FOX News "FOX News Sunday" - Transcript

Interview

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WALLACE: Now we turn to the Democrats and their effort to hold onto the House despite all the predictions that it's a lost cause. Joining us from Washington, Congressman Chris Van Hollen, head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Congressman, welcome back to "Fox News Sunday."

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, D-MD.: It's good to be with you, Chris.

WALLACE: As I said, all the independent experts now say, quite frankly, that you, Democrats, are going to lose the House. Let's put them up on the screen.

The Cook Political Report predicts a Democratic net loss of 48 to 60 seats, with 39 turning over control to Republicans. The Rothenberg

Political Report predicts a loss of 55 to 65 seats, with the possibility of even higher losses, 70.

Isn't holding the House a lost cause?

VAN HOLLEN: No, it's not a lost cause. And the one thing the

American people don't like is Washington pundits telling them in advance what they're going to do.

I think all these Washington pundits are going to be surprised, just like many of them were surprised very recently in a special election that we had in Pennsylvania, where everybody predicted the Republican win. Didn't happen.

We're seeing strong early votes, Chris, for Democrats, which means that this idea that the Democrats are not energized is just not true.

And then you've got large pools of undecided voters, voters that

Republicans and other pundits had predicted would already have decided to vote against the Democratic incumbents, when, in fact, what they're now doing is taking a very close look at these Republican candidates, recognizing that they're way off on the right extreme.

Many of them are these candidates that have been recruited and blessed by Sarah Palin. And they're saying, "We don't want someone way off on the right. We don't want to go back to the days when special interests..."

WALLACE: Congressman?

VAN HOLLEN: "... ran Washington." Yeah?

WALLACE: Are you willing to predict -- are you willing to say right now, two days before, Democrats are going to hold onto the House?

VAN HOLLEN: Yes. I believe Democrats are going to hold onto the

House, for the reasons I said. And the early vote indicates that, as well as the fact that these undecided voters that all the pundits have predicted are going to break two to one for Republicans -- it's not happening, because they are doing what voters should do, which is finally taking a very close look at where these Republican candidates stand on issues, and they don't like what they see.

WALLACE: But, Congressman, I've got to tell you that an awful lot of the polls indicate exactly the opposite, that a lot of the voting groups are breaking away from you. Let's put a couple up on the screen that were key pillars to the Obama base.

In 2008, women supported Obama over McCain by 13 points. Now, according to a New York Times poll, they favor Republicans by four. That's a swing of 17 points.

In 2008, independents preferred Obama by eight points. Now they favor Republicans by 15. That's a swing of 23 points.

VAN HOLLEN: Chris, the major difference between now and 1994, which is what a lot of pundits want to compare this to, is that voters -- when they're asked whether the Republicans represent a viable governing alternative, they say no.

And it's pretty clear why they say no, because they've lived under that Republican alternative for eight years, and they don't want to return to a set of policies that got this country into a total mess, and they don't want to go back to the days when big money special interests ran the show in Washington, and...

WALLACE: But how do you explain -- how do you explain that women, who were voting for the Democrats two years ago, are now voting against them? And independents -- as I say, a swing of 23 points.

VAN HOLLEN: Well, Chris, look.

WALLACE: How do you explain that, sir?

VAN HOLLEN: Look. We're going to know the answer to this question two days from now. Why don't we let the American people answer that question? Because the data you're showing is all national data. We're running in specific battleground congressional districts.

And in those congressional districts, we're seeing early vote returns that show that Democrats are energized. We're seeing large numbers of undecided voters that all these pundits predicted would have already decided to vote against Democratic incumbents taking a much closer look, and they don't like what they see, because they don't want to go back to the days when these big money special interests ran the show in Washington.

And these tens of millions of dollars that are flooding in from these interest groups that have had their power reined in over the past

22 months just reinforces the point that we've been making, which is why go back to the days when Wall Street ran the show, a lot of big oil companies...

WALLACE: But...

VAN HOLLEN: ... had their way, and that -- but that's the kind of thing that's...

WALLACE: But...

VAN HOLLEN: ... happening right now.

WALLACE: But, Congressman Van Hollen, let's talk about money. If you add up everything that has been spent by all of the outside committees, all the party committees, according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, Democrats beat Republicans $856 million to $677 million. Democrats have not been out-spent in this election cycle.

And I want to put up another graphic, if I may. If you look at the biggest spenders in this election cycle, it's AFSCME, the public employees union, that has spent the most, $87.5 million. The Chamber of

Commerce is second at $75 million. American Crossroads, a conservative group, $65 million. And then two other unions, the Service Employees, $44 million; the National Education Association, $40 million.

You're exactly right, there's a lot of special interest money that's being spent in this campaign, Congressman Van Hollen, but a lot is being spent for Democrats.

VAN HOLLEN: The issue, Chris, is the secret money. I mean, the issue is the folks who apparently are so embarrassed or don't want voters to know that they're putting money into these races that they seek to hide it.

And the important thing, I think, for the American voters is, whether their group's on the left, the center or the right, that they should be required to disclose to the voter who's paying for it.

Unfortunately, every Republican except Mike Castle in the Congress denied voters that opportunity to find out who's behind them. Look,

AFSCME isn't trying to pretend that they're someone else. They're not hiding under some front group...

WALLACE: But one -- wait a minute.

VAN HOLLEN: ... and being secretly funded...

WALLACE: One -- if I may, Congressman...

VAN HOLLEN: Yeah.

WALLACE: ... one, they're a special interest just as much as the Chamber of Commerce is. A union is a special interest.

And two, the fact is that in your Disclose Act, you were going to set a limit of $600. But the average annual dues of all these unions is $377. So none of their annual dues would have had to go in and be disclosed under your legislation.

VAN HOLLEN: Actually, Chris, there was a slightly different threshold. But the idea was that -- look.

WALLACE: It was over the annual dues, sir.

VAN HOLLEN: Chris, if you want -- if you want every union member to disclose the $300 that they're contributing to the union, I think that's fine.

The big issue here, and I think most voters would agree, is not the

-- a working person who's contributing 300 bucks. It's the people who are spending millions of dollars of secret money.

There's no doubt that AFSCME has an agenda. Look, you've got policemen. You've got firefighters. You've got other public employees. And they want to represent their rights.

Let's look at who's on the other side of the equation. You've got a lot of big Wall Street firms...

WALLACE: Business men, the people who hire...

VAN HOLLEN: Chris...

WALLACE: ... I mean, they -- you know, I mean, you can -- you can spin this any way you want, but...

VAN HOLLEN: Right.

WALLACE: ... a lot of people would say that big business, the people that drive the economic engine of this country, are not villains and certainly are at least as virtuous as the people who work in unions.

VAN HOLLEN: Of course they're not villains. But look, the big...

WALLACE: Well, a lot of people would say the Democrats are painting them as villains, sir.

VAN HOLLEN: That's not true. But multinational corporations -- when we eliminated the subsidies, the subsidies that taxpayers pay that actually reward multinational corporations that ship jobs overseas, they didn't -- they didn't like that. They didn't like having that power reined in.

The oil companies don't like being held accountable. And you know

Joe Barton, who would be the Republican chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, apologized to B.P. when the president wanted to hold them accountable.

And then you've got -- you've got banks that used to get a big cut out of the...

WALLACE: Congressman...

VAN HOLLEN: ... college student loan program...

WALLACE: ... Van Hollen, I don't...

VAN HOLLEN: Well, look...

WALLACE: ... I don't -- I don't mean to interrupt you, but I do have only a minute left and I want to ask one more question.

You're acting as if everything is great. I mean, everybody seems to think -- and maybe we're all wrong -- that this is going to be a good night for Republicans and a bad night for Democrats. Do you not see any message from voters of a dissatisfaction with what the president and you Democrats in control of Congress have done the last two years?

VAN HOLLEN: Chris, I'm not -- I'm not acting as if everything is great. What I'm saying is we know the economy remains pretty slow in terms of the recovery.

But we also know that voters don't want to return to the policies that got us into this mess. The night before the president was sworn in, we were losing 700,000 jobs every month in this country.

So while why we haven't seen the kick-in in the recovery to the extent we want, I don't think voters want to go back to the old policies, especially those that empowered these special interests.

And these special interests have had their power reined in over the past 22 months, and they're fighting back. And you can -- and that -- and that's what's happening.

So that's why I think you see this large pool of undecided voters.

The economy...

WALLACE: Congressman Van Hollen?

VAN HOLLEN: Yes?

WALLACE: Excuse me. I mean, we're just out of time. But I -- listen, I want to thank you so much for coming on and answering our questions. And let me just say -- I'll say it right now -- if you're right, a lot of the so-called experts are going to have plenty of egg on their faces Wednesday morning.

VAN HOLLEN: You're right about that, and they've been proven wrong many times before, as you know, Chris.

WALLACE: Absolutely. We'll know what to eat for breakfast. Thank

you very much.

VAN HOLLEN: Thank you.

WALLACE: And good to talk to you, as always, Congressman.

VAN HOLLEN: Likewise.

WALLACE: Coming up, our Sunday regulars have made the big trip to

New York. Do they see a GOP sweep? And how are the next two years going to be different? We'll get some answers when we come right back.

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