CBS "Face the Nation" - Transcript

Interview

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SCHIEFFER: And welcome back to this special edition of FACE THE NATION from Miami. during the next half hour we will hear more from Donald Trump. first though, we are going to get some insight on where this is going from Florida. Congressman Allen West, Mario Diaz-Balart and Michele Bachmann has come back to talk with us during the roundtable.

Well, Congressman West, I got to you first, because you come here directly from the marathon.

WEST: Yes.

SCHIEFFER: You ran the marathon this morning or at least half of it. How did it go?

WEST: It went very well. It was quite humid this morning and ran the 13.1 miles. And because I haven't had an opportunity to get a lot of good training runs, when I hit that mile-10 marker, that was tough, the last 3.1. But it really is an honor to be here with you.

And it was great to be out, you know, we have people from every single state. We have folks from about 60 different countries, we had some Olympic athletes. So it was a great venue to show off Miami and the commitment that we have to the running community.

SCHIEFFER: Do all the Congressmen run in this? Congressman?

DIAZ-BALART: I drove 10 miles and I am more tired than he is.

(LAUGHTER)

DIAZ-BALART: All right, so (inaudible). No, this guy's a machine. He's a machine.

SCHIEFFER: Well, let's talk about what is going on down here. Congressman, tell us where you think it is right now. I take it you are supporting Romney?

DIAZ-BALART: Yes, I am with Mitt Romney, look, I think the issue is going to be the economy, you know, borrowing a phrase from the Bill Clinton years, it's the economy, stupid. I think what we have in Washington is a failed presidency, a president who said that if we pass the stimulus, if Congress passed the stimulus, that unemployment would not reach 8 percent.

But wait, at this time it is supposed to be at 6.4 percent, and we know that that's not the case so it's been a failed presidency and I think the question is who is the person who can get the jobs, you know, get the economy going, create the jobs. And I think the name that continues to surface after all of the battles are said and done is Mitt Romney.

SCHIEFFER: Well, you are a Tea Party guy, Congressman West, do you agree with that?

WEST: Well, this is what I want to look for, is the best person that can stand by our Constitution, and our conservative principles, to be able to get this thing turned around.

When I travel through the district down here and you look at the closed store fronts, the healthcare laws affecting our small businesses, the Dodd-Frank is affecting our small community banks and their relationship with small businesses. And I think everybody knows that South Florida is ground zero for the foreclosure rate since Florida's unemployment rate overall is about 9.9 percent.

And it's quite higher down here in South Florida, So we need to have some people that will come up with the right type of fiscal, tax and regulatory policies to turn this thing around.

SCHIEFFER: Well, do you agree with Sarah Palin, who is saying this is not Gingrich versus Romney, it is the Tea Party the versus the Republican establishment?

WEST: Well, you know, I have only been up there for a little over a year, so I haven't been there long enough to be establishment, but, you know, I took an oath as part of my 22 years in the Army to support and defend this Constitution.

So what I am looking for is the candidate that is going to do the best by honoring our Constitution and making sure that we put the American interests first and foremost.

I think it is a very interesting contrast you have here across our country. It is equality of opportunity versus equality of achievement.

And I think that is what the American people have to look for to -- we have got to have people that understand, set the conditions for the opportunities here in America for those businesses to grow, for production and manufacturing to come back here, not to have a government that picks the winners and the losers in the free marketplace or amongst the individuals.

SCHIEFFER: But I am interested from all of you, and this thing that Sarah Palin said yesterday about it is the Tea Party versus the Republican establishment, and I am trying to figure out, what is the Republican establishment right now, Congresswoman Bachmann. This is not Mitt Romney's father's party. This is a different party, isn't it?

BACHMANN: The party has changed so much for the better, and I think that is what we are all thrilled about, because the Tea Party has infused the energy and the excitement and really is bringing the Republican Party back to its basic values, which is limited government, cutting spending, being smart and making the government more efficient.

That's what the Tea Party has done. The Tea Party is not about Washington. The Tea Party is a lot more about the Constitution, a limited government, growth and opportunities. And that is exciting, and again, this is a very small day-by-day process that we are looking at. And every day the media is looking for a new story.

But at the end of the day, what we absolutely know, it doesn't matter which wing of the party it is, we are united in purpose that we will make Barack Obama a one-termer.

SCHIEFFER: Well, I want to ask you, though, that is a very interesting take, but has the Tea Party made compromise a dirty word, and is that why Congress can't seem to get anything done?

BACHMANN: Not at all, no. The Tea Party is trying to make sure that we hold on to our core principles and values. The Tea Party has been only a force for good in Washington, D.C., because otherwise we continue to go farther and farther to the left, which is redistribution of wealth.

That is why Obama will be a one-termer, because all he has been about is redistribution of wealth and the rise of socialist principles, and the Tea Party rejects that.

WEST: And I think that you can have your principles but also there has to be pragmatism with those principles. You know, I was one of those guys that voted for the debt ceiling with the budget control act and, of course, some folks in the Tea Party were me.

But when came back and I gave them the rationale and I laid out the framework and the groundwork and I told them the most important thing that we have to be able to prove is that we can govern, and that is a big task.

You know, when you look at, as Michele said, the understanding of fiscal responsibility, constitutional-mandated government that is effective and efficient, our free market, getting away from crony capitalism, like we said, where the government has taken hard work and American taxpayer dollars and they're funneling it to choose the winners and the losers based on ideological agendas or what they want to see happen.

And the last thing is a strong national defense. I am very concerned about that.

SCHIEFFER: Newt Gingrich keeps saying that Mitt Romney, whatever else he is, he is just not conservative enough to get elected, and not conservative enough to go up against Barack Obama. I mean, he makes comparisons. How about that, Congressman?

DIAZ-BALART: You know, I -- Romney came in just a few shy, votes shy of first in Iowa. I don't think Iowa is exactly a left-wing radical state.

Look, the reality is -- the issue here is who can defeat Obama, who can defeat a failed presidency who is bringing our country -- who has brought our country to the brink of bankruptcy, who has borrowed trillions of dollars, mostly from Communist China on failed policies, to send it to companies like Solyndra, where his friends, frankly, were large investors, who is a person who can change that dynamic, bring back the country that we all love, the land of opportunity.

This is the greatest nation that God has ever allowed men and women to build on Earth. And we need to improve it but unfortunately President Obama seems to want to change it organically. And what Mitt Romney wants to do -- and he has a plan to create jobs, to make sure that we bring back the standing of the United States internationally.

Look, I just got back from the World Economic Forum in Davos and what you hear everywhere is the decline of the United States, the concern of the incredible debt that the United States has right now. That is -- there is one person who is the cause of that, and it is President Obama, it is a failed presidency. And I'm convinced that Governor Romney is the one who can beat him in November.

SCHIEFFER: Do you give President Obama credit for nothing? I mean, you know --

DIAZ-BALART: I give him credit -- I give him credit --

SCHIEFFER: Osama bin Laden is not with us anymore.

DIAZ-BALART: No, you've got to give him credit for, you know, for signing that order to go after bin Laden, but let's be clear, the conditions would have not have been there if he had not kept the policies of President Bush to go after terrorists abroad.

By the way, policies of President Obama when he was senator, disagree with, but you have to give him credit, he didn't have to keep them. He did, and because of that, he was able to give that order to kill bin Laden and you have to give him credit for that.

BACHMANN: (Inaudible) keeping scoring, Bob. They aren't keeping score between people, they just want the country to work again. And they see that, under Barack Obama, the country isn't working. They just want the country to work, because they want to hold on to their house, they want a job, they want higher wages, and it is not happening under Barack Obama.

SCHIEFFER: Well, I want to thank all of you very much for giving your side of the story here, thanks very much and it is fun to be down here.

DIAZ-BALART: Welcome to paradise.

SCHIEFFER: Thank you so much.

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