Sunday, January 12, 2014

Meet The Press – January 12, 2013


Guests:
Chuck Todd

Mark Halperin

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake (D-Baltimore)

Kim Strassel

Mayor Mark Sokolich (D-Fort Lee)

John Yang

Reince Priebus

Maria Shriver

Jane Harman

Robert Gibbs

Jeffrey Goldberg

Chris Matthews

Rick Santorum



Gregory: OMG Bridgegate show Chris

Christie's aides vindictively shut

down a whole town



Gregory: Hi Chuck – what did Christie know?



Todd: or why didn't he know more?



Gregory: that too



Todd: if he didn't know – does he

have the judgment to be President?



Gregory: he gave a epic press

conference where he said he 
didn't know anything



Strassel: he had better be telling the truth



Gregory: right



Strassel: using a state agency to

hurt people is not as bad as the IRS

scandal or Obama shutting down the

government to inconvenience people



Blake: I can't criticize Christie because

he was so helpful to Obama by taking

free money after the hurricane



Gregory: of course



Blake: but he created a culture as

a bully by calling people idiots –

you can't have it both ways



Gregory: he brushed this off in December



Halperin: he was remarkably incurious

and tried to tell reporters to stop 
covering this story



Gregory: what's next for Christie?



Halperin: will Christie hand 
over his own e-mails?



Gregory: interesting question



Halperin: he says he wants to cooperate – will he?



Gregory: even Christie said he

must have done something wrong



Todd: hey that's New Jersey honestly –

using government to hurt people on purpose



Strassel: his big selling point is that

he's a competent manager of a big state



Todd: well it was



Strassel: tea partiers discovered

government can't be trusted when

Obama was elected – just look at

the NSA which Obama invented



Gregory: right



Strassel: and here is a state agency

which can't be trusted



Halperin: Romney took a look at him

and said this guy doesn't play by

anyone's rules but his own



[ break ]



Gregory: Mayor did you put pressure

on poor Chris Christie?



Sokolich: he unconditionally said

he had no knowledge of this plot and

he assured us this will never happen again



Gregory: did you believe him?



Sokolich: I take him at his word



Gregory: do you think Christie

knew more than he has said?



Sokolich: if he didn't know he

certainly should have known



Gregory: maybe



Sokolich: I was told Christie

ran a tight ship – I guess not



Gregory: interesting



Sokolich: but look I'm a Jersey guy

and I don't appreciate the jokes Chuck Todd



Gregory: he says he's not a bully



Sokolich: I'll leave that to you – but he

and his office have acted like jerks

[ break ]



Gregory: so Reince will Chris Christie 
be elected President in 2016? 
Tom Kean says he created 
a dangerous culture



Preibus: Christie is guilty – 
guilty of trusting too much!



Gregory: I see



Priebus: Benghazi! Obamacare! The IRS!



Gregory: you blamed Obama for setting

a tone that resulted in the fake IRS scandal

did Christie set a bad tone?



Preibus: no because Christie trusted too much



Gregory: did he set the tone

like you said Obama did?



Priebus: Obama doubled down on

Hillary Clinton and Lois Lerner!



Gregory: if Obama created the tone

then why didn't Christie set a 
tone of corruption?



Priebus: because Christie had a press conference!



Gregory: how does that affect

a tone before the scandal?



Preibus: because Christie is a good person!



Gregory: how could this scandal happen?



Priebus: the Port Authority is a

complicated place – why wouldn't you

shut part of it down just surve
 whose day is ruined?



Gregory: do you think Christie will be

tied to the scandal coming out of his office?



Priebus: oh heavens no


Gregory: Bob Gates says 
Hillary Clinton is political



Priebus: America is starving for

authentic non-political people



Gregory: like Chris Christie?



Priebus: we're a young fresh party

with a deep bench



[ break ]



Yang: I'm talking to voters Iowa –

hello voter - what do you think of Christie?



Voter: it doesn't look good to shut

down a whole bridge for petty reasons



Voter: it makes him look partisan



Voter: it's comical therefore it didn't happen



Voter: I hope people still like him



Yang: Iowans prefer social conservatives

but on the other hand they like

Chris Christie for being such an asshole



Reporter: they love how he 
'takes no prisoners'



Todd: the road to the White House goes

through the Midwest – you have to be

a genial and nice person



Gregory: that's not exactly Christie



Strassel: he immediately fired the people

he trusted most for misleading him 
and everyone else which will 
persuade voters to make him 
the powerful man in the world



Gregory: thanks everyone



[ break ]



Gregory: Bob Gates says Obama only

wanted to get out of Afghanistan –

how scathing is this?!?



Matthews: getting out of Afghanistan

was a good idea!



Gibbs: Bob Gates doesn't like

anyone to question Bob Gates



Gregory: okay



Gibbs: this was the longest war in

American history – darn right Obama

wanted to get out while smashing al-qaeda



Gregory: is it a good thing not

to trust the military implicitly?



Santorum: it's so sad that in the book

Obama put domestic politics

above national security



Goldberg: actually Rick in the book

Gates says Obama puts national

security above domestic concerns



Santorum: well it could have been true



Gregory: plus he says Obama

made the right decisions



Harman: he's the President and

Commander-in-chief



Gregory: in theory



Harman: Gates should not have written

a book while Obama was in office



Gibbs: Gates claims Obama was playing

to the people but surging in

Afghanistan was not popular



Santorum: Afghanistan was the good war –

Obama should have stayed in Iraq!



Matthews: this whole book is a

shot against Hillary Clinton



Harman: I told the military the

Afghan surge was a bad idea



Gregory: Gates says Biden has been

wrong for four decades



Goldberg: yes he praises Hillary

but savages Joe Biden



Gregory: right



Goldberg: apparently Bob Gates was

a placid man who was boiling over with rage



Gregory: Rick defend Christie for me

Santorum: he manned up and 
took responsibility and blamed 
everyone but himself like a real man


Gregory: if you debate Chris 
Christie what will you ask him?



Santorum: 'why did Obama cover up Benghazi?'



Gregory: anything else?



Santorum: why are all of your aides all scum?



Matthews: Christie is a jerk and

I really like that about him but

where was the famous trouble-shooter

in his fleece on top of everything

like during the hurricane?



Gregory: like when he let $100

million of trains be destroyed?



Matthews: oh that was his aides fault



[ break ]



Gregory: Hi Maria



Shriver: hi David



Gregory: you issued a report that said

1 in 3 women are on the brink of poverty

along with millions of children



Shriver: right



Gregory: Sargent Shriver targeted 
poverty in Appalachia but now 
poor people have jobs but are barely 
surviving – especially women



Gregory: what's wrong?



Shriver: lack of education

and lack of opportunity



Gregory: women are heads of

households but are trapped



Shriver: most minimum wage

workers are women without

even one sick day



Gregory: how do they negotiate better?



Shriver: they're just trying not to

go hungry David



Gregory: where are the men?



Shriver: men need sick days too



Gregory: definitely



Shriver: government and

businesses need to fix policies



Gregory: was the war on poverty a failure?



Shriver: no – it was a great success

until the money was diverted to Vietnam



Gregory: what about GOP policies?



Shriver: I hope they put women

in center of their policies



Gregory: what else?



Shriver: we need to involve states

and non-profits and politicians

who target poverty



Gregory: women are quite 
often important people



Shriver: that is true



Gregory: your mother said power

came from politics



Shriver: that used to be true – now power

comes from the streets and the people



Gregory: and that's another

episode of Meet The Press


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