CNN "Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees" - Transcript

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

I spoke to Senator McCain earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Senator McCain, a source told us with Ambassador Stevens' thinking told us that in the months before his death, he talked about being worried about the never-ending security threats that he was facing in Benghazi and specifically about the rise in Islamic extremism and the growing al Qaeda presence and he also mentioned being on an al Qaeda hit list.

In June, he wrote in an e-mail to a journalist -- and I quote -- "Maybe you should head east to Benghazi to check out the situation there which appears to be heating up."

Given all of that, given what we are now learning about concerns that he had, does it make any sense to you the level of or the small level of security he apparently had with him?

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: It doesn't make any sense.

And I will tell you what else doesn't make any sense, is the White House spokesman, the secretary of state and ambassador to the U.N. stating categorically that it was not a terrorist attack, when obviously it had all of the earmarks of a terrorist attack, including rocket-propelled grenades and heavy weapons and a very well-carried- out military operation.

So why they want to tell the American people that and face the facts, I don't know. There are also other reports that there had been other threats made and there's also reports that there's basically an al Qaeda extremist outfit militia right there in Benghazi.

COOPER: Fran Townsend, who worked in the Bush administration, told us she was visiting Libya recently, about a month or so before this attack, actually met with Ambassador Stevens at a hotel in Tripoli, and though he arrived in an armored vehicle with a driver, when he entered the hotel, he had no security with him at all. And that surprised her at the time. I mean, it seems -- I have never seen an ambassador in a war zone and in a place like Libya with threats who doesn't have a larger entourage of security. Is this an intelligence failure? What do you attribute this to?

MCCAIN: I attribute it partially to the courage of Chris Stevens, who was a very brave man.

As you know, he lived in a hotel in Benghazi during the fighting. But also I think it's pretty clear that the security people should have given him more security, particularly in Benghazi. As you know, that country is divided very badly. There is significant competition and there's far more Islamic influence in that part of Libya than in Tripoli.

COOPER: Previously, as you mentioned, people from the Obama administration said they felt this wasn't a planned attack, that it was kind of an offshoot of this video. But the director of the National Counterterrorism Center said at a hearing today that the attack in Benghazi was in fact -- and I quote -- "a terrorist attack."

He didn't specify it was preplanned or not. But it definitely goes far beyond what we have heard before. How significant do you think that is?

MCCAIN: I think it's significant that the president's spokesperson, secretary of state and ambassador to the United Nations would go on all of our networks and tell people things that are absolutely false and by the way fly in the face of the facts.

I think maybe the American people are owed an apology. But the most important thing is that we have to understand that this video was not the cause of it. The cause of it was Islamists who use these videos in order to inflame these people, in order to attack America.

I mean, Anderson, I'm confident right now, there are people making videos, just as a French cartoonist just made some cartoons, and they're making videos right now. We should be standing up for freedom of speech and that we will defend people's right to speak out and express their views rather than condemn "hateful videos" which are the vehicle, not the cause. The cause is radical Islamists.

COOPER: Do you think there needs to be some sort of investigation about what happened, about the security situation at the consulate in Benghazi and perhaps even elsewhere?

MCCAIN: There has to be. There has to be.

But I also want to emphasize, one, that Libya is very weak as you know. Their borders are porous, and there are some radical Islamist elements throughout the country. But, still, it is the obligation of the host country to protect our consulates, our embassies and our personnel, and it's partially ours, but we have to depend on the host country.

And we have to then sort out and rethink what presence we're going to have and what relationship we are going to have with these countries.

COOPER: You were campaigning for Governor Romney in New Hampshire on Monday. Now, according to reports, you really hit President Obama hard for everything from economic policy to the recent attacks in Libya, and according to some reports, you said you don't believe the president has the "strength or ability to lead this nation."

You said recent events have shown how weak he is. Are you in any way saying that President Obama is responsible for the attacks in Benghazi?

MCCAIN: No, but I'm saying that he's responsible for our failure in Afghanistan and our failure in Iraq. We left Iraq and it's now disintegrating, al Qaeda is coming back.

We didn't leave a residual force, which we should have. In Afghanistan, he overruled his military advisers on several occasions, including 30,000 instead of 40,000 for the surge, accelerating withdrawal dates. And now we have this situation where the Taliban and our enemies know that we are leaving, and the whole premise was to train Afghans in order that we could turn over these responsibilities to them, and leave.

Now how can we train and work with these people if so many them are killing Americans that we can't even train and operate with them? That policy has been an abject failure.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Governor Romney, obviously, have you seen the secret tape that was made of him talking to donors. What do you make of it? His critics say, look, he is dismissing a wide swath of voters, 47 percent of the country, many of whom people -- elderly, veterans, who might actually vote for Mitt Romney, and he's saying -- it sounds like he's discounting them.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Well, first of all, I didn't see all of his remarks in its entirety, but certainly you -- you assume and know that Mitt Romney is not -- not interested in receiving the support and votes of any American, and he is seeking them actively, and he wants the vote of every American.

I think what his concern is, and it's the concern of a lot of us, is the rise, because of the economy, of Americans who have to rely on subsistence to basically stay alive and live decent lives. So it is the Obama economic policies that have caused this problem, and he wants to go to having business create jobs, rather than government -- government subsistence and government creating jobs.

COOPER: Do you agree with Governor Romney when he said that 47 percent of the people view themselves as victims, that they don't take -- want to take responsibility for their lives?

MCCAIN: I don't think that's what he meant any more than -- than Barack Obama meant when he said that people cling to guns and bibles. There's things that people say of millions of statements every day. I don't if you remember when I said the fundamentals of our economy are strong, even though we're in a fiscal crisis. Oh, my God!

So I am confident that Mitt Romney cares about every American and is obviously concerned about the growth of the welfare state. Many of us are.

COOPER: How concerned are you about the Romney campaign? Peggy Noonan recently made a comment that's getting a lot of attention. And she said that -- a withering critique of Romney's campaign, really, his entire candidacy. I know you don't like being second guessed when you were a candidate. But she called Romney too fatalistic, called on him to be more like Reagan, and invited everyone to join in -- she called for a Republican intervention, saying his campaign is incompetent. Do you agree with that?

MCCAIN: Well, I never saw Peggy Noonan's name on the ballot. But the fact is that campaigns have ups and downs. And these are a lot of back and forth. They're still, I think, a very close race.

I might remind you in 2007, I was given up for dead politically. There was nobody who thought we could get the nomination. And I can't tell you the number of critics and second guessers that I had, and they were astonished when we came back from the dead.

So you're always going to have those people, when a campaign hits a bump in the road, who will be quick to jump on it, but frankly, I'm not sure Republicans help Republicans by making these kinds of comments, to be honest with you.

COOPER: The newest line of attack of Mitt Romney should sound pretty familiar to you. You yourself talked about Senator Obama intent on redistributing wealth. In fact, I think you called him the redistributionist in chief. The message didn't seem to take off then. Do you think it could work for Governor Romney now?

MCCAIN: I think that we get back really, Anderson, again, to jobs and the economy, jobs and the economy, jobs and the economy. And what we want to do is ask people if they're better off now than they were four years ago. But also we want to ask them, do you think you're going to be better off four years from now?

A lot of these issues are -- are important to certain segments like I'm glad, and I believe you may be, that foreign policy has finally emerged as at least an issue to be discussed in this campaign. But it really is going to come down to jobs and the economy.

COOPER: Senator McCain, I appreciate your time. Thank you.

MCCAIN: Thanks for having me on.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source