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Duncan Hunter
Transcript of Duncan Hunter during the third Republican presidential primary debate in New Hampshire (2008 election) (June 05 2007)
BLITZER: Let me bring in Congressman Duncan Hunter. Congressman, if it's not working at that point, how much longer should the United States stay? REP. DUNCAN HUNTER (R), CALIFORNIA: Well, Wolf, you know, I read that NIE report, and I held briefings before we made the vote to go in and invited everybody, Democrat and Republican, to get the classified information. And this depends -- the turnover of the security apparatus depends on one thing: reliable Iraqi forces. You've got 129 Iraqi battalions. We've trained them up. We've got a lot of them in the fight. Over the next three to four months, we need to get them all in the fight, get them that combat capability. When they're combat-hardened, we rotate them in, we displace American heavy combat forces off that battlefield, and Americans come home. And, Wolf. . .
BLITZER: Thank you.
HUNTER: . . . I can tell you, as the chairman of the Armed Services Committee for the last four years, I have the credentials to leave Iraq the right way.
BLITZER: Congressman Hunter, let me bring you back in. Do you agree with Senator Brownback that President Bush made the right decision in opening a direct dialogue with Iran? HUNTER: With two conditions. And I think that you do have a dialogue with everybody, whether they're adversaries or friends. The two conditions are: Number one, they are moving deadly equipment across the border that is killing Americans in Iraq. We have license to utilize anything that we want to use: special operations, intelligence, whatever it takes to stop that deadly equipment from moving across the border and hitting Americans in Iraq. And we don't give that up with these talks. Secondly, they've got about 1,000 centrifuges now working, enriching the material that can make, at some point, a nuclear device. The United States reserves the right to preempt, and we may have to preempt that nuclear weapons program. We cannot allow them to have a nuclear device. With those two caveats, talk to your enemies.
BLITZER: If it came down to a preemptive U.S. strike against Iran's nuclear facility if necessary, would you authorize as president the use of tactical nuclear weapons? HUNTER: I would authorize the use of tactical nuclear weapons if there was no other way to preempt those particular centrifuges. When the Osirak reactor was hit in '86, when the six F-18s came over the horizon and knocked that out, they didn't need anything but conventional weapons. Probably it's going to take a little more than that. I don't think it's going to take tactical nukes.
BLITZER: I want to stay on immigration. Everybody's going to have a chance to weigh in. But let's go back to Tom for another question on immigration. FAHEY: Congressman Hunter, whether we like it or not, in cities across America, counties across America, including your district in San Diego, illegal immigrants are doing jobs that American citizens don't want, working on farms, in hotels, restaurants. If you have your way and they all leave this country, who's going to fill those jobs? HUNTER: Well, first, I disagree with that premise, because when they made the sweep on the Swift plants -- those were the meat- packaging plants in Iowa; took out some 850 people who were working there illegally several months ago -- there were American citizens lined up the next day to get their jobs back at 18 bucks an hour. And let me tell you, this is a disastrous bill. And John McCain is right in saying that this is a national security issue. And it is: border enforcement. Then the Hunter bill, which was signed by the president on the 26th of October, mandating 854 miles of double fence -- not that scraggly, little fence you show on CNN all the time, Wolf, that people get across so easily. If they get across my fence, we sign them up for the Olympics immediately. (LAUGHTER) We've got a big fence. But 854 miles of double border fence was mandated to be constructed. Homeland Security has a billion bucks, cash on hand. It's been six months, and they've done 11 miles. So this administration has a case of the slows. And I think they slowed the fence down so that they could come out with the amnesty at the same time, put the two together, and the Bush-McCain-Kennedy bill would then be accepted by conservatives and liberals alike. It's a bad bill. (APPLAUSE) Congressman Hunter, I want to just -- because he raised the issue -- he raised the issue of corruption. Do you think it would be appropriate for President Bush to pardon Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, who was sentenced today to 30 months in prison for his role in the CIA leak case? HUNTER: You know, I think, Wolf, to make a determination on that, you'd have to look at the transcript. I'll tell you a couple of transcripts I have looked at, and that's the agents, Compean and Ramos, who were given 11 and 12 years respectively for stopping a drug dealer bringing 750 pounds of drugs across the border. I've looked at their transcript; I would pardon Compean and Ramos right now. (APPLAUSE) And let me say, with respect to what Mike said, we've got to bring back the Reagan Democrats to this party, because we need the Reagan Democrats for Republican leadership to work. And we're going to have to get a good trade bill that brings jobs back to this country. We're going to have to stop China from cheating on trade, build the middle class, build jobs, Wolf. That's what strengthens the Republican Party. (APPLAUSE) QUESTION: It is. Unfortunately, my beloved little brother, 1st Lieutenant Michael Joseph Cleary, was killed in action in Taji, Iraq, eight days before he was to return home on December 20th of 2005. He was the best of the best and answered the call to serve our country. My family has been devastated by the loss. As a member of an American family who has suffered so greatly at the choices made by the current administration, I desperately would like to know what you as commander in chief would do, both in the halls of the American government, to bring the parties together, as well as on the desert sands of the Middle East to bring this conflict to a point in which we can safely bring our troops home. VAUGHN: Erin, thank you. Congressman Hunter, let's begin with you on that.
HUNTER: OK. Absolutely. The key to leaving -- and, incidentally, thank you for his service. And I want to let you know, my son. . . (APPLAUSE) I want to let you know that my son Duncan, the day after 9/11, joined the Marine Corps, quit his job, did two tours in Iraq. He's in Afghanistan right now. First, I want you to know that it's worth it. (APPLAUSE) What he did was worth it. And if we can achieve a country in Iraq that will not be an state sponsor of terrorism for the next 5 to 10 to 20 years, that will be a friend, not an enemy, of the United States, and will have a modicum of freedom, that is in the national interest of the United States, just like establishing a free Japan on the other side of the Pacific was in our interest after World War II, just like providing freedom and a protective shield for Salvador in Central America was in our interest. So what I would do, and what we need to do right now, and we are doing, is standing up the Iraqi army. There is 129 battalions of Iraqis that we've trained and equipped. We need to start moving them into the combat zones where they displace the heavy American combat forces. Then we can pull our forces out. We can bring them home or send them wherever Uncle Sam needs them again.
BLITZER: Thank you.
HUNTER: That's how we leave Iraq the right way.
Congressman Hunter, you live on the border, San Diego, not far from Mexico. A lot of Americans go to Mexico to buy cheaper prescription drugs. A lot of Americans in this part of the country go to Canada to buy cheaper prescription drugs. What should we here in the United States be doing to bring down the price of prescription drugs? HUNTER: And, Wolf, the fabulous Grampy, my father-in-law, who lives with us, is one of those people that trots down and goes through the border at Yuma and does that. So lots of Americans do that. But here's what happens. Eighty percent of the new drugs and new inventions that save our lives, that help preserve the lives of the relatives of everyone who's in this particular room right now, 80 percent of those inventions are made in the United States because we have free enterprise, where people can go out, invest. And maybe they drill three dry holes in trying to produce a good drug that will save somebody's lives. Then maybe they hit the jackpot and they produce something that will save people and help their health. They then recover their money in the United States. And what they have left over, in terms of market, they put into the Third World. But Third World countries like Mexico could never provide the amount of money that it takes to make those inventions. Otherwise, they would. Here's what we have to do: We need to be able to buy our health care insurance across state lines, Wolf. Right now the same single policy that can be purchased in Long Beach for $73 costs $334 in New Jersey. The states lock up the insurance industry. They won't let Americans buy across state lines, just like they do everything else. If we're able to do that. . .
BLITZER: Thank you.
HUNTER: . . . we're going to bring down the cost of health insurance.
BLITZER: Congressman? HUNTER: You know, Wolf, when my son returned from Fallujah, he wrote these words. He said, 'Families lift our nation up. They provide us with fidelity, morality, faith in God and raising the next generation of Americans. ' The Republican Party has to reunite with the American family and pass policies that are constant with the American family. Then we'll be a great party again.
BLITZER: Thank you, Governor. Hold on one second. Congressman Hunter, I want you to weigh in, because Arnold Schwarzenegger, your governor in California, has become very popular out there by bringing in independents and moderates, and trying to forge a consensus among Republicans and Democrats in your state. Shouldn't the GOP nationally be following that Arnold Schwarzenegger example in California? HUNTER: No. And let me just say, you know, I look at Governor ROMNEY, Mayor Giuliani, my good friend John McCain -- Governor ROMNEY joined with Bill Clinton for the 1994 gun ban when I was fighting that. Mayor Giuliani stood with him at the White House on that. Governor ROMNEY has passed what I consider to be a major step toward socialism with respect to his mandated health care bill. John McCain is standing strong with Ted Kennedy on this Kennedy-McCain-Bush border enforcement bill. I think the guy who's got the most influence right here with these three gentlemen is Ted Kennedy. And I think we need to move away from the Kennedy wing of the Republican Party. (APPLAUSE)
Sam Brownback
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