ABC "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" - Transcript: Reaction to Nate Silver Predictions
Interview
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RADDATZ: Let's get the roundtable's reaction. Oklahoma Republican congressman, Tom Cole. Minnesota Democratic congressman, Keith Ellison. Dan Senor, co-founder of the foreign policy initiative and our own Cokie Roberts.
Does anyone disagree with Nate Silver?
REP. KEITH ELLISON, (D) MINNESOTA: I disagree.
RADDATZ: Oh, oh.
COKIE ROBERTS, ABC NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST: What a surprise.
RADDATZ: What a surprise.
ELLISON: Well, you know, first of all, this is a snapshot in time. And, you know, if Democrats are watching this broadcast, then they need to get out on the street and start knocking on doors. I think this is going to motivate our base to really get out there and make relationships and show this is the folks who shut down the government, these are the folks responsible for sequester. These are the people who don't want to extend unemployment insurance. 10,000 people in Oklahoma have seen...
REP. TOM COLE, (R) OKLAHOMA: I'm glad you're so concerned.
ELLISON: Well, 222,000 in Minnesota have not gotten unemployment their insurance. This is who's responsible for that.
And if you want to see more of that bad stuff, then stay at home. If not, you better get out...
RADDATZ: Is he dreaming?
COLE: Yeah, he is, actually. Which is often the case with my friend.
Quite frankly -- and that's a very big dream on your part.
But look, I think you look for some obvious signs. The playing field here has been getting bigger rather than smaller for Republicans for months now. Places that aren't normally in play are coming into play. Most of the places that Silver ticked off are red states that the president lost poorly -- lost badly in the last election.
And finally we've got a bellwether special election with Florida 13 which I think showed a lot about what the state of play is.
Well, this is the district the president carried.
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RADDATZ: Let me talk about what if the Republicans do take the Senate? What really happens? Will there be big changes?
What if Ruth Bader Ginsburg retires, can they overturn Obamacare?
COLE: Well, the president needs to decide then, does he want to spend the last two years in foreign travel or does he want to seriously negotiate with the congress of the United States.
I think that's when you have an opening for some really big things that Republican votes for the most part, but also take a Democratic signature, somewhat similar we had with Bill Clinton.
You know, Clinton we got welfare reform, balanced budget, most Democrats didn't vote for those things, but you had Republican that pushed them through and a willing negotiating partner on the other side.
If the president will do that, then I think we can actually come to grips with entitlement reform, find some common ground on some infrastructure, maybe get some tax reform. But I don't think that's going to happen with a Democratic Senate.
RADDATZ: You mentioned the president and foreign travel. Not really a great week for the president in terms of the faceoff with Vladimir Putin.
We loved this from The Onion, the satirical website, penning a humorous op-ed. With Putin saying it's certainly no easy task to forcefully annex an entire province against another country's will. So I just wanted to thank you, the government of the United States, the nations of western Europe and really the entire world population as a whole for being super cool about this.
Now The Onion is not alone, Congressman Ellison. Is Putin getting away with murder because the world really lacks the challenge? Really lacks the force?
ELLISON: Well, think about the options on the table. You know, I don't think it's appropriate to steam through the Black Sea and get into World War III, perhaps. So what is the president doing? He's sanctioning leaders in Russia, he is condemning this in the strongest terms. He's mobilizing western forces to make sure that this is condemned and stopped.
And of course no doubt about it, NATO is getting mobilized and understands this is a high-stakes thing.
I mean, a few years ago when we saw action in Georgia and the caucuses, I mean, what did George Bush do? The president is doing what it's responsible to do. And you know, sort of like...
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RADDATZ: Thanks to Jeff. And back with the roundtable. And I want to ask you, Dan, first, what's your instinct on this?
SENOR: I think the administration's case is very weak and I think it has enormous political implications. If Hobby Lobby has to avoid -- chooses to avoid providing these coverage for these four contraceptives out of the 20 that they are required to, they will get fines of half a billion dollars a year. This a company that employees 13,000 Americans. Plus at a time when there's been tens of millions of Americans who have been exempted.
So the -- all the selective implementation of Obamacare, combined with huge fines for business that are actually employing Americans I think is terrible for the overall debate over Obamacare. It continues to drive down popularity.
RADDATZ: Congressman Ellison.
ELLISON: You know, let's step back from the whole Obamacare Affordable Care Act debate and ask ourselves what this would mean. Do we really want a corporation to be able to have its own religious views and impose them on its employees? What would that mean for the separation of church and state, for individual liberty? What would it mean about corporate personhood?
This is scary territory and people need to win.
RADDATZ: Congressman.
COLE: Look, I know the Green family, I know the company very well. They're absolutely outstanding people and they live their beliefs. This is about the free exercise of religious beliefs in your business. Now they follow these precepts in terms of opening their businesses, or not opening them, on Sunday and that sort of thing.
So, I also -- I go back -- I think Dan makes a very good point, at the end of the day, we have already exempted millions and millions of people. We exempt religious institutions.
This is a privately-held corporation, by the way. And in this case, I think they have got a very strong argument. They won at the district level. I think they'll win the Supreme Court.
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