Buchanan - 'No Blank Checks' For GOP in San Diego

Aired April 18, 1996

GENE RANDALL, Anchor: He is still short of touting the party line, but Republican presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan says he has no interest in damaging Bob Dole's campaign. Mr. Buchanan, welcome to Inside Politics.

PATRICK BUCHANAN: Gene.

RANDALL: Let me read from a letter you were sending to 140,000 supporters. `What is the best way to advance these causes,' talking about your causes, `inside the Republican Party or outside the party? Do we step out now and build a new institution, a third party as a vehicle of our cause?' Under what circumstances might you do that?

BUCHANAN: Well, first we're going to get an answer from these 140,000, Gene, but everywhere we go a lot of folks have given up on the Republican Party. They don't think it can be made into an institution which will have an America-first foreign policy, America-first trade policy, look out for American workers and be traditionalists and conservative.

[crosstalk]

RANDALL: You know the conventional thinking at this point, that Patrick Buchanan simply has decided to stay inside the Republican Party, wage his battles there, that he's given up pretty much on the idea of a third party. Is this to say it's still an active option?

BUCHANAN: Well, I think your assessment is pretty- very close. We're going to go to the Republican convention as a Republican. I hope to leave as a Republican. But what we are saying with this letter certainly and what I've been saying is, look, Gene, we're not going to give anybody a blank check. I mean, I think the Republican Party in recent years followed Clinton into NAFTA and GATT and Bosnia and foreign aid and all the rest of it. And I think it's got to move away from that Clinton position if it's going to offer an alternative. And so, we're not giving anyone a blank check, but we're going to go to San Diego and fight to make the Republican Party the kind of party the kind of party we can be proud of and enthusiastic about supporting.

RANDALL: Writing about you today in his column, Robert Novak said `he is genuinely torn about what course to take.' Are you genuinely torn at this point?

BUCHANAN: Yup. We are genuinely torn at this point.

RANDALL: And when you say if the Republican Party takes a wrong turn, as you said in St. Louis - suburban St. Louis - last week, we're then going to charge straight ahead. What does that mean?

BUCHANAN: Well, look, if the Republican Party goes left, we're going to go straight ahead. I think, Gene, you've heard-

RANDALL: Straight ahead to what?

BUCHANAN: Well, let me give you an example. Governor Pataki, I believe, has been talking about making it a pro-choice party, getting rid of the pro-life plank in the convention. There's a lot of believers in this party who feel that we ought to go forward with NAFTA and expand it, GATT is a good idea, we ought to expand NATO. If that's where they're going, we're going to go straight ahead, we're going to stand up for what we believe in, and we're going to decide at the convention where we're going to go and what we're going to do.

RANDALL: Might you walk out, for instance, if the anti-abortion plank is watered down?

BUCHANAN: I'll tell ya, we're going to keep a right-to-life plank in the Republican platform. I think we've got the support to do it. But there's no doubt there's going to be a battle there, Gene. So what we're saying is, look, we're not going to tell you immediately what we're going to do if, if, if. All we can tell you is we're going to go there, we're going to do battle for the things we believe in. I think we're going to win most of those fights. I think Senator Dole agrees with us on most of these issues, but let's see what happens.

RANDALL: You had a laugh in Missouri last week when you mused aloud about what kind of speech the Republican Party had in mind for you at the convention. Now what do you think they have in mind for you, and what will you ask for?

BUCHANAN: [laughs] I said they're going to have us speak at sunrise services on Sunday. Look, I didn't get in the race to get myself a speech at the convention. But, look, Gene, I'm second in terms of number of votes. We defeated very prominent Republicans like Pete Wilson, Phil Gramm, Lamar Alexander, Steve Forbes-

RANDALL: And what does that entitle you to?

BUCHANAN: I think it entitles us to be treated with respect, our voice to be heard, our issues to be addressed.

RANDALL: A prime time speech?

BUCHANAN: Of course.

RANDALL: Prime time.

BUCHANAN: Of course.

RANDALL: And will you submit-

BUCHANAN: I mean, how could you give someone else, say, who ran fourth or fifth or sixth the prime time speech? Let me ask you, Gene, what is the argument for denying me the kind of treatment the second place finisher gets at a Republican convention? What is their argument for denying that to me?

RANDALL: Would you submit that speech for approval? Would you let someone see it before you deliver it?

BUCHANAN: They have to. You got to put it on the teleprompter. You know that.

RANDALL: I mean for reasons other than a length?

BUCHANAN: Look, certainly I would show- Look, I would show my speech. We showed it to the Ford- not Ford, the Bush people back there at the convention in 1992. They were deeply moved by it and they supported every line of it. But sure you would show it to them, but the question is what if they came to you and said you can't say this and you can't say that? Then you'd have a problem.

RANDALL: When you held that meeting with your supporters over in Tyson's Corner, Virginia, [sp] a few weeks ago-

BUCHANAN: Right.

RANDALL: Some of those key supporters came out-

BUCHANAN: I think saw you in the garage, didn't I Gene?

RANDALL: -some of those key supporters came out and said a lot of what we talked about was how Patrick Buchanan should be on a Dole ticket as vice president.

BUCHANAN: I don't think that's realistic, to be very candid. But I think if there was a lot of folks there that felt we ought to go third party, Gene. Some said, `You've got to endorse Bob Dole.' Some said, `We've got together and defeat Clinton.' Some said, `Let's wait for the convention.' That's why we're sending the letter. And, look, we are conflicted. Our organization, our people, the whole country, the people that supported us, are deeply divided over which way we should go. That's why we're trying to get all this out and get all their information in, get their ideas in, get their thoughts in. Let them express themselves.

RANDALL: Two quick questions - what do you think Senator Dole should do about a vice president?

BUCHANAN: I think he should pick himself a conservative and a traditionalist and someone who could- is really clearly differentiate him from Bill Clinton. That's what I would do if I were he.

RANDALL: Let me ask you finally, Mr. Buchanan. I stood next to you in Arizona when you put on that long black coat, and the black hat and you strapped on a six-gun - I was hoping it was-

BUCHANAN: A duster.

RANDALL: I was hoping it was nothing personal.

BUCHANAN: Right.

RANDALL: But there are people who say pictures like those really did your cause no good at all. If you had to do it again. Would you do that kind of picture?

BUCHANAN: Well, I don't know, but that picture's fine, that was humorous. But I think should you put the gun over there- Let me tell you what defeated us in Arizona.

RANDALL: Twenty seconds.

BUCHANAN: Three things. One, absentee ballots that had already been cast in the tens of thousands, $500,000 of attack ads on Pat Buchanan by Bob Dole, and $4 million in positive ads for Steve Forbes by Steve Forbes - forty dollars a vote. We couldn't match that, Gene.

RANDALL: Mr. Buchanan, we'll see you out West. Thanks very much.

BUCHANAN: See you again.

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