colleagues welcome him speaking out?
SEN. MCCONNELL: Well, I took a look at his speech today. I thought it made a lot of sense. I happen to have agreed with every word of it. And if the president is going to keep attacking the previous administration over the handling of the post-9/11 period, it's not inappropriate for some private American citizen, who knows something about the subject, to be responding. And I'm still trying to figure out what the current president doesn't like about the fact that we were not attacked again here at home since 9/11. I know that he is grateful that we haven't been attacked. I hope he doesn't think that was just an accident or just good luck.
I mean, as a result of the conscious policies of going after terrorists overseas, the ones we didn't kill, many of them we captured. They're at Guantanamo from which no one has ever escaped, a $200 million state-of-the-art facility. It has none of the complications associated with bringing them into the United States. What is wrong with this policy that needs to change? It ain't broken, it doesn't need to be fixed.
MR. CAVUTO: Well, that was the point echoed by the former vice president, Senator. So when we settle all the dust on this, it looks to me, at least, the Gitmo isn't going to be shut down anytime soon or those detainees moved anywhere else anytime soon. No state wants them, no district wants them, no other country outside the United States wants them. So we're back to kind of square one here, right?
SEN. MCCONNELL: Well, I think square one is a pretty appropriate place to be. Guantanamo is open. No one has escaped. They're safely incarcerated there. I think the president ought to rethink his arbitrary decision to close Guantanamo by a date certain -- rethink it. It doesn't strike me as the right way to go.
MR. CAVUTO: You know what's been amazing watching this in the Senate, in general, Senator, is the fact that Republicans, though fiercely outnumbered, have been able to do some pretty interesting parliamentary moves. Your own efforts to sort of force these votes on raising funds to shut Gitmo down are some examples. I'm wondering, though, whether everything changes, assuming eventually, and we could be wrong here, but Al Franken is seated as the senator from Minnesota. And now and then, they have that filibuster-proof majority you hear so much talk about, and you're dramatically weakened. What do you make of that?
SEN. MCCONNELL: Well, you know, we had 90 Democrats who voted with us yesterday on Gitmo. I think if our policies are correct, Democrats are going to have a hard time voting against them. And they've been voting with our proposals on Guantanamo over the last two days overwhelmingly.
MR. CAVUTO: Is that a preview then to coming attractions, sir? In other words, as you know, the Democrats have a very aggressive legislative agenda to wrap up by July 31st, everything from a health care package to regulatory reform package to, assuming the president gives a Supreme Court nominee, passage of that nominee. Is that all doable by the end of July?
SEN. MCCONNELL: Well, you know, I think it's going to be hard to do all of that by the end of July. But you mentioned health care, I believe. You know, Republicans are overwhelmingly against having a government plan that puts the government between you and your doctor. Interestingly enough, so are a lot of Democrats. You know, we probably will be able to defeat the administration on one of the principal pillars of its health care proposal, and we only have 40 members. So I think if the policy prescription the administration is offering goes in the wrong direction, we can still defeat some of those things and help craft policies that make more sense for the American people.
MR. CAVUTO: Senator Mitch McConnell, thank you. Always good having you.
SEN. MCCONNELL: Thank you.
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