Jim Gilmore

Transcript of what Jim Gilmore said during the first Republican presidential primary debate (May 04 2007)

you've been a military man. You were in Army intelligence. But on this general question, the Rumsfeld removal was perhaps timed to the election. Do you think a general shake-up in this administration's Cabinet, right now, would be good for the administration?

Former Virginia Governor James Gilmore (R-Va.): I think there have been a lot of changes in the administration over the last number of years. We've seen those changes. But the fundamental point that we have to remember is this has been coming on for quite a long time. Decades this has been coming on. And I think we got distracted at the end of the Cold War, when we were thinking about the end of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall, thanks to the president in whose name this library is named. And, instead, we didn't pay attention sufficiently to the entire Middle East. And I see this Iraq problem as part of an entire Middle East issue, and it's sort of a fundamental problem that we're going to have an honest conversation with the American people about. We're going to have to engage in the Middle East, and we're going to have to do it for an extended and a long period of time. It isn't just an Iraq issue. This is an issue of the challenges that we're facing between the Palestinians and the Israelis, the challenge between Sunnis and Shiites - the problem with people on the street not even agreeing with their own regimes. There is a great deal that has to be done, and the president is going to have to bring the American people forward into a major commitment in many areas - one is foreign policy - and there will have to be a new commitment to the Middle East.

when speaking about Osama bin Laden last week, Governor Romney said, quote, 'It's not worth moving heaven and Earth, spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person.' Senator McCain called that naive. Who's right?

Gilmore: You know, I think - well, I think we do have to do everything that we can do to get this guy, and the reason is because he is a symbol to the people who believe, as a matter of faith, that they have a right and a duty to destroy Americans and Western civilization. The bigger, however, issue, is this: The Americans have to lead against the sea of hostility that was referred to earlier. This is a serious challenge. We can't allow a situation where everyone, all the way from Morocco, all the way through the Middle East, all the way to the Philippines, believes that the United States does not have their best interests at heart. During the Cold War - and I served as..

Moderator: If I would, is President Bush partly responsible for that, in your view?

Gilmore: This is what I think we have to do: What I think we have to do is to use all of our abilities, diplomatic and economic and military, above all things, put ourselves on the moral high ground, and let people across the world know that we are in the same shoes that we were in during the Cold War. During the Cold War, we represented the aspirations of people everywhere in the world in good faith. And that now must be our policy, so that we in fact do deny those kinds of people and resources to the people who we can't deal with diplomatically. And that, of course, is the Al Qaida type of fundamentalists.

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?

Gilmore: No, I don't intend to want to amend this Constitution in a variety of different ways, and this would be not a good start to do it that way.

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

Gilmore (?): Yes, it was wrongly decided.

you have said in the past that you believe in the first eight to 12 weeks of pregnancy that the woman should have the right to have an abortion. Do you still want to stick with that exception?

Gilmore: I do, Chris. My views on this, my beliefs on this are a matter of conviction. And they've always been the same, and they've never changed, the entire time that I've been in public life. However, my record as governor of Virginia, I think, has been one that the pro-life community, of which I'm a part, would be very proud: passing a 24-hour waiting period, passing informed consent, passing parental notification, signing the partial-birth abortion law in Virginia. So I think the record is there. But my views - my views are strongly and fundamentally believed and been held that way.

you know Karl Rove and you've worked with Karl Rove. Is Karl Rove your friend? (Laughter)

Moderator: Do you want to keep him in the White House if you get elected president - the president's chief political operative?

Gilmore: You know, at the end of the day, the responsibility for this government and for its policies rests with the president of the United States. And the president is able to choose the people that he wants to choose in order to implement his policy. The president has chosen Karl Rove.

Moderator: But you, as commander in chief and chief executive, would you employ Karl Rove?

Gilmore: It isn't a matter of Karl Rove. What's important to this nation is not Karl Rove. (Laughter) What's important to this nation and to this party is the acquisition of the philosophy and values that we are as Republicans. There is a time now for us to reach out and to say that we're spending too much money in government, that it's taking too much of the resources of this nation, that we have got to do something about government spending, create more jobs and a higher revenue and a better opportunity, and thereby to cut taxes for regular people.

Gilmore: I did that as governor. I'm a consistent conservative that keeps his word and does what he says that he's going to do.

Women are the fastest growing prison population. Most are mothers who are non-violent, first-time offenders. What will you do to address the issue of mothers behind bars and the children left behind?

Gilmore: You know, when I was governor of Virginia, I had to deal with a great number of these issues, and I think that we have to insist upon the obedience to the law. And that means that we have to let the courts and the juries make decisions based upon all of those matters. When I was prosecutor - I was an elected prosecutor - I had to address these issues all the time. And the fact is, that we just simply have to have the law apply in an appropriate way. I would like to answer that question about decision-making. I was governor of the state of Virginia during the 9/11 attack, and I had to act immediately in order to address these issues. And I was also chairman of a national commission on terrorism that addressed these issues as well.

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

Gilmore: We can't create people in order to experiment with people.

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

Gilmore: You know, Chris, I've been a governor of Virginia. I ran on a tax cut proposal, and I ran on eliminating the car tax in Virginia. I received terrific opposition to doing that. I kept my word, kept my promise, and we eliminated that car tax. Now, the question is, who is actually going to do what they say they're going to do? Where have you been is where you're going to go, and I have actually lived up to my word. And the answer is, the alternative minimum tax, which is continuing to drive people in the middle class into higher and higher tax brackets.

you claim to be the only real conservative in this race. They want you to explain why none of the other candidates deserves the label themselves as the true conservative.

Gilmore: No, I have not tried to say I'm the only real conservative in the race, but I have tried to say that I am a consistent conservative and someone that you can count on, something that isn't going to say one thing one year and another thing another year and flip and flop and change around. I'm a person who ran as a conservative.

Gilmore: I governed as a conservative. I was a alternate delegate for Ronald Reagan to the Kansas City convention back in 1976. So I have been consistent all throughout. And I'm someone that people can count on as a conservative.

Do you think Scooter Libby should be.. The judge is going to rule on that case next month and decide whether he will be in prison during his appeal. Would you let it go, let him be imprisoned?

Gilmore: First, Chris, I think that, like..

Moderator: Not yet.

Gilmore: Not yet. Like others, I think that we have to deal with these papers, with respect to illegal immigrants, not with respect to all Americans. We should not have a national ID card. We should have that more diffused across the states. With respect to Scooter Libby, I actually was an elected prosecutor. I handled many cases myself, and I also managed many other cases. The law has to apply within the discretion of the prosecutor. Now, if the president is going to exercise - which I have, by the way, done myself, as a chief executive - pardons or clemency, in this particular case, as high-profile as it is, you have to go to the American people and make your case as to why that kind of discretion ought to be applied. And if he can't make that case, then he shouldn't do it.

Moderator: So we don't want another Marc Rich.

Gilmore: Pardon?

Moderator: Never mind. (Laughter)

Gilmore: No, that's right.

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

Gilmore: You know, no, because that would mean that Hillary Clinton would be president of the United States, and where you have been is where you're going to go. And Hillary Clinton tried to socialize medicine in this country - a very bad idea. You need to keep that in the private sector. And yet she said in this debate..

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?

Gilmore: You know, Chris, this campaign is about the national security of the United States. And there are at least four things that need to be done. We need to be vigorous on the war on terror, and we need to draw other people across the world to us as we address it. Homeland security has got to become an entire effort of an entire community of the United States. And we have not yet achieved that.

Gilmore: And we have to energy independence.

2008 Republican Candidates:

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