MSNBC "Hardball with Chris Matthews" - Transcript: Government Shutdown

Interview

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Joining me right now is Iraq War vet and Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth OF
Illinois and "The Chicago Tribune`s" Clarence Page.

I am absolutely stunned, Congresswoman, at the chutzpah -- that`s a good
Yiddish word for it -- of people who would shut down the government as a
tactic and then try to open up a piece of the government they shut down to
try to get credit as patriots.

REP. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D), ILLINOIS: Oh, absolutely. And, then, you know, further, they introduced a bill that cuts $6 billion in funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs last night and claimed that they were trying to help veterans. These people will stop at nothing.

Our veterans are not to be used as pawns. They`re to be honored. And it`s sickening what they`re doing.

MATTHEWS: Well, how do you make them pay the price of having shut down the Veterans Administration and everything else in the first place yesterday?

DUCKWORTH: Well, it`s just -- I have been out there. And one of the things that I want to make sure people understand is that the veterans bill last night, you know, was a nonstarter. We don`t pass a budget piecemeal. We don`t ask a veteran, do you want us to pay for you, but not allow your grandbaby to go to Head Start? You have to pass a budget. We need a clean C.R. And then to use veterans, look,
this is political theater and it`s not acceptable. My dad was a World War II veteran. And he`d be shaking his head right now if he saw what was happening to the country that he fought for.

MATTHEWS: Let me go to Clarence on this.

Clarence, the whole country`s been shut down by this. There were no appropriations bills passed as in past shutdowns. The whole government now is vulnerable. You can`t go to Yosemite. You can`t go to the Washington Monument. You can`t go anywhere. And all kinds of really life and death issues are up in the air right now. And who knows what our national security situation is. We`re hearing reports that today from briefings, that our country may be in danger by this shutting down.

And then for the people who have done it to win their fight against the president`s health care bill are around there strutting around, pretending they`re the caretakers of the people.

CLARENCE PAGE, COLUMNIST, "THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE": That`s right. This fitsinto the narrative that the Republicans are trying to promote now, because they know they`re on the defensive, just as they were back in the 1990s, when they got most of the blame from the public for that shutdown.

Same thing is happening now. So here they arrive. Reince Priebus, head of the Republican National Committee, committing over $100,000 to pay for guards riding to the rescue because those darn Democrats are closing down the government. That`s the narrative that they`re promoting. I don`t think anybody`s buying it who knows at all what is going on.

MATTHEWS: Yes.

PAGE: But it shows kind of a ragtag effort. This wasn`t planned. This is kind of reflexive. But they were trying to push the notion that the Democrats are at fault.

MATTHEWS: Speaking of theater, Congressman, it`s like they believe in P.T. Barnum, a sucker`s born every day, because look at this. Talk about crazy performance.

RNC chairman Reince Priebus, not my favorite person, pledged that the Republican National Committee will pay the security expenses so the World War II Memorial is open for business during the government shutdown, the government that his party shut down. Let`s listen to this P.R.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REINCE PRIEBUS, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: I have come here to announce that the Republican National Committee has put aside enough
money to hire five security personnel, full-time, to keep the World War II Memorial open.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEWS: How can you lose, Congresswoman Duckworth, to such lightweights
as this guy, political lightweights, Puppetoons? How do you lose to them? How can anybody believe the act? Everybody in America knows who wanted this. It was a tactic used to bring down the government. And the only way that Obama could stop the government -- from bringing it down is to give up his major achievement in history, which no one on Earth is stupid enough to believe he is going to do.

DUCKWORTH: Well, it`s not even about President Obama.This is about our nation`s people. My constituents like a lot of the parts of the Affordable Care Act. Now, there are problems with it. But they like that their preexisting conditions are covered. And these are two separate things. You have problems with the health care bill, let`s talk
about that, but don`t shut down government over it.These same veterans that they`re pretending to help today at the World War II Memorial, they`re going to have access to their disability pensions is going to be limited after October 15. There`s going to be cuts in prosthetics research for veterans. The National Cemetery Administration is not going to be able to lay our heroes to rest at the same rate that they were -- that they were.

And Michele Bachmann, who was there today at the World War II Memorial, actually said shut down is exactly what we wanted. We got what we wanted. A good day for the Tea Party is when government is having a bad day.

MATTHEWS: Who said this?

DUCKWORTH: Michele Bachmann. Michele Bachmann was the one who said that she got exactly what she wanted, which was a shutdown. It was quoted in "The Washington Post."

MATTHEWS: Didn`t she know she was supposed to be shedding crocodile tears? Wasn`t that part of the act, that she was hurt, as everyone else is, by the loss to the veterans here and other groups?

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: Isn`t that part of the game?

DUCKWORTH: They are gleeful. They are gleeful about shutting down government.

But, of course, when they were with the veterans, I`m sure when they were it seem like it everyone`s else`s fault but their own. And we owe our veterans a heck of a whole lot more than showmanship. We need to make sure that we do fund the VA, that we do need to make sure that our veterans who are in the backlog waiting for their benefits to be processed gets processed.

MATTHEWS: A spoiler alert here, Clarence, isn`t it the responsibility of the elected officials of the U.S. government to make the U.S. government work? Aren`t they responsible by the constitution to make the government perform, not to die?

PAGE: That`s right. And as a Vietnam era veteran, I certainly salute Tammy Duckworth for her service. And I too deeply offended by this. You know, this reminds me during the Reagan years, one day, Ronald Reagan, same day he cut funds to services for the elderly was pictured visiting a nursing home, with lots of smiling elderly people around him. Visuals mean a lot as far as public relations goes, and that`s what Republicans are doing here that I really feel offended by. They`re showing the visuals of the World War II Memorial and visiting veterans, while as
Ms. Duckworth pointed out, they`re trying to cut veterans` benefits. It`s just appalling.

MATTHEWS: Unbelievable. I remember Tip talking to Reagan one time. Reagan said I got to go to some kids who, challenged kids, handicapped kids and Tip says, "Tell them I`m fighting for their budget." Anyway, that one, too, that`s stuff.

Anyway, Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth. It`s an honor to have you on.

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