MSNBC Hardball with Chris Matthews - Transcript

MSNBC Hardball with Chris Matthews - Transcript

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MATTHEWS: Welcome back to HARDBALL. One week after beating Joe Lieberman in the Democratic primary up in Connecticut, Ned Lamont finds himself in a race against Joe Lieberman again. The latest Rasmussen poll shows Lamont trailing Lieberman in the general election, 46-41 with Republican candidate Alan Schlesinger showing far behind both of them.

Ned Lamont is with us now from New Haven, Connecticut. Let me ask you this, you‘ve got former North Carolina Senator John Edwards coming up there tomorrow. Is he going to do something for you in this campaign?

NED LAMONT (D), CONNECTICUT SENATE NOMINEE: Well fundamentally, Chris, this race is all about Connecticut, as you know. I didn‘t have a lot of endorsements going into the primary and it‘s going to be focused on Connecticut going out. We do have a number of people though who have volunteered to come in and Senator Edwards is one of them. I really respect the work he‘s been doing on poverty, so he‘s going to be right here in New Haven tomorrow and we‘ll do an event together.

MATTHEWS: What‘s he going to say about Joe Lieberman refusing to quit after being beaten in the primary?

LAMONT: Well, you have to ask John Edwards that. But it is a little bit like Groundhog Day, we just reset the clock last week and off we go again.

MATTHEWS: Well, as "I got you" is the name of that song, "I got you babe," I guess you got Lieberman for the next three months. Let me ask you, how are going to stop the leakage from money from the Democratic Party to Lieberman, people who have given to him for years may well keep giving to him, which means he can put a big ad campaign on against you in New Haven and Hartford, which can be pretty tough. How do you cut the leakage from the Democratic Party to the non-Democratic candidate?

LAMONT: Well I can tell you the first thing we did the day after the primary, Chris Dodd put together a unity event, we had every single senior elected official standing up there, all the congressional candidates, so this party is united going into the general election, united behind our candidacy.

MATTHEWS: No it‘s not united because you‘ve got a lot of big money guys giving to Lieberman.

LAMONT: Well I don‘t know about who those folks are. I could tell we‘re going to the unions, we‘re talking to working folks, we‘re going to business, we‘re getting an awful lot of support beyond the political support. So I feel pretty good as we round the bend and heads toward Labor Day.

MATTHEWS: You‘ve got Bill Clinton on your side. He‘s probably the most popular Democrat in the country. He said something the other day about—he said Joe Lieberman—and I don‘t want to speak for Bill Clinton, I‘ve had my differences, obviously, and said things about him which I think are true—but Bill Clinton said that Joe Lieberman is the only Democrat in the entire United States who would have supported going to war in Iraq even if we knew ahead of time there was no WMD. What do you think of the fact that Bill Clinton is taking sides on your behalf now?

LAMONT: Look, I don‘t think in a heartbeat that Bill Clinton would have invaded Iraq like George Bush did, aided by Joe Lieberman every step of the way. Frankly, I don‘t think George Herbert Walker Bush would have invaded Iraq that way.

And I think President Clinton—I‘m proud to have him on this side of the campaign and I think he‘s right about that. I think Senator Lieberman has been egging the United States to invade Iraq ever since 1991. He was there in 1998 for the Iraq Liberation Act and he still wants to stay the course. Now it‘s three and a half years later and we see what a bloody mess we‘re in now.

MATTHEWS: Well why did Bill Clinton sign the Iraq Liberation Act in ‘98?

LAMONT: I don‘t think he was talking about an invasion. I think at that point he was talking about ways that we might be able to aid some groups within Iraq.

MATTHEWS: Right, you‘re right.

LAMONT: Hopefully to destabilize.

MATTHEWS: Correct answer. Mr. Lamont, because the Iraq Liberation Act said nothing about any military action by us against Iraq. Dan Gerstein, who is the spokesman for Lieberman is dead wrong on that one yesterday. Now here‘s—let‘s take a look at the exchange we had last night on HARDBALL with for better or worse, Republican candidate Alan Schlesinger.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEWS: When you run up a $10,000 debt at a gambling table, I would call that probably overdoing it a bit for most people.

ALAN SCHLESINGER ®, CT SENATE CANDIDATE: I think to Ned Lamont, that‘s lunch money. It depends on how much you‘re worth and how much you play.

MATTHEWS: OK, did you ever use a false name to get a wampum card at an Indian-owned casino?

SCHLESINGER: Yes, that‘s the same story that you‘re referring to. I

MATTHEWS: Well, is it true or not?

SCHLESINGER: Oh, absolutely it‘s true. It‘s a marketing program for a casino and I didn‘t think it was anyone‘s business when I play at a casino, just like you can play anonymously. And I just didn‘t want my name on any of their marketing lists.

MATTHEWS: OK, so you used. What name did you use?

SCHLESINGER: Alan Gold.

MATTHEWS: Alan Gold?

SCHLESINGER: Yes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEWS: What we didn‘t have in that tape is also his admission that he was banned by a number of casinos up in Connecticut. Would you, if you were a Republican, vote for Alan Schlesinger, Mr. Lamont?

LAMONT: Well first of all, even if Joe Lieberman leaves the race, it will still be a three-way race, me, Schlesinger and Gold. So it‘s going to be crowded.

MATTHEWS: Well what do you make of this? If this Republican candidacy is falling apart, it seems like it‘s opening the door. I heard from a very inside course in the Lieberman campaign, after they lost last week to you, that they need 60 to 70 percent of the Republican vote to beat you in November. It looks to me easier and easier for Joe Lieberman to grab a big chunk of the Republican vote against that guy.

LAMONT: Well a couple of things. First of all, as you know, Vice President Cheney is already touting the Lieberman candidacy, and the two seem to be aligned ...

MATTHEWS: Well that‘s a big surprise.

LAMONT: ... on a number of issues.

MATTHEWS: Those are two peas in a pod, Lieberman and Cheney, but go ahead.

LAMONT: Well, when it comes to Schlessinger, look, he‘s the Republican in this race. When it comes to tax cuts, and not paying attention to the deficit and not investing in our future, I think he is much more on the Republican side of the equation. So, I expect him to get an awful lot of Republican support in this race, but he‘s not going to win.

MATTHEWS: If he holds the number he got in the race against you, which is only four points shy of you, and he brings in the independents, who are some of them are hawkish, and he brings in a big chunk of the Republicans, isn‘t that more votes than you will be able to get Mr. Lamont?

LAMONT: Look, not at all. Like I said, this is a progressive state. The Democrats are united in this race. They really know that Joe Lieberman has been wrong on the war. He‘s too close to President Bush. He has got a stay the course strategy. At the end of the day it‘s going to be Shlessinger and Lieberman who are splitting the Republican vote. We are going to do very well with independence. I am a guy that started up a business from scratch. I‘m going to shake things up in Washington, DC. I think moderates and independents respect that. And we have got a strong Democratic support going into the election.

MATTHEWS: Is Joe Lieberman the hawk candidate in this race?

LAMONT: Well, I think both Schlessinger and Lieberman are more of the stay the course strategy in Iraq. Obviously Joe was there from the very beginning, wanting us to get in to this war. I don‘t know where Schlessinger was back then.

MATTHEWS: Probably at the casino. But let me ask you this, are you the dove candidate?

LAMONT: Look, I am the guy that says, when it comes to the war in Iraq, it‘s been a terrible distraction from the war in terror. Us having our troops there is not making the situation better. Only the Iraqis can solve this. It‘s going to take a political solution. But when it comes to Afghanistan, when it comes to the war on terror, when it comes to really being serious about defending our borders, I am right there with anybody, and I think George Bush has weakened this country.

MATTHEWS: We will have you back to talk about Iran and what you do there when we have another chance to talk. Mr. Ned Lamont, the Democratic candidate for Senator in Connecticut.

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