Interview with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker
TAPPER: The politics lead now. He's a fast rising GOP star, a Tea Party favorite and at one point was perhaps the most controversial man in Madison, Wisconsin. That's fair, right? Governor Scott Walker made a name for himself by taking on public employees unions and facing down crowds like this one in the state capital. The war that erupted there three years ago was credited with launching the Occupy movement in some ways. It was fought over Walker's plan to strip away unions' collective bargaining powers. Despite the clamor and intense media coverage, Walker was victorious. He has written about the experience in his new book, "Unintimidated: A Governor's Story and A Nation's Challenge." Governor Scott Walker joins me now. Congratulations on the book.</s>GOV. SCOTT WALKER (R), WISCONSIN: Thanks.</s>TAPPER: Was that a fair description? You take issue with anything that</s>I -- WALKER: No. The interesting thing, among many interesting things in the book, we talk about Obama/Walker voters. In the end, one of the exit polls after my recall election, there were literally one of six voters in my state who voted for me who planned to vote for Barack Obama, which politically doesn't make a lot of sense.</s>TAPPER: In the recall or in the first election?</s>WALKER: Well, in the recall they voted for me, and then they were planning a few months later in 2012 to vote for the president, which we talk about in the book, the reasons for that because in both cases, to that middle undecided voter, we made the case based on leadership and they were hungry for it.</s>TAPPER: Let's talk about something you have been outspoken about recently, the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare. You don't care for it. You think it's bad but in your home state, you are trying to do your own health care reform, Badger Care, and critics have said that you're trying to have it both ways because one of the ways you make Badger Care work is by having 80,000 people currently on Medicaid go into Obamacare. So what do you say to critics who say you can't have it both ways, you are either for it or you're against it, but you can't be against it while you're using it?</s>WALKER: Well, that's just not accurate because what I point out is obviously I fought this every step of the way, ran against it twice, empowered my attorney general to join the federal lawsuit, did not take the state exchange, deferred to the federal exchange and didn't take the Medicaid expansion. But what I did was not take the false choice offered to us out of the federal government. It was either some states took the -- took the money, the Medicaid expansion, and with it, the financial risk that now becomes even more apparent for a federal government that can't even do a Web site. Conversely, other states did take it and kind of left some of their people out in the cold. What we did was say, for everybody living above poverty, we're going to transition them into the marketplace which includes a federal exchange option for those at the lower end of the income. And for the first time in our state's history, we cover everyone living in poverty will now be covered under Medicaid. That's just saying that's the law. If there's an alternative in the future, which I advocated for, that would be a better way of serving the people of my state.</s>TAPPER: Obviously, you are probably best known nationally for the showdown with the employee unions, public sector unions in Wisconsin. This in your book, "Unintimidated", this is how you describe the throngs of protesters that descended upon the capitol three years ago. Quote, "The odor of unwashed humanity wafted through the hallways. People were smoking pot inside the capitol. There were so many sleeping bags, inflatable mattresses and tents that my staff often joked about how many 'protest babies' there would be in nine months time." Now, I know that a lot of these protesters were hostile to you and you detail the many threats you got, but that's not all the protesters. And I have to say, sometimes the tone I would hear three years ago and even in this book sounds a bit disdainful. And I wonder if looking back, you feel that there's anything you could have done different when it comes to tone and speaking to these individuals --</s>WALKER: There's no doubt about it. Not so much the tone for the protesters. There's probably nothing I could have done or said, particularly for those who came in from other states, because, originally, it was people from Wisconsin. First week, two weeks in, we started seeing buses in from Chicago. We saw people coming in. And we didn't just have to guess. They had their signs, they had their banners, they had their --</s>TAPPER: Sure. They were from other unions in other states, right.</s>WALKER: -- from other places, New York, D.C., Nevada. But for the people of my state, there's no doubt about it. I actually talk in this book. This is not a campaign book in the sense that it's all rah-rah, I'm wonderful. There are some pretty big insights about things we did wrong. One of them was even though I talked about getting a 5 percent and 12 percent contribution from public employees during the campaign, after the election was over, I stopped talking about it. One of the mistakes I think I made was in January of 2011, I was so eager to fix things, I just went out and took action without talking about it. Most politicians, whether in state or federal office, just talk about things but never fix them. What I learned in retrospect is you've got to do both. If I made the case, not only about how and what we're doing, most importantly, why we were doing what we're doing, which we talk about in the book. I think it would have been a different outcome.</s>TAPPER: You pledged 250,000 new jobs would be created by the end of your first term. You are not even up to 90,000 yet the last --</s>WALKER: About 100,000 per the latest --</s>TAPPER: But you're not going to create another 150,000 in the next year. That's a promise you're probably not going to be able to meet.</s>WALKER: By 2015 -- although put it in context, the reason I did that was under my predecessor Democrat, the state lost 133 -- almost 134,000 jobs. What I saw were not just jobs, not just statistics, I saw real people in real households with real families in real communities who were hurting, who were stressing out every month --</s>TAPPER: But you acknowledge you're probably not going to be able to make that?</s>WALKER: Oh, I'm still focused. My goal is by 2015, so not later this year, not later next year, but by 2015, our goal is still to help the people of the state create 250,000 jobs.</s>TAPPER: Can you pledge if re-elected next year, you'll serve all four years? Because there's a lot of people around you who say they want you to run for president.</s>WALKER: You know, my focus has been not once but twice running for governor. I'm going to run again. That's what my focus is on --</s>TAPPER: You can't pledge that --</s>WALKER: I've never made promises. I didn't make it at the state assembly, didn't make it as a county executive. What I -- my promises are not about the time I serve but what I'll do in office. And I've been very clear with it, which again is why I think there were so many people who voted for me and a few months later voted for Barack Obama, because we both made promises. Very different political views but both made promise.</s>TAPPER: Stick around. I know the folks from "CROSSFIRE" have some questions for you. The book is "Unintimidated: A Governor's Story and A Nation's Challenge." We're going to see you back here in "CROSSFIRE" at 6:30 p.m. Eastern. Thank you so much, Governor. Good to see you. Coming up on</s>THE LEAD: Secretary of State John Kerry rushes to Geneva. On what was supposed to be the last day of negotiations with Iran after decades of silence. Did these talks produce a deal? Coming up.