Rep. Duncan Hunter

Tavis: It was significant, clearly, significant enough for the Republican Party to feature Governor Schwarzenegger at this convention. How significant, though, that he is a Republican Governor in California come this election? Aren't the Democrats still going to win California?

Hunter: Yeah, I think it's significant for a couple of reasons. First, I think Arnold Schwarzenegger has a special relationship with the Hispanic community, with the growing community in California, and if you look at the precincts in all of the areas that he won that heretofore hadn't been won by Republicans, he's got a relationship there that's very good for our Party. I think that translates across the board.

Tavis: Yeah, but given this driver's license issue where he won't let illegals apply for a driver's license in California, he may not be as popular with them come too much longer.

Hunter: Well, I think he will, because I think if you talk to lots of folks who are Hispanic Americans working in this country, a lot of them aren't enamored with illegal immigration and the idea that folks can come over and get that job that they've got. And so there's always been a claim that you've got a continuity of issues across the border. I really don't think you have, and I think that Schwarzenegger will keep that good relationship. That accrues to the benefit of the Republican Party.

Tavis: Let's talk about this war on terror.

Hunter: Sure.

Tavis: I want to start with this Swift boat issue, and I'm tired of coming back to this, like everybody else, but it continues to be an issue. And now I'm told that since we've been at this convention, the Swift boat Veterans for Truth have put out another ad, this one attacking Kerry again and now raising questions about whether or not he threw away his medals. What do you make of--you're a member of Congress--what do you make of these attack ads on either side, left or right, in this campaign?

Hunter: Well, first, you know, John Kerry came back here and when he left after his three months in Vietnam and came back and trashed American GIs. And I don't care if he condemned the war or had a different view on the war, but he attacked the American soldiers who were running it, and here's what he said. He said that American GIs had murdered, these are his words, 200,000 people in Vietnam. He said that they were rampaging the country in a manner and I quote John Kerry, 'akin to Genghis Kahn.' Now if you can imagine a Swift boat driver in, say, the third Swift boat down the row from Kerry and says, 'Hey, you know that guy, that John Kerry, was here for a couple of months and went back to the states.' 'Yeah.' And you're reading, 'Stars and Stripes,' it says, 'He just went before Congress and said that we were murdering 200,000 people, that we were rampaging the country like Genghis Kahn.' He had one statement that said 80 percent of them were stoned. This is just his Senate testimony, 24 hours a day. He had his say in 1970 when he came back. They're having their say now, and what's amazing is the idea that these guys who served over there with him, and they're good guys, and lots of them won medals. Admiral Hoffman is a Silver Star winner. They're not doing that for George Bush. If George Bush personally called every one of them and said, 'Stop, it's hurting my campaign.' They'd say, 'Listen, we're having our say, and we're going to have it.' And so it's not what John Kerry said about the war, it's what he said about the GIs. And, you know, if you took, if you just substituted Iraq for Vietnam, if somebody came into the political arena today and said Americans are killing, were murdering 200,000 Iraqis and we're rampaging the country like Genghis Kahn, first, people would laugh, because for the first time we had this embedded media who were with our GIs and know they're good guys, they're the best ambassadors we've got, and they'd laugh at them, then they'd get mad. And John Kerry would be out of there like that. But to some degree, he accrued this position of confidence from the American left, the political left, by stepping on the backs of his fellow GIs. I think he's got to answer for that and he's never apologized. And we didn't kill, we didn't murder 200,000 people in Vietnam, and we didn't rampage the country like Genghis Kahn. Kerry has never taken that back.

Tavis: Let me ask you, as the Chair of the House Armed Services Committee, whether or not this kind of question, or thought, whether you ever marinate on things like this. I know you're dealing with arms and with policy, et cetera, et cetera. I wonder whether or not you ever give much thought to the fact that, given how President Bush conducted this war, we are notbeloved-that we ever were-but we are certainly not the beloved the world over now, and that things for Americans are not going to be easy for the coming months and years, perhaps forever, because of the way we did this thing, even if you agree with the President that he had to do it.

Hunter: Well, actually, I think we're learning the big secret, and the big secret, that really isn't much of a secret, is we've never been loved. There's a statement that, nations don't have friends, they have interests. And most of the nations that have good interests with us, except for a few like the British and the Australians, are connected very strongly to an American dollar. You'll notice that our personalities get a lot better when we're giving out these good, big multi-million dollar payments or we're making a trade deal that's beneficial to a country that's going to give them a big piece of employment, we become their friends.

Tavis: That's an honest answer and I thank you for that.

Hunter: And I think it's more important that nations respect us than like us. But there's never been a lot of love for the United States. You know, look at the war. The last two wars we had, we saved Muslim nations. We saved Kuwait from being annihilated, right? We saved Saudi. Saddam Hussein had his tanks in third gear going into Saudi. We saved-In Bosnia, we saved the Muslims from another nation. So, going into 9/11, when we were attacked by Muslim extremists, we had just saved two Muslim nations. So the question I think the American people have the right to ask, is, well, what do we have to do? And I think the answer is there is nothing you can do to make the world love you, and particularly the extremists.

Tavis: Maybe there's nothing we can do to make the world absolutely love us, but it seems to me though, and let me ask a question and not give my commentary, is there a way beyond passing out money to live more peacefully in this global society?

Hunter: Well, I think the projects that we've got and especially the ones we're giving-we're standing up the schools and the medical facilities around the world. I think those send a great message. You know, Americans give more to other people than all the rest of the nations of the world combined. And we've got all these great non-governmental organizations-from the Red Cross on down-of Americans, Rescue Task Force, Doctors Without Borders, all these groups of Americans going out risking their lives to help people. I mean, I had two staff members that formed a group called Rescue Task Force. They were the first people into the Albanian Refugee Camps during the Kosovo War with medicine and food. And you know something? That commercial gets out because people will still want to come to this country in droves. People are smarter than they're given credit. Folks from other lands even with a curtain between them and this country, and they know where they want to go. They want to come to America. The reason they want to come to America is because they know we're pretty good people.

Tavis: Let me ask you what you think this election is going to turn-of all the issues out there, the war on terrorism, the Swift boat issue, what John Kerry did or didn't do, the economy -what do you make of what this election is going to turn on between now and November? Because it's awfully close and there's only a sliver of people who have not yet made up their minds.

Hunter: Yeah, I think it will turn on the war against terrorism because it's the ongoing war. It's like, in 1943 or 1944, obviously the big issue was the war. In 1947, it was a lot different, right? As Winston Churchill discovered; he got thrown out of office after the war was over. So this is a war. And I think that, again, the central points that we've given in this convention are that this President is a leader. He's pursued the bad guys aggressively. I think one reason we haven't been struck since 9/11 is because we've kept them off balance. It's tough to plant an attack on the U.S. when a cruise missile comes through your building when you're having the meeting. And when you're on the run, it's tough to be aggressive. We've kept them on the run. And that's not to say that we're not going to have strikes in the U.S., but I think that the President has got to be given a good grade for toughness and for singleness of purpose, which is kind of what we need right now. And I think that's the main issue.

Tavis: Duncan Hunter, Republican of California, Chair of the House Armed Services Committee, Mr. Hunter nice to see you sir.

Duncan Hunter: Well, great to be with you.

Tavis: I'm glad to have you on.

Hunter: We appreciate it.

Tavis: I'm glad to have you up here with us.