MSNBC Hardball - Transcript

MSNBC Hardball - Transcript
Tuesday, January 31, 2006

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MATTHEWS: We‘re back and joining us right now, Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, who‘s a member of the Foreign Relations Committee.

Senator Boxer, we got a lead on the speech tonight from Reuters, the news agency in Britain. It says the president‘s comments tonight will amount to a rejection of those Democrats and others who argue that U.S. policies in Iraq and in the war on terrorism are doing more harm than good abroad. Is the president right or wrong?

SEN. BARBARA BOXER (D), CALIFORNIA: Well, clearly, we have a president who shunned the world community, who walked away from the United Nations, who went into Iraq really, basically go it alone. They say they had a coalition, but as we know, outside of the Brits, our usual allies were absent.

And as a result we‘re seeing elections in the Middle East. We saw Hamas, a terrorist group, win in the Palestinian territories. We see—I would have to call him, and I just am going to qualify it, someone who appears to be a terrorist leading Iran, threatening Israel with annihilation, and threatening America.

This is the result of George Bush‘s policies, I believe, in Iraq, because I think the people looked at it as being arrogant and with no plan to get out. And I think it‘s a disaster unfolding.

Even in South America we see people being elected like Hugo Chavez, gets elected because he‘s anti-George Bush. It‘s not helping us be safer in the world, Chris.

MATTHEWS: Well, just to nail it down, are we worse off as a nation for having gone to Iraq?

BOXER: Well, if I answer that question from my heart, I‘d say we certainly are less secure. What we have should have done is just gone after Osama bin Laden. We should have made Afghanistan a model state. We should have kept our eye on that tyrant Saddam Hussein, with the whole world, we had the whole world with us, and we didn‘t do it. And we‘re paying a very, very bad price.

So I think if the president were to level with the American people and admit his errors, it would be helpful. I don‘t anticipate that he would do so.

MATTHEWS: Well, what you just said has a plurality of the American people supporting you, although less than a majority. More Americans believe this war in Iraq is not worth it than believe that it has been worth it.

MATTHEWS: Why does that not seem to come across—if it is the larger opinion, the one you‘ve expressed, than the president‘s, why doesn‘t that seem to run through the American mind set?

BOXER: Well, I think the American people, if you look at the polls, are very disgruntled with this president‘s policies in Iraq. A majority do not support him.

But here‘s the real problem, Chris.

The worst kind of leadership is the leadership that gets you in a position where you have no good choices, and that‘s where we are. We all know that. We have no good choices and it‘s a result of this policy.

And, you know, that awful, awful situation where the newsman, Bob Woodruff was severely injured, to me it represents what is wrong with this president.

He keeps chiding the major news networks to tell the good news, he‘s kind of blaming the news media for not telling the good news. And there was Mr. Woodruff trying to report a story about the good news, standing in a vehicle run by the Iraqis and look what happened to him.

The truth is it is way less safe over there. I was there last March.

It was a horror story then; it is worse now.

MATTHEWS: OK. Thank you very much. Senator Barbara Boxer, senator from California.

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