CNBC Capital Report - Transcript

CNBC News Transcripts

SHOW: Capital Report (7:00 PM ET) - CNBC

HEADLINE: Representatives Ed Markey and Charles Rangel on the results thus far in Democratic presidential nomination race

ANCHORS: ALAN MURRAY; GLORIA BORGER

BODY:
ALAN MURRAY, co-host:

Welcome back to CAPITAL REPORT.

It's a busy week for the Democratic presidential candidates; they have just six days to campaign in the next seven primary states, and they are spread out all over the country. How do you pull that off? Well, joining us now are Congressman Ed Markey of Massachusetts, who supports Senator John Kerry, and Congressman Charles Rangel of New York, who supports Wesley Clark. Both join us from Capitol Hill this evening, where they've been busy working.

Thank you both for being with us.

Representative ED MARKEY (Democrat, Massachusetts): Thank you.

Representative CHARLES RANGEL (Democrat, New York): Thank you.

MURRAY: Congressman Markey, is the goal here for John Kerry to win all seven states and put this nomination in the bank on February 3rd?

Rep. MARKEY: Well, he's going to try. I mean, he has been working 16 hours a day, seven days a week, really, for two months straight. He understands that that is the key to his success. Obviously there has been a real spike up in his national recognition, and he thinks that it gives him an opportunity to do well all across the country, and he's going the try to do that. Now whether or not he can pull off a victory everywhere remains to be seen. He's going to try his best, but I think he's going to see some substantial success next week.

GLORIA BORGER, co-host:

Charlie Rangel, I saw you out there in New Hampshire with General Wesley Clark. He didn't do as well as he would have liked. Where is he going to win next?

Rep. RANGEL: Well, I think that New England has spoken for Dean and for Kerry, and I think that for Clark and for Edwards, that their base would be Southern. And we have to see how well we do down there. You know, I don't think these primaries and caucuses select presidents, but I do think they shake out those that define the kitchen too hot or they don't have the resources. So as long as General Clark is in the mix, I think the question has to be, at the end of the day: Which one can best beat George Bush?

BORGER: Well, but the question is, you know, Terry McAuliffe says you've got to win somewhere on February 3rd, so tell me where Wesley Clark is going to win.

Rep. RANGEL: Well, you know, Terry McAuliffe gets paid to say what he has to say, but the truth of the matter is these candidates are there. And it's only after you can see what support they got that we can determine where they're going to go, if they're going to go anyplace at all.

MURRAY: OK. Now I know I'm in trouble if I quote Terry McAuliffe again, but when Gloria and I talked to him on Monday, he said, 'Look, if by February 4th a candidate hasn't won a single state, they've got to re-evaluate.' If on February 4th General Wesley Clark has not won a single state, will he get out of the race?

Rep. RANGEL: You know, if I thought Terry McAuliffe really knew what he was talking about, I'd put his name in for nomination to run for president; that's how badly I want to win, you know. But I think the candidates are the ones you have to talk to. They're the ones that are spending their time, their lives, their support team that they have, the money that they raise-these are the candidates. The pundits, you know, they-whoever wins, they're the ones that they were with in the beginning.

BORGER: Ed Markey, let's talk about the Kerry campaign for a moment. You know, some people have said Dean faltered and Kerry, in a way, became the default candidate and benefited from that, and what he really has to do now is prove himself in these states like South Carolina-Missouri is a better state for him; that John Kerry has to kind of stand up on his own now that he's out of New England and show people his stuff. What do you say to that?

Rep. MARKEY: Well, what I say is that Iowa is about as far away from Massachusetts as you can get. And John Kerry went out there for one month, went to meeting after meeting all across the state, made his pitch, and he moved 20, 30 percentage points off of other campaigns into the undecided column. And then in the final three or four days, the people in Iowa had to decide whether they were going to send a message or send a president out to compete against George Bush, and they made that decision. He's now won New Hampshire. He's prepared to go into Missouri, South Carolina, Arizona.

BORGER: But he's not going to win South Carolina. You know that.

Rep. MARKEY: Well, he's going to try. I mean, he has, as you know, now shot up in the polls in South Carolina. He's not ahead right now, but he's going there and he's going to campaign. He's going to try to win. And when you have Fritz Hollings from South Carolina, a graduate of The Citadel and a senior senator of the state, saying that he wants John Kerry to be the guy on the top of the Democratic ticket, I think a lot of people in South Carolina are going to sit up and take notice of Fritz's endorsement.

MURRAY: Congressman, the other test he has to survive is the media test. He's now going to go through several weeks of really intense media scrutiny looking at his record, looking at everything he's ever done in his life. Do you think he can withstand that? I mean, that took a toll on Howard Dean.

Rep. MARKEY: Well, I think that Charlie will tell you that John Kerry comes from Boston, and when you come from Boston or New York, you've lived your entire political life under a microscope in a way that people who come from Burlington, Vermont, or have been in the military just don't see. So we're very confident that John Kerry will be able to withstand any kind of examination whatsoever, and there isn't a lot more to be learned about him. I think what you see is what you get.

BORGER: Well, let's get Charlie Rangel to respond to that. Under the microscope, how will John Kerry do?

Rep. RANGEL: Well, I just hope that the candidates maintain the same type of civility that they did in the last election. It doesn't help any of us to have these negative attacks. And as Congressman Markey said, when you've been in public life as long as Kerry has and as long as Clark has, most everything that there is to know has already been known, not enough to satisfy the press, of course because you have to make news, you get paid to do that. But I think that our candidates will stand up well.

MURRAY: OK. Congressman Charlie Rangel, Congressman Ed Markey, thank you both for being with us.

Rep. MARKEY: Thank you.