NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio: Not endorsing Hillary “until I see an actual vision”
Sec. John Kerry: “Deal is what we said it was” despite Iranian spin
Sen. Rand Paul: “Grand hypocrisy” for Clintons that GOP has a war on women
APRIL 12, 2015 – This morning’s “Meet the Press with Chuck Todd” featured interviews with Bill de Blasio, mayor of New York City and Hillary Clinton’s first campaign manager; Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY); Secretary of State John Kerry; and a panel discussion with David Brooks, columnist for The New York Times; Hugh Hewitt, host of “The Hugh Hewitt Show”; Maria Hinojosa, host of NPR’s “Latino USA”; and Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, mayor of Baltimore City.
Below are highlights, video clips, and a rush transcript of today’s program. Additional show video will be available online at www.MeetThePressNBC.com, and join the conversation online with hashtag #MTP.
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De Blasio Not Ready to Endorse Hillary
VIDEO: http://nbcnews.to/1IWbVDs
CHUCK TODD:
But you’re technically not yet endorsing her?
BILL DE BLASIO:
No, not until I see, and again, I would say this about any candidate, until I see an actual vision of where they want to go. I think she’s a tremendous public servant. I think she is one of the most qualified people to ever run for this office. And by the way, thoroughly vetted, we can say that. But we need to see the substance.
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De Blasio: More Necessary Than Ever Before for Hillary to Listen to Everyday People
CHUCK TODD:
So let me ask you about what you’re hearing about how she’s launching her campaign, that it’s all about copying the blueprint you put together in 2000. Smart?
BILL DE BLASIO:
Well, there’s certainly a team effort in 2000 and it worked. And one of the important points was she did go out and listened to what was happening to everyday people. And I think that’s going to be more necessary this year than ever before, because people in this country are hurting. The Great Recession set people back on their heels in a way we have not seen in decades and decades. I think it’s important for Hillary to hear those stories of the American people, I think it will make her a stronger candidate.
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Kerry: Iranian ‘Spin’ Does Not Affect Deal
VIDEO: http://nbcnews.to/1z8tevU
CHUCK TODD:
If what you say the agreement is is the agreement, there are plenty of people, even some Republicans, that say it’s a good agreement. However, the leader of Iran, the ayatollah, and everybody knows this is the guy that calls the shots, he tweets this out in English, “I trust our negotiators, but I’m really worried as the other side is into lying and breaching promises, an example was the White House fact sheet.”
And when you look at the differences, whether it’s President Rouhani and what he has said, or what the ayatollah has said, the United States has said that it’s going to be a gradual relief of sanctions based on progress. The Iranians say there’s immediate sanction relief.
The U.S. says there’s limits on uranium enrichment. The Iranians say there’s no mention of enrichment limits. The U.S. says there’s restrictions on Iranian research. The Iranians say there is no restrictions on research and development. Why are they publicly lying, if that’s what they’re doing?
SECRETARY JOHN KERRY:
Well, I’m not going to get into accusations back and forth. That doesn’t help our process. It’s not going to solve any problems.
CHUCK TODD:
Are they being truthful? Are they truthful here?
SECRETARY JOHN KERRY:
They’re going to say the things that they feel they need to say with respect to their deal at home. And all I can tell you is this: when we did the interim agreement, there were these same kinds of discrepancies, or spin, if you want to call it that, with respect to what the deal was or wasn’t.
But in the end, the deal was signed and the deal has been agreed to and lived up to. No one contests that Iran has lived up to every component of that agreement. And the deal is what we said it was.
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Kerry: “We Don’t Trust” Iran, “No Element of Trust in What We’re Doing”
VIDEO: http://nbcnews.to/1aGybWL
CHUCK TODD:
Let me move to Iran, because Iran is on the state sponsor of terror list. How is it that you can do a nuclear agreement and trust a country to abide by that agreement that you also believe, that our government believes is a state sponsor of terror?
SECRETARY JOHN KERRY:
Well, the bottom line is the word you used: trust. We don’t trust. There is no element of trust in what we’re doing. You have to build trust, and that takes place over a long period of time. This is an agreement that is based on transparency, accountability, verification. You have to be able to know what is happening.
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Paul: Hillary Should Call for Boycott of Saudi Arabia, Not Accept “Tens of Millions of Dollars”
VIDEO: http://nbcnews.to/1D9qbYp
SEN. RAND PAUL:
I think the thing is about the Clintons is that there’s a certain sense that they think they’re above the law. And I think there’s also this grand hypocrisy for the Clintons in the sense that we’ve got this whole thing, this war on women thing that they like to talk about.
And yet Hillary Clinton has taken money from countries that rape victims are publicly lashed. In Saudi Arabia, a woman was gang raped by seven men. She was publicly lashed 90 times. And then she was convicted of being in the car with an unmarried man. We should be boycotting, voluntarily boycotting a country, not buying stuff from a country that does that to women–
CHUCK TODD:
So you want a boycott. So if you’re president, “Saudi Arabia, you’re no longer an ally.”
SEN. RAND PAUL:
Well, no–
CHUCK TODD:
“You’re done.”
SEN. RAND PAUL:
I think that’s a little different than what I’m saying. You remember with South Africa? You know, there was much of it that was a voluntary boycott saying, “You know what? Personally, you know, I’m going to try to tell my university not to invest in this country because of what they do to women.”
And, see, I think I would expect Hillary Clinton if she believes in women’s rights, she should be calling for a boycott of Saudi Arabia. Instead, she’s accepting tens of millions of dollars. And I think it looks unseemly. And there’s going to be some explaining she’s going to have to come up with.
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Additional clips from today’s program and web-exclusive video:
- Chuck’s Take: Hillary Opens Her Senate Playbook http://nbcnews.to/1IWdX6D
- The Many Times Hillary Hinted at a Run http://nbcnews.to/1aVwV2Y
- Meet the Candidates: Senator Rand Paul http://nbcnews.to/1JCbL5e
- How the Walter Scott Shooting Would Have Been Reported if the Video Didn’t Exist http://nbcnews.to/1Jp1Hwn
- #NerdScreen: The Geography and Politics of Taxes http://nbcnews.to/1aGpGex
- Chuck’s Best Wishes to CBS’s Bob Schieffer http://nbcnews.to/1DVKA6D
- Hillary Scouting Report: Enter the Heavyweight http://nbcnews.to/1GBunnx
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Below is a RUSH transcript of this morning’s broadcast — mandatory attribution to NBC News’ “Meet the Press.” A final transcript of the program will be available at MeetThePressNBC.com.
APRIL 12, 2015
