Mitt Romney Interview Transcript

EDWARD MORRISSEY INTERVIEW OF MITT ROMNEY

aired May 30, 2007

Edward Morrissey: Governor Romney, thank you for being with me today. I want to go over a couple of things that you talked about today and then I want to talk to you a little bit more about foreign policy because I don’t think there’s been a lot mentioned about your foreign policy. First off, you’re talking about immigration and how do you see immigration, the immigration debate as part of the greater foreign policy debate?

GOVERNOR MITT ROMNEY: Well there are immigration implications for foreign policies but I think immigration, the heart of immigration, relates to national security and homeland security for the safety of our border as well as the number of illegal immigrants coming into the country and expecting benefits and support of this country. I believe that we can look at our immigration laws and say that it’s time for us to have in place a system of enforcing the law so that we can protect legal immigration. Legal immigration is a good thing. It enhances our competitiveness as a nation. Illegal immigration is something that we can end and I believe we should take action to finally to do just that.

Edward Morrissey: Now, last year you were supportive of, at least conceptually, of the Senate bill that was going through at the time. It didn’t make it through. This year you Romney makes face, shakes head … or maybe I’m wrong about that.

GOVERNOR MITT ROMNEY: No, I didn’t support last year’s bill. I said that there were a number of provisions that put forward that were reasonable. I think they were reasonable. I said that I wasn’t endorsing any of them. I didn’t endorse any of them but I said I wanted to get a good hard look and there were provisions which struck me as being like amnesty. Amnesty is an interesting word. It means different things to different people, so I’m not going to get hung up on the legal definition but my view is with regards to people who are here illegally, they should not be given a special pathway to become citizens or permanent residents. They should get in line with everybody else. And when that principle is violated, I have generally opposed the legislation, which does that.

Edward Morrissey: Thank you very much for clarifying that. I appreciate that. Now, your main problem in this bill as you explained in the interviews today, has been the “Z” provisions which is something that kicks in, it’s supposed to kick in after the triggers but there is a temporary status that kicks in immediately upon passage of the bill. And you were talking about how we can amend the “Z” visas possibly to reflect what you feel are the priorities of trimming illegal immigration. You were saying something about the “Z” visas temporary. Could you explain more about how you would see a temporary “Z” visa program and what would be the cut off at that point?

GOVERNOR MITT ROMNEY: Well, I’m not proposing legislation; I’m not drafting a piece of legislation. There are many pieces of legislation floating around Washington. My principle is pretty straightforward, which is don’t give the people who here illegally the right to stay here indefinitely in a way that puts them ahead in the line of the people who are applying for that right. And a, one way to do that of course is to say to all people who are here illegally, sign up, for a, come into the post office sign up, or state department or where ever you might be; sign up so that we know who you are and get you on a pathway to, if you will, a realistic attrition program so that you can return home, ultimately if you want to apply for citizenship or apply for permanent residency, you will be able to do so. I don’t think people should be barred from applying for citizenship or permanent residency if they have been here illegally but I don’t think they should have any advantage in being given that status by virtue of having coming here illegally.

EN: Let’s move on to foreign policy because I think it’s something that people don’t – I think you’ve been answering a lot of questions about domestic policy and I’d like to hear more about how you see America’s place in the world. One of the things that you said earlier today was that we need to build stronger relationships with allies and with other nations. How do you see, how do you see a Romney presidency working toward those goals?

GOVERNOR MITT ROMNEY: Well, actually, I’ve had a chance to speak at the George Herbert Walker Bush library with an audience there on some changes that I would like to see brought to bare on our foreign policy. And likewise, I spoke in Miami with regards to policy changes in Latin America. Some of those changes are these; first, I believe we need a stronger military. I think we’re under staffed our military by at least a hundred thousand troops and we’re under spending. Secondly, I believe that we need to organize our non-military resources on a geographical basis with a single person in charge of bringing those resources to bare to help further the interest of stability by their identity. What that means is that you would have someone responsible for, instance, for let’s say Africa, you could be looking at the policies that weaken ? with health care, financial resources, education resources and the like, along with other nations to help move nations toward ____?_towards stability. I think ultimately with regards to the great foreign policy that we face today, that threat is radical, violent Islam and we need a strong military to protect ourselves against that threat; but we also going to need to carry out a world wide effort with ourselves and like minded civilized nations to help moderate Muslims and to help them reject the extreme; and that’s not an effort that can be carried out unilaterally by us nor is it an effort can be done exclusively on a military basis. It’s going to require a collaboration of civilized nations and moderate Islamic states and that’s an effort which I look forward to help lead to make sure Muslims are able to reject the extreme.

Edward Morrissey: How do you see the UN and our place in the UN, do you see the UN as an organization that can, that is structured to assist you in that sort of effort or do you think you need to work outside the UN structure in order to make that successful?

GOVERNOR MITT ROMNEY: Well, for the past number of years the UN has been a great disappointment. The failures of the UN are legion. The decision, for instance of the UN, Human Rights Counsel to sanction Israel time and again but then to see no problems in Iraq or Iran or Afghanistan, these are failures that are stark and disappointing, at the same time, I value the fact UN has an agency like the IAEA, which carries out inspections and processes for determining whether nations are following the MBT and so, does it have a role to play, yes. Can we rely on the UN to bring stability to the world, no. And we’re going to have to strengthen our own alliances and at the same time also build, in my view, a new alliance and this is an alliance of a coalition of civilized nations to help move Islam towards modernity.

Edward Morrissey: It’s been proposed that we try to quarterback the creation of a league of democracies or a league of western nations that, apparently, would be built on a NATO model or something similar to that. Would you think that would be a good model to follow? Do you think it would be something you would want to replace the UN with or is it something you could use in a parallel, if you would be interested in doing that, that you would use it in a parallel fashion to the UN?

GOVERNOR MITT ROMNEY: Well, that’s something I first proposed under a different name, which is a Partnership for Progress and Prosperity, which is a partnership of civilized nations as well as moderate Islamic states that would come together to help establish good public schools in Islamic states which are threatened by violent jihad, good public schools that are not radical schools, the rule of law in those nations, agriculture and economic policies that are modern and allow these nations to compete in a global basis. Different candidates have picked up on the idea, given it different names, but we’re getting to bring together like minded nations that want to support a movement towards democracy and that’s something which I think is a high priority for this nation.

Edward Morrissey: We’ve obviously had some differences with Europe during the last few years, especially during the war on terror. It’s a split in western civilization and it’s very troubling, especially to regards to war on terror because it looks like we’re divided and fighting amongst ourselves. How would you propose mending the relationship with western European nations and building that strong alliance? What policy and what diplomatic efforts would we need to make in order to bring Europe closer back to us?

GOVERNOR MITT ROMNEY: Well, surely the President of the United States and the leaders of other European nations have a great deal we could learn from one another and a great opportunity to come together because of the coincidence of our interests. We very badly, as a group of western nations, want to see the defeat of global violent jihad. We want to see the strengthening of modern Islamic people. We’re also insistent upon the preservation of the principles of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and we want to see Russia emerged as a responsible player in the world economy on the world stage. So, there’s much that we have in common and we work together, for instance the E 3 has lead to negotiations with Iran related to the nuclear proliferation which that nation is pursuing. And so there’s much we can do together and I believe that it is important for us to recognize that Europe is an important partner. That the respect that we have European leaders and European nations is something which we can communicate through personal diplomacy as well as through a shared discussion of the challenges we face and the options we have for overcoming those challenges. We come from the same cultural heritage, if you will, we come from theirs. We spring from the Western culture and that basis as well can enable us to form partnerships and relationships and trusts on a personal basis that I think will enhance our capabilities in the world. America is strong by itself; America can protect itself, American can protect itself, but at the same time, we are stronger when we stand with friends and the friends that I would like to stand with include our European friends as well as friends throughout the entire world.

Edward Morrissey: Governor, we’ve seen a lot of turmoil in Latin America recently here in our own hemisphere, Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, shutting down television stations, nationalizing industries, and it seems like there is a move toward socialism in Latin America. What would be, how would you go about trying to open a better relations with Latin America and draw those people back to free market, democracies and free market economics?

GOVERNOR MITT ROMNEY: Well, I think that we unfortunately took our eye off the ball of the progress in own hemisphere. Following the end of the cold war, there was a, what Charles Krauthammer called, a holiday from history. We thought there was going to be no more evil in the world, at the same time we then suffered the 9/11 tragedy, which of course, took our focus to the middle east and we should recognize that it’s important to have a strong set of friends in your neighborhood. And Hugo Chavez’s progress and his affiliation is very troubling and there are a number of things that I think we need to do. (1) is to reach out diplomatically to leaders of the nations in Latin America; (2) is to assure that our financial support is going is to those nations that are closest to us in supportive of our policies (3)is to market to people of the hemisphere in which we live as to the principles of democracy and free enterprise and to make sure that the reality of America’s heart and goodness which they understand and appreciate (4) I think we should extend our economic ties with nations of Latin America; the President has worked out free trade agreements, trade promotion authority agreements, with a number of nations, with Panama, with Nicaragua, excuse me, with Panama, with Peru and Columbia and in those cases among others, I believe we should be, Congress should be the giving final sign offs so we’re able to have better economic ties, better economic ties, I think, create better understanding our between nations. So these are some of the measures we have to put in place to strengthen those ties and to rebuild the relationships of trust and strength which have long characterized our affiliations in Latin American .

Edward Morrissey: Duncan Hunter and I believe, Tom Tancredo are talking about pulling back on free trade and going toward a fair trade doctrine. Duncan Hunter, especially, is very critical of the trade agreements with China and I believe, in some cases, in Latin America. What is your position on free trade versus fair trade globally as well as specifically with China perhaps India?

GOVERNOR MITT ROMNEY: Well surely free trade is a source of additional economic vitally for our country. It’s been calculated that the average American family earns an extra six thousand dollars a year by virtue of the free trade that we enjoy around the world. At the same time, no one could be oppose to fairness in our trade and with regards to our relationship with China, the fact that they have pegged their currency at an artificially low level to the dollar presents a competitive disadvantage for us and an advantage for them and that’s something we’d like to see end. Interestingly, when the original trade, now the WTO agreements were reached, the idea of pegging currencies was normal; that was the standard; now we book currencies so there’s nothing in these provisions to basically sanction China for doing what they’re doing. But it clearly puts us at a disadvantage and that’s something we’re going to have to change. China has been making some progress in that the Yuan has been devalued by about, it should be revalued by about eight percent over the last several months. But there is more to be done there and a greater interest in some respects is protection of intellectual property. Much of what we sell to the world is in the form of patents and technology and if nations steal that technology and it means we’re losing the commercial value that we worked hard to create. So there’s a lot of work that we are going to have to do to make sure that our trade is fair and it is balanced. I don’t like signing fair trade agreements that don’t present an advantage to us. I hope it presents an advantage to the other guy too, but it’s got to be two sided at least and I’m not going to go out and sign agreements that puts us in a disadvantage but avoiding trade is a sure way for America to become not competitive and ultimately not be a major power, that of course, would be a very bad course to take and is not what our nation will take.

Edward Morrissey: Governor Romney, thank you.