CBS "Face the Nation"-Transcript

Interview

CBS "Face the Nation"-Transcript

MR. SCHIEFFER: Today on "Face the Nation," from historic Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, a campaign interview with John and Elizabeth Edwards.

He's behind frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in most polls, but John Edwards insists he is the right Democrat to lead America. And he's campaigning all over the country with his wife, Elizabeth, who revealed this spring that she has incurable cancer. Why is he running? What would he do about Iraq? And what is she hearing from voters about her situation? All questions and more for the Edwards.

I'll have a final word on going back to New Hampshire, the primary that never disappoints. But first, John and Elizabeth Edwards on "Face the Nation."

(Announcements.)

MR. SCHIEFFER: And good morning, again. We are here with Senator and Mrs. Edwards together. She is playing a major role in this campaign.

Mrs. Edwards, your book is now out in paperback. You have added a new chapter detailing how you found out that your cancer had come back, and that it was here to stay, just as John Edwards was starting in this campaign. So I have to ask you at the beginning, how are you feeling, and how is your health these days?

MRS. EDWARDS: Actually, I feel great. I still have no symptoms, which is a very good sign. My protocol is easy to work around a campaign schedule. And the medications I take don't tire me. Honestly, if you didn't know I had cancer, you wouldn't know I had cancer.

MR. EDWARDS: She seems to feel great. She's energetic and out there campaigning and speaking her mind, so I'm proud of her.

MR. SCHIEFFER: Well, that's for sure, and we want to talk to you about that and the role you're playing in this campaign in just a bit. But first, I want to talk to Senator Edwards about some of the most current things that are happening. Iraq and terrorism continue to hang over this campaign and over American life. And last week, Senator Clinton said that -- she raised the possibility of a terrorist attack and said should that happen, it would give the Republicans an advantage, and she said she would be the best person, if that happened, to be in charge of that situation as it were. You came down pretty hard on her. You said she was making a political calculation about terrorism. Why did you say that, Senator?

MR. EDWARDS: Well, I think there are a couple of things that we just disagree about with all respect to Senator Clinton who is a great candidate for president. First is I don't agree that the Republicans would have an advantage. I would never see that. I think we are -- this is another issue that we disagree about. I think we are less safe, not more safe. We have fewer allies and, according to Bush's own State Department, there are more terrorists in the world. So I think we are not safer than we were when George Bush took office or just prior to September 11.

And the second issue is I think when you're talking about something as serious as an attack on the United States of America, particularly if you are a presidential candidate or a president, the focus should not be on politics and on votes. The focus should be on what's going to have to be done to unite Americans and keep the American people safe. So that's what I was talking about.

MR. SCHIEFFER: In the news this morning, Prime Minister Maliki said this morning that Democrats in the United States who have been calling for his resignation, he said they are treating Iraq as if it were somehow one of America's villages, as he put it. And he said it is time to start talking about Iraq with more respect. Any thoughts on that?

MR. EDWARDS: Yeah, I think that Maliki should quit worrying about Democrats and the presidential campaign in America and start worrying about what he needs to do in his own country. I mean, everyone knows that at the end of the day, as the Iraq Study Group has said and most of us have said at this point, there can be no military solution in Iraq. There has to be a political solution. There has to be some compromise between Maliki and the Shi'a-led government and the Sunni leadership, otherwise there will never be stability and security in Iraq. And Maliki, who has been, clearly, a weak leader, needs to be focused on that job.

MR. SCHIEFFER: Do you think he ought to step aside?

MR. EDWARDS: I think that's something for them to decide, not for us to decide. But at the end of the day, the real test is are they moving toward a political compromise, because there cannot be stability in Iraq without it.

MR. SCHIEFFER: Do you think they are?

MR. EDWARDS: No. If there's any difference, I can't see it. And I know that Petraeus is going to come forth with his report in September. And I think that, at least from my perspective, the test in that report should not just be what's happening with the military and what's happening with the situation with violence on the ground. The question is, during this surge, has there been any change in the political situation? And how long are we going to be willing to keep troops on the ground at this level if there's no serious movement toward a political compromise? I think that should be the test for this report that's coming.

MR. SCHIEFFER: Well, when the Senate and the House come back into session at the end of the summer here, the first thing they're going to have to deal with is what to do about Iraq, funding the war. You're seeing even some Democrats, like Senator Clinton -- to go back to Senator Clinton -- saying it looks like that maybe this surge is working in the sense that there is less violence there. What do you think the Senate should do here, Senator? I know you have said that you'd like to immediately draw down about 40,000 troops there --

MR. EDWARDS: Sure.

MR. SCHIEFFER: -- and then work from there and eventually get all of them out. Do you think that's in any way a possibility? Or is the president going to be able to ride this out?

MR. EDWARDS: Well, I think there's actually a mandate from America, regardless of what I think. I think America said very clearly in the November 2006 election that they wanted a very different course in Iraq. And I think the Congress has a responsibility under that mandate, and I think they should stand their ground. I think they should not submit a single funding bill to the president for the war that doesn't have a timetable for withdrawal. And I think they should use whatever legislative tool is available to them, including filibuster.

MR. SCHIEFFER: Including a filibuster?

MR. EDWARDS: Including a filibuster to do everything -- this is not politics. This is about life and death.

We have men and women dying in Iraq, and they're dying, in part, because of what we talked about a few minutes ago.

MR. SCHIEFFER: Well, you know, Senator Warner, perhaps the most influential and respected voice on national security on the Republican side, said last week that it is time to start bringing home at least -- he said pick a number -- but at least 5,000. He says no timetable. He doesn't think that's wise to set a timetable, but he did say it's time to start the withdrawal. What about that? You think they should go beyond that.

MR. EDWARDS: I think we should go beyond that, but I'm glad to see that Senator Warner, having just apparently come back from Iraq, is saying what most of America has said, which is the real test here is we have to shift the responsibility to the Iraqis. They have got to feel the heat, and they've got to start moving on political compromise. It's that simple. And the frictional question is, how do you shift that responsibility? How do you intensify pressure on them? And we can't do that until we start taking troops out of Iraq, which I think is exactly what Senator Warner's saying. I'd go far beyond what he suggests, but the truth of the matter is we have to start taking troops out of Iraq.

MR. SCHIEFFER: In February, you were on "Face the Nation," and I asked you what would happen if the administration took your advice, did exactly what you say we ought to do, what did you think would happen. And you said, "I don't know." And I remember asking you at the time, can you run for president and say you don't know what would happen if the administration does what you say that it should do?

MR. EDWARDS: I don't think anybody who suggests to America -- and America has been misled and misled about this war, and they're sick of it. They want the truth. The truth is there are no good choices, and no one can predict with any kind of accuracy exactly what's going to happen in Iraq. So if I were president of the United States today, I would do what you suggested earlier, but I would also be very open and forthright with the American people that we cannot predict what's going to happen. We're going to maximize the chances of success. We're going to do this in an orderly and responsible way. But there's no way to know with certainty what will happen.

MR. SCHIEFFER: Well, even if it meant some sort of a regional conflict that broke out that brought other people in the Middle East into it, you say we have to take that risk to get our people out of there?

MR. EDWARDS: I think we actually maximize the chances for success by starting to draw down troops in Iraq. I think what it does is it shifts the responsibility to them, and there's at least some opportunity for them to reach some compromise. I think we should, in combination with doing that, we should engage the Iranians and the Syrians who have a clear interest in a stable Iraq, particularly if America's no longer occupying Iraq. We do have to, I believe, Bob, prepare for the other possibilities. I mean, I would maintain a presence in the region. We have an obvious interest in the region. We probably need to beef up our presence in Afghanistan. We need a Naval presence in the Persian Gulf. We probably need a rapid- deployment force in Kuwait and maybe should station some troops in Jordan if we could get staging authority from the Jordanian government.

MR. SCHIEFFER: All right. We'll come back and talk about this some more and Elizabeth Edwards' role in this campaign when we come back in one minute.

(Announcements.)

MR. SCHIEFFER: And we're back with John and Elizabeth Edwards.

Mrs. Edwards, I want to talk to you a little bit about the role that seems to be developing for you in this campaign, and it is most unusual. Some people are calling you the attacker in chief, others say that we've never had a candidate's wife who's been put in charge of the tough stuff. Usually they are brought into the campaign to talk about the softer side. But yet, you've called Senator Obama "holier than thou." You have said Senator Clinton is not doing a good job on presenting health care. When someone asked why Senator Obama and Senator Clinton were getting so much publicity, you said look, John is not black, and he is not a woman, and there's nothing we can do about that. Do you feel, as a woman, that you can say things in the campaign that perhaps Senator Edwards cannot say?

MRS. EDWARDS: None of this is calculated in any way. I have always been really forthright. I think if I have any value in the campaign, everyone knows I support my husband. He's great.

MR. EDWARDS: Shocking news. (Laughs.)

MRS. EDWARDS: But my value is that people trust me. They trust me to say what's on my mind and to be direct. I answer questions. I answer questions about why it is John uses the Internet so heavily. I think it's partly because the mainstream media is enthralled with the obviously interesting story between a man of African-American heritage and a woman candidate. So that's an interesting story. If he wants to get his policies across, he needs to find someplace other than mainstream media, today excepted, to get that message across. And it wasn't meant in any way to derogatory, even of the press.

MR. SCHIEFFER: Well, do you think in some way that the whole dynamic of this campaign has changed? Because we do have a woman who is leading in the polls now, Senator Clinton. Has that changed the way you campaign?

MRS. EDWARDS: I don't think it does. First of all, I think you have to campaign with blinders on in a certain respect. My purpose, I think, is to talk about John's policies. He gives me an incredible buffet from which to speak. You know, the first person on health care. The person on environmental. The only person with a world policy. You know, a really aggressive position with respect to Iraq. I've got a lot of things I can talk about out there. And honestly, except when asked, I don't reference the differences between John's vote on dedicated funding for Iraq and Senator Obama's, or John's health care program and Senator Clinton's. I don't volunteer these. But when asked, I think I should --

MR. SCHIEFFER: Well, I remember one time that Ann Coulter, the Republican activist and author, was tearing his hide off on the Chris Matthews show. And you just picked up the phone and called and said hey.

MRS. EDWARDS: Well that has to do with, I think -- I mean, as a mother, honestly, for some time, I've been pretty disturbed about this trend in the political dialogue. If we're arguing about policy and I'm saying somebody's health care policy doesn't do this and John's does do what's missing, that's different than name-calling. And that denigrates the whole process, turns people off so you have less people voting. And it's really important to get those people engaged. This is the wrong way for us to go.

MR. SCHIEFFER: Let me talk to both of you about, if you should become president, what you envision the role of the first lady to be. I remember when Senator Clinton decided to run for the Senate. I think she had a news conference, and she said someplace, 'I'm going to have to put my first lady duties aside now, because I'm going to go run for the Senate.' Well, anybody who looks at the Constitution knows that the first lady has no duties assigned. It isn't an elected office in any way. What role would Elizabeth play in your administration if you were elected, Senator?

MR. EDWARDS: Well, she's the person I trust most in the world so, I mean, we talk about everything. We talk about everything personal to us, our family, our responsibilities to our kids, and we talk about my views and her views on national policy. On most things, we agree. On some things, we don't agree.

MR. SCHIEFFER: Gay marriage, for example.

MR. EDWARDS: That is an example. But I care what she says, and I want to hear what she says. So she would be somebody that I would talk to.

MR. EDWARDS: But would you put her in charge of something? I remember when Bill Clinton was campaigning, he talked about two-for- one. I have also known, over years of covering Capitol Hill, members of Congress who have made their wives chiefs of staff.

In my mind, it never worked, because you're putting somebody in a position that you can't fire. Would she ever be in charge of a program? Or would she be in charge of initiatives? Would you want to?

MR. EDWARDS: I'll let her speak to that. Let me say one thing about it before she does. I think that the way we do things and the way we interact is so natural that I would not want to change that. I think titles and specific charges is not the way that we do things together. And I think because of that, it doesn't make sense. Now, there may be things that she has particular interest in, and I'll let her speak for herself on that. But I think what she has done during the course of the campaign -- being honest, being forthright, being strong -- I personally respect, and I applaud her for it. And she will continue to do that as she has the entire 30 years that we've been married, and I expect her to continue it.

MR. SCHIEFFER: Well, I mean, for example, if I were covering the White House and you did something as president, what if I called up Elizabeth Edwards and said what's going on here, would she be speaking out? Would she be answering questions from the press? What about that?

MRS. EDWARDS: No. I mean, I presently respect the way things are done. And John has people who speak for him, and I'm really supposed to be just a mirror for people to see him. And what I have to say about it, honestly, is not very important. People will be voting for John to the extent to which I can shed a light on who he is, the person that's great. I never practiced law with him, partly for some of the reasons that you mentioned. But it doesn't mean that he didn't talk to me about his cases. He always did. I think that the first lady gets a megaphone. She doesn't get a job, she gets a megaphone to talk about the things she cares about. I care about veterans issues. My dad is a veteran. Military families -- I was raised in one. I care about after-school programs. We've started one. I care a great deal about what happens with respect to breast cancer treatment and research. I mean, I have a lot, and that doesn't even mention a seven-year-old and a nine-year-old at home.

MR. SCHIEFFER: But you're not campaigning for a Cabinet office.

MRS. EDWARDS: I will not accept. (Laughs.)

MR. SCHIEFFER: All right. We'll take a break here. We'll come back and talk about life on the campaign trail.

(Announcements.)

MR. SCHIEFFER: And we're back now with Elizabeth and John Edwards. Very quickly, we were talking during the break about how you find out about some of the differences you have. And you said that you found out her position on gay marriage when you read it in the paper.

MR. EDWARDS: Actually, that's not exactly right. One of my staff told me that she had just said it in San Francisco. But Elizabeth reminds me she's probably said it in front of me, I just wasn't listening. (Laughs.)

MR. SCHIEFFER: This happens in marriage. (Laughter and cross talk.)

Your book is absolutely wonderful.

MRS. EDWARDS: Thank you.

MR. SCHIEFFER: And it's a loving love story, beautifully told, it seems to me. You all had your 30th wedding anniversary. I continue to go back to this business of finding out that you had cancer. Do you have any regrets about deciding to just go ahead and live your life as you've done on this campaign?

MRS. EDWARDS: You don't get to do it both ways, but choosing to fight for things that we've fought for for a very long time is enormously important to me. It allows me and John, obviously, to focus on something other than my condition. We get to focus on the fact that other people need health care. And we each have stories that we learn along the road that make us realize that in fact despite this diagnosis we're actually very lucky. Because we see people who have diagnoses as terrible as these, but they have no health care. So those people drive us every day and make us glad that we're fighting the fight. I mean, I don't think anybody else has a truly universal health care plan. They're going to leave some men and some women out. And if they have my condition, it's heartbreaking to think that they don't get the answers to the problems they face in their lives.

MR. SCHIEFFER: I'm told that you are preparing some sort of guide for your children. Can you talk about that?

MRS. EDWARDS: I wrote that in the 1980s after "Terms of Endearment" came out. I wrote a letter to my children. I thought it was a very good idea in case you had a sudden death that you would tell your children things you felt were important you might not yet have told them. My older children -- we've had children in the '70s, '80s, '90s and zeroes -- and my '70s and '80s children were very young when I wrote this letter. I haven't changed it, honestly, since I first wrote it. It talks about religion and the kind of person you marry. I hope they all marry someone as wonderful as John has been to me. Just things that you might have wished on your deathbed that you had a chance to say.

MR. SCHIEFFER: In your book, you write about when you found out about this, and you announced your plans. Some people said to both of you you're in denial about cancer. You said you're not. Would you talk a little about that?

MRS. EDWARDS: I think John said this in the press conference that we're not in denial. We understand that seriousness of this diagnosis. We understand that this disease will probably kill me one day. We're cheering on all the researchers out there, hoping all their NIH grants get funded. And I have to stay alive long enough for that to happen. But just because you accept that you've got the disease doesn't mean that you have to accept the end of your life yet. You need to keep fighting, as John has decided to do and I have decided to do, for the things that are important to you, for the people who matter to you.

MR. EDWARDS: Bob, I would do anything for Elizabeth, just to be clear about this. And I said that to her in that long day in the hospital room where we got the bad news. But both of us believe that what we're doing is important. And this is the cause of our lives, and that's why we're continuing.

MR. SCHIEFFER: Well, I want to thank both of you for being with us this morning. And I wish you the very, very best.

MRS. EDWARDS: Thank you, Bob.

MR. SCHIEFFER: Back with a final word in just a minute.

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