CBS "Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer" - Transcript

Interview

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BOB SCHIEFFER: Now to get the other side of the story on Mitt Romney's visit to Israel, the Democratic Party Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, congresswoman from Florida. Congresswoman, it appears that while he did not disagree with what his adviser Dan Senor said about "We would respect Israel's right to attack Iran," he did seem to be kind of walking back from that without really walking back from it.

RPRESENTATIVE DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (Democratic National Committee Chair/D-Florida): Well, I-- I think that's emblematic of-- and revealing of how Mitt Romney's entire trip overseas has gone so far. I think he's demonstrated pretty repeatedly since he's been out of the country that he lacks the experience, he lacks the preparation, and-- and the diplomatic skills to be able to be the commander in chief, to be able to be the President of the United States. Starting out in England, in Great Britain, where he insults on the eve of a significant event for our-- one of our strongest allies, makes a huge intelligence gaffe by revealing the-- the existence and saying out loud the existence of their-- their biggest intelligence agency appearing not to know the name of the opposition leader. And now in Israel, suggesting from his campaign staff that-- that we would just go to war and-- and back and you know, back a decision to go to war. And now appearing to roll back that back. Bottom line is President Obama has said that it is a top priority of the United States of America to ensure that Iran never achieves a nuclear-- its nuclear ambition, and that all options are on the table. And, in fact, that includes all options, a-- a military option being one of those. Contingency plans exist for those military-- those military options, and, you know, if Mitt Romney believes that it's time to go to war to-- to-- to address Iran's quest to achieve the nuclear ambition, then he should say it. In fact, if Mitt Romney has any foreign policy positions at all, which he has seemed to not indicate he has, then he should say them. You know, that's the very least that the American voters can expect is that when you're running for President that you outline what you would do and what you would do differently from this--from the President of the United States.

BOB SCHIEFFER: You know I'm going to ask you about-- about this new edition of Newsweek. They have on the cover Mitt Romney is-- is "The wimp factor." Now this is reminiscent of sort of an infamous Newsweek cover back when the first George Bush was running for-- running and it said-- they put out a cover that said, "Fighting the wimp factor." Is Mitt Romney a wimp?

REPRESENTATIVE DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Well, I think Mitt Romney has demonstrated repeatedly he has a penchant for-- for secrecy, doesn't seem to have any interest in actually showing the American people his-- his finances, decision-- important decisions about his investments, refuses to come clean on his time at Bain Capital and when he was really there, and, you know, be held accountable for the outsourcing of jobs and the off-shoring of jobs and shipping jobs overseas. When he was governor of Massachusetts, was willing to put a call center in India, of all pa-- places, rather than the United States, you know, has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to be all over the map. You know the most recent example is-- is-- is not being at all clear about where he is when it comes to our-- our policy as it-- as it relates to making sure that Iran never achieves its nuclear ambitions. So I-- I think he has left quite a bit of doubt about his level of preparation and readiness to the President.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Now I can't let you off the hook without asking you about some pretty dismal economic figures that came out Friday, our economy is really just limping along. It is President Obama's policy. He's been there for a long time now. So with the election just a hundred days away now, Congresswoman, is the President running out of time here in terms of turning this economy around?

REPRESENTATIVE DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Well, we have made progress from where we were when President Obama took office, when the economy--our economy had just contracted almost by nine percent. Now we've begun to turn things around and had our twelfth straight quarter of growth. We have a long way to go. We need to make sure and that we can continue to move forward in creating jobs and getting the economy turned around. The best way to do that is-- is to make sure that we can get Congress to adopt the American Jobs Act that the President's proposed, which would ensure that we can create a million jobs right now, that we can take the bill that the Senate just passed last week, to extend the middle-class tax breaks. That ball is in Speaker-- Republican Speaker John Boehner's court. If we make sure that we can provide certainty the middle class-- to the middle class, extend those middle-class tax breaks right now, adopt the President's jobs act then we will continue to make the pro-- kind of progress that we need to make.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Congresswoman, always nice to have you.

REPRESENTATIVE DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Thank you.

BOB SCHIEFFER: Thank you.

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