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CROWLEY: Yes, every day, another question. Nick Paton Walsh, thanks so much this morning.
I want to now bring in Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. She's also the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. And Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, she's a former Republican presidential candidate and founder of the Tea Party Caucus on the House side.
First of all, you're both mothers. So, our special thanks today for taking the time to be with us.
And, Congresswoman Bachmann, I know you just had eye surgery, so a double thank you to you for showing up this morning and helping us out.
Let me start with -- the two of you, with the other piece of news that has been throughout the week one of the things we have focused on, and that is the missing Nigerian schoolchildren.
Are either of you satisfied with the extent, whatever extent that is, that the Obama administration has reacted to that?
Let's start with you, Congresswoman Bachmann?
REP. MICHELE BACHMANN (R), MINNESOTA: Well, this was something that didn't just come up now.
Boko Haram has been on the run and on the rise for years. I put a letter out several years ago calling for a crackdown on the Boko Haram. It is a foreign terrorist organization. It's important that the United States designates it as such, as it is now, which we're grateful.
But, again, we root out terrorism wherever it is. And I think that the earlier we push against these radical organizations, the better. I think more could have been done a couple of years ago to help prevent this. But this is on the rise, and it has to be quelled.
CROWLEY: Sure. But, right now, it sounds like you're satisfied with the Obama administration's response thus far?
BACHMANN: We have to continue to push back. And this is something, again, where this isn't partisan. We all have to work together. It's national security.
CROWLEY: Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz?
REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D), FLORIDA: In 2012, it's important to note that the Obama administration designated the -- a number of the leaders of Boko Haram as terrorists, and now have sent personnel and military advisory assistance and the people on the ground from the United States who are going to be able to provide technical and specific intelligence advisory commitments to make sure that we can do everything we can to help find those girls.
That's the number one priority. And I agree with Michele that we have to make sure that there's a bipartisan focus, that the United States needs to, as President Obama has committed, to provide that assistance to find those girls.
CROWLEY: The other foreign policy issue that has resurfaced, at least in the headlines, has been the probe of Benghazi.
Now, the House, which is majority Republicans, as I'm sure you both know, has decided to have a select committee to look into the circumstances before, during and after the attack on Benghazi, when four Americans were killed.
First to you, Congresswoman Bachmann. There seems to be some fear within the Republican Party -- and you see some of it out loud and hear some of it privately -- that there is a way you could push this too far and make it -- and you meaning Republicans -- could push it too far and make it seem so political, that it backfires. BACHMANN: Well, I think, when it comes to the issue of Benghazi, what happened was so appalling that people simply want to have an answers.
We don't take it lightly. Security threats are nothing to take likely. In Benghazi and Libya, when the events happened, this was a highly volatile time. There were over 4,000 threats that had come. And then, when the event occurred, there was no military rescue that was ordered. There's questions about that.
And the big question in many people's minds is where did this false narrative come from to blame a video, rather than the terrorist actions of Ansar al-Sharia which were evident on the ground? So, I think what this committee is doing is taking a very careful look at a very deliberate pace to go through depositions...
CROWLEY: Let me show you...
BACHMANN: ... of people on the ground to find the truth of what happened. That's all people want is the truth.
(CROSSTALK)
CROWLEY: Let me show you a "USA Today" poll asking folks what the most important issue is right now in their lives, what they want politicians, one assumes, to address, jobs at 27 percent, health care 21 percent, federal budget deficit 19 percent, on down the line.
Security and terrorism is at 7 percent. So, my question to you was, is there a possibility that Republicans can look off-key with this? I know you say people are interested, but when you ask them what's your most important issue, they're looking for you all to do something about jobs and health care and the federal budget deficit.
BACHMANN: Well, I don't disagree at all with the numbers that you gave. I think they're accurate.
But people can walk and chew gum at the same time. It doesn't diminish the fact that we need to have answers about what happened on that fateful night with four Americans who lost their lives. We need to get answers. This cannot be politicized. It has to be done, again, in a very thoughtful, deliberate way, which I trust and believe Trey Gowdy and the committee will do.
I'm very impressed with their approach. And I think, again, we have to have answers.
CROWLEY: Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz, look, there -- there have been many probes into Benghazi, as I'm sure you would point out.
But how can Democrats not participate in this probe? Do you think that there are no more questions about Benghazi? Are you satisfied? Do you know why a U.S. ambassador was in a place where there had been so many warnings, seemingly sort of underguarded? I mean, do you feel like you understand why the administration said what it said after Benghazi? Are all the questions answered to you?
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Candy, I think what's important to note here that keeps getting either put aside or lacks focus is that there are families who have been through a really terrible tragedy.
And the Republicans in the House of Representatives after 13 hearings, 50 briefings, 25,000 pages of documents that have been released, and a commission that was put together by Secretary Clinton that has fully examined what happened and recommended, gave -- put forward 29 recommendations, all of which are being implemented, those things have all occurred. This has been looked at so exhaustively that Buck McKeon, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, just last week criticized Darrell Issa, Republican chairman of the Government Oversight Committee, because the last witness, a brigadier general that he brought before the committee to yet again investigate Benghazi, brought nothing new forward.
CROWLEY: Sure, but the...
(CROSSTALK)
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: This is in the words of their Republican Armed Services chairman.
So, just -- just a minute. So, the bottom line here is that the Republicans have clearly lost the ability, because we have had such a precipitous drop among Republicans even in their fervor for repealing the Affordable Care Act, that they are clearly doing this to drive their turnout...
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BACHMANN: You know, Candy, that is not true at all.
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WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Michele, I didn't -- I didn't interrupt you. Excuse me. Michele, I didn't interrupt you, so I would appreciate it if you didn't interrupt me.
CROWLEY: Excuse me.
Congresswoman, to the question first -- and, then, Congresswoman Bachmann, I will let you back in on this -- to the question, you know, can you just not participate in this, when there are so many things -- you know a new document came out -- what precipitated this was a document that the committee didn't know about came out this week that certainly made it look as though the administration certainly was shaping the message in a way that turned out not to be true.
So, can you afford just to turn your back on this? Doesn't it then look like we don't want to know what went on?
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Well, the Republicans are in the majority of the House of Representatives. So, they can essentially do whatever they want. In creating this select committee, they have to, in order to make sure that the process is credible, which, the way they have set it up, it's clearly not going to be and has an outcome that's been predetermined -- they have to treat the minority fairly.
BACHMANN: That's absolutely not true.
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WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Oh, no, it is -- it is true. And let me tell you why it's not fair.
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BACHMANN: I think it's important -- I think it's important -- I think it's important that this is a dialogue, and not a monologue.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: We don't have even the ability to be assured that we're able to participate in the interviews of the witnesses. We don't have consultation power on the subpoenas.
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CROWLEY: Understood.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: So, if it's fair, then we will participate.
BACHMANN: Candy, it's really clear -- it's really clear that the Democrats have tried to sabotage this process from the very beginning.
(LAUGHTER)
BACHMANN: We shouldn't do that...
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: We don't have the ability to sabotage it.
BACHMANN: ... when we have unanswered questions about four people who have died. We have got to get to the bottom of this. This is reality. We have to get to the bottom of this.
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WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: You're right. The bottom -- but the bottom that we have to get to is how this should never happen again and to bring the perpetrators to justice.
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BACHMANN: And, unfortunately, that's what been happening with the Democrats. They have been politicizing. And that's wrong. That's wrong to do about people who died.
(CROSSTALK)
CROWLEY: One more subject I want to talk...
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: It is the Republicans that have been politicized Benghazi from beginning to end.
CROWLEY: I want to talk to you about one more subject before I have to let you go.
And that is, we have some new poll numbers out asking folks about the president's Affordable Care Act. The question was, what should Congress do with the health care law, keep it or make some changes? Sixty-one percent, keep it or make changes, repeal it, 38 percent.
Congresswoman Bachmann, just in brief, what does that do to the rallying election-year cry of Republicans, which is repeal?
BACHMANN: Well, I think, clearly, this is the issue that the Democrats have been running away from. It was the signature issue of President Obama, the passage of the Affordable Care Act. Only one party passed this bill. And people are very concerned to get this disruption in their lives.
CROWLEY: But 61 percent of Americans say they want to keep it. I mean, 61 percent say, look, keep it, but make -- or make changes.
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BACHMANN: But 55 percent of the American people in a Pew study said that they're very unhappy with the Affordable Care Act, so they want it changed. That's really what the result is. They're not happy this bill.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Candy, this now is why...
BACHMANN: They want it changed. And now, just in the last day or so -- Debbie, you had your turn. Now it's mine. In the last two days, we have found that there's another report that just came out...
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Just don't want you to run out the clock, Michele.
BACHMANN: ... how this is hurting the bottom line of major businesses, from GE to UPS to Dollar General. This is hitting their earnings, because the Affordable Care Act...
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WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Candy, the bottom line...
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BACHMANN: Not just for businesses, but for individuals as well, it's very unpopular.
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CROWLEY: Congresswoman Bachmann, thank you.
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BACHMANN: And the Democrats are running away as far as they can from it in this upcoming election.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Eight million people signed up.
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CROWLEY: Debbie Wasserman Schultz, let me bring you in here...
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Thank you.
CROWLEY: ... and your response to this.
Now, look, most people think it ought to be changed.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Absolutely.
CROWLEY: But does this make you think that more Democrats ought to embrace it?
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Well, Democrats have embraced it.
What we have said all along is that...
BACHMANN: Not the Senate candidates.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: ... if there are problems that arise with the Affordable Care Act, we should -- excuse me -- if there are problems that arise with the Affordable Care Act, we should work together in a bipartisan way to address those.
But repealing the Affordable Care Act and going back to the bad old days, when insurance companies could drop us or deny coverage for preexisting conditions, as a breast cancer survivor with a preexisting condition, I join the 129 million Americans who also have preexisting conditions in wanting to never go back to that time.
CROWLEY: OK.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: There are eight million more people now who have health care.
The Republicans have lost this as an issue that they can gin their base up. That's why they turned to this select committee on Benghazi.
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CROWLEY: I'm afraid I have to cut it off there for both of you.
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BACHMANN: This is the issue that Democrats are running from, and rightfully so.
(CROSSTALK)
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: ... creating jobs and getting this economy turned around, as you said. Those are the priorities of the American people.
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BACHMANN: That's what we're running on this fall, and we're proud to do.
(CROSSTALK)
CROWLEY: Thank you both so much for your time.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Thank you.
CROWLEY: Next time, I'm going to have you in studio. I might have better control here.
BACHMANN: Happy Mother's Day.
CROWLEY: But thanks.
(LAUGHTER)
CROWLEY: Listen, happy Mother's Day to both of you...
BACHMANN: Happy Mother's Day to you.
CROWLEY: ... Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Michele Bachmann
We did dig up some pictures of your beautiful families. We hope all of you have a great day.
BACHMANN: Thank you.
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