Interview With Jose Diaz-Balart of Telemundo - Interview - Transcript

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Nov 20, 2000

November 4, 2000

Mr. Diaz-Balart. Mr. President, thank you very much for being with us on "Esta Manana." It's a pleasure having you.

The President. Glad to do it.

Hispanic Vote and the 2000 Election

Mr. Diaz-Balart. Let's talk about the importance of November 7th, specifically towards the Latino population of the United States. Why should people who, many times, don't feel part of this country, and yet are citizens, why should they vote?

The President. Because there are issues at stake that will directly affect themselves, their families, their communities, and our country. There are huge differences in the economic policies of the two candidates.

Obviously, I favor the ones that Vice President Gore and my wife and others have articulated, but there's the question of whether you think it's better to pay down the debt, have a smaller tax cut focused on the middle class, and invest more in education, or whether it's better to have a bigger tax cut, partially privatized Social Security, and have spending that will take us back in debt but give some people more money right now. That will affect everybody. How do you build on the prosperity of the new--of the last 8 years?

Then, there are differences of opinion on crime, on the environment, on health care, on education, and on fairness toward immigrants, which should be a big issue to the Latino population. I and virtually everyone in my party are fighting for the fairness to immigrants act, and the leadership of the Republican Party is opposing us. And so we're--and we have a simple position, which is that it was right to let people from Cuba and Nicaragua come into this country if they were fleeing dictatorial or violent environments, but we owe the same thing to the people from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, and other places. So I think that's a big issue.

Then there are issues revolving around whether we should have hate crimes legislation. Should we have stronger laws guaranteeing equal pay for women? All these things will drastically affect, one way or the other, what life is like for ordinary Americans.

Voter Apathy

Mr. Diaz-Balart. Why do you think, sir, that the polls show that candidates really haven't gotten through to all of the voters, that there's some apathy, and there's some feeling that, "You know what, I don't even want to get involved with this?"

The President. I think the main--anybody that doesn't want to get involved, I think, it's because the issues aren't as clear as they should be. But I also think, in a funny way, the general prosperity and sense of wellbeing of the country could be working against us a little bit. Because people may think, well, you know--younger voters, a lot of them can't even remember what it was like 8 years ago.

And I think sometimes when times are good, you tend to be more casual about voting and about studying the differences. And then, maybe they--people, I think, do have a negative reaction sometimes to all this-- the air wars--not just the Presidential race, but all these ads where they're attacking each other and all that. That sometimes tends to depress turnout.

But I would hope the American people would actually be in a very good humor. I mean, this has been an essentially positive election. The candidates have been sharply critical of each other on the issues, but there has been surprisingly little personal attack. Governor Bush has, I think, wrongly questioned Vice President Gore's character a couple of times, but by and large, both of them have run clean, positive campaigns in which they have strongly disagreed with each other on the issues. But that's what democracy is about. I would think--I think the American people ought to be happy. I mean, the economy is growing; all sectors of the society are benefiting. Crime is down. The environment is cleaner. There are fewer people without health insurance. The schools are getting better.

I think that people should think, "Wow, we've got a chance now to really dream big dreams about what we want America to look like over the next 10 years. What should America's role in the world be over the next 10 years? What is exactly the right thing to do with our projected surplus? And how should we handle all this?" This is, for a citizen who loves democracy, a dream election. We may never have another election like this in our lifetime, where we've got prosperity, social progress, and the absence of crisis at home and threat abroad.

I would just say to the American people, you make a lot of mistakes in life. Sometimes when things are so good, you think it doesn't matter if you concentrate or act. It does matter.

President's Role in 2000 Campaign

Mr. Diaz-Balart. You know, what does surprise me, sir, is that a President with a huge popularity as you do, whose numbers continue to be record-setting as far as anybody is concerned, and yet we don't see you in the battleground States. I don't see you in Michigan. I haven't seen you in Florida. I haven't seen you in Tennessee and even in your home State that much. It surprises me as a journalist. Does it surprise you? Why aren't you there?