Transcript of Thursday, July 29 Republican Press Conference(Guiliani,Coryn,Gillespie,Weld,Healey)

Dems Extreme Makeover ^ | July 29, 2004

[RWR8189]

Boston- Below is a transcript of today’s 10:30 a.m. Republican press conference. (Due to technical difficulties, the transcript starts during Lt. Gov. Healey’s remarks.)

Transcript:

LT. GOV. KERRY HEALEY (MA): ... the Democrats have misrepresented the President’s record just as they have tried to obscure the Senator’s record on so many important issues. In speech after speech we have heard nothing about Senator Kerry’s votes on the issues. We’ve heard nothing about his votes to raise taxes on social security that will hurt our elders. We’ve heard nothing about his votes to raise taxes on small businesses. We have heard nothing about his votes to block reforms on medical malpractice that could help to bring down the costs of healthcare. And perhaps most importantly and most disturbingly, especially to our veterans who are standing here today, we have heard nothing about his votes against the aid that needed to be sent to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But there are other things we haven’t heard either. We haven’t been hearing about our President’s true record. We haven’t been hearing about our President’s 40 percent increase in funding to our veterans. And we haven’t heard that this is the first President who has ever provided federal funding for stem cell research. The Democratic cover up of Kerry’s record and the distortion of our President’s record is going to continue now for the next 96 days. But the American people, on November 2nd, are going to feel that the choice is extremely clear, and they are not going to vote for a president who has sought to obscure his record on the issues that are so important to the American people. Now I have the please of introducing and great Massachusetts, Governor Weld.

FMR MASS GOV. BILL WELD: Thank you so much Governor Healy. I must say it’s a great pleasure to be back in Boston. I was very pleased to come up from Gotham with my colleague Rudy Giuliani to try to afford a little bit of context for the very entertaining proceedings at the Fleet Center. Which -- if you’ll indulge me -- in my view have been long on entertainment but a little bit more all sizzle and no steak, at least the last several days.

The function of a political convention, you would think, would be to give the voters an idea of how the candidate might function as a president in office, making decisions on the great issues that affect our country, and I don’t think we’ve really seen that yet with respect to Senator Kerry in this convention. Here’s a guy with a twenty-year voting record in the senate and the voters of Massachusetts know him well. I remember in 1991 Senator Kerry said quote, "I’m a liberal and I’m proud of it," close quote. As you folks in Massachusetts know, in 1996 I reflected on that and said: here’s a guy that I can get ahead of in a senate race. Things did not pan out quite as I had had in mind there.

But, you know, the voters of Massachusetts spoke in that race and it’s the people of Massachusetts who do know Senator Kerry best. He’s represented them in the Senate for twenty years, and two years and Lieutenant Governor with Governor Dukakis before that. There was a poll taken this week of the voters of Massachusetts. This is a pole weighted three-to-one democratic, since that’s the registration edge in this state. And I think it’s appropriate for the people of Massachusetts to do, once again, their civic duty and fill in the blanks here on Senator Kerry’s record.

This poll shows that Massachusetts’s voters believe, by a margin of sixty-five percent - sixty-five percent positive - believe that John Kerry would raise taxes. A majority believe, and I believe, that based on his twenty-year record. A majority of Massachusetts’s voters believe that, as president, John Kerry would cut defense spending. Forty-nine percent of Massachusetts’s voters, not national voters, Massachusetts’s voters say that John Kerry says what he believes people want to hear rather than what he really believes. To be fair, forty-five percent of Massachusetts’s voters -- his own state - say that Senator Kerry says what he believes. But that’s not a majority. When asked who was more decisive, who would be more decisive as a president in office, Massachusetts’s voters said George Bush over John Kerry by a margin of about twenty percent.

Now, there are just some of the facts about the Democratic nominee from the folks who know him best and dare I to hope that we’ll be hearing more along these lines from the nominee himself tonight. It could happen. I’d like now to turn the mike over to my good friend from Texas, a great American, Senator John Cornyn.

U.S. SENATOR JOHN CORNYN: The American people understand that actions count louder than words. And we all realize we’re in an election season where sometimes words tend to obscure reality. But one thing we know is reality is Senator Kerry’s voting record, particularly when it comes to his role in intelligence oversight, and his record is not a good one.

We know the last 9-11 commission has said that one of the problems with our intelligence was lack of adequate congressional oversight. Yet just one year after the bombing of the World Trade Center, when Al Qaeda first declared war against the United States of America, Senator John Kerry proposed 7.5 billion dollars of budget cuts to our intelligence community. And we know that since 9-11 this President and this congress have not waited for the 9-11 report to come out, or a committee to tell us what to do, but certainly the work of that committee shows the way towards important reforms that we need to undertake, seriously, and quickly.

In terms of the intelligence oversight that has been conducted by congress, I think the American people would be shocked to know that during the time that Senator Kerry served on the senate select committee on intelligence, he missed 38 out of 49 of the public meetings of the senate intelligence committee. Of the public hearings during Senator Edwards’s tenure on the senate select committee on intelligence he has only made four out of the eight public meetings.

So I would like to call on Senator Edwards and Senator Kerry today to publicly release their attendance records at the private, or classified, hearing on the intelligence committee so the American people can really know the truth. Where does the failure of oversight come from? Is it because they didn’t bother to show up? I think the American people deserve to know and they deserve to know the truth now. It is now my please to introduce to you the Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Ed Gillespie.

RNC CHAIRMAN ED GILLESPIE: Thank you all. Thank you very much. I want to thank the Lieutenant Governor, for your hospitality Governor Healey this week. We’ve had a wonderful week here and I think we ought to comment the Massachusetts state police and the Boston police department for the fine job they have done here. They’ve done a fantastic job. It is my honor and my pleasure to introduce to you now a truly great America, a great leader, a man with strong conviction and principle, and someone who is a huge asset to our party, as is everyone on this stage. Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome America’s mayor, the honorable Rudy Giuliani.

FMR. NYC MAYOR RUDY GIULIANI: Thank you very much, Ed. Thank you. Thank you very much Ed and Lieutenant Governor, Governor Weld, my good friend and colleague the Senator. Ed, this is a very, very satisfying experience for me having been here, you know, last night listening to all the things I listened to, to get an opportunity to ser the record straight, because that is exactly what is going to be the difference between our convention and their convention.

A month from now we’re going to have our convention in New York and we’re going to run on President Bush’s record; we’re not going to run away from it as they have been doing for the last four nights. This has been a convention in which everything and anything has been discussed, but the record of these two men, because they don’t want the American people to know that the nominees of the democratic party are the United States senator who has the single most liberal voting record - John Kerry, more liberal that Hillary Clinton, more liberal than Ted Kennedy - and a senator who has the fourth most liberal voting record, John Edwards. There’s nothing wrong with that. If that’s what you believe that’s fine, but then stand up for it, be honest about it and be straightforward about it.

What we’re going to do a month from now is we’re going to proudly run on the record of George W. Bush, because we are proud of our President and we are proud of what he’s done. We don’t have to run away. They have to run away from their record, but we don’t have to. We have a president who changed the policy of our government and stood up to terrorism and decided, after we were horribly, viscously and barbarically attacked, that we were going to have to go on offense against terrorism and not play defense anymore. President George Bush has done that, whether it’s been popular, he’s done it when it’s been unpopular, he’s done it because he believes it and because he is a leader, and because that’s the kind of strength of purpose we need if we’re going to face up to terrorists.

Now, contrast that with Kerry and Edwards. John Kerry voted against the Persian Gulf War when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. How you could do that, only he can explain - usually five or six different ways - but only he can explain. But he voted against the Persian Gulf War. Then he voted for the Iraq War, and then shortly after, when the question of an 87 billion supplemental appropriation came up - to support our troops, support our people who are on the firing lines, as many of you have been - Senator Kerry voted against it, as did Senator Edwards, among only four senators who voted for the war and against the appropriation. Don’t tell me they aren’t on the far liberal wing of their party if they did that. That’s pretty obvious, although they want to run away from it.

But then, Senator Edwards and Senator Kerry have been spending as much time as they can, trying to explain their way out of that. The tape that I saw before, which I urge Ed to show to every American because I think every American should see this. It’s going to say a lot more than whatever speech John Kerry gives tonight. On that tape John Kerry explains his vote against the 87 billion dollar appropriation. And these are John Kerry’s words, I quote, and nothing could tell you more about him than this quote.

He says, I quote, "I voted for the appropriation before I voted against it." Does that tell you everything you need to know about John Kerry’s record in the United States senate? I voted for it, before I voted against it. What we need, at a time in which this country is in peril, at a time in which we’re facing an enemy that hates us, and has demonstrated that it wants to kill us and destroy our way of life, what we need is a strong, principled leader who is going to stand up for what is needed when it is popular, and when it is unpopular. And that’s president George Bush.

Again, we’re not going to have to go through the makeovers, the distortion, the rediscovery, the new this and the new that. We’re going to be able, in New York, in a month, to proudly run on the record on President Bush; a record of consistency in the war against terrorism, a record of working hard to revive and turn around our economy by fighting for tax cuts, fighting with people like John Edwards and John Kerry to bring about tax reductions to put money in to the pockets of Americans so we can revive our economy.

This would be the worst time to go back in the other direction. I agree with Governor Weld, and I agree with the people of Massachusetts, there is no question that if John Kerry were to be elected, and we certainly hope that isn’t the case, he will raise your taxes. Because that’s his incarnation, that’s what he’s truly all about, regardless of what he says tonight. So, if we want to continue the recovery we are having we’re going to reelect President Bush and Vice President Cheney. And, for sure, next month we are going to be able to run on a record of achievement and accomplishment and not have to run against it. Thank you very much.

GILLESPIE: Thank you your Honor. Thank you all. As you know every day that we’ve been here we’ve had a press briefing. Today we wanted to have some of our friends come here and visit with us, but we also have the media here, and we are going to take questions from the media at this point for any and all of us here.

QUESTION: Inaudible

WELD: I think televised debating is absolutely Senator Kerry’s longest suit. He’s been focusing on debating ever since he was an undergraduate student at Yale in the 60’s. One thing I can tell you having had all those televised debates with Senator Kerry. He is an international grandmaster at the art changing the subject, on very short notice and when you are on live television and you get a question that’s trying to pin you down on a position where you don’t want to be pinned down, like, did you vote to increase taxes on social security? Did you vote to award welfare to drug addicts? You’ve got to change the subject real fast. And there is nobody better at that than Senator Kerry he’s got the speed of a welterweight, he’ll move all around, the president could feel at the end of the debate that he has been shadowboxing, If he’s trying to land solid blows on Senator Kerry, so there’s nobody better and the Senator is very articulate. I think it’s an uphill fight in a televised debate.

QUESTION (Inaudible):

WELD: Well I wouldn’t ever count Senator Kerry out or any serious opponent, I would say that that raises color by the fact that it was taking place in Massachusetts only and president Clinton did defeat Senator Dole by 33 points in Massachusetts that year. Having said that I feel that it was a fair and equal race and Senator Kerry won in a fair fight. No second thoughts on that one.

QUESTION (Inaudible):

GIULIANI: No, we want the opportunity to set the record straight, we had an inclination and it turned out to be correct that this would be a reinvention convention, you know a makeover convention, that they would not run on the record that John Kerry has had in public office or the brief record that John Edwards has had in his short time in public office, that they would try to run away from that. And we felt that it was really important to get the record straight, and I think it is perfectly appropriate to do that.

GILLESPIE: If I might add though, we appreciate all the attention. I think maybe the nature of the news media has changed over the past few years because this is not outside the norm. I was the communication director of the Republican National Committee in 1996 with then Chairman Halley Barber, and when we were in Chicago we did a daily press briefing, it didn’t get as much attention, I’m thrilled with the attention, and in 2000 we did the same thing in Los Angeles the democrats did the same thing in Philadelphia and our convention in San Diego as well.

QUESTION: (Inaudible):

GILLESPIE: Well as you know, Terry McAuliffe, my counterpart at the Democratic National Committee has predicted an 8-12 percentage point bounce for the nominee after this convention and I don’t think that’s outside the ballpark, I’m not sure how long it holds, the Edwards bounce such as it was didn’t hold for very long, I don’t know how long this will hold. I do know that over the course of the next four weeks the president and others will be talking about the next four years, and talking about new ideas and new policies and new approaches for a new term and I think as we begin to talk about those things that will be an exciting debate for us to enter.

QUESTION: In-audible

GIULIANI: I haven’t had a make over. No there will be no makeover. I will be the same as I have always been, and so will all the speakers, it will show the broad range of the Republican Party. But the point I was trying to make was we’re going to run on President Bush’s record, his record of accomplishment in his was against terror, we are going to run on his record of accomplishment in reviving our economy. We are going to run on all of his accomplishments and we’re not going to run away from them. I think it is clear to anyone, Democrat, or Republican, or Independent that they have been running away from John Kerry’s record, they are running away from John Edwards record. Do we have diversity in our party? Yes. Are we going to present that diversity? Of course we are. But none of us our going to get up there as they have been doing for the last three nights and now I am sure a forth night and run away from record of our candidate. We’re proud of the record of President Bush, we’re proud of the record of Vice President Chaney. We do not have to run away from it, there may be areas we disagree in but we are not going to essentially try to create some kind of false picture of President Bush. We don’t have to, they have to.

QUESTION. Inaudible

GIULIANI: No I think that is the record. That is something that before Americans vote they should look at, they should look at John Kerry, not my interpreting him or some one else. But they should look John Kerry, looking into that camera and saying I voted for the appropriations right before I voted against. And they can get a sense of what we are talking about when we are talking about a man throughout his political career been very very inconsistent in the positions he has taken. That is something having written a book about leadership, having thought about it, having studied it a lot, that is the thing that is maybe the thing that is most inconsistent with being a strong leader, not be able to have a position that you can stick with when it becomes unpopular.

QUESTION: In-audible

GIULIANI: You know I can’t tell you I haven’t seen it. I don’t really need Michael Moore to tell me about September 11th.

QUESTION: In-audible

GIULIANI: Well I mean New York like Massachusetts is a democratic state. New York City is even a more heavily democratic city than the state, so it is always an uphill battle for Republicans, it is true that Ronald Reagan won the state twice, but most often Republicans loose the state of New York. The city of New York, I think, voted against Abraham Lincoln twice. So you might get a sense of the uphill battle we are talking about. On the other hand we have a very successful and a very popular republican governor who has won election three times. We have a very popular Republican mayor who succeeded a Republican mayor; I will not mention who it was. So there is a fighting chance in New York, but we are going to be behind, it is going to be an uphill battle, we’re going to be underdogs. But there is a chance in New York and I thing the convention will help that. The convention is something that will give us a chance to really (first Republican convention ever in City of New York) and it will give us the chance to get the truth out about President Bush, which is all our convention is going to be about. It is going to be about who George Bush and Dick Cheney really are and then let people make their choice.

QUESTION: In-audible

WELD: You know the Democrats have been politicizing September 11th all throughout the primary. That is all I have heard was criticizing of President Bush’s handling of September 11th, not only criticism but name calling and demonizing. So you know, September 11th whether you call it name-calling or politicizing is the single most important even that took in the last four years, maybe in the last twenty, who knows maybe in the last fifty. It certainly is a defining event, it changed America. And examining what the President has done right or what people feel he has done wrong, or Senator Kerry has done wrong since then is perfectly appropriate. That isn’t politicizing it that is discussing it honestly. Which is what we will do.

[kellynla]

Thanx for the post.

[Not A Snowbird]

Bump to read later. Thanks!

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

Good job, thanx. Pinging OldFriend.

[The Electrician]

I don’t really need Michael Moore to tell me about September 11th.

Score one for Giuliani. What a great putdown of the fat Commie...

[WOSG]

"I don’t really need Michael Moore to tell me about September 11th." -Rudy Guliani

great quote BUMP