Exclusive: Senator John Kerry's Exit Interview
WORCESTER (CBS) – In his final day as a Senator from Massachusetts, John Kerry toured the state on a farewell tour.
At a stop at Holy Cross in Worcester, Paula Ebben spoke with Kerry who was preparing to be sworn in as the 68th Secretary of State. He says the challenges will be enormous.
"I'm excited, and I'm happy for the day," Kerry said, "but I'm also filled with a sense of the mission, of the challenge, of the amount of work yet to be done and I'm excited to go out and do it."
"My cause is my country, and I want to represent the United States' interests as powerfully and as effectively as I can," Kerry said.
Kerry believes the most important job for America is to, "get our act together here at home and fix our budget, our deficit, our debt so that we are in the strong position that we need to be abroad."
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He says voters will decide his successor but he has faith in Congressman Ed Markey, who he says is ready to pick up where he left off. Congressman Stephen Lynch announced he was running today as well. Republican Scott Brown is rumored to be planning to announce a run in the coming week.
Kerry says there is some relief as he leaves the political fray. "It allows me to just focus, I don't need to worry about raising money somewhere in the country," he said.
