FOX News "FOX News Sunday" - Transcript
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CHRIS WALLACE, HOST: I'm Chris Wallace, and this is "Fox News Sunday."
With just 16 days till the midterm elections, control of the U.S. Senate is up for grabs. We'll get the latest from two Senate leaders, John Cornyn, the man in charge of GOP efforts to take back the majority, and Claire McCaskill, one of the president's key allies.
Then, the Senate showdown in California. Can Republicans pull off a major upset in the big blue state? We'll ask the party's candidate, Carly Fiorina.
Also, in a surprising interview, the president talks about lessons learned in office and how the next two years will be different. We'll ask our Sunday panel about Barack Obama's pre- election post-mortem.
And from contentious debates to heavy hitters working the crowds, we'll have the best moments "On the Trail," all right now on "Fox News Sunday."
And hello again from Fox News in Washington. Many political insiders are predicting a Republican takeover of the House. But what about the Senate, where Democrats are defending 19 seats, Republicans 18? And the GOP needs a net gain of 10 seats to regain control of the Senate.
For answers, we bring in two Senate leaders. From Austin, Texas, John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. And from St. Louis, Democrat Claire McCaskill.
Senator Cornyn, You say this is going to be a wave election. First of all, what does that mean? And will Republicans take back the Senate on November 2nd?
SEN. JOHN CORNYN, R-TEXAS: Chris, this is going to be a referendum on very unpopular policies that have been shoved through Congress on a very fast track, where the American people have wondered, "Has Congress even read the bills or do they understand the impact?"
For example, the president said today, I believe, in the New York Times Magazine, that there isn't such a thing as shovel-ready projects. He just finally discovered that after we spent $787 billion on a ill-conceived stimulus.
So this is going to be a referendum on the administration's policies, on majorities controlled by the Democrats the last two years. And it's going to be about jobs, spending and debt. Pretty much that simple.
WALLACE: OK. And let me ask you for...
CORNYN: I think there is a path...
WALLACE: If I may, sir, let me ask you to get a -- give me a simple answer to my other question, will Republicans take back the Senate on November 2nd?
CORNYN: We're going to fight for every seat we can possibly get. I'm -- we have 12 seats in play. It's a theoretical pathway there. But I'm not predicting we're going to get back the majority. It may be a two-cycle process.
WALLACE: Senator McCaskill, let's put up what the political experts are saying now about the Senate. The RealClearPolitics average of recent polls has a Republican pickup of seven seats. The Cook Political Report projects a GOP pickup of seven to nine seats. Again, Republicans need a net gain of 10 seats to take control.
Will Democrats hold on to the Senate? And even if they do, if Republicans, while still in the minority, end up with 47 seats, 48 seats, given all the gridlock we've had the last two years, will anything get done over the next two in the Senate?
SEN. CLAIRE MCCASKILL, D-MO.: Oh, I think that's hard to say, especially because some of the candidates that appear poised to win for the Republican Party are very extreme.
I'm a moderate. I hang out in the middle. I vote against my party with some regularity and try to compromise. It doesn't appear right now that the Republican Party is welcoming moderates any more.
So, I think that independent voters need to take a hard look in these elections and realize that what we may be getting to is the kind of gridlock that, frankly, is not something that's desirable in terms of good policy in this country.
WALLACE: Senator Cornyn, that brings me to what I wanted to ask you. It seems almost certain that whether they get the majority or not, Republicans are going to have more power in the next Senate than they have these last two years, even if you don't get the majority.
Is the GOP mission over the next two years to undo the Obama agenda or to work with the president and try to find areas of compromise?
CORNYN: Well, I think it depends on the president. If the president's going to maintain his ideological stance and try to jam things through to support the left in America, when we're still a center-right country, then we're going to -- we're going to say no.
But if he's willing to work with us, as Bill Clinton did after the 1994 elections to pass things like welfare reform, trade agreements and the like, we'll certainly work with him. But again, what the American people are most concerned about is jobs, spending and debt. And those are our priorities.
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CORNYN: Sure. Senator McCaskill and Senator Sessions have introduced legislation that would have put a cap on discretionary spending, which doesn't go far enough but which is good start, that only 17 Democrats but all 41 Republicans supported.
So I hope that Senator McCaskill's more successful at getting some of the Democrats to join Republicans and to join her in putting a cap on spending.
And I would just point out, it's not just the stimulus. It's the health care bill that 71 percent of primary voters in Missouri said they would want to repeal the individual mandate portion of it.
So there is a -- I think, a fatigue on the part of the American people with the aggressive agenda that, frankly, they don't agree with, but they haven't been listened to. They've been lectured to, and they're tired of it. They're going to speak up on November 2nd.
WALLACE: Senators, let's talk about one issue that must get solved, because if nothing is done by the end of the year, all of the Bush era tax cuts will expire, which means every American is going to get a tax increase.
Let me start first with you, Senator Cornyn. Where's the compromise?
CORNYN: Well, I was shocked that Harry Reid, who controls the agenda on the Senate floor, and Nancy Pelosi in the House did not tee this issue up before the election.
So by the end of this year, the American people are looking at the single largest tax increase in American history, including on a lot of small businesses that declare their business income on an individual tax return.
There couldn't be a worse message for the job creators in America during a time when unemployment is so high than the uncertainty over what future taxes are going to be. So I think, unfortunately, there's been a -- it's really been a mishandling of the agenda.
We need to deal with this in a way that I think keeps taxes low. The last thing we need to do is to raise taxes on small businesses and job creators during a recovery, a fragile recovery like we're experiencing now.
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WALLACE: Senator Cornyn?
CORNYN: Chris, our Democratic -- our Democratic colleagues need to look in the mirror. They need to accept responsibility for the fact that Democrats have been in charge in Congress since 2007. And by the way, the deficit as a percentage of gross domestic product was 1.2 percent.
Last year it was 9.9 percent because of the spending juggernaut that we've seen over the last two years. So we do need to work together. We need to be serious. But this has got to be about putting America back to work, cutting unnecessary Washington spending, and not burdening the future generations with unsustainable debt.
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WALLACE: Senator Cornyn, very briefly, I mean, this is a race that everybody thinks could have been an easy pickup for the Republicans. Didn't the tea party by nominating -- helping to nominate Sharron Angle make it a toss-up?
CORNYN: Sharron Angle's going to win that race. I'll make that prediction here right now. And if you like 14.4 percent unemployment, if you like the fact that 70 percent of home mortgages in Nevada are underwater, then stay the course. Vote for Harry Reid.
But if you believe that we can do better, then Sharron Angle, I think, is a very good alternative. She raised $14 million last quarter from Americans who are not extreme. These are grassroots Americans concerned about the direction of that state and our country.
And I think she's going to win because of the huge enthusiasm gap between Republicans and Democrats on one hand and -- excuse me, Republicans and independents on one hand and Democrats on the other.
WALLACE: Finally, Senators -- and we've got -- I'm going to give you each 30 seconds. Give me an upset special. Give me one race, Senate race, that you think will be a "wow," a big surprise for us on election night.
Senator Cornyn, you start.
CORNYN: I think Connecticut is the one I would pick. I would have said West Virginia, but that looks like it's moving now more into the mainstream for a Republican pickup. So I think Linda McMahon has run a very good race against the attorney general in Connecticut. And I think that continues to close, and I'm predicting that as an upset.
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