Report: Companies Added 325,000 Jobs in December

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Report: Companies Added 325,000 Jobs in December

Fmr. presidential candidate Herman Cain reacts to new numbers

This is a rush transcript from "Your World," January 5, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST OF “YOUR WORLD”: Ahead of the big jobs report tomorrow, some big news for job seekers today.

ADP -- that’s a company that keeps track of hiring’s and firing largely in the private sector -- says that companies added more than a quarter of a million jobs last month. By the way, that would be the biggest bump in a year.

Does that mean the good news on jobs are going to be good for the president keeping his job?

Herman Cain here.

Herman, what do you think?

HERMAN CAIN, CEO, THE NEW VOICE: No. And here is why.

I have this bad habit of answering your questions.

CAVUTO: Yes, that annoys me.

(CROSSTALK)

CAIN: Look at the asterisk in that report -- 273,000 were service sector jobs in December, when service industries like the restaurant industry add more people because of the holiday rush.

Wait until we get the report in February about January. And that will be a better indication.

CAVUTO: You might be right. And that is a big factor in this.

CAIN: Yes.

CAVUTO: But the administration has been arguing -- and you and I have chatted about this before -- that we are seeing a steady pickup in these numbers, hardly robust, and hardly much to write home about.

And, by the way, if you are writing home about it, your own home is not exactly...

(CROSSTALK)

CAIN: Right.

CAVUTO: But the administration’s argument has been -- and Gene Sperling and others from the White House have said, looking better, looking better, months and months of this looking better, looking better will have the president will look better.

What do you think?

CAIN: First of all, I don’t believe all of this spin about looking better, looking better, looking better.

Now, I am not calling anyone a liar, but there is an old saying. Numbers don’t lie, but liars use numbers. Let’s look at this number. If you look at unemployment plus underemployed, the rate is 18 percent. You don’t hear about that.

We hear this 8.5 or 8.6 percent number and that...

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: Well, then they’re lying. The administration is lying.

CAIN: Exactly.

CAVUTO: You just called them a liar.

CAIN: Whoever put the number out; they are not being truthful, as you would say politically -- 18 percent, 18 percent.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: OK. Let’s see if I can embarrass you.

Newt Gingrich called Mitt Romney a liar lying about his record that is Newt Gingrich’s record. Now, when you were in the race, Newt Gingrich was Mr. Positive. He was the -- Reagan 11th Commandant, thou shall not speak ill of fellow Republicans. You tried to practice that yourself.

CAIN: I tried to practice that.

CAVUTO: Well, see how far that got you.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: Now, what do you think of this dustup between those two?

CAIN: I believe Newt Gingrich was pushed into calling it like he sees it. But here’s the report that we don’t hear. Who is right? Mitt is saying that the commercials that he ran were correct.

Newt Gingrich is saying that is disingenuous and it’s not factual. And, yes, he is saying that the information is wrong.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: Newt went so far as to call him a liar.

CAIN: Yes. Right.

CAVUTO: Now, to be fair, we called Newt Gingrich, as we do all the time, to come on the show, to talk a little bit about this. He is a busy guy, I understand. We hope to get him on soon.

CAIN: My point is dig for the -- somebody should...

(CROSSTALK)CAVUTO: All right. All right. I know that. I know.

But when you call another candidate a liar, is that a scorched earth policy? Would you do that?

CAIN: I wouldn’t do that, but I am not in Newt’s shoes and Newt wasn’t in my shoes when I got attacked negatively.

CAVUTO: How do you think of how he has slid in the polls?

CAIN: Well, this is an indication of a fact of politics which it shouldn’t be. Negative works. It creates skepticism.

CAVUTO: But is it negative, Herman, if what you are citing -- and it could be Newt going after someone else’s record, Mitt Romney going after -- Ron Paul was sitting where you’re sitting not too long ago, saying, look, I just bring back their own words, and they call it hell.

CAIN: Well, that is the point.

When you plant that seed of doubt relative to the facts, relative to a character assassination, it creates skepticism in the voters’ mind, and unfortunately, a lot of...

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: But what if it’s factual? What if it’s factual?

CAIN: Well, then it takes 10 times as much money to prove that it wasn’t factual as it does to make the allegations.

CAVUTO: Do you think Mitt Romney distorted the facts?

CAIN: I don’t know if Mitt Romney distorted the facts because I have not...

(CROSSTALK)CAVUTO: I think you do. I think you know more than you’re letting on.

CAIN: I have not looked at specifically the facts that Newt is saying that are distorted.

CAVUTO: You are out of the race. You can be blunt now.

CAIN: Yes, but I’m still going to be truthful.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: People forget about you, regardless of the soap opera idea notwithstanding, you made those debates pretty interesting, pretty lively.

CAIN: Thank you.

CAVUTO: And you were the first to make the economy an issue, where you could put it in a sentence. You had the 999 plan.

And say what you will of the criticism you got. Others have come on to variations of that them, but not as much now. What do you make of that?

CAIN: What I make of it is a couple of things.

First, there is too much negative attacks amongst the Republican candidates. And the American public, the people that I talk to and I run into, they are getting sick of it. Secondly, it is just giving more ammunition for the Democrats to use in the general election.

CAVUTO: That always, though, Herman.

CAIN: It always happens.

CAVUTO: It always happens.

CAIN: But not at this level of negative intensity.

CAVUTO: Oh, sure it does. Sure it does.

CAIN: But then here is the other thing. The other thing is they are getting away from solutions. This is what people want to hear about.

They really want to evaluate the candidates based upon what you are going to do to fix stuff? All of the candidates talk about what is wrong, but few of them talk enough about how we fix it, which is why my 999 plan was basically connecting with people.

And this is why I have started the 999 revolution. People still want to get above the political rhetoric. And that’s what I’m going to be doing throughout this election process.

CAVUTO: How are you and the wife?

CAIN: We’re doing fantastic. We have a new grandbaby born on New Year’s Day.

CAVUTO: New Year’s Day, right?

CAIN: So, 2012 is off to a great start, man. You can’t knock that.

CAVUTO: Were they holidays depressing for you, though?

CAIN: No. The holidays were actually very exciting. You want to know why?

CAVUTO: Because I talk to a lot of businessmen. You and I were chatting during the break. They say, well, I saw all the hell this guy went through, whether justified or not. I’m not going to do it.

CAIN: Well, and the thing is, you have the expected. There were some things that I expected when I made the decision to do that.

(CROSSTALK)CAVUTO: Were you naive about it?

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: You came in like Jimmy Stewart, thinking...

CAIN: No, not naive. You just don’t know what the unexpected is going to be.

CAVUTO: What was the biggest thing that surprised you?

CAIN: The biggest thing that surprised me was someone who I thought was a friend, they turned out not to be a friend, period. That was the one that caused enough skepticism with people that they said, well, I don’t know.

But -- but...

CAVUTO: The last woman who...

(CROSSTALK)

CAIN: Right.

(CROSSTALK) CAIN: But here is the other thing. The degree to which some people in the media wanted to spin it, spin it, spin it, spin it, spin it, and spin it.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: So you’re never going to run again for office?

CAIN: I’m never going to run for president again, because my biological clock...

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: You live in Georgia, right?

CAIN: I live in Georgia.

CAVUTO: Governor of Georgia?

CAIN: No. I don’t want to be governor.

CAVUTO: Senator of Georgia?

CAIN: I don’t want to be senator of Georgia, no.

CAVUTO: Deputy Sheriff in Atlanta?

CAIN: I might be -- no that would be dangerous to give me a gun and a badge.

(LAUGHTER)

CAIN: You don’t want to give me a gun and a badge, OK?

(LAUGHTER) CAVUTO: Well, Herman Cain, good luck coming out of your shell. You seem to be moving forward.

CAIN: But this jobs report, no. Let’s wait until the next one.

CAVUTO: Gotcha, buddy. All right.

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