ABC "This Week" - Transcript

Interview

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AMANPOUR: Now on to politics. Our last ABC News/Washington Post poll before the election shows the Democrats have lost the mantle of change. In 2008, voters who wanted new ideas and a new direction overwhelmingly supported President Obama. But in this midterm election, 57 percent of so-called change voters support Republicans; 36 percent support Democrats.

The change label has hurt Democrats this year. Our poll shows that if the election were held today, 49 percent of likely voters say they would vote for the House Republican candidate in their district. 45 percent say they would vote for the Democrat. That has narrowed significantly, though, from our last poll in September.

But compare it to 1994. Democrats had a two-point advantage just before the election, and they lost more than 50 seats.

Joining me now, the two top senators leading their party's election efforts, Republican John Cornyn and Democrat Robert Menendez. Gentlemen, thank you very much for joining me.

CORNYN: Good to be with you.

MENENDEZ: Good morning.

AMANPOUR: So you saw the polls. Do you feel that you have the wind in your back? Do you think that the Republicans will have the momentum to grab the Senate?

CORNYN: Well, I think we'll make a lot of headway. I'm not predicting that we will get the majority this cycle. I think it probably is going to take two cycles, but there is certainly a potential there, depending on just how high and how broad this wave election is.

AMANPOUR: Let me ask you about Joe Miller in Alaska. Our Jon Karl, political correspondent, is saying that you're basically, the GOP is giving up on Joe Miller, or thinking that he's not going to win.

CORNYN: Well, that's not the case. We, what we have done, we are supporting the nominee of our party, which is Mr. Miller, and -- but are concerned.

AMANPOUR: Do you think he can win?

CORNYN: Well, I think that polls are very close now between Senator Murkowski and Joe Miller, and what we want to make sure of is that the Democrat doesn't win, Bob's candidate doesn't win in November.

AMANPOUR: And Senator Menendez, your candidate there, you're pouring a lot of money in to hope that he actually can win in Alaska.

MENENDEZ: Well, we're not pouring a lot of money in--

AMANPOUR: Last-minute ad money.

MENENDEZ: But we believe that Scott McAdams actually has a real chance of winning this race. Mr. Miller has obviously plummeted because it's about ideology versus about Alaska. Lisa Murkowski wanted to privatize Social Security. Scott McAdams is all about Alaska, so I think he has a real opportunity here.

AMANPOUR: Do you think, looking at the polls, looking at what we've just seen, do you think this is as bad as 1994?

MENENDEZ: No, this is not 1994. No. 1, in 1994, the Republican brand, its image was much better than it is today. In every poll, Democrats as a brand fare much better. And, secondly, in 1994, it was a surge at the end. We've known that this midterm election is going to be challenging, and so our candidates for the U.S. Senate have been ready for this and have been creating the contrast in each election between their Republican opponent, who wants to bring us back to the economic policies that brought us into this mess in the first place, and their own policies that are working to get us out of it.

AMANPOUR: Senator Cornyn said they don't think they will get it this cycle. But you're saying that you're blaming the economy on President Obama's predecessor, but clearly the voters are not saying that. They are taking this economy very -- to heart and very badly.

MENENDEZ: Christiane, we understand that people are hurting in this country. But our goal is to have them understand and channel their anger on election day against the Republican Party that brought us to the verge of economic collapse in November of 2008, when financial institutions in this country were ready to collapse.

AMANPOUR: So why hasn't the message got out better, then, for instance on precisely this issue? A recent Bloomberg poll found that most Americans think that taxes have gone up since President Obama took office; that the economy has shrunk; that TARP, the corporate bailout, won't be mostly paid back. I mean, all of those are untrue. Why is the messaging so bad?

MENENDEZ: It's true that all of those are untrue, and I think the challenge is, when you're hurting economically -- and we have gone from negative job growth to positive job growth, from negative GDP growth to positive GDP growth -- but if you're still unemployed, none of that news makes that much difference to you. And that's the challenge in this election.

Our hope and our message and the contrast is you want to give the power back to the people who got us in this mess or do you want to continue to move progress forward?

AMANPOUR: Let me ask you, Senator, because so many of the people we talked to say that they really want to see cooperation, bipartisanship, less of the poison, and solutions. And yet your leader, the Republican leader of the Senate, has said that if you win in November, "the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." The Republican leader in the House, John Boehner, said this is not the time for compromise.

That doesn't sound like putting partisanship aside and working for the people. Is that the sum total of the policy?

CORNYN: Well, President Obama himself said Republicans have come along for the ride, but they have to sit in the back of the bus. But really what we need to be focusing on are jobs, spending and debt. That's what's created this coalition of support, disaffected Democrats, independents and Republicans that are going to sweep many Republicans into office on November 2nd.

AMANPOUR: I'll get to that specifically in a moment, but the fact that leaders of the party say that, that certainly sets the tone, doesn't it? It doesn't sound like moving forward. It sounds like another recipe for gridlock.

CORNYN: Well, I don't think gridlock is going to be acceptable when it comes to runaway spending and unsustainable debt and 9.6 percent unemployment. I agree with Bob that that's why people are reacting the way they are. I don't agree with him about accountability. The administration and Democrats, who have been in charge now in the House and Senate for four years and in the White House for two years, don't want to seem to accept any responsibility. I think that's what this election is about, is assigning responsibility, and giving Republicans a chance now to deal with the matters that concern them most.

AMANPOUR: Do you have any hope of bipartisanship? Certainly President Obama has been talking about it. Is there any hope of that coming up?

MENENDEZ: Well, I certainly hope so. You know, we--

AMANPOUR: Or is it a daydream?

MENENDEZ: We reached out to Republicans from the very beginning. It's not about being at the back of the bus. But when President Obama came to Capitol Hill when we were trying to get this economy moving on the Recovery Act, before he got to the Capitol, Republican leaders were saying dead on arrival, before he even got to engage them.

So I thought the No. 1 job that we had was not to make Barack Obama a one-term president. I thought it was about creating jobs and growing the economy.

AMANPOUR: So the Democrats, it seems, the people are saying, simply have not succeeded in removing people's suspicions about what exactly is health care, what exactly is the stimulus, all of those policies that they still are not quite sure about. The Republicans, on the other hand, have basically said no and moved on. But this has been a very specific-free, substance-free, content-free election. For instance, you talk about moving the economy. But there are no concrete proposals on, for instance, how to slash the deficit.

You look at Britain. They have, whether you like it or not, or agree with it or not, put out a really severe austerity program, chapter and verse, dollars and cents. None of that has happened here.

CORNYN: Well, there will be on December the 1st a bipartisan debt commission report that I know that we're waiting to see what they come up with. But there will be very specific proposals dealing with debt and spending and to try to get the American job engine -- get the people back to work again. Those are the three issues that concern folks the most.

And I submit that even if we have a good election, which I think we will on November 2nd, that unless we address those three issues, then we're going to have another election in two years where people will throw out those of us who haven't been part of the solution but who have been part of the problem.

AMANPOUR: Let me ask you about taxes, because presumably that's going to be an immediate issue. People are talking about taxes and the battle for taxes starting right after this election. Is there any way, Senator, that Congress will agree with President Obama's plan to raise taxes on the wealthiest and preserve them for the middle class?

CORNYN: I don't believe we ought to raise taxes on anyone during a fragile economic recovery, and I think there is an increasing bipartisan support for that position. So I hope we'll continue the current tax policy for the near term, perhaps the next couple of years. Perhaps there's a bipartisan solution there.

AMANPOUR: Well, is there a bipartisan solution? There have been reports, for instance, Senator Menendez, that the White House realizes that there will not be any compromise on what the White House wants to do, and that perhaps one would preserve the tax cuts for the middle -- for the wealthiest temporarily while preserving them for the middle class.

MENENDEZ: Well, first of all, we had an opportunity to preserve permanently for the middle class tax cuts that Democrats proposed, and ultimately Republicans held that hostage to giving the wealthiest in the country a tax cut.

So what we can't have is what the Republican leader in the Senate has, which is saying that he wants to make them all of the tax cuts, including for the most wealthiest in the country, permanent. That is a $4 trillion cost. That is not going to happen, because you can't say you want to be responsible on spending and then spend $4 trillion on tax cuts.

AMANPOUR: But is there a compromise in the works?

MENENDEZ: Well, I certainly believe that there may be some opportunity for a temporary approval of some of these cuts, but--

AMANPOUR: A year, two years?

MENENDEZ: We'll have to see what can be worked out. But we will not support -- certainly what I will not support is a permanent extension, $4 trillion. You can't talk about spending and being responsible on spending and then spend $4 trillion that you don't have of our collective wealth to the individuals who have the greatest wealth in the country.

AMANPOUR: Let me ask you about a lot of the money that's been spent in this campaign on ads, on all sorts of things. Not only have there been strong complaints from the Democrats about a lot of the anonymous money that's going on ads, but some of the ads have been quite -- quite sharp in their tone, let's say. David Vitter has run one which I want to put up right now. His campaign ad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(UNKNOWN): Charlie Melancon. Thanks to him, we might as well put out a welcome sign up for illegal aliens. Melancon voted to make it easier for illegals to get taxpayer-funded benefits. Melancon even voted against allowing police to arrest illegals. Thanks to Charlie Melancon, it's no wonder illegals keep coming.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: So some people have called that racist. I want to know, do you think it's appropriate to finger Hispanics in that way?

CORNYN: Well, you--

AMANPOUR: Do you think it is appropriate?

CORNYN: I wish we had time to show Melancon's ads against Vitter. They're pretty tough.

AMANPOUR: But let me just ask about this particular ad.

CORNYN: Well, I think border security is a federal responsibility and one that the federal government has simply failed to deal with in an appropriate way. And I think it's appropriate to raise that issue in a campaign.

AMANPOUR: But do you think it's appropriate in this way? I mean, you're from Texas. You have a big Hispanic group there. Do you think it's appropriate? Would you have done that?

CORNYN: Well, I didn't write the ad. And I--

AMANPOUR: Would you have done it?

CORNYN: I think calling attention to illegal immigration -- and, you know, for example, this last year, Christiane, 45,000 people emigrated to the United States illegally from countries other than Mexico, including countries like Yemen where this bomb emanated from. So it's a national security issue.

AMANPOUR: But it's the style (ph) that I'm talking about, really, not the national security issue.

That's all we have time for. Thank you both very much, indeed. Senator Cornyn, Senator Menendez. We'll be watching on election night. Thank you very much, indeed.

And coming up next, a comic appeal for civility and unity on the National Mall.

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