CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript

Interview

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BLITZER: All right, let's speak to the congresswoman right now. Shannon, thanks very much. Michele Bachmann is joining us right now from Iowa out on the campaign trial. You just heard Shannon's report, congresswoman. What do you say?

BACHMANN: Well, we need to tell the whole story on this because the part that you left out is the fact that Kent Sorenson's former campaign manager went on record with the AP saying that Kent Sorenson also told her that he had received a request to give a lot of money to him from the Ron Paul campaign. And also he told it to a number of other people who are starting to come out. It wasn't just me. And I got the phone log on my phone that I had the conversation with Kent.

But the bigger story in this is why did it happen? It happened because at the last debate in Sioux City, Iowa, I took on Ron Paul over his very dangerous position stating that he would do nothing to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. That makes him a very dangerous person to be our next president.

The very next day, we started our 99 county tour. I'm standing here in Neveda, Iowa. This is our 99th county that we're visiting. This is the last stop of the tour. For 99 counties, Wolf, this has been the huge story. We've seen literally thousands of people after that last debate come out in all of Iowa's 99 counties and say, Michele, I'm now voting for you. I was undecided. And it's over this whole issue of Ron Paul coming out and being exposed for the dangerous president he would be in not preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

That happened. We saw incredible momentum including the fact that last night, we had 150 new people call us saying they want to stand up for me in the caucuses. We literally have had thousands over the last 10 days. And that caused the Ron Paul campaign to be very nervous because they saw the momentum shifting here in Iowa to my campaign. So they came up with this plan to offer a lot of money to Kent Sorenson.

And so our Iowa director is Eric Woolson. He's now talking to the press about what Kent Sorenson said to him, too. But this is all about the Ron Paul campaign seeing the floor drop out, and this is what happened.

BLITZER: All right, because Kent Sorenson, he flatly denies there's money involved. He put out a state basically saying, I'll read a little bit of it for you, "Even Congresswoman Bachmann's political director issued a statement defending my character. Since then he's been fired by the Bachmann campaign for daring to tell the truth." Is that the correct version?

BACHMANN: Well, that's absolutely not true, because I did have the conversation with Kent. Kent talked to a number of people in my campaign. And again, the reason why this is happening is because we've seen unbelievable, remarkable momentum in the last week. And it's because I took on Ron Paul in the last debate over his failure to keep Americans safe and free and sovereign from a nuclear Iran. That's what this is about, pure and simple. Now you saw this huge offer of money.

BLITZER: Just clarify the political --

BACHMANN: So there's a lot of people --

BLITZER: The political director quit today as well. Is that right?

BACHMANN: He quit. And we've had Kent Sorenson's former campaign manager say Kent told me flat out that he was getting money. He flat out told also Eric Woolson, who is the Iowa director as well. He told a lot of people. There's people a mile long that he told that he was getting money, and all of those people are coming out of the woodwork, making themselves available. So Kent Sorenson and I had the conversation on the phone.

And yesterday, Kent even came out to our stop in Iowa and he was there with me yesterday. He left our event and then went to the Ron Paul event. This is about money. This is about money.

BLITZER: The political director left for money, too?

BACHMANN: -- seeing that the floor is coming out.

BLITZER: Did the political director quit because of money? BACHMANN: You'll have to talk to him. You'll have to talk to -- you'll have to talk to him about it. But, clearly, there are other people that Kent Sorenson talked to who he told that the Ron Paul campaign is offering him money. Now, that's a very serious issue and that's one that only the Ron Paul campaign and they can deal with. But I've got my phone, my phone log that shows I had a conversation with Kent Sorenson. That's when he told me, a number of other people on our campaign, that he was offered money by the Ron Paul campaign.

And clearly, this is about the Ron Paul campaign very nervous because people see that he'd be very dangerous for the country on foreign policy, but also people are figuring out Ron Paul would legalize drugs that are illegal now. He wouldn't stand up for marriage between a man and a woman. I would. That's what this is about. People are making their decisions. About half the people in Iowa are undecided, and this overflowing number of people in recent days have been flipping and they've been going in my column. That's why you see this controversy right now.

And we would love to make available to CNN Susan Gettis, the former campaign manager for Kent Sorenson, Eric Woolson, our Iowa director. There's a lot of people he talked to. And even Eric Woolson said he would go under oath and he would give his statement about what Kent Sorenson told him in response to the Ron Paul campaign offering a large amount of money for Kent Sorenson to defect to their campaign.

BLITZER: We'll get our reporter, Shannon Travis, on the story with you and follow up, obviously. I want to take a quick break, but one quick question before I do, and we're going to continue this conversation on the other side. If he were to get the nomination, Ron Paul, could you vote for him?

BACHMANN: It's never going to happen, Wolf. Ron Paul is not getting the nomination. We see this unbelievable momentum for me and Iowa. Americans want an American iron lady, and they're flipping to Michele Bachmann. I intend to be the nominee that defeats Barack Obama because we've got to get the country back on the right track and repeal Obamacare. That's what I'm going to do as the next president of the United States.

BLITZER: I know it's a big if, but if he were to get the nomination, I've asked the other candidates --

BACHMANN: He's not going to, Wolf. It's never going to happen. Never going to happen, Wolf. It is never going to happen.

BLITZER: But can't you say yes or no?

BACHMANN: Put that baby to bed. Yes, I'm giving you the answer, Wolf. He is never going to be the nominee, right, you guy?

(CHEERS)

BACHMANN: There you go, straight from the -- here in Iowa.

BLITZER: In our new CNN-"TIME"-ORC poll, he's doing a lot better than you are in Iowa. How do you explain that?

BACHMANN: Well, because the polls don't determine what is going to happen on January 3rd. Everyone said that I didn't have a chance to win the Iowa straw poll. I'm the only candidate in the presidential race that's won a statewide election. I won the Iowa straw poll. We're going to see a miracle happen on Tuesday, I have absolutely no doubt. The people here in Neveda, Iowa know that, too, and we're going to see that miracle next Tuesday. So we're excited.

BLITZER: Stand by for a moment. I want to continue this conversation. I want to get some substantive national security foreign policy issues, including a new $30 billion F-15 arms sale from the U.S. to Saudi Arabia. We'll continue our conversation with Michele Bachmann, the Republican presidential candidate, in just a moment.

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BLITZER: We're back with Congresswoman Michele Bachmann joining us from Neveda, Iowa. Congresswoman, let's talk about a few national security foreign policy issues on the agenda right now. You're a member of the House intelligence committee. So first of all, the White House announcing today a $30 billion F-15 sale to Saudi Arabia. You OK with that?

BACHMANN: I find it a little bit concerning. We're at a very volatile time now in the Middle East and there's a very delicate balance that needs to be maintained. It's a complicated situation. I understand in part the motivation for the president of the United States, but I also have great pause about that, because I think in some respects a person could say we're adding fuel to the fire. And again, it's a very delicate, complex situation and I can be a little bit circumspect about my remarks because of my position on the intelligence committee.

BLITZER: Let's talk about Afghanistan for a moment. The U.S. is continuing to spend about $2 billion a week maintaining 100,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The other day, Hamid Karzai's government announced that they were granting an oil drilling project potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars if not down the road billions of dollars not to a U.S. company, not to a European company, but to China. Is that OK with you?

BACHMANN: No, of course not, because this is what we're seeing. China is becoming on in the Middle East region, and it's because they're continuing to become an economic powerhouse. We also can't forget that China has enabled a lot of the missile delivery systems to Iran that will enable them in their quest to obtain a nuclear weapon. Their working with North Korea, and it's a Russian nuclear scientist also that worked with Iran to help them gain this nuclear weapon that is impending and potentially on the horizon. This is all very serious.

China's been a bad actor. They've engaged in commercial espionage against the United States. That's in open source documents. They've also engaged in military espionage against the United States. That's in open source documents. And it's concerning because they completed, this was in the "Wall Street Journal," they completed 3,000 miles of underground tunnels that contain nuclear weapons. And they stated in that article in the "Wall Street Journal" that they no longer feared the United States of America. This should give great pause. To go back to the previous question, we're looking at across the world with national security. We need to be very careful about these decisions.

BLITZER: But would you continue to spend 2 billion a week, $100 billion a year in Afghanistan if they're doing this?

BACHMANN: There's no audio.

Congresswoman, can you hear me? I think we just lost our connection, unfortunately. Let's see if we can reconnection. Can you hear me, congresswoman? Unfortunately, we just lost our connection with Michele Bachmann in Neveda, Iowa.

All right, so we were almost done anyways. Let's thank her, Michele Bachmann joining us in "THE SITUATION ROOM."

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