FOX "Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace" - Transcript: 2014 Elections

Interview

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WALLACE: President Obama sat down with congressional leaders of both parties for lunch Friday at the White House over sea bass and pumpkin tart, they discussed the way forward with the Republican soon to control Congress. And they disagreed sharply over the president's plan for executive action on immigration.

Joining us now, two of the leaders who are there, Senator John Barrasso is chair of the Senate Republican Policy Committee. And Congressman Xavier Becerra is head of the House Democratic Caucus.

Gentlemen, welcome back to "Fox News Sunday."

Before we get to the White House lunch, I want to ask you about the president's decision on Friday to send 1,500 more U.S. troops to Iraq, almost doubling our deployment there.

Senator Barrasso, you're on the foreign relations committee. Couple of questions: one, are you going to vote for the $5.6 billion in extra money the president wants? And secondly, how do you feel about the slow motion bit-by-bit escalation of our footprint in Iraq?

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO, R-WY.: Yes, we're going to look specifically at how he wants the money spent, but it's right for the president to come to Congress for an authorization to use military force. I support that. I think Congress want to be involved.

You do get concerned about a mission creep. I think they've been doing a good job in in terms of trying to degrade, but they have a long way to go in terms of destroying ISIS and trying to secure Iraq. There are still big problems in Syria, and we discussed all of this with the General Austin on Friday at the White House, as well as the secretary of defense.

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WALLACE: Congressman Becerra, any concerns that this escalation has the scent of Vietnam about it? And do you think the president has a strategy, a strategy and plan to beat is?

REP. XAVIER BECERRA, D-CALIF.: The way it was outlined at a lunch on Friday, it seemed like a coherent plan that was directed at the ultimate goal of dismantling ISIL. And my sense is this, after -- as the senator said, we have an opportunity to look at all the details, I think most members will see this is a buildup of the original plan, which is try to help the Iraqis stand up and take care of business --

WALLACE: So, where does it end? We're talking about -- it was in the 200. Now, it's 2,900. How many more U.S. troops?

BECERRA: I think the president has always said the Iraqis have to handle this. We're going to help them. They've asked for help, we're willing to help, but it's their job to take care of their civil war. So, I don't think the president intends to have this anything close to a Vietnam.

WALLACE: OK. Let's talk about the lunch which you both attended on Friday. Senator Barrasso, how heated was the discussion about the president taking executive action to defer deportations of millions of people in this country illegally? Will that really as some Republican leaders are suggesting, hurt cooperation on every issue.

BARRASSO: Well, I believe it would hurt cooperation on every issue, Chris. What the president does over the next two months is really going to set the tone for the next two years in Washington. You know, nobody ran for office and won a Senate race based on the president having executive authority to take executive actions on amnesty or on health care or any of those issues. The American people want us to work together to find solution.

So, I think it would be like the president pulling the pin out of the hand grenade and throwing in as we're trying to actually work together. I'm hoping that cooler heads at the White House can prevail upon the president to say, look, if you want to have a good, constructive final two years of your presidency, don't do this now, wait until the new Congress is sworn in, let them come together and do the sort of things that Senator-elect Gardner was talking about in terms of working together to find some solution on immigration.

WALLACE: Congressman, a couple questions for you. Did the president really cut off Vice President Biden when he started talking about this, the idea of how long would it take for Republicans to come up with their own bill? And do you worry that it will be the grenade scenario and this will poison the well on a bunch of issues, not just immigration?

BECERRA: First, I don't recall anybody being cut off. There was a good conversation back and forth.

And on the issue of immigration, where we'll go, I think the president has been very patient. He made it very clear for quite some time ago that he's been waiting six years to get a bill from Congress. He's been waiting a year and a half for the House Republicans to act on the bill that the Senate passed on a bipartisan basis, and the president for months has been saying he's going to take action where he can to try to make the law work better, smarter than what it is right now.

And so, I don't think there's anything strange going on here, except for the fact that if House Republicans continue to insist that the president must wait to help fix what everyone agrees is a broken immigration system, the only thing that is harmed is our security, our economy, and all those families that are waiting to see some results.

So, I think the president is right to move forward to do what President Reagan, President Bush Sr., President Bush Jr., President Clinton, all the presidents have used executive orders to try to make laws work better. He cannot change the law. He can only try to make it work better and smarter.

WALLACE: Senator Barrasso, you say the president, and this was quote the other day, still hasn't come to grips with this election. Do you think he's in denial?

BARRASSO: I don't know that, but he is sure I think not fully grasping the significant defeat for his party and his policies. As the president said, his policies were on the ballot each and every one of them. We have now elected -- I think we will end up with nine new Republican senators, his policies have been rejected by the voters, and not just because they're unpopular, but because they don't work.

That's why we went to the White House to say, Mr. President, we want to work with you on issues of jobs, the economy, affordable energy, and health care.

I was astonished during that whole lunch, the president didn't ask us anything about that at all. He just was so focused on this executive amnesty issue, that he ignored the idea of having a dialogue on ways we could actually change the direction of the country and move forward with regard to jobs and the economy.

WALLACE: Is that true?

BECERRA: Let me disagree with the senator. The president wasn't so focused on the issue of executive action until Speaker Boehner was the one that raised it, saying, it's going to be tough to do anything together if you do executive action. And that's when the president tried to respond back.

So, to put the blame on the president for responding to the speaker I think is unfair. The president said, we've got a lot to do together. We've got to deal with --

WALLACE: Was there not a discussion back and forth about both parties' ideas about jobs?

BECERRA: That was -- the president posed that as one of the issues we should super conversation about. Remember, we had only so much time to discuss a number of issues. We had a briefing by the military on the situation in Syria and Iraq. And so, as the president said, he went through about four or five different issues, and saying, all these issues, I hope we have an opportunity to work with --

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WALLACE: But, Senator Barrasso, you think there wasn't enough talk about the economy and jobs, which is -- according to the voters -- the number one concern?

BECERRA: But whose fault is it that we didn't discuss the economy more? It was John Boehner who said, started off right away -- executive action, it's going to be tough to do anything.

BARRASSO: And the president then spent an inordinate amount of time talking about his goals for executive action and pretty much ignored the next two years. That's why I say what the president decides to do in the next two months sets the tone for the next two years.

There are dozens of bills that have passed the House in a bipartisan way, specifically related to jobs, the economy, trade, health care that we want to put and will start putting on the president's desk in January.

WALLACE: None of that was discussed?

BARRASSO: None of those issues came up. It seems that, in addition to the Ebola and ISIS briefings, that a lot of the focus was the president's goals and desires to take executive actions when the president's policies and party were repudiated in the elections on Tuesday.

WALLACE: Congressman Becerra, the president said the day after the election that one of the big changes is the Republicans will no longer have to kowtow to the Tea Party wing in the House and the Senate, but especially the House. Here's what he said.

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OBAMA: It means that negotiations end up perhaps being a little more real, because, you know, they have larger majorities, for example, in the House, and they may be able to get some things through their caucuses that they couldn't before.

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WALLACE: Congressman, do Democrats have to do anything differently?

BECERRA: All of us have to do something differently.

WALLACE: I'm asking about Democrats.

BECERRA: Yes, Democrats and Republicans, Chris.

WALLACE: What do Democrats have to do differently?

BECERRA: I think Democrats have to know now that the Senate and House are both in the hands of Republicans, that we're going to have to see how to work with those that drive the agenda in the House and the Senate to see where we can come together and find common ground. It's no longer going to be a Republican House working with a Democratic Senate.

And so, it's going to be one of those areas where we have to see if we can join with Republicans, as they propose legislation to send to the president.

Hopefully, the Republicans in both the House and the Senate propose bills that the president has said he's willing to sign versus just send him legislation that he's said, this is going to be vetoed as soon as it gets to my desk.

WALLACE: Finally, Senator Barrasso -- and I want to ask you a question that I asked Senator-elect Capito -- how do you feel about getting the nomination of Loretta Lynch as the new attorney general, to get confirmed in this lame-duck session as opposed to waiting for a new Senate? And how much will you resist it if he tries to get her confirmed in this session?

BARRASSO: The attorney general of the United States is a very consequential position. We have not done an attorney general confirmation in a lame-duck since 1906. That was in the same party. The last time we done one with a change of party was whether James Buchanan was leaving the White House and Abraham Lincoln was coming in.

So, as I say, what the president does in two months is very consequential for the next two years. She's going to have to specifically come to the Hill, talk about better relations between the departments and the Hill, and specifically answer questions about executive amnesty. Is it legal? Is it constitutional?

WALLACE: Senator Barrasso, Congressman Becerra, thank you both. Thanks for joining us today.

BECERRA: Thank you.

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