‘Meet the Press’ transcript for Oct. 7, 2007

MR. RUSSERT: A new poll out in Des Moines today shows you second place to Hillary Clinton. But half the voters in Iowa believe that there may be a contradiction between your lifestyle and that it undermines your credibility. This is voters from Iowa saying this. One of the things that’s been discussed is this: “Hedge Fund Ties Help Edwards Campaign.” “Two years ago, former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, gearing up for his second run at the Democratic presidential nomination, gave a speech decrying the ‘two different economies in the country: one for wealthy insiders and then one for everybody else.’

“Four months later, he began working for the kind of firm that to many Wall Street critics embodies the economy of wealthy insiders - a hedge fund. Edwards became a consultant for Fortress Investment Group. ...”

“It was an unusual choice of employment for Edwards, who for years has decried offshore tax shelters as part of his broader campaign to reduce inequality. While Fortress was incorporated in Delaware, its hedge funds were incorporated in the Cayman Islands, enabling its partners and foreign investors to defer or avoid paying U.S. taxes.”

Why would you associate yourself with a hedge fund like that, when you’re decrying the existence of two Americas?

SEN. EDWARDS: I think this is a perfectly fair question. And let me answer it. First of all, I was the first candidate, Democrat or Republican, to lay out an aggressive plan to get rid of the tax breaks that are available, including the offshoring that you just spoke about, that are available to hedge fund managers. They’re not right, they’re not fair, and they don’t—are not available to ordinary Americans like the ones I spoke about just a few minutes ago.

Number two. If you look at what I have spent my life doing, including the time since the last election—which is exactly you’re focused on right now—I did a whole variety of things. Number one, I ran a poverty center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which I started; I traveled the country, helping raise the minimum wage in six different states; I was personally involved in 20--with 23 unions in organizing campaigns, organizing thousands of workers into unions. My wife, Elizabeth, and I started a college-for-everyone program, for kids who are willing to work when they were in school to be able to go to college; I personally did humanitarian work in Africa.

These are the things that I spent my time doing, and I don’t apologize for them. I’m proud of what I’ve spent my life doing. I—my whole life and the arc of my life has been about one single thing, which is to try to make sure that everybody in this country has the same kind of chance that and opportunity that I’ve had. And that’s why I want to be president of the United States.

MR. RUSSERT: But working for a hedge fund that has foreclosed on mortgages in Louisiana, is that the kind of image that you want to put forward in a presidential campaign?

SEN. EDWARDS: Well, when I—first of all, when I found out that there were foreclosures going on in Louisiana, in New Orleans, which is specifically what you’re asking about, I responded immediately. Called the people at Fortress, told them that they needed to take action. I thereafter took any investments that I had in those—in that operation out. On top of that, we have started a fund, a home rescue fund, with a local community activist group in New Orleans to actually provide help to people who are having their homes foreclosed on in New Orleans. My point is really not complicated. If you look at where I have spent my time, and what my life has been about, instead of isolating one thing in a short period of time, it is very clear what my life has been about. I have spent my life fighting for the kind of people I grew up with, for the poor, for the disenfranchised, and I will do it as long as I’m living. I will do it when I’m president, and I will do it when I’m an ex-president.

MR. RUSSERT: The exchanges between the Edwards campaign and the Clinton campaign have gotten quite pointed in recent days. I want to ask you about this one. “Edwards plays the Bubba card.” “The official name of this campaign swing is ‘economic fairness for the North Country,’ but [Edwards campaign consultant David ‘Mudcat’ Saunders] ... and the boys call it ‘let’s help John Edwards screw those who screwed us tour,’ Mudcat says. Us being rural America.”

“And who would that be?”

“‘Who screwed us?’” Saunders “asks, voice rising in incredulity. ‘The Clintons screwed us.’”

How did the Clintons screw us?

SEN. EDWARDS: Well, Mudcat has, has a way of saying things that I wouldn’t say exactly the way he does. What I would say is that the system in Washington where corporations, big corporations and their lobbyists have entirely too much influence, has resulted in rural Americans, ordinary Americans being left behind. And my view is that we have to have—we have to change that system to bring about the substantiative change for real people to have the opportunities that they need.

Now, I think the system’s rigged. I don’t think status quo works, and I think we have to be willing to take it on. And I’ve said repeatedly, and this is similar to what Mudcat just said, I believe we cannot replace a group of corporate Republicans with a group of corporate Democrats. We have to actually return the power in the government to ordinary Americans. And that—and the reason that matters is not in the abstract, you know. Lobbyists, the way the system works in Washington, that’s all process. But the reason it matters is because it’s—those things stand as an impediment to universal healthcare, to attacking global warming, to addressing economic inequality in this, in this country. It, it—they stand as an impediment to stopping the kind of private contracting of Blackwater that we’ve seen in, in Iraq. All that has to change in order for us to be able to help the very people that, that I’m talking about, and Mudcat’s talking about.

MR. RUSSERT: Let me ask you something else that Mudcat said, and ask you if it’s your view. “The toxic coattails of Hillary Clinton could not only cost us an absolute certainty at the White House, but it also could cost us the U.S. House of Representatives. ... Not only do we lose the White House, but the collateral damage from Hillary Clinton at the top of the ticket could cost us Congress.” Do you agree?

SEN. EDWARDS: Here’s what I think. I am the candidate running for president on the Democratic side who’s actually won an election in a red state running against the Jessie Helms political machine. I know what you have to do to win in battleground states, and to win in tough, tough congressional districts, and what you have to do to put out your message that works in those kind of places. People—I understand people who vote in those places, and they connect and relate to me. So I do believe when I am the Democratic nominee for president that there is no place in America that I can’t go and campaign and help our congressional candidates and help our Senate candidates.

I think at the end of the day it’s for voters to determine what impact Senator Clinton would have. But I think there are clear choices between the two of us. I’ve been elected in a red state, I believe that, at least based on the empirical data that’s out there, indicates that I am the strongest candidate on the Democratic side in these battleground areas, in these battleground states. And I think that does matter for a very simple reason, because I am strongly in favor, as president, of pushing a, a progressive agenda. If we want big ideas, if we want to change the system, if we want the kind of things I’ve talked about universal healthcare, attacking global warming in a serious, serious way, dealing with income, all those things, if we want to do those things, we need to strengthen our numbers, the Democratic numbers, in the House and the Senate. And I am completely convinced that I can do that.

MR. RUSSERT: But Senator, do you believe, like your top—one of your top advisers said, that Hillary Clinton would lose the presidency and very well lose the Congress for the Democrats?

SEN. EDWARDS: I honestly don’t know the answer to that. I mean, I think there’s a lot of conflict out there about that question. That’s a question Senator Clinton should have to answer. I think voters are going to have to make that determination. But I think I—right now, that’s an unknown.

MR. RUSSERT: But other people, including your wife, Elizabeth, have made these kinds of suggestions. It’s the elephant in the room. Let me read what Elizabeth said. “I do not”...

SEN. EDWARDS: Sure.

MR. RUSSERT: ...”think the hatred against Hillary Clinton is justified. I don’t know where it comes from. I don’t begin to understand it. But you can’t pretend it doesn’t exist, and it will energize the Republican base. Their nominee won’t energize them, Bush won’t, but Hillary as the nominee will. It’s hard for John to talk about, but it’s the reality.” Why is it hard for you to talk about?

SEN. EDWARDS: No, I think—what you just said is different from what you asked me just a minute ago. What you said about Elizabeth’s statement I think is true. I hear a lot of those things when I’m out on the campaign trail. People—I, I don’t want to ignore the first part of what she said. She’s not saying it’s fair, she’s just saying that it is out there in America. And I hear the same things over and over and over. What I think is impossible to predict is how that plays itself out during the course of a presidential campaign.

I’ve lived through a presidential campaign. What I know is that voters have a very clear choice. Democratic voters have a very clear choice between Senator Clinton, with both all the good and bad that comes with her, and John Edwards, who has actually won in a red state and who can compete every single place in America. And we cannot lose this election. This is not about me, it’s not about Senator Clinton. It doesn’t matter what happens to us, personally. Our lives are going to be fine. The question is, what’s going to happen to 47 million Americans who have no healthcare coverage. What’s going to happen to women who are diagnosed with breast cancer like Elizabeth and have a 30 to 50 percent greater chance of dying because they have no healthcare coverage. What’s going to happen to families who are sending their children to serve in Iraq and possibly die in Iraq.

We cannot lose this election. There is too much at stake. And I think it’s important for Democratic primary voters to know simply that they have choices. I’m not saying anything bad about Senator Clinton. She’s a good candidate. But there are clear choices between Senator Clinton and myself, and I want voters to know that.

MR. RUSSERT: Senator Clinton and Senator Obama have both out raised you in terms of campaign finance and fund-raising. You have now opted for public financing. The DailyKos Web site has said this makes you a very dangerous candidate because between the time that primaries are over and the conventions start, you’ll only have about $40 million to spend to ward off Republican attacks. That—and this is one of the reasons why you should not be the nominee, because you’d be in such a weakened position.

SEN. EDWARDS: Do you want me to respond?

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