MTP Transcript for Feb. 4, 2007

MR. TIM RUSSERT: Our issues this Sunday: Our Meet the Candidates 2008 series begins today. An exclusive interview with Democrat John Edwards. He was the Democratic Party’s nominee for vice president in 2004 and represented the state of North Carolina in the U.S. Senate for six years. He announced his candidacy for president five weeks ago in New Orleans, and he joins us here this morning only on MEET THE PRESS.

Senator Edwards, welcome back to MEET THE PRESS.

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC): Thank you for having me, Tim.

MR. RUSSERT: A few weeks ago, Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts was on this program, and he said that, in his entire career in the United States Senate, spanning 40 years, the vote he cast on the war in—on—in Iraq was the most important. Do agree with it was the most important vote you cast?

SEN. EDWARDS: Yes.

MR. RUSSERT: And, in your mind, you got it wrong.

SEN. EDWARDS: I did.

MR. RUSSERT: I’m going to go back to October of 2002, that critical week when the Senate was debating the war and you gave a speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

SEN. EDWARDS: Yes, sir.

MR. RUSSERT: Let’s watch it and come back and talk about it.

(Videotape, October 7, 2002)

SEN. EDWARDS: My position is very clear. The time has come for decisive action to eliminate the threat posed by Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. I’m a co-sponsor of the bipartisan resolution that is presently under consideration in the Senate. Saddam Hussein’s regime is a grave threat to America and our allies. We know that he has chemical and biological weapons today, that he’s used them in the past, and that he’s doing everything he can to build more. Every day he gets closer to his long-term goal of nuclear capability.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: “ A grave threat to America,”  do you still believe that?

SEN. EDWARDS: No.

MR. RUSSERT: Why were you so wrong?

SEN. EDWARDS: For the same reason a lot of people were wrong. You know, we—the intelligence information that we got was wrong. I mean, tragically wrong. On top of that I’d—beyond that, I went back to former Clinton administration officials who gave me sort of independent information about what they believed about what was happening with Saddam’s weapon—weapons programs. They were also wrong. And, based on that, I made the wrong judgment. I, I, I want to go another step, though, because I think this is more than just weapons of mass destruction. I mean, I—at the—I remember vividly what I was thinking about at the time. It was, first, I was convinced he had weapons of mass destruction. That’s turned out to be completely wrong and false. I had internal conflict because I was worried about what George Bush would do. I didn’t have—I didn’t have confidence about him doing the work that needed to be done with the international community, the lead-up to a potential invasion in Iraq. I didn’t know, in fairness, that he would be as incompetent as he’s been in the administration of the war. But I had—there were at least two things going on. It wasn’t just the weapons of mass destruction I was wrong about. It’s become absolutely clear—and I’m very critical of myself for this—become absolutely clear, looking back, that I should not have given this president this authority.

MR. RUSSERT: At that time, however, Senator Kennedy’s saying, “ This is not an imminent threat.”  General Zinni, who led the military in that region, said this is the wrong war.

SEN. EDWARDS: Mm-hmm.

MR. RUSSERT: General Scowcroft, former President Bush’s national security advisor. And the National Intelligence Estimate that was given to you and now made public had some real caveats, and this is one of them. “ The activities we have detected do not ... add up to a compelling case that Iraq is currently pursuing what INR [the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research] would consider to be an integrated and comprehensive approach to acquire nuclear weapons.”  Do you remember seeing that?

SEN. EDWARDS: Mm-hmm, I did see it. I mean, I, I think it was—there were serious questions about whether—again, we’re looking back. Now we know none of this was true. But, at the time, there were serious questions about any effort to obtain nuclear weapons, which is what that statement just was. All of us believed there was no question that he had chemical and biological weapons, and there was at least some scattered evidence that he was making an effort to get nuclear weapons.

MR. RUSSERT: But it seems as if, as a member of the intelligence committee, you just got it dead wrong, and that you even ignored some caveats and ignored people who were urging caution.

SEN. EDWARDS: Well, I, I, I would—first of all, I don’t want to defend this. Let me be really clear about this. I think anybody who wants to be president of the United States has got to be honest and open, be willing to admit when they’ve done things wrong. One of the things, unfortunately, that’s happened in Iraq is we’ve had a president who was completely unmoving, wouldn’t change course, wouldn’t take any responsibility or admit that he’d made any mistakes. And I think America, in fact the world has paid a huge price for that. So I accept my responsibility. I’m not defending what I did. Because what happened was the information that we got on the intelligence committee was, was relatively consistent with what I was getting from former Clinton administration officials. I told you a few minutes ago I was concerned about giving this president the authority, and I turned out to be wrong about that.

MR. RUSSERT: In that same speech I showed earlier, you seemed to embrace, however, a—the Bush vision of what could happen in Iraq. And let’s just watch that and come back and talk about it.

SEN. EDWARDS: Sure.

(Videotape, October 7, 2002)

SEN. EDWARDS: Democracy will not spring up by itself overnight in a multiethnic, complicated society that’s suffered under one repressive regime after another for generations. The Iraqi people deserve and need our help to rebuild their lives and to create a prosperous, thriving, open society. All Iraqis, including Sunnis, Shia and Kurds, deserve to be represented. This is not just a moral imperative. It’s a security imperative. It is in America’s national interest to help build an Iraq at peace with itself and its neighbors, because a democratic, tolerant and accountable Iraq will be a peaceful regional partner, and such an Iraq could serve as a model for the entire Arab world.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: Do you think that was naive?

SEN. EDWARDS: No, I think that had, had Saddam, who’s—had the war in Iraq been executed the way that it should have been executed, I think there would be a much greater likelihood of there being a democratic Iraq. I think we would still see at least some symptoms of what we’re seeing raging on the ground in Iraq right now. But no, I think there was some potential for a democracy in Iraq.

MR. RUSSERT: Many have suggested, included some of the candidates Friday at the Democratic National Committee, that the reason so many Democrats voted for giving the president authority in October of 2002 was a political calculation. They were afraid of the midterm elections of 2002. Do you think that’s fair?

SEN. EDWARDS: It’s a—it’s a completely fair question. If I—if I were watching a, a politician under those circumstances, I’d be very cynical about what their motives are, and why, why they did what they did. I can only tell you, in my case, I came to the conclusion, turned out to be wrong, that the president should be given this authority.

I do think it’s important—again, not defensively—but important to point out that I didn’t run the war and neither did the other people in Congress who voted for the war. The president’s the one who made this extraordinary mess. I mean, it’s been mistake after mistake after mistake. But I did cast this vote, and I’m the person responsible for this vote, no one else.

MR. RUSSERT: Let me bring you back to October 10^th of 2004. You were running for vice president, a few weeks before the election...

SEN. EDWARDS: Yes.

MR. RUSSERT: ...you were on this program. The war...

SEN. EDWARDS: I remember.

MR. RUSSERT: The war is now a year and a half old, and I asked you about your vote. Let’s watch.

SEN. EDWARDS: Sure.

(Videotape, October 10, 2004)

MR. RUSSERT: If you knew today, and you do know, there is—there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, would you still vote to go to war with Iraq?

SEN. EDWARDS: I would have voted for the resolution, knowing what I know today, because it was the right thing to do to give the president the authority to confront Saddam Hussein.

I think Saddam Hussein was a very serious threat. I stand by that, and that’s why we stand behind our vote on the resolution.

(End of videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: That’s a year and a half into the war.

SEN. EDWARDS: Mm-hmm. Perfect—that’s a very fair question. I can tell you what happened with me, personally. We got through—I was—at that point, I was in the middle of a very intense campaign, one that I thought was very important for America. When the campaign was over and the election was over, we had a lot going on in my own family. Elizabeth had been diagnosed with breast cancer, we were taking care of her. And for the first time I had time to really think about, number one, what I was going to spend my time doing, and, number two, my vote for this war. And over time, when I reflected on what I thought was going to be necessary going forward, to have some moral foundation to work on issues like poverty and genocide, things that I care deeply about, I could no longer defend this vote. It was pretty simple. And I got to the place I felt like I had to say it and had to say it publicly. And so—what?--a year—a year or so ago I did that.

MR. RUSSERT: But if you look back and people say, well, the midterm elections of 2002, the Democrats did not have the courage to stand up to President Bush and voted for the war, weeks before the mid—the presidential election of 2004, you’re running for vice president of the United States, a chance to say something about the war. Instead you said, ‘My vote was correct, Saddam was a threat.’

SEN. EDWARDS: But in—but in fairness we were very critical about the war at that point, during the 2004 campaign, very critical about the war, very critical of what was happening with the war, the impact that the war had had on America’s moral standing in the world. But, you know, my, my vote was wrong, and I, I—and I take responsibility for it.

MR. RUSSERT: And you said that in November of ‘05 publicly, an op-ed piece in The Washington Post.

SEN. EDWARDS: I did. I did.

MR. RUSSERT: Last Wednesday you gave an interview to The Politico, and you said this: “ ‘When we went to war, Senator Clinton and I both voted for it. ...’ Edwards [said]. ‘I have since said I was wrong, and I take responsibility for that. I have not heard Senator Clinton say that.’ Should she say she was wrong? [Edwards was] asked. ‘That is a moral decision she has to make,’ Edwards said.”  Do you believe Senator Clinton is morally bound to admit the war was wrong?

SEN. EDWARDS: I think she’s morally bound to follow her own conscience. If she—if she believes—and this doesn’t just apply to her, it applies to anybody in the Congress—if she believes that her vote was wrong, then yes, she should say so. If she believes that her vote was right, then she should defend it.

MR. RUSSERT: Can you be the Democratic candidate for president without saying the war was wrong?

SEN. EDWARDS: Yes, of course you can, if, if that’s what you truly believe, and that’s what your heart and conscience state.

MR. RUSSERT: You talked about silence is betrayal, and you’re urging your other candidates to step forward and clearly enunciate their views on the war in Iraq. The Clinton campaign responded this way: “ ‘In 2004, John Edwards used to constantly brag about running a positive campaign. Today, he has unfortunately chosen to open his campaign with political attacks on Democrats who are fighting the Bush administration’s Iraq policy,’ said Clinton adviser Howard Wolfson.”

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