Obama's 'recovery'? What recovery?
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani takes on Pres. Obama's 'imaginary recovery' and the CBO's projected $1.1 trillion deficit for 2012
This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," August 22, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani joins us on the phone. Good evening, Mayor.
RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR (Via Telephone): How are you, Greta?
VAN SUSTEREN: I'm very well. So Mayor, obviously, Representative Ryan wants to keep this discussion on the economy, as does Governor Romney. There's a lot of push from the other side, the Democrats, to bring this question back to issues of abortion, Congressman Akin. How does the candidate Ryan keep this on the economy?
GIULIANI: Well, I think he did today. I mean, he did exactly -- did the right thing today. He talked about the fact that the economy is going through the worst recovery we've had in our lifetime. The four years of Obama have been a disaster for our economy.
If the American people were go to go to the polls and just ask are you better off than now than you were four years ago, we'd probably throw him out 60-40. So Obama and Biden are trying to everything they can to get the focus on something else. The New York Times helps them greatly today. The two main articles on the front page of The New York Times were about Congressman Akin, hard to believe when they never put Biden's remarks a week ago, two weeks ago, even on the front page. And here we're talking about a sitting vice president making totally idiotic remarks, blatant attempt to appeal to racism and somehow, Akin's remark of a congressman is considered more important than -- than -- than Biden's continual gaffes and the big question that Biden raises as to whether he's capable of being vice president.
VAN SUSTEREN: You've referred to him, I think, in the past -- I mean, recently, as a joke. Do you want a do-over on that, or do you maintain that?
GIULIANI: Of course, he's a joke! He's -- he's -- he probably is the biggest laugh line on national television that we've ever had in a vice president. I mean, this is a guy, a week ago, who couldn't remember what state he was in, couldn't remember what century he's in, can't remember Congressman Ryan's correct title, called him Governor, and then attempted a ridiculous Southern accent to appeal to black voters and to try to tell them they're going to go back into chains -- back -- he used the word "back," not just you're going to be in chains, you're going to go back into chains.
I mean, this was a disgusting appeal to racism which the Obama campaign refused to apologize for and The New York Times ignored, although Akin's ridiculous remarks end up demanding coverage -- the two top articles in The New York Times today were about Akin. And Akin is not an issue between the presidential candidates. Romney wants him off the ticket. Everyone wants him off the ticket. The only one who wants to be on the ticket is Akin.
VAN SUSTEREN: What -- what -- what's your thinking on The New York Times? Does The New York Times -- does The New York Times think that it's one-sided, or is The New York Times thinking, We want to pick a particular candidate?
GIULIANI: I can't imagine The New York Times thinks it's one-sided. I mean, then they're living in some kind of cloud. I mean, anyone -- anyone who isn't the most doctrinaire Democrat would tell you that The New York Times is seriously one-sided, that it was in the whole race in '08. And you just look at its coverage now, and it's close to absurd.
And today's -- today's a great example of it. I mean, two articles about Akin today on the front page, when we've got Afghanistan deteriorating, we have an -- we have an economy that -- where there's a prediction that we may have 9 percent unemployment next year. We've been at 8 percent unemployment now for a record -- record period of time. Have to go back to the Great Depression to find any kind of unemployment figures anywhere near like this under Obama.
These are the things that they should be writing about and focusing on. So I think the only thing that Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan can do is to just constantly, you know, hit on the economy and hope that it gets through the -- the media coverage, which is going to do everything it can to ignore it.
VAN SUSTEREN: Tell me what you expect at the convention next week.
GIULIANI: I do. I expect to be there. I expect it's going to be absolutely terrific. And I don't think -- I think the fear of the hurricane will only just get more attention to the convention.
VAN SUSTEREN: And what are the strengths and the weaknesses of the Republican ticket going into the fall?
GIULIANI: I think the strength of the Republican ticket is that in Governor Romney's case, he made an unbelievably good choice in choosing Paul Ryan. He has made an attempt, a real honest attempt, to try to get this campaign on the issues of the economy, willing to take on Medicare, willing to take on entitlements, willing to take on what needs to be done to straighten out our economy.
I think the challenge is going to be exactly what the chairman just said a few minutes ago. The challenge is going to be cutting through the media bias, which, if you just want to do a rough seat-of-the-pants analysis, is probably 75, 80 percent favorable to President Obama.
VAN SUSTEREN: What do you think, there is more media bias against the Republican ticket, or do you think there's more negative ads in the campaign?
GIULIANI: Well, I think there's a tremendous amount of media bias. I think that it's -- it has been a love affair with President Obama since the time he announced as a candidate, including against Hillary Clinton.
I think they're having a hard time kind of dealing with how big a mistake they made in '08 by supporting him and what a disaster he's been for our economy. And then I think there's always been a prejudice against the Republican Party. I think the media is basically Democrat. And when it looks at Republican ideas, it finds them, you know, radical.
And you look at this whole thing on abortion. I mean, what Akin said was very wrong. It was a very insensitive thing to say. It was a dumb thing to say. He's apologized for it. Biden's never apologized for what he said.
And not only that, but the leading figures in the Republican Party have asked him to step down, whereas the leading figures in the Democratic Party, except for Governor Wilder, who was courageous enough to say how horrible he thought what Biden said was -- the Democratic Party is just sticking with -- you know, sticking with Biden and the horrible remarks he made a few weeks ago.
VAN SUSTEREN: Mayor, thank you for joining us. And we'll probably see you next week in Tampa. We're going to take the show there.
GIULIANI: OK. We'll see you there. Good luck.
VAN SUSTEREN: Thank you, Mayor.
GIULIANI: Take care.
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