NBC News " Meet The Press " - Transcript : Government Spending And Freedom of Religion
Interview
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
CHUCK TODD:
Your good friend, the Milwaukee County Sheriff, David Clarke, said just this week, he said your campaign's stuck in neutral, and that you need to find a spark to counter the, quote, "Donald Trump juggernaut." What do you say to him? And do you agree with him?
GOV. SCOTT WALKER:
It's hard work. It's going out. I was just in Iowa the other day, South Carolina, New Hampshire. It's doing town hall meetings. It's doing the sorts of things that--you know, remember eight years ago about this time, there was I think a poll out in October of 2007, last time we had an open seat for president.
And Hillary Clinton was way ahead of some guy by the name of Barack Obama. And Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson were ahead of John McCain and Mitt Romney. So there's a lot of work that goes into these races. For us, I think the biggest spark for us is getting the message out that now's not the time to put in place someone who hasn't been tested before.
CHUCK TODD:
New poll that was out this week in your home state. You're at 39% job approval. Barack Obama's at 48%. Why does he have a higher job rating in Wisconsin than you do?
GOV. SCOTT WALKER:
Well, you know, four years ago, I was so low in the polls they called me "Dead Man Walker," because back then, we were pushing big, bold reforms, kind of like the big, bold reforms, again, we push in this latest budget. A year later, I won the recall with a higher percentage of votes, a higher number of votes.
Why? Because our reforms worked. For all the hype and hysteria of the 100,000 protestors, our schools are better. In fact, ACT scores, again, are second best in the country. Our graduation rates are up. Our third grade reading scores are up.
The same thing will hold true here when people see that, for students like my son, who's a junior at The University of Wisconsin, the reforms are going to work there, as well. Property taxes continue to go down. When people see the benefits of our reforms, just like they did four years ago, I think our numbers will go up again.
CHUCK TODD:
All right. Let me go to a Facebook question here. This was probably the topic brought up by more posters than anybody, which was the Milwaukee Bucks deal.
GOV. SCOTT WALKER:
Yes.
CHUCK TODD:
"How can you talk," this is from Sam Barron, "How can you talk about being a fiscally responsible conservative and then approve a $250 million in public funding deal for billionaires, so billionaires can get a shiny new arena?" What do you say to this?
GOV. SCOTT WALKER:
Not one new penny, not one penny of new taxpayers' dollars. You're talking about being a fiscally responsible person, I am. That's precisely why I did this. Six and a half million dollars every year. Right now, $6 and a half million per year comes into the state of Wisconsin in income taxes, not in all these other things that people talk about, in income taxes from NBA players that play in the state of Wisconsin. I would lose that money if we did nothing.
CHUCK TODD:
The birthright citizenship issue. Can I get a final-- there was some confusion last week--
GOV. SCOTT WALKER:
Yeah. It's pretty--
CHUCK TODD:
--on your issue.
GOV. SCOTT WALKER:
No, it's pretty clear. I--
CHUCK TODD:
You're for getting rid of it? You weren't? Where are you on this?
GOV. SCOTT WALKER:
No, what I had pointed out repeatedly, since the beginning of this year, this is not new, people have heard me, some of the folks from NBC have covered me heard me say this 1,000 times.
CHUCK TODD:
Right.
GOV. SCOTT WALKER:
Secure the border, enforce the laws, no amnesty, go forward in a way that provides for a legal immigration system that puts a priority on American working families and their wages, in a way that will improve the American economy.
I said, whether it's talking about the 14th amendment or anything else, until we secure the border and enforce the laws, we shouldn't be talking about any other issue out there. And politicians that do are trying to distract from the fact that, for years, in this town, Washington D.C., politicians have made promises about securing the border and enforcing the laws they haven't been able to fulfill.
GOV. SCOTT WALKER:
I'm talking about-- not talking about--
CHUCK TODD:
You want to keep it in place.
GOV. SCOTT WALKER:
I'm not talked about--
CHUCK TODD:
Birthright citizenship stays.
GOV. SCOTT WALKER:
I'm not talking about changing the constitution.
CHUCK TODD:
All right. Let's go to foreign policy. You have said, famously, and I've heard you a number of times, you're going to basically try to tear up this agreement with Iran on day one. Why not give it a chance and see it if works?
GOV. SCOTT WALKER
I have no problem doing a deal if it's on our terms. This is just a horrible deal. This is a horrible deal. And it's not just Republicans like me saying it. I mean Chuck Schumer isn't exactly Mr. Conservative out there, he knows this is a bad deal. Other Democrats know this is a bad deal. The American people know this is a bad deal.
If you know it's a bad deal and you know it today, why do you need a week or a month to put a cabinet in or a panel in there? You need to tear it up and say, "You want to do a deal with us? Here's the deal. You need to go out and completely get rid of your illicit nuclear infrastructure. You need to completely get rid of it.
Secondly, you need to have full disclosure. None of these side deals, like we heard about the other day, where somehow the Iranians are able to get part of their own inspection out there. Full disclosure, absolute timely disclosure. And then, on top of that, you need to start dealing with the destructive behaviors that Iran is directly involved in when it comes to state-sponsored terrorism.
CHUCK TODD:
But on day one, if you renege on the deal, they can say, well the Americans have reneged on their part of the deal, we're reneged on our part.
GOV. SCOTT WALKER:
Well, from our standpoint, we're sending a clear message today so it doesn't sneak up anybody else out there, that in the future, we're going to pull back on it. If you want to do business, you got to decide are you going to do it with Iran or are you going to do it with America? We are going to pull back and terminate this deal on day one.
CHUCK TODD:
We've tried toppling leaders in Iraq and Libya. We've tried drone strike. That seems to create more terrorists. We've pulled back. We've gone in. Nothing seems to stop this issue of Islamic terrorism. What is it, what are you going to do differently that is somehow going to solve this problem?
GOV. SCOTT WALKER:
Well, different from this president and from the policy that Hillary Clinton was involved with is lifting the political restrictions in the person already there. I'll give you a good example. We have people in Iraq right now, in the military, over 3,000 troops. It's not a question of sending more in. It's about empowering them to unleash the power of the United States military.
We have people right there as air controllers who could literally draw in airstrikes with absolute precision. They can't do that. That's particularly difficult because I talked to a general early this year who said airstrikes can be effective, but right now, they're like a drizzle. He said, "We need to have a thunderstorm there." But with all the different parties, with all the different--
CHUCK TODD:
The comment you made at the end of the 2014 on same sex marriage. You said, "For us," meaning Wisconsin, "the debate is over." Now you've said that's not the case.
GOV. SCOTT WALKER:
Again, it's not right.
CHUCK TODD:
That was then. You said, "For us, it's over." At the time, it was a judge who had overturned and said--
GOV. SCOTT WALKER:
It was over in terms of our legal options. We had no other option other than waiting to see what the Supreme Court did. If I'd said anything differently, I'd be misguiding the people of Wisconsin. There was no other option for the state of Wisconsin.
the most immediate thing the next president should be-- I'll certainly be involved in, is protecting people's religious liberties. That's something that's inherent in the constitution. It's part of the Bill of Rights. It's why so many of our founders came to America was to be free of a religious--
CHUCK TODD:
All right, what does that mean? Does that mean a business could fire somebody that's gay?
GOV. SCOTT WALKER:
That means--
CHUCK TODD:
Just because they're gay?
GOV. SCOTT WALKER:
Well, that means you have to have that balance up. That means making sure that we uphold the constitution, which says you have the freedom of religion. Not freedom from religion, the freedom of religion. And that means, I'll just speak about it, our Justice Department, our I.R.S. and others out there, will uphold that.
CHUCK TODD:
All right. Caucuses are February 1st. First Sunday in February is the Super Bowl. Who's got a better shot, you and Iowa or Aaron Rodgers and the Super Bowl?
GOV. SCOTT WALKER:
Well, that's a tough call. I'm probably, as a Packers fan, more likely the Packers. But I'm hoping I can do both.
CHUCK TODD:
All right.
GOV. SCOTT WALKER:
Actually, after I was first elected on my birthday, November 2nd, of 2010, the Packers went on to win the Super Bowl on my wedding anniversary.
CHUCK TODD:
So what you're saying is you're good luck for the Packers?
GOV. SCOTT WALKER:
So I like the good luck. If I win, Packers won the Super Bowl. Not a bad deal. I like it both ways.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source