‘Meet the Press’ transcript for May 27, 2007

MR. RUSSERT:  If Iraq completely destabilized, if you withdraw—withdrew troops, would you be willing to consider sending troops back in to stabilize it?

GOV. RICHARDSON:  What I would do, Tim, is I would have troops where they’re wanted, in Kuwait.  We have bases there, in Bahrain.  I would have a contingency in case of an international terrorist attack.  I mean, al-Qaeda is our enemy.  Our involvement in Iraq has led us to fail to focus on the true threat, al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, in the region.  Nuclear proliferation, a loose piece of plutonium or uranium that is transported into some of our, some of our cities.  The fact that we don’t have a viable homeland security policy in this country to protect our ports, our aircraft.

MR. RUSSERT:  But again, again, if the situation in Iraq deteriorated and further destabilized, all-out civil war spilling over into surrounding countries, would you consider sending troops back in to stabilize?

GOV. RICHARDSON:  You, you know, a president would never preclude a military option.  But I would be ready to provide the Iraqis with air power, special forces protection.  There would be troops in the region that, that, that would be available for any contigency.  But the problem now, Tim, is our presence has caused what I believe is a civil war, a sectarian conflict.  And the best policy right now that protects our interest is for us to disengage.  And I would do it by the end of this calendar year.  Let the military decide that. But if you leave residual troops—and that is the difference between my position and all the other candidates, that our residual troops—what is it, 20,000 out of the 130,000 that are there?  That is a significant portion.  The Iraqis should be in charge of security and protecting our embassy and our personnel that stay there.

MR. RUSSERT:  So you regret supporting the war initially?

GOV. RICHARDSON:  Yes, I do.  It was a mistake.  But I was pushing intensively, at the time, for more diplomatic engagement, to go to the United Nations, to bring international support for our goals, to go to NATO, to, to get strong Security Council resolutions.  I didn’t push hard enough.  I didn’t push hard enough.  But, you know, I, I didn’t have the intelligence everybody else had.  Incompetence, deceitfulness...

MR. RUSSERT:  But you said you knew more about the region than anybody else.

GOV. RICHARDSON:  Well, yeah.

MR. RUSSERT:  So it was a mistake?

GOV. RICHARDSON:  Yes, it was a mistake.  It was a mistake.  I, I openly state that.

MR. RUSSERT:  Let me ask you about a controversy that has arisen from some speech you’ve been giving on the stump, particularly in New Hampshire, regarding a mother from New Mexico.  Here’s the headline from the Associated Press:  “Mother of fallen Marine says Richardson misrepresented conversation with her.”

“On the campaign trail, presidential hopeful Bill Richardson tells a moving story about a New Mexico Marine killed in Iraq and his mom.  But is it true?

“Three years ago, Richardson attended a memorial service for Lance Corporal Aaron Austin, 21, who died in April” of “2004.  As he campaigns for the Democratic nomination, the New Mexico governor often recounts an emotional conversation with Austin’s mother, saying she thanked him for the federal death benefits she had received and even showed him the government check.

“In speeches in New Hampshire, Richardson has gotten Austin’s name wrong at least once,” “age wrong at least twice.  He also has called Austin the first New Mexico soldier killed in Iraq—instead of the third.

“But that’s not what bothers the Marine’s mother, De’on Miller, of Lovington, New Mexico, who says the conversation about money never took place.  ‘I don’t know a person rich or poor that would be told that” her “only living child has been killed, and you’re going to strike up a money conversation?  Bill Richardson needs to stop pushing this lie.  Aaron’s name had better not be used again in any way.  Not mine either.  A full written apology is due me for this.’” Will you apologize to her?

GOV. RICHARDSON:  Tim, she—we have different recollections.  That family is heroic, that young man is heroic.  But let me tell you what that—my attending that ceremony caused.  It inspired me to go to the New Mexico legislature and propose a $250,000 death benefit—life insurance—for every National Guardsman in New Mexico.  It’s now $400,000.  It passed.  I made it happen.  And then 30 other states—I went to the National Governors Association, and we pushed this--30 other states have made this happen.  And the federal death benefit has gone up.

Now, I, I fully respect that family.  We have different recollections.  But that’s where I learned, at that ceremony, that the death benefit for our soldiers was $11,000.  And look, Tim, I am not going to—there is nobody that has done more for veterans, any governor, I believe, than I have.  No state income tax for enlisted people.  I was just in North Korea two months ago, and I brought back—I’ve been working on this for years—the remains of six Americans from the Korean War.  All kinds of initiatives, such as this life insurance policy that has been...

MR. RUSSERT:  But if it troubles her, out of respect for Mrs. Miller and her son Aaron Austin, will you stop using his name and her name?

GOV. RICHARDSON:  Yes, I will.  I will do that.  But we just have different recollections, Tim, and—but, but that family is honorable.  I attended that service.  I was really moved.  You know, I call as many of the mothers of New Mexico soldiers that’ve been killed.  But no one will ever question my commitment to help our veterans.  I was in North Korea.  I rescued—I helped rescue, helped push forward the release of—many years ago—of, of an American helicopter pilot.  So I believe very strongly that we have to stand up for our veterans when they come back, coming back PTSD, they’re not getting the help that they deserve.

MR. RUSSERT:  But if Mrs. Miller feels used, you would apologize for it.

GOV. RICHARDSON:  Well, Tim, I—that’s where I learned about this death benefit.  There was an individual there that saw a piece of paper being given to me.  I, I don’t want to get into this.  I want this to—I respect that woman.  I will not mention it again.

MR. RUSSERT:  And you’re sorry?

GOV. RICHARDSON:  Well, I’m sorry for the way she feels, but I believe I acted honorably.  Look at the result.  The result was $400,000 life insurance for New Mexico National Guardsmen that served and then 30 states that covered all their veterans.  They followed New Mexico’s lead.  They followed my lead. The federal death benefit, which was shameful, $11,000, $12,000 is now significantly higher.

MR. RUSSERT:  Let me turn to immigration.  Last week this is what all the newspapers said.  “The Senate’s compromise immigration bill is forcing the presidential candidates to confront a divisive issue.  New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson praised the bill.  ‘This legislation makes a good start” towards “re-securing our Southern border.’” A few days later this headline appeared.  “Hispanic presidential hopeful confronts immigration debate.  On Wednesday Richardson said that after ready the immigration bill in detail, he decided to oppose it, saying the measure placed too great a burden on immigrants, tearing apart families that wanted to settle in the U.S., creating a permanent tier of second-class immigrant workers and financing a border fence.  This is fundamentally flawed in its current form and I would oppose it.  We need bipartisanship, we also need legislation that’s compassionate. I’m not sure this is it.’” How can you be for it and 72 hours later against it?

GOV. RICHARDSON:  Well, no, this is what happened.  I was announcing for president, and the day before, I saw a summary of a bill that had been proposed in the Senate.  And the summary, I believed, contained essential elements of a comprehensive immigration reform bill.  One, that there be tougher border security, doubling of border patrol agents.  That’s good.  And two, a legalization program for the 12 million that are here.  Three, it also contained penalties for employers that knowingly hired illegal workers.  I thought that was all good.  The bill is then presented, and I read it the next day, and it contained some problems.  Now, I praise the Congress and the president for, in a bipartisan way, putting something forward that is a good start.  But the problem, Tim—look, I deal with this issue every day.  I’m a border governor.  Two years ago, I declared a border emergency in New Mexico because the flow of people and drugs were harming New Mexico.  So I have strong qualifications on this issue.  I’ve been dealing it—with it for years. The problem with the immigration bill, the way I read it now, Tim, is one, it separates families.  It gives—it gives too much credence to job skills rather than families.  The essence of all our immigration laws have been to preserve families, and this separates families.  Secondly, a guest worker program.  The guest worker program, first posting, should be to protect American workers to have the, the top job, to, to have the jobs and not the guest workers.  There are no labor protections for those guest workers.  And then third, what I also saw in the bill that was not reported in the summaries is that it’s good to have more border guards, and we have to double them, and there’s been a problem because the federal government has not trained enough to make that happen.  But the fence, the fence, the wall between Mexico and the United States, there’s more funding for it.  This wall is wrong.  This wall is a terrible symbol between two countries that are friends.  And you’re going to have a 10-foot wall, and what’s going to happen is there’s going to be 11-foot ladders going over that wall construct...

MR. RUSSERT:  The wall hasn’t worked?

GOV. RICHARDSON:  No, it hasn’t worked.

MR. RUSSERT:  Anywhere along the border, the fence hasn’t worked.

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