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Rick Perry Announces 2016 Presidential Bid; Interview with Sen. Bernie Sanders. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired June 4, 2015 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


RICK PERRY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I'm going to offer a responsible plan to fix the entitlement system and to stop this theft from your generation. To those Americans who -- those, I might add, forgotten Americans, drowning in personal debt, working harder for wages that don't keep up with the rising cost of living, I came here today to say, I hear you. I know you face rising health care costs, rising childcare costs, skyrocketing tuition costs, mounting student loan debt. I hear you, and I'm going to do something about it.

To the one in five children in families who are on food stamps, to the one in seven Americans living in poverty, to the one in 10 workers who are unemployed, underemployed, or just given up hope of finding a job, I hear you. You are not forgotten. I'm running to be your president. For small businesses on main street, those that are struggling to just get by, that are smothered by regulation, they're targeted by Dodd Frank, I hear you. You're not forgotten. Your time is coming.

The American people, they see this red gain where the insiders get rich, the middle class pays the tab. There's something wrong when the Dow is near record highs and businesses on main street can't even get a loan. Since when did capitalism involve the elimination of risk for the biggest banks while regulation strangle our community banks? Capitalism is not corporatism. It is not a guarantee of reward without risk. It's not about Wall Street at the expense of main street.

The reason I'm running for president is I know for certain our country's best days lie ahead. There is nothing wrong in America today that a change of leadership will not make happen. We're just a few good decisions away from unleashing economic growth and reviving the American dream. We need to fix a tax code that's riddled with loopholes, that sends jobs overseas and punishes success. We've got the highest corporate tax rate in the western world. It's time to reduce it, bring home jobs, lift wages for those working families.

Do you realize by the time this administration has finished with its experiment in big government, they will have added almost 600,000 pages of new regulations to the national register, the federal register. On my first day in office, I will issue an immediate freeze on pending regulations from the Obama administration. That same day -- that same day, I will send a Congress a comprehensive reform and roll back of job-killing mandates created by Obamacare, Dodd Frank, and other Obama (INAUDIBLE.) Agencies will have to live under strict regulatory budgets. Health insurers will have to earn the right to your money instead of lobbying Washington to force you to hand it over.

On day one, I will also sign an executive order approving the construction of the Keystone Pipeline. Energy is vital to our economy, and, I might add, to our national security. On day one, I will sign an executive order authorizing the export of American natural gas and oil, freeing our European allies from the dependence of Russia's energy supplies. Vladimir Putin uses energy to hold our allies hostage. So, here's our message. If energy is going to be used as a weapon, America will have the largest arsenal.

[13:05:10] We will unleash an era of economic growth and limitless opportunity. We will rebuild America industry. We will lift wages for American workers. It can be done because it has been done in Texas. During my 14 years as governor, Texas companies created almost one-third of all new American jobs. In the last seven years of my tenure, Texas created 1.5 million new jobs. As a matter of fact, without Texas, America would have lost 400,000 jobs. We were the engine of growth because we had a simple formula. You control taxes and spending. You implement smart regulations. You invest in an educated workforce, and you stop frivolous lawsuits.

Texas now has the second highest high school graduation rate in the country. And it has the highest graduation rate for African American and Hispanic students. We led the nation in exports, including high- tech exports. We passed historic tax relief. And I'm proud to have signed balanced budgets for 14 years. We not only created opportunity, we stood for law and order.

When there was a crisis at our border last year, and the president refused my invitation to see that challenge that we faced, I told him, Mr. President, if you do not secure this border, Texas will. And because of that threat, because of that threat that was posed by those drug cartels and those transnational gangs, I deployed the Texas National Guard. And the policy worked. Apprehensions declined by 74 percent.

If you elect me your president, I will secure that border. Homeland Security begins with border security. The most basic compact between a president and the people is to keep the country safe. The great lesson of history is that strength and resolve bring peace and order and weakness and vacillation invite chaos and conflict. My very first act as president will be to rescind any agreement with Iran that legitimizes their request to get a nuclear weapon.

Now is the time. Now is the time for clear-sided, proven leadership. We have seen what happens when we elect a president based on media acclaim rather than a record of accomplishment. This will be a show- me, don't tell me, election where voters look past the rhetoric to the real record. The question of every candidate will be this. When have you led? Leadership is not a speech on the Senate floor. It's not what you say. It is what you have done.

And we will not find the kind of leadership needed to revitalize the country by looking to the political class in Washington. I've been tested. I've led the most successful state in America. I have dealt with crisis after crisis, from the disintegration of the space shuttle to hurricanes, Katrina, Rita, Ike, to the crisis at the border and the first diagnosis of Ebola in America. I have brought together first responders, charities, and people of faith to house and heal vulnerable citizens dealing with tragedy. The spirit of compassion demonstrated by Texans is alive all across America today.

[13:10:05] While we've experienced a deficit in leadership, among the American people, there is a surplus of spirit. And among our great people, there is a spirit of selflessness that we live to make the world better for our children and not just ourselves. It was said that when King George III asked what General Washington would do upon winning the war. He was told that he would return to his farm and relinquish power. And to that, the monarch replied, if he does that, he will be the greatest man of his age. George Washington lived in the service of a cause greater than self.

You know, if anyone's wondering if America still possesses the character of selfless heroes, I'm here today to say, yes. I'm surrounded by heroes. They're in all generations. They're in all the different generations, but they're woven together by the same thread of selfless sacrifice. They're heroes like Medal of Honor recipient, Mike Thornton, who survived an ambush by enemy forces in Vietnam. Made it back to the safety of a water rescue only to find out his fellow team member had been left behind, presumed dead. But Mike didn't leave. He returned through enemy fire, he retrieved Lieutenant Norris who was still alive. And then, he swam for two hours, keeping his wounded teammate afloat until they were rescued.

Heroes like Marcus Luttrell. He survived a savage attack on a side of a mountain in Afghanistan, losing his three teammates. And, I might add, 16 fellow warriors were shot down trying to rescue him. He is not just a lone survivor to Anita and me, he is a second son. And Taya Kyle. Taya Kyle who suffered the deep loss of her husband, Chris, an American hero. When I think of Taya Kyle, I think of a brave woman who carries not just the lofty burden of Chris's legacy, but the grief of every family who has lost a loved one to the great tragedy of this war or its difficult aftermath. Anita and I want to thank Taya for her tremendous courage.

America is an extraordinary country. Our greatness lies not in our government but in our people. Each day, Americans demonstrate tremendous courage, but many of those Americans have been knocked down. And they're looking for a second chance. Let's give them that second chance. Let's give them real leadership. Let's give them a future greater than the greatest days of our past. Let's give them a president who leads us in the direction of our highest dreams, our best dreams, our highest hopes, and our greatest promise. Thank you, and God bless you.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Speaking for about a half hour or so, that's Rick Perry, the former governor of Texas. He spent 14 years as the governor of Texas. Ran for the Republican presidential nomination four years ago. It didn't work out well. Now, he wants a second chance, running, once again, making his case.

Dana Bash is with me here in Washington. Dana, we listened closely to what he had to say. Why does he and his staff believe things will turn out better this time than they did four years ago?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Because they insist that he wasn't himself four years ago. He was recovering from back surgery, so, physically, he was not himself. And also because he admits himself, I talked to him about this several times, he wasn't prepared. He has been preparing big time both on policy and performance. Unfortunately for him, his aids in this campaign didn't think to put him in an air-conditioning spot because all over Twitter -- even though he gave certainly a very good and powerful speech, all over Twitter you're seeing the fact that, unfortunately, he was sweating through his shirt.

[13:15:12] BLITZER: Yes, it was probably hot in that room with all those people there. But you - there you see him with his family and a lot of former Navy SEALs, including Taya Kyle, the widow of Chris Kyle of "American Sniper."

He is technically, not just technically, he's under indictment in Texas right now.

BASH: He is.

BLITZER: Explain what's going on.

BASH: What's going on is that the process is about to be heard by an appeal's court in Texas. And his campaign is hoping that it's going to get thrown out. And what he's been indicted for is the idea that he abused power because when he was governor, he vowed that he would withhold funding, veto a funding bill for a specific unit in the government because the head of that unit was arrested for drunk driving. And he said, I don't want this person to be in this job, and she wouldn't quit, so he tried to force her to quit by withholding money. An outside group sued him and said that this is an abuse of power. He and his lawyers say that it simply wasn't the case. He did everything within his legal rights and he actually has had some pretty prominent defenders on this. Alan Dershowitz has said that it's not a real case. Even David Axelrod, who's not exactly a Republican strategist, has said that this is wrong. So they're hoping it gets thrown out. They were actually hoping that it would have gotten thrown out before he announced, but it didn't happen.

BLITZER: It didn't happen yet. We'll see if it does happen.

BASH: Yes.

BLITZER: All right, Dana, we're going to have more on this coming up. Rick Perry becoming the tenth Republican to throw his and her hat into the presidential ring.

We'll take a quick break. When we come back, we'll get a very different perspective. Senator Bernie Sanders, his ratings in the polls, they're surging right now. Hillary Clinton's approving ratings dipping to a 14-year low. Can Bernie Sanders, the senator from Vermont, catch up to Hillary Clinton? He's standing by live. We'll discuss that and more when we come back.

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[13:20:36] BLITZER: The presidential field is clearly growing. The former Texas governor, Rick Perry, you just heard him, he declared his candidacy only a few moments ago. On June 15th, Jeb Bush expected to officially join the race. For the Democrats there are now four names in the race for the White House. Senator Bernie Sanders is one of them. He's joining us here.

Senator, thanks very much for joining us.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), : My pleasure.

BLITZER: You announced, what, about a month or so ago.

SANDERS: Just about a month.

BLITZER: How's it working out so far?

SANDERS: I'll tell you, it's working out very, very well. We just came back from a trip to New Hampshire and to Iowa and to Minnesota. The crowds were incredible. We had over 4,000 people out in Minnesota. In a small town in Iowa, we had more people coming out that what lived in the town. Crowds in New Hampshire were very, very large as well. So I think we're doing pretty good.

BLITZER: And we have a poll, I don't know if you saw it, a CNN/ORC poll, we asked, do you, Bernie Sanders, represent the past, the future, unsure? The past, 46 percent, the future, 35 percent, 19 percent unsure. How are you going to convince those who think you represent the past or who are unsure that you represent the future?

SANDERS: Because we're going to talk about the issues facing the working families of this country. The fact that for 40 years the great American middle class is disappearing. The fact that we have an obscene level of income and wealth inequality today. People are not happy, Wolf, that 99 percent of all new income is going to the top 1 percent, that they can't afford to send their kids to college. People are very frightened, especially seniors and older workers. They get people like Rick Perry and others who want to cut Social Security. My view, we expand Social Security. We rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, create millions of decent paying jobs. Those are the ideas that resonate, I believe, with the American people.

BLITZER: Because several of these Republican presidential candidates are suggesting that in order to make sure that Social Security survives for baby boomers, the millions who are about to start receiving Social Security, you've got to change it. Jeb Bush talks about raising the age from 65 to 68 or even 70.

SANDERS: Right.

BLITZER: Chris Christie, Rand Paul, Lindsey Graham, all of them have said you need to make major changes in Social Security to protect Social Security -

SANDERS: That's the - BLITZER: To which you say -

SANDERS: That - that you don't cut Social Security to save Social Security. Right now somebody's making $118,000 a year, somebody's making $10 million a year, they're paying the same amount of money into the Social Security trust fund. You lift that cap, and you start asking people above $250,000 a year to start paying more into the system. Social Security can be extended for decades and we should expanded benefits.

Look, what Perry and these other guys have talked about, this is the decade long attack on Social Security by the Republican Party. They want to privatize it eventually, they want to make cuts. We have millions of seniors struggling, $12,000, $13,000, $14,000 a year. I will not accept cutting -

BLITZER: So you wouldn't accept raising the age?

SANDERS: Of course not.

BLITZER: What about means testing? Do billionaires and millionaires deserve to collect the same amount that you collect - that you collect?

SANDERS: And that's one of the - yes, yes, they're not talking about millionaires and billionaires. They're talking about lowering it to $40,000 a year. Social Security is -

BLITZER: Any means testing acceptable to you?

SANDERS: No. It's a universal program. Everybody deserves to put into it. Everybody deserves to get a benefit out of it. We can extend that program by not asking anybody more than the top 2 percent to contribute more into it. That's what we've got to do.

BLITZER: Why did you vote against this compromise, the surveillance for - this NSA surveillance program passed overwhelmingly in the House -

SANDERS: Yes.

BLITZER: Passed overwhelmingly in the Senate. The president has signed it into law.

SANDERS: Yes.

BLITZER: You were one of the few who voted against it, why?

SANDERS: Yes. I'll tell you why. There is no debate that terrorism is a very serious threat for this country and we've got to do everything we can to protect the American people. But, Wolf, I worry very, very much about the United States moving into an Orwellian society where not just the government but corporate America knows everything about you. I mean more than you would believe in terms of your banking records and your medical records and where you are and what you read. So I think, yes, we've got to be vigorous, but I think this bill, while a step forward, still allows the government too much power to get information on innocent Americans' lives.

BLITZER: Because they're no longer going to do that bulk data collection. They're going to defer that to the phone companies.

SANDERS: Yes. And that's a -- that's a step forward. But on the other hand, there is too much opportunity remaining for the government to spy on innocent Americans.

BLITZER: If you were president of the United States right now, what would you do about ISIS? You see ISIS as a threat to the U.S. homeland?

SANDERS: Absolutely. All right, what we have to understand is ISIS is a barbaric organization which has to be defeated. I voted against the war in Iraq. I do not believe in perpetual warfare for the United States in the Middle East.

[13:25:06] What has got to happen is what we are looking at is a war for the soul of Islam. The Muslim nations in that area have got to come into it. Saudi Arabia has the third largest military budget in the world. America can't do it for them. We have to -

BLITZER: What if they - what if they don't because they - I don't see a whole lot of movement on their part.

SANDERS: Well, and that is the challenge. Is - you know, the United States cannot do it all. If these people cannot defend themselves, you know, Saudi Arabia's right next to Iraq. I don't know why American troops have got to do it for them. We have got to be supportive. Air attacks, special forces and so forth. But the bulk of the fighting must be done by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, countries in the region, without our support.

BLITZER: All right. Let's assume they don't do it and they're not showing a whole lot of desire to do it so far. Let's assume they don't do it. What do you do as president of the United States to make sure the American people are safe?

SANDERS: Well, you're giving me a hypothetical, which I don't accept. Our job is to make sure that people in the region stand up and defend themselves and not have the United States and our troops be involved in never-ending warfare. Never-ending warfare. You get involved there, American troops get killed, how troops come in, how many years? Twenty or 30? I think we should have learned a lesson from Iraq. The war in Iraq was one of the worst foreign policy blunders ever committed by America. Let's learn something. Let's not spend trillions of dollars more and lose more American lives.

BLITZER: Hillary Clinton, as senator, voted for that war in Iraq. You voted against it. Is that an issue as far as you're concerned, her vote?

SANDERS: I think it is. I think it is. I think it's an issue not to go back over history. Secretary Clinton had the same information as I had. I did not believe what Bush and Cheney said. If you visit - something on YouTube now about me on the floor of the House speaking about what I feared would happened. And, you know what, a lot of what I said turned out to be true.

BLITZER: Final question. I know you had a chance - you bumped into her at Penn State in New York the other day. What happened?

SANDERS: Well, we chatted. I've known Hillary Clinton for 25 years. I have a lot of respect for her. And we just had a friendly conversation.

BLITZER: Any politics? Did you talk about the campaigns or anything like that?

SANDERS: Yes, well, it's kind of private. Private, private conversation.

BLITZER: You want to share anything, any detail in -

SANDERS: Nothing.

BLITZER: Was she nice to you?

SANDERS: Oh, of course.

BLITZER: You were nice to her?

SANDERS: Yes.

BLITZER: OK. Bernie Sanders, thanks very much. I know you've got to run up to the Senate and vote.

SANDERS: Yes.

BLITZER: Thanks very much for coming in. We'll continue these conversations.

SANDERS: Thank you.

BLITZER: Bernie Sanders is running for president of the United States.

Just ahead, we'll talk with the chair of the Democratic National Committee about the campaign and much more. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, she's here live. We'll talk with her when we come back.

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