MSNBC Scarborough Country - Transcript

MSNBC Scarborough Country - Transcript

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SCARBOROUGH: And be so unpopular. David Gregory, NBC's chief White House correspondent. Thank you so much for being with us and coming back, to give us an update on this breaking news. Let's go now to U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer.

Senator Boxer, what do you make of this breaking news? Do you think we're moving in the right direction to possibly cause a delay that will give you enough time to figure out what's behind this port deal?

SEN. BARBARA BOXER (D), CALIFORNIA: Well, I look at it this way, I think delay is the first step toward cancellation. And nothing short of that, you know, would be the right thing for this country. This is the kind of situation, Joe, where—first—because you know about this, since you've been in elected life. First you have a gut check and then you come in and you do the work and you put your brain to work and this is the kind of deal where it feels bad in your gut, and the more you look, the more upsetting it gets and if you listen carefully to David's words, I wrote them down, you're very good reporter there, he said that they may be delaying "parts" of the takeover for a "period of time." You know, we have to think about what that means, delaying parts of the takeover. Is this a way to get their foot in the door? So here's the thing, and since I talked to you last—first I want to thank you so much for, you know, airing this issue and when you asked me it was Tuesday night on your show what I thought people could do, I said please, please flood the White House, please let them know how you feel. Look I think they know how the people feel, this is not a partisan issue. This is an issue where we have to decide if our security comes first and I think the American people are there. We believe our security should come first. And the more you look at this deal, the more you realize that it was about business coming first and security not coming first.

SCARBOROUGH: You know, Senator, explain something to me. I've been critical for some time of democrats in Washington being disconnected with Middle America. A lot of presidential candidates, obviously, for the Democratic Party have had a hard time connecting with Middle America. George Bush hasn't. I mean, he walks the walk, he talks the talk, and yet on an issue like this, he's been so tone deaf and he's been marching out on the lawn of the White House basically saying "hell no, I'm not backing down." What is the president missing here?

BOXER: This thing is bizarre, because remember how defiant the president was when he came out and said "I'm going to do everything I can to make sure this bill goes forward and I'm going to veto" which he's never done before, a piece of legislation overturning this deal. And then we find out he didn't even know about it. So you need to ask yourself a question, if he didn't know about it, why is he so engaged in this thing? It seems to me he has a lot of involvement here and I welcome the time to take a look at it. And, look, I'm the last person to believe that, you know, there are conspiracy theories, but I have to say this, if you start piecing this thing together, Joe, and you see that the United Arab Emirates has a big connection with the Carlisle Group, where George Bush's dad was involved, they just invested something like—billions—I think it was $8 billion into the Carlisle Group. If you look at John Snow, the secretary of treasury's connections with the same company, he was the head of CSX for a long time, and this same company, the United Arab Emirates Company spent a billion dollars buying out CSX's container business, you look at Neil Bush, the president's brother who got funding from the UAE for his software company, this thing starts to look to me very bad and so I think we do need time.

SCARBOROUGH: All right, Senator Barbara Boxer, and I agree with you. On something this important, I think the fact that the president is saying no to a 45-day delay to investigate this causes serious problems. Senator, thank you so much for coming on after this news broke just about 15 minutes ago. We really do appreciate it and we hope to talk to you next week as this story continues to progress.

Let's bring back in our all-star panel right now. Pat Buchanan, I think this deal is dead. What do you think?

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