MSNBC "Hardball with Chris Matthews" - Transcript

Interview

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SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: Hi, Chris.

MATTHEWS: Senator Schumer, I know you"re a big believer in rapid rail, and rail period, and you want to see this country moved ahead and catch up to the French, the Italians, the Chinese, the Japanese and the Koreans and actually having a rapid rail system as well as everything else.

Do you think this is going to grab the interests of progressives like you, this kind of progressive spending on education, R&D, and infrastructure?

SCHUMER: Yes. I think this is not just going to appeal to progressives; it"s going to appeal to Americans. Because as Gibbs said, this is about the future. You know, we believe in the American Dream, which says that you"ll do better 10 years from now and your kids will do even better than you.

In the last few years, people have begun to doubt it.

This speech says the American Dream is alive and well. We are cutting back on waste, no question about it. And we"re not going to spend profligately like maybe was done in the past, over the past 20 or 30 years.

MATTHEWS: Yes.

SCHUMER: But we are going to invest in things that make sure your kids have a better life than you. And that"s what the American people want. I don"t think they want a dour, sour, everything is wrong, cut everything message.

MATTHEWS: You"re going to be sitting with Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.

SCHUMER: Yes.

MATTHEWS: What could you guys cook up that actually you could agree on, the two of you, as you date tonight?

SCHUMER: Well, we"ve just done two things. We did the 9/11 bill, remember?

MATTHEWS: That"s right.

SCHUMER: Coburn was blocking it. I sat in the room with him and we got that done.

And a few years ago--and this is actually relevant to the tragedy in Arizona, a priest, Father Pences (ph), was killed by a mentally ill man, who had gotten a gun, and Coburn and I actually worked together to tighten up the law so it would be much harder for people to adjudicate mentally ill to get guns. So there are lots of things.

And my guess is, as members sit next to members, you might even find a few ideas being talked about tonight that would germinate into legislation. So, it is symbolic, but, you know, symbols have a way of influencing reality. And let"s hope.

MATTHEWS: Well, a guy who was bipolar called me up after the show and said he could get a gun. I"m not sure that"s tight enough. Are you sure we got tight enough gun laws that keep--

SCHUMER: We don"t. We don"t.

MATTHEWS: -- the screwy people from getting guns?

SCHUMER: We do not have laws that are tight enough, for sure, and hopefully, there can be change. Even the law for mental illness is tighter than it was, but it"s not tight enough. What about people who are drunk?

MATTHEWS: Sure.

SCHUMER: You know--not drunk, but adjudicated drug addicts? These kinds of things, it should be tightened up. And it"s going to be hard. That one is going to be hard to do. There"s no question about it.

But if we ask for small and reasonable things, we might get it done.

MATTHEWS: How does somebody get in to the U.S. Congress where you served before coming up to the Senate who doesn"t even know that slavery existed until the Civil War? Who believes the Founding Father, the Adams family, had eradicated slavery? That"s Michele Bachmann"s speech coming into tonight.

I am stunned by this, this ignorance.

SCHUMER: Well, I think, you know, a lot of the people who are coming in don"t have much experience in government. My classic is, they say they hate government, get government out of everything, but don"t touch Medicare. And then you say, well, Medicare is a more government-oriented health care system than even Obama"s bill. No, it isn"t. They don"t have any knowledge.

MATTHEWS: But, Senator, Lincoln is the head of the Republican Party. He founded it to stop the expansion of slavery into the territories. It"s the most fundamental fact of American history. We fought slavery in the Civil War.

And this woman goes on national television, and we"re going to play this over and over again until they can"t even stand it anymore--

SCHUMER: Yes. I haven"t seen it, Chris.

MATTHEWS: -- until they say they don"t know what they"re talking about. She said the Adams family got rid of slavery, the Founding Fathers did it. Remember the Constitution which she waves around with Justice Scalia?

(CROSSTALK)

SCHUMER: Yes, I thought you were joking and talking about the Adams family--

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SCHUMER: -- and all of that.

MATTHEWS: No. Well, it"s frightening close in this case to what we"re talking about.

Anyway, thank you. Keep guns off the hands of crazy people and try to keep political office out of hands of people that don"t know our history.

SCHUMER: I"m with you. But it will all catch up with them, Chris.

That"s what happens when you don"t know history.

MATTHEWS: Well, I think she"s a balloon head.

SCHUMER: Ye of little faith.

MATTHEWS: (INAUDIBLE), I know the phrase. Thank you, Senator.

Coming up: why some progressives are nervous about what the president will say tonight. Or are they? We"re going to get to the reason why they might be worried. It seems like he"s being progressive. Maybe not enough.

You"re watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.

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