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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Vice President
Internal Transcript April 12, 2012


INTERVIEW OF VICE PRESIDENT JOSEPH BIDEN
MSNBC, ED SCHULTZ

Exeter Town Hall
Exeter, New Hampshire


2:50 P.M. EDT

Q Mr. Vice President, thanks for the time.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Ed, it's great to be here with you. I'm a fan.

Q Thank you. My head explodes when I hear you can't raise taxes on the job creators. What goes through your mind when you hear that?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: What goes through my mind is where in the heck have these guys been? That was the same argument sitting on the Senate floor listening to George Bush make when he put that God-awful tax cut through for the super wealthy without paying for it. They were going to create jobs. What happened? Slower job growth than any time in 50 years once that passed.

Q You think this is an instant replay?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: This is an instant replay, man. I mean, they talk about out of touch. Haven't they seen this movie? I mean, what makes anybody think -- look, all this does -- these God-awful additional tax cut the Romney rule wants to put in there, another $250,000-a-year tax cut for the average person making over a million bucks on top of the Bush tax cuts, $800 billion over the next 10 years --

Q You can't do it.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: You can't do it. You can't afford it.

Q Won't work.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: By the way, it doesn't work. If we want to incentivize businesses, we should be giving tax breaks to the innovators. We should be giving tax breaks -- making the R&D tax cut permanent, investing in new, high-tech manufacturing capabilities, alternative energy.

Q So the Romney camp is saying that 92 percent of the jobs that were lost during the recession were with women. What's your response to that?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: You know what that reminds me of? I used to practice law when I was a kid. And it's that old joke about the kid who kills both his parents and then pleads for mercy because he is an orphan. Who caused these jobs to be lost, all of them -- men and women?

Before we came into office, the six months before, 3.5 million jobs lost. Before I lowered my right hand on that magnificent day on January 20th with a million people watching, 750,000 some lost. Another 4 million before the first job bill we could get passed to begin to rectify this.

Q But he is trying to make the case that women have been in-ordinarily hit in this recession. Is that true?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, women have been hit. But men have also been hit. But the point is -- look at all the number of people who have been kicked out of the middle class, dropped out because they can't stay there anymore.

And this guy talking about women? These guys talking about women? These guys have a social policy on contraception that takes you back to the '50s. They have a policy -- I mean, when asked the question, do you think the legislation passed mandating that your son and daughter doing the same work will have to get the exact same pay, the Lilly Ledbetter Law, they couldn't answer off the bat.

Q So the war on women is real?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Oh, I think the war on women is real. And, look, I'll tell you where it's going to intensify. The next President of the United States is going to get to name one and possibly two or more members of the Supreme Court.

Q A Democratic operative said that Mitt Romney's wife, Ann Romney, hasn't worked a day in her life. We know the story, she raised five boys at home. What's your response to that?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: My response is that's an outrageous assertion. Look, I have fought my whole career -- I'm no hero. I don't want to make it like -- whether it's the Violence Against Women Act or equal pay, my entire career as a senator and as a Vice President is to get to one point, where my daughter is able to make whatever choice she wants and no one question her.

My daughter happens to have her master's degree. She is a social worker. She is getting married. If my daughter wants to be able to say, I'm staying home and raising my kids, no one should question that.

Q So the right wing is trying to make the case that the Democrats aren't sympathetic or respects stay-at-home moms.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, let me tell you something, they don't know the Democrats that I know. When my wife was killed and I was raising two young boys myself, and then Jill and I got married -- we've been married now for 35 years -- the boys were young. She is a professional. She has her doctorate. She has two master's -- she is a teacher.

She decided -- she decided, not me -- she said, Joe, I'm going to stay home till they're in school. That's her decision. And that generation, starting with my wife, was able to make those decisions to either decide she is going -- and I just think this is -- just look at the record of who has promoted women's health, who has promoted women's opportunity. Who has promoted the opportunity to have people on the Supreme Court that recognize that women are absolutely, thoroughly, totally equal in every way with men.

Q And are women going to be with you in this election? I mean, the polls show right now that there is a gender gap and it favors the Democrats.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Ed, I'm a little probably unusual in this regard. I never predict what people are going to do. All I'm saying is I think the case that we can make -- Barack's policies, our past, our expectations, our dreams for women contrasted with the Republican agenda as it has been and continues to be relative to women, I don't think it's a close call. And I think women will make that judgment.

Q Let's get back to the economy for just a moment. A White House campaign staff member told me yesterday that 67 percent of the American people want the wealthy to pay more. Do you believe that number? And do you think the people are with you on that?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I believe the wealthy are with -- look, I come from the wealthy, little state of Delaware. And I got elected seven times to the United States Senate being a progressive. And I never once engaged in the so-called class warfare, but because I found out -- and you know as well as I do -- wealthy people are just as patriotic as poor people. They're just as patriotic as middle-class people.

Q You said today they're ready to do more.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: They're ready to do more. I remember taking a look at a poll when we were trying to get the Jobs bill passed, and we said in order to put 400,000 teachers and teachers' aides back to work and about 15,000 to 20,000 firefighters and cops, all you had to do was raise five-tenths of 1 percent, the tax on the first dollar a millionaire made after the first million.

And I remember the poll showing millionaires, a majority of millionaires supported that. So I just think these guys -- I think the American public is ready to step up and do their fair share, including millionaires.

Q You were in the Senate Judiciary Committee. You wrote the legislation that put 100,000 cops on the street. What's your position on "stand your ground"? Is that a good law? Is it necessary?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, look, I think it's -- I think it just leads to nothing but ambiguity. There's been from English common law all the way through the history of laws in this country is that you can stand your ground if you're being attacked. But what you can't do is pursue -- when you're no longer in danger, pursue and use lethal force against an individual who is fleeing.

And so, one of the reasons why I thought it was so necessary -- and the President called for it, the Attorney General, even the Governor in Florida called for it, to set up a special prosecutor to go take a look at the facts -- is that that had to be determined. That had to be determined. And the court concluded -- I mean, the court -- the special prosecutor concluded there was evidence to try this man.

Q But in the cycle of budgeting, you quoted your dad about show me your budget, I'll show you priorities, I've heard you say that before. Are we there when it comes to police officers and when it comes to local protection, and it leads to more people arming themselves and plays into this paranoia? And now, we've got this "stand your ground," which is being pushed by ALEC.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, look, here's the thing. I think we should let police do the police work. And, by the way, most of the people -- other than these drug wars killing one another, most of the people who get killed, get killed with their own weapon. That is, you have a weapon to protect yourself. But it takes something pretty tough to be able to shoot somebody at point blank. And so, that's why people usually get in trouble.

My view has been put an adequate number of police on the street in the neighborhoods. And that's why I'm perplexed by the unwillingness of the Republicans to continue to reauthorize the COPS bill. I spent a lot of time writing that legislation, but I also had hundreds of hours of hearings. And there's a direct correlation between whether or not you have a cop on a corner and a cop on a neighborhood who knows people, and whether or not there's crime in that neighborhood. That's the way to deal with it.

Q Final point I want to make. Citizens United, there's a very good chance that the Obama campaign won't match the money that's going to be raised by the super PACs.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Very good chance. (Laughter.)

Q Well, and the template may be being played out in Wisconsin about boots on the ground, social networking. How important is that recall for the confidence of the country that people want their government and want to have a voice?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: In a sense, I think, Ed, it's already been accomplished. It's already given confidence. When here you had an overwhelming percentage of the people of Wisconsin to say, we should have a recall vote. And it almost at this point doesn't matter who wins the vote -- it matters, but the point has been made. It wasn't just Democrats. It wasn't just union members who voted for that.

In order to get to the numbers they had -- if my recollection is correct, as many people voted in that as voted for governor the previous election, saying there should be a recall election. And that is people standing up.

Q Is this the template?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: It is the template.

Q It is?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I just got finished talking to our volunteers here in New Hampshire. And I said, there is only one real antidote to what the expected-to-be, the hundreds of millions of dollars spent carpet bombing the President primarily -- me too, but I mean, the President is the guy they're probably going to go after, because he is the leader, he is the boss. And I said, there's only one antidote and it's your next-door neighbor knocking on your door and saying, I know these guys. Let me tell you, Ed, they're good men. That's not true what you just heard.

That's why we need more people -- Barack Obama, his last campaign had the best organized campaign in the history of modern presidential politics -- put more troops on the ground. The antidote to their millions of dollars of negative advertising is people, people on the ground. And so, I think and I believe we will have the best ground game in the history of American presidential politics. That's the antidote.

Q You like the "Ed Show"?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I like the "Ed Show" a lot, man. I watch you. And I'll tell you what, we come from -- figuratively speaking -- the same neighborhood, man.

Q Yes, we do.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: We had the same aspirations, except you ended up being an All-American and I ended up being all-nothing when I tried to play.

Q I don't think so.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: But thanks.

Q Mr. Vice President, thank you.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much.

Q It's great to visit with you.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: I appreciate it.

Q You bet. Thank you, sir.


END 3:03 P.M. EDT