GLENN BECK PROGRAM
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

GLENN: Governor Mitt Romney is with us.

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: How are you, Glenn?

GLENN: How are you

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: Terrific, thanks.

"He's a Hitler wannabe and he's frankly not welcome." Romney on Iranian President Ahmadinejad plans to visit the site of the World Trade Center.

GLENN: Every time you're on I believe I hit you harder than I have other candidates and I want to apologize for that

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: Well, gee, that's good to hear

GLENN: I believe I hit you harder because we share the same faith and I know people who know you and I don't -- in a twisted sort of way, I never wanted to be counted on my vote or my support counted on because of any other thing other than you're the guy. And so I believe that I have been biased or harder on you than I have on others, and I want to apologize, sir.

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: Well, I'm glad to hear that and you are very kind and very generous and actually, you know, interviews are a lot more fun if there's some interesting intrigue and attack. So just --

GLENN: Well, with that being said, then let me be honest with you again. I said two weeks ago that on the air, I said, you know, if I had to vote today, I think I would vote for Giuliani only because I believe he will shoot the bad guys in the head, no questions asked. And I said, if it were 2004, I'd vote for Romney because I trust you. I believe you're a man of your word. You have integrity, your values, et cetera, et cetera. But I quite honestly, sir, have not seen the fire in your belly that if push comes to shove, you're going to roll the sleeves up and you're going to shoot the bad guys in the head.

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: Well, I'm not sure exactly how I show that to you. And so you're going to have to give me a suggestion about that, but I can tell you that you've had a chance to get a bit of a picture of that. So, for instance, when President Khatami of Iran came to Massachusetts to address Harvard University, not only did I express outrage that he would be addressing the university, I also said we're not going to provide police escorts and the kind of dignity that he thinks ought to be given to a former head of state.

GLENN: That is good.

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: So, you know, I should also tell you that when it came to dealing with the kind of threats of terror that our state and our nation faces, I have focused not just on mobile command centers and haz-mat teams that are all useful after the bomb goes off, my heart and passion is on keeping the bomb from going off and that's why I've been so outspoken on getting the kind of intelligence work and wire tapping to make sure that we find the bad guys and get them out of here before they hit us.

GLENN: So Ahmadimejad coming to New York, he announced that he has just -- you know, we won't give him permission to go, but he's taken the motorcade and he's going to Ground Zero, he's bound and determined to lay a wreath at Ground Zero Monday at 10:30.

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: Absolutely unacceptable, can't happen. And certainly his security detail won't go any place that has not been cleared. And he is not invited there. This is a person who denies the first Holocaust and is now trying to carry out a second one. It's unacceptable in my view for him to have a visa that allows him to travel around New York City. It's one thing for us to follow the agreement we've entered into with United Nations to allow a head of state to come to our country, but we don't have to give them the kind of access to our nation that this person insists upon. He's a Hitler wannabe and he's frankly not welcome.

GLENN: He is also going to be speaking at Columbia University.

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: You have to ask yourself what's happened to academia in this country, someone like Larry Summers is denied the chance to speak at the University of California at Davis but we're going to invite Ahmadimejad. The president has said, we'll challenge his ideas. Look, he's coming to create propaganda opportunities for himself and to aggrandize himself. He should be ushered in, give his speech and ushered out of the country and given no more fanfare than any other delusional maniac.

GLENN: Governor Romney, I am -- you know, I live on the -- I live on the lunatic fringe and I never have in my entire life, but 9/11 changed me. I believe that I have been given an opportunity to speak my mind on things, and I believe that comes with real responsibility and so when I see threats and I see things, a gathering storm, I speak out about them and hopefully I'm wrong about all of them. But I believe that what is happening over in the Middle East and is currently now gathering storm and speed in Europe is coming our way. We have -- and nobody -- I mean, everybody wants to poo-poo, you know, the gathering storm on our economy, but here you are a guy who is an unbelievable businessman. Do you believe that our economy is in a position that it really hasn't been possibly ever as far as precarious?

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: Well, I think the precarious nature of our economy flows from three things, and it is a bit of a Perfect Storm. One, of course, is the thread of jihad and that has the potential devastating impact on the world economy. Two is the emergence of Asia as an economic entity with China and India in particular, a billion new people coming into workforce. And three is the massive overspending in Washington and the overpromises and overobligations that we've entered into and so the dollar is weak and the combination of these other threats put us in a relatively precarious position, and that's why instead of just kicking the balls on the field and saying everything's just fine, we're going to have to take fundamental change in Washington and that's going to begin with our own party.

I'm embarrassed by the fact that we, even when we were in the lead in Washington, we were the big spending party just like the last guys and that's unacceptable.

GLENN: But how do you -- say somebody doesn't -- and see, this is where you have an advantage with me. I believe you. I believe you are a man of your word. But how do you convince the American people that have just given a rating of 11% favorability for congress, 29%. I stated these clowns in Washington, some of them are good, some of them are bad but they have to understand you have no credibility left for the American people and time is ticking and it's going to go off in your face one of these days. How do you get the credibility back because the Republicans aren't really helping you. I haven't seen a big campaign saying, boy, did we suck last term, we screwed up and we sold out our values. How do you convince people that you're not just another politician?

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: Well, first of all, of course, I've only been in politics for four years, which is not long enough to get infected with the disease. Second of all, I don't think the American people, recognizing the significance of the challenges we face and the need to get Washington on track again, I don't think the American people are going to elect a Washington politician to run the country. And that's why I think that somebody from outside Washington, hopefully somebody that has some private sector experience, that knows why businesses grow, why they shrink, why employment grows, why it shrinks, knows how to compete with China, somebody who has that experience I think is the only way we're going to have this country have the kind of leadership that it needs to get on the right track.

GLENN: What do you take from China and Russia kind of standing together now? I mean, there's this new authoritarian capitalist thing that is going on in the world and they're standing together and now saying to us and France and everybody else, you're not going to do any more with Iran; you're going to leave them alone. Do you believe that there's an axis power here with really two very powerful countries kind of trying to block our way?

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: Well, I think in the case of Russia and Putin in particular, you have an individual who longs for the days when Russia was the co-superpower and he believes that by virtue of selling $500 billion worth of energy a year, he will have the capacity to do that again. And that's why it's so essential that our country finally get on track to become energy independent and energy secure. We are in a very vulnerable position, not just on our economy but in terms of our use of energy. So he's flexing his muscles. I think China would like to see the world remain stable so that they can continue to sell their products around the world, in particular to us, so they can continue to employ 20 million people that come off the farm every year in China. And they want to see stability. I think we can move China in our direction. I hope so. I hope they can be a force and a partner for stability in the world. I don't want them to turn into a Soviet Union.

But, you know, our country is going to have to make a far more effective effort collecting and connecting with our friends around the world and our hopeful friends around the world. So we're always strong on our own but we're stronger when we have friends standing with us.

GLENN: You brought up energy, and I have to tell you, you know, I feel like Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind. I don't know if you saw that movie.

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: I sure did.

GLENN: Yeah, you remember how he saw the things in the newspaper and they were all -- they had yarn tying things together? He was crazy and I may be as well, but I see so many things tied together that standing on their own, they're not necessarily a knockout punch but because we have terror, the out-of-control spending and just the overall climate that our banking system is in right now, you have China doing what they're doing and then you have oil. I think you've got a knockout punch if, you know, a couple of these things simultaneously. I'm looking for a guy who's going to say, I'm going to shoot the bad guys in the head; we're not going to lose a war and we're going to fight it with everything we got. I'm going to stop spending because it's killing us. And the third thing is, I'm going to propose a moonshot. If we're going to spend money in this country, we're going to spend money on developing energy, and I'm sorry, your special interest cows have got to go away for a while because this is killing us.

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: Hey, I just put a booklet out. It's actually a small book called a Strategy for Strengthening America, 50 ideas to change Washington, and you pretty well hit some of the high points. My view is that we're going to have to dramatically increase our investment in technology, energy technology and energy efficiency technology. We're going to have public/private partnerships to build nuclear power plants, to build coal-to-liquid facilities where we sequester the CO2. We have to become energy independent.

GLENN: How are you going to get that done? You know that every tree hugger out there is going to say coal, how dare you use coal? And nukes, what? Sure it's okay with France, we've been telling you our whole life don't listen to France except this time. How are you going to get that done?

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: Well, there are two ways to get it done. One is the environmentalists in this country recognize that we're going to have to reduce our CO2 emissions and they recognize that nuclear is the most effective way of doing that and if we can liquify coal and sequester the CO2 at the same time as they are doing right now in North Dakota, then that's another way to get, if you will, energy that does not cause warming. But in addition to the argument that you have with our environmental friends, you go to the American people. Remember Ross Perot, he got his charts out and he showed people what was happening and it changed people's minds. The President has to be an educator and chief as well as a man of rhetoric, and we're going to have to show the American people what the consequences are for their future if we continue to rely on buying oil from Venezuela and Iran and Russia. And the future is that their grandkids will not have an America like the America that we've enjoyed. And you heard the President of Royal Dutch Shell, former president over the weekend say that he thinks oil's going to go to $150 a barrel. Think of the wealth that means for Putin. He sold $500 billion worth of energy last year, Putin did. Our defense budget is $320 billion. We're dealing with a very different world if we don't get ourselves energy independent.

GLENN: I have to tell you, speaking my language on that. I, what, a month and a half ago I was in the Oval Office and I said to the President, we are producing your speeches like it's 1962. I mean, at least let's bring to Ross Perot days and show the people these things because they don't get it. Will you, sir, may I again invite you to spend an hour with me on television, bring the charts, educate. You will have a fair interview. Please spend an hour and let me introduce you to the American people.

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: Sounds like a great idea. Whether I'm going to have you do that or who do it I'm not sure. You intend -- and that's through this process, I intend to talk to the American people in the campaign and if I'm fortunate enough during the presidency to talk about the challenges we have, how we overcome them. In some cases it will require tough work and sacrifice and investment, but the consequences of not taking that action today could be quite severe for our kids and grandkids.

GLENN: Real quick let me ask you this question because I know you have to run. Giuliani was on the program a couple of weeks ago and he said, being an illegal alien in America is not a crime. He didn't say coming across the border he will legally isn't a crime. He said being an illegal alien is not a crime. He was speaking as a prosecutor. He said there's nothing I can do about it.

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: Well, there's a lot he can do about it and we just have a different view on this. As mayor he said that he welcomes illegal aliens to New York. He said, we want you here, we welcome you here and we'll protect you here. That's the wrong attitude. That brings people here illegally and he also has the view, and I understand it, I respect his perspective, but that is that people who come here illegally, he says, look, if you are working and you are willing to pay taxes, we'll sign you up. I disagree. I think people who have come here illegally should be able to apply for citizenship or apply for permanent residency but get in line with everybody else, no special pathway for having come here illegally. And, you know, I welcome legal immigration. It's a great thing for our country. But I simply disagree with the mayor in having a sanctuary policy and inviting those that have come here illegally to stay permanently.

GLENN: If the DREAM Act would pass where they are trying to split this amnesty bill up and tuck it into the war bill, if the DREAM Act would pass, what do you think the reaction of the American people would be?

GOVERNOR ROMNEY: Well, I don't think the American people want to see a spread of illegal immigration. Americans welcome legal immigration. When I speak to Republican crowds and I talk about how much I value legal immigration, I am interrupted with applause. This effort to try and say Republicans are antiimmigrant is dishonest and wrong, but at the same time we're a nation of laws and we don't want to have people coming into our country that we're not welcoming in and giving the opportunities of having a fair wage, having the benefits of minimum wage and our benefits. We want to have a system that is managed by our nation, not managed by people coming across the border illegally. And it is, by the way, illegal to cross the border without legal permission from our country.

GLENN: Governor Mitt Romney, thanks.

END TRANSCRIPT

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