Duncan Hunter

Transcript of what Duncan Hunter said during the second Republican presidential primary debate: first-in-the-South GOP primary debate of 2008 election (May 15 2007)

if you're commander in chief and you want to win this war in Iraq, what do you need to do to win it?

Representative Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.): Yeah, very briefly, Chris, the key to winning in Iraq is standing up the Iraqi military. There are 129 battalions in the Iraqi army. We need to make sure that every one of those battalions moves into an operational setting, gets a three- or four-month military operation in a contentious zone. At that point, they can move into the combat field. They can start displacing American units. And America's heavy combat units can rotate out. That's the right way to leave Iraq.

Let me ask you a question regarding immigration. One of our prized guests here today, Governor Schwarzenegger - looking this man in the eye, answer this question Should we change our Constitution, which we believe is divinely inspired.. (Laughter) .. to allow men like Mel Martinez, the chairman of your party, born in Cuba, great patriot, the senator from Florida, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, to stand here some night?

Hunter: We haven't seen his endorsement yet, Chris.

Hunter: That's a no.

consider yourself a compassionate conservative, like President Bush.

Hunter: Answer: Yes. And let me take the rest of my time on Iran. You know, right now, right now, Iran is moving equipment into Iraq that is being used to kill Americans. Iran has crossed the line, and the United States has absolute license at this point to take whatever actions are necessary to stop those deadly instruments from being moved across the line, being used in explosives, roadside bombs, inside Iraq. And lastly, you know, we don't - we should not get to the edge of the cliff on this enrichment of uranium. And plutonium to be used for a nuclear weapon in Iran - the United States needs to move very quickly.. The United States needs to move very quickly.

would the day that Roe v. Wade is repealed be a good day for America.

Hunter (?): Yes.

Hunter: Chris, thanks very much. John's ( McCain:I know how the military works. I know what the military should do, and what it shouldn't do. And I know what it can do. ) not the only guy with a defense background. I've been chairman of the Armed Services Committee for the last four years. I've helped to rebuild national defense. We have worked hard to make sure that our people have enough pay, that they've got the ammunition, that they've got the equipment, while at the same time looking over the horizon to look at the new threat of an emerging China and an Iran that is pursuing nuclear weapons and a Korea that already has some and is moving to get the means for delivery.

So a strong national defense, the trademark of Ronald Reagan is what I would pursue.

Governor Schwarzenegger, who is here tonight, has won the state twice by downplaying partisanship and taking centrist positions on the environment, immigration, abortion. Is that the way to win for Republicans?

Hunter: You know, it's a way to win, but we need to win the right way. And about 100 miles south of here, in my town of San Diego, we build the border fence. When we built that fence, we had a border out of control, and we built that fence. And it's a double fence. It's not that little scraggly fence you see on CNN with everybody getting over it. We had massive murders on the border, massive illegal immigration, massive importation of drugs. I built that border fence. We brought down the smuggling of people and narcotics by more than 90 percent. I think there's an implication in your immigration statement that the Hispanic community of California wants to have a secure border, and I wrote that law that extends the San Diego fence for 854 miles across Arizona, New Mexico and Texas that the president signed in October. One way to bring down crime in the state of California and every state in the union is to have an enforceable border. That means let's build that border fence. When people want to come into this country, let's ask them to knock on the front door.

wants to know if you watched Al Gore's environmental documentary, 'An Inconvenient Truth.'

Hunter: No, I didn't watch it. But, you know, I think that global warming and the need to be energy-independent gives us a great opportunity. I think we should bring together all of our colleges, our universities, the private sector, government laboratories, and undertake what, for this next generation, will be a great opportunity and a great challenge to remove energy dependence on the Middle East and, at the same time, help the climate. I think we can do that. We need to take taxes down to zero for the alternative energy sources. We need to make sure that all the licensing from our laboratories that goes to the private sector goes to the American manufacturing sector for these energy systems.

I think we can do it.

Mrs. Reagan wants to expand federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. Will that progress under your administration

Hunter: No. I'd like to show Mrs. Reagan the alternatives, which are adult stem cells.

mention a tax you'd like to cut, in addition to the Bush tax cuts, keeping them in effect.

Hunter: Absolutely. Chris, you know, right now our manufacturers are getting killed. We're seeing manufacturing move offshore because a dumb trade deal that we signed with the rest of the world allows all of our exports to be taxed twice while their exports to us are not taxed at all. The only way that we can even come close to leveling that playing field is to eliminate manufacturing taxes. So eliminate all taxes on Americans who will stay in the United States and make products and hire American workers.

name one thing that the federal government does really well, and one thing that it does poorly.

Hunter: Yes. Really well: Precision munitions on Mr. Zarqawi's safe house. (Laughter) Really poorly: Secure the border. Right now, the border is 2,000 miles of a very porous area where hundreds of thousands of people come across on an annual basis, and where last year we had 155,000 folks who came across from Mexico who were from other countries in the world. Some from communist China, some from Iran, some from Korea. We have to secure the border. That's the biggest failure of the federal government.

Would it be good for America to have Bill Clinton back living in the White House?

Hunter: You know, Bill Clinton cut the U.S. Army by almost 50 percent. In this war against terror, he's the wrong guy to have in there. And incidentally, on the Schiavo case, you know, Ronald Reagan said, on the question of life, 'When there's a question, err on the side of life.' I think Congress did the right thing.

Every president, if you look back to Ike, was elected to fill the problem of the previous president. We are, of course, correcting all the time in this country; it's how democracy works. How will you be different, in any way, from President George W. Bush?

Hunter: You know, we won World War II, World War I and the Cold War with a major industrial base. We're losing our industrial base through bad trade policy right now. China is cheating on trade. I would enforce trade laws. That's something that the president is not doing.

2008 Republican Candidates:

Sam Brownback
Jim Gilmore
Rudy Giuliani
Mike Huckabee
Duncan Hunter
John McCain
Ron Paul
Mitt Romney
Tom Tancredo     
Tommy Thompson