Face the Nation transcripts November 10, 2013: Netanyahu, Christie, Panetta
(CBS News) Below is a transcript of "Face the Nation" on November 10, 2013, hosted by CBS News' Norah O'Donnell. Guests include: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, plus a panel featuring Phil Musser, Stephanie Cutter, Amy Walter, and CBS News' John Dickerson.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Today on Face the Nation, as prospects for a nuclear deal with Iran fade, we'll talk to the top critic of those efforts Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A massive typhoon hits the Philippines and leaves hundreds, perhaps thousands dead. We'll tell you where it's headed and have the latest on the destruction with a report from one of the hardest hit areas. Then, as this round of negotiations over curbing Iran's nuclear program ends with no deal, what impact are those talks having on U.S.- Israeli relations? We'll talk to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an interview you'll see only on Face the Nation. Plus, Bob Schieffer sits down with former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and ask him how he thinks the U.S. should proceed on Iran and what he thinks of the troubled Obamacare roll out. Can the administration get the website fixed? Penetta has some candid advice for the president if it can't.
PANETTA: If they can't fix it then I think the president may very well have to accept some changes in order to make sure that we can continue to implement it.
O'DONNELL: Meanwhile, New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie wins re-election, but are his eyes on another prize? We'll talk to him about his plans and see if he thinks he could fix a badly divided Republican Party. It's all ahead because this is Face the Nation.
ANNOUNCER: And now from CBS News in Washington, Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer. Substituting for Bob Schieffer CBS This Morning co-host Norah O'Donnell.
O'DONNELL: Good morning again. And Bob will be along later in the broadcast Seth Doane joins us now from Beijing with the very latest on Typhoon Haiyan -- Seth.
SETH DOANE, CBS NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Norah. A local official in the Philippines suggested as many as 10,000 people might have perished in this typhoon. That number is very different,though, when you talk with the Philippine Red Cross which tells us 1,200 people. Those fluctuating death tolls give you an indication of just how little officials really know about the extent, the scope of this tragedy so far. It was the wind early on that got so much of the attention in this disaster, but it turned out to be the high waves and heavy surf that proved so damaging, so deadly along the coast. The Philippine government tells us around 4 million people were affected by this typhoon, 400,000 people displaced from their homes. For as bad as this typhoon is, it is not yet over. In fact it's barreling toward Vietnam right now where it's expected to make landfall early Monday morning local time. We've already seen around 800,000 people evacuated in that country. Taiwan has seen eight people die in heavy surf. And here in southern China six people knocked off a boat, now missing. As this country now braces for this typhoon.
O'DONNELL: Thank you. CBS News reporter Barnaby Lo filed this report earlier from Cebu, one of the hardest hit areas in the Philippines.
BARNABY LO, CBS NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Typhoon Haiyan is indeed the biggest storm to hit the planet this year, there's no doubt about that, now having seen the extent of death and damage that it has cause here in the central Philippines. Now my team and I were actually taught in the middle of the storm. And I'm telling you the winds were tornado-like and the storm surge was like a tsunami. After storm had passed, we went out and what we saw was complete scene of devastation, a coastal town that had almost been completely wiped out. There were dead bodies lying everywhere. And people who survived were asking, where they would get food and water in the next few days to be able to survive. Now in Tacloban City, people have started looting. They have raided supermarkets, grocery stores and even electronic and appliance stores. There's just this sense of anarchy and lawlessness that has surrounded this immediate aftermath of the typhoon. Remember, this region was just hit by 7.1 magnitude earthquake a couple weeks ago and so there's definitely a massive work ahead for the Philippine government.
O'DONNELL: This morning U.S. attempts to craft an historic deal to curb Iran's nuclear deal have fallen apart. Secretary of State John Kerry had flown to Geneva for two days of marathon negotiations, the first direct talks between the U.S. and Iran in 36 years. Hopes were high for a deal until concerns were raised by France about whether they could trust Iran. Israel has called this a very bad deal. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joins us now.
NETANYAHU: Thank you, Norah, good morning.
O'DONNELL: I know that you never liked this deal from the beginning. Do you feel like the concerns you raised were heard?
NETANYAHU: I'm sure they were heard. I don't know if they will be internalized in to a different deal. A deal is not an end itself. And I think Secretary Kerry said the right thing when he said that no deal is better than a bad deal. The deal as was proposed described to us by the American sources they described it as accurately as they can means that Iran maintains its capability to enrich material for nuclear bomb. It also maintains another route, the plutonium heavy water route to make nuclear bombs. All Iran gives is a minor concession of taking 20 percent enriched uranium and bringing it down to a lower enrichment but that they could cover with a few weeks given the capabilities that they keep for enrichment. So Iran effectively becomes a threshold nation, threshold nuclear power nation, makes a minor concession and in exchange for that the P5+1, the international community, reverses the direction of sanctions, gives Iran several billion dollars worth in direct assistance, opens up petrol chemicals, opens up gold, diamond, the automotive industries and other things. This is a huge change from the pressure that was applied on Iran through the effective sanctions regime, which brought them to the table in the first place. In other words, Iran gives practically nothing and it gets a hell of a lot. That's not a good deal. I hope -- I can only express my wish -- that the P5+1 use the time to get a good deal that takes away Iran's nuclear military capabilities.
O'DONNELL: I know you describe these and believe these are minor concessions. But the United States, other Europeans believe this would be a historic deal, because for the first time it would freeze their nuclear weapons program. Why would you not want to take that first step?
NETANYAHU: Because the whole thrust of the sanctions and the negotiations has been to get Iran to agree to what the international community has put forward and the security council resolution spelled out. Iran should take away its centrifuges, should take away its plutonium -- should dismantle its plutonium heavy water reactors. Norah, how many centrifuges are dismantled in this agreement, do you know?
O'DONNELL: Tell me.
NETANYAHU: Zero. Not one. Zero. In other words, Iran maintains all capabilities. It built itself up in the face of international decision and resolution, it defied them, went right up to very close to the top and now it stays there. It doesn't bring down, dismantle one centrifuge, it continues to have the mountains of material from which they can take in to the centrifuge make atomic bombs. All they're doing is taking a little material that they enriched to a higher degree and bring it back, that's nothing. And remember, this is a country that has tens of thousands of people in the street chanting "death to America" the other day. This is a country that is participating as we speak in the mass slaughter of men, women, children, tens of thousands of them in Syria. This is a country that is fomenting terror in five continents. This is a country that pledges to destroy the state of Israel and subvert so many of the other countries. It's not only my concern that this is a bad deal, there are many, many Arab leaders in the region who are saying, this is a very bad deal for the region and for the world. And you know, when you have the Arabs and Israelis speaking in one voice, doesn't happen very often, I think it's worth paying attention to us.
O'DONNELL: Did you help lobby against this deal?
NETANYAHU: Lobby? Yes, of course, lobby. That's an understatement. I speak up against it. I'm expressing as I said not only the concerns of Israel but the concerns of many, many in the region. Some of them say it out loud, some of them say it behind closed doors. But I'll tell you this is a broad feeling here, broad feeling that Iran is, you know, might hit the jackpot here. And it's not good. It's not good for us, not good for America, it's not good for the Middle East. It's not good for Europe either. I don't think it's good for Russia or China. And by the way I've spoken to the leaders of most of these countries.
O'DONNELL: Do you think President Obama has put too much trust in this new Iranian regime?
NETANYAHU: Look, I think the president and Ishare the goal of making sure that Iran doesn't have nuclear weapons. I think where we might have a difference of opinion is on how to prevent it. I think that what has been built up over time -- sure the Iranians have built the program over time, but the international community led, by the way by the United States, has built up a sanctions program that has been very, very effective. And it's got Iran to come to the table. Now what is happening is that for effectively nothing, or virtually no concessions, Iran gets to keep its nuclear capabilities, that is the capabilities that enable it to manufacture the material for nuclear bombs. I think the other aspects of metallurgy, weapons making, that is not even in the deal that's another component of making the bomb. So they get to keep all that. And at the same time the international community takes the one effective thing, which has been the sanctions regime, and they reverse direction. They begin to legitimize Iran as having these capabilities, that's a bad thing. But they take away the pressure. You know that the price of any good, at any time is the expectation of what will be the future. And in Iran where there's a lot of pressure these days, the pressure is going to be let off, the valve is going to be let off on the pressure cooker because people understand it's over. So it's not merely the direct benefit, the direct easement of the sanctions, but the multiplier of expectations and that is going to relieve the pressure in Iran and it's going to start, I'm afraid, a scramble in the international community who gets to ease their sanctions with Iran faster. Not a good idea. Not a good deal. A very bad deal.
O'DONNELL: Can I ask you, President Obama had said this week, though, that this deal would include very modest relief on the sanctions and that there would be a freeze that would begin immediately. And then you could deal with the capability later on. Why are you not convinced that that could be the final deal that's reaching, that this is a process?
NETANYAHU: Because the easing of the sanctions is a tremendous concession on the part of the P5-plus-1, because there's a multiplier affect, a signaling effect, to the markets, both inside Iran and the world, when you reverse a direction that you've been effectively putting, the direction of pressure and even more pressure on Iran. And now you're going the other way. That's like putting a hole in your tire, you know? It may not be a big hole, it may be a middle sized hole or even a small hole. But the air begins come out and pretty soon you've got a flat tire. That's what puncturing the sanctions does. And I think that's exactly why the Iranians are interested in this deal, because they give nothing, but they get the hole in the tire of the sanctions. And the air begins to come out. That's what they want. And they're pretty shrewd. But I don't think they're that shrewd. I think we understand it. I think the region understands it. I hope that the P5-Plus-1 understand it, because a bad deal is bad for them, too. Ultimately, it's bad for the world.
O'DONNELL: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, thank you.
NETANYAHU: Thank you.
O'DONNELL: Leon Panetta served as President Obama's CIA director and then Defense secretary before before leaving the administration earlier this year. Bob Schieffer sat down with the former secretary at his home in Monterrey, California, and asked him what he thought about a potential nuclear deal with Iran.
PANETTA: I think we've got to be very careful and we've got to be very skeptical. Iran is a country that has promoted terrorism. They've had a hidden enrichment facility that we had to find out about. So we've got to be skeptical and make sure that even with some kind of interim agreement, that we know what the next steps are going to be in order to ensure that they really do stand by their word.
SCHIEFFER: The Israeli prime minister, Netanyahu, has already called it a monumental mistake.
PANETTA: Yes, no, I -- I understand the concerns. And as I said, I think it is incumbent on us to make very certain that we put some very strict conditions on any deal with the Iranians. I mean what are they going to do with the enriched fuel that they already have? And they've got a lot of it. What are they going to do with that? What are they going to do with their centrifuges? And they've got a lot of those. What are they going to do with the heavy water reactor that could produce plutonium? What are they going to do to make sure they don't Have any other hidden sights with regards to enrichment? There are a lot of conditions, a lot of steps that has to be put in place to make sure that they, indeed, are serious about eliminating their nuclear capability.
SCHIEFFER: Mr. Secretary, you seem especially skeptical of the Iranians. Why is that?
PANETTA: You know, my experience is that the Iranians not only, you know, obviously have promoted terrorism, but, you know, they've directly engaged, in terms of conflict. The Iranians actually shot down one of our drone planes that, you know, looks -- looks over that part of the -- the Gulf. And we sent a clear message to them that we were going to have F- 16s be able to accompany our drones. And if they try to go after our drones again, we're going to shoot them down. And they backed off. So I think it's important -- the lesson I guess I draw from this is you'd better operate from a position of strength if you want to deal with the Iranians.
O'DONNELL: We'll hear more from Bob's interview Secretary Panetta later in the broadcast. We'll be right back.
O'DONNELL: Last week, New Jersey governor, a Republican, won a big victory in the very blue state of New Jersey. In fact, it was the largest margin of victory by any Republican in the Garden State in 30 years. And now the governor may have his sights set on higher office. Governor Christie, good to see you. Thank you for joining us.
CHRISTIE: Nora, thanks for having me.
O'DONNELL: I want to talk politics in just a minute. But first, I want to get your take on the headlines this morning on Iran. A deal to freeze Iran's nuclear program has fallen apart. How big of a setback do you think this is?
CHRISTIE: Nora, listen, you know, I'm the governor of New Jersey. And I think a lot of people you could have -- and probably will -- on the program -- who are significantly better briefed on this than I am. And I think when -- when guys like me start to shoot off on opinions about this kind of stuff, it's really ill-advised. So I'll leave it to Secretary Kerry and the folks that are in charge of this to make decisions about where we go. And then once they put something together, if they do, then I'll make a judgment on that. But it's -- it's just -- I'm not the right person to be asking that question to, with all due respect.
O'DONNELL: But you're a national political figure. You're a leader in the Republican Party. You may someday run for president. do you have a view about whether Iran should continue to enrich uranium?
CHRISTIE: Well, listen, like I said, I think the folks who are involved in this on a day to day basis should be making those kind of opinions known publicly. For me, I'm the governor of New Jersey and my job is to run the state of New Jersey. And -- and it's just something -- I think, in all seriousness, Nora, that you just -- folks in my position who spout off opinions off the top of their head just wind up doing more harm than good. I'm just not going to engage in that.
O'DONNELL: All right. Let's turn now to politics. Congratulations on your victory this past week. I want to remind our viewers how you won, because you're a Republican and New Jersey is a very blue state. You won 66 percent of Independents. You won 32 percent of Democrats, 51 percent of Hispanic voters and 21 percent of African-American voters. Is there a lesson there for the rest of the Republican Party?
CHRISTIE: Yes, the lesson is to govern, Nora. The lesson is to govern and to show up. And let me explain what I mean. On governing, it's about doing things, accomplishing things, reaching across the aisle and crafting accomplishments. And ours, I think, are significant. You know, 143,000 new private sector jobs in the last four years; a $2.3 billion tax cut to help create those jobs; reforming teacher tenure for the first time in 100 years in New Jersey; reforming a broken pension and benefit system that's going to save $120 billion over the next 30 years; and spending less in this budget year, fiscal year '14, than was spent in New Jersey in fiscal year 2008, six years ago. So you govern. All those are bipartisan accomplishments, because I have a completely Democratic legislature. And showing up, what I mean by that is that you can't just show up six months before an election into groups that have not normally voted for you and expect that they are going to vote for you. I've been working on this for four years, going to places like Irvington, New Jersey, on of our cities where I got 4.7 percent of the vote four years ago. I did a town hall meeting there a year and a half ago. There were more people in the church than voted for me in 2009.
O'DONNELL: Well ---
CHRISTIE: But you go there, you listen and you present your views. And that's the way you bring people into your movement.
O'DONNELL: As you know, Hispanics are the fastest growing demographic in this country. Your party has struggled with the Hispanic vote. Do you believe the Republican Party, Congress, needs to pass an immigration bill in the next 14 months in order to appeal to Hispanic voters?
CHRISTIE: I think that they have to fix a broken immigration system, because it's what right -- it's what's right for our country and what's good for our economy. And that's why they need to fix the current broken immigration system. They shouldn't be viewing it from a political perspective.
O'DONNELL: And do you think your party will do that?
CHRISTIE: Well...
O'DONNELL: Do you think there will be (INAUDIBLE)?
CHRISTIE: -- listen, I hope they do.
O'DONNELL: (INAUDIBLE)?
CHRISTIE: I hope they do, Nora. I hope they do. That's what they should be doing. That's what people are frustrated by, that there are obvious problems that need to be fixed and that the people in Washington, both parties, are not fixing these problems, nor is the president. And that's the problem. And they look at place like New Jersey, where we're not using divided government as an excuse not to act. We get together, we argue, we fight, we debate. But then we get around a table and we conclude the argument by getting things done. And they're not doing that in Washington. And that's the thing that I think frustrates Americans the most. And I know it frustrates New Jerseyans, when they're looking at Washington, DC.
O'DONNELL: You just got elected to second term as governor of New Jersey. You're going to be the chairman of the Republican Governors Association. And a lot of Republicans I've spoken with say you are, in fact, already laying the groundwork to run for president in 2016. What does Mary Pat say about this?
CHRISTIE: Well, listen, Mary Pat is completely supportive of the two jobs that I told her I have in 2014 in my professional life. One is being governor of New Jersey, and looking to finish the job we started in the first four years. And the second is I'm honored to be chairman of the Republican Governors Association, 36 governors' races in 2014. And I'll be traveling the country, raising money, and campaigning for my fellow governors and challengers to try to make sure we increase our numbers from the current 29 to an even higher number. And so...
O'DONNELL: So can I ask you specifically what major policy and political goals do you have for the next year?
CHRISTIE: Well, in the next year we want to lower taxes in New Jersey -- income taxes in New Jersey. I would like to continue education reform by, you know, a greater expansion of charter schools, getting choice -- school choice for parents so that in failing schools in New Jersey, and there is 200 failing schools in New Jersey, that those parents can get a voucher to send their child to a private or parochial school. We want to continue along those paths and also continue to grow private sector jobs in our economy, which we have been doing. And I want to do even more of so we get more New Jerseyans back to work.
O'DONNELL: Let's turn now to the president's rollout of the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare. This week he apologized to the American people, said, I'm sorry. Do you think that's enough?
CHRISTIE: No, it's not enough. But I had said to him earlier last week that he should apologize and tell people that he was wrong.
O'DONNELL: You mean, you were the one who suggested to President Obama that he should do an interview and say, I'm sorry?
CHRISTIE: I'm not -- I don't know if I was the one who suggested it, but I said last week that he should -- people should apologize. And I've talked about it in general in public life. When you make a mistake, you should own up to it and apologize for it. And I think people give you credit for that. The fact is that the president didn't tell the truth. It turned out not to be true that people could keep their insurance policies no matter what, that they could keep their doctor no matter what. And we need to confront that issue and the president needs to deal with it in a head-on way. That's why I didn't do a state-based exchange in New Jersey to implement Obamacare, because anyone who has managed anything or run anything over the course of their careers could see that this was a train wreck. And I was not going to get the people of New Jersey involved in this train wreck in that way. And so that's what we've done in New Jersey. And the president needs to deal with what he said and how it turned out not to be true.
O'DONNELL: Governor Chris Christie, good to see you, thanks for joining us. And we'll be right back.
O'DONNELL: And we'll be back with a lot more FACE THE NATION. But first, this programming note. Next week Bob Schieffer will host a special FACE THE NATION devoted to the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy from the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas, Texas.
O'DONNELL: Some of our stations are leaving us now. But for most of you, we'll be right back, stay with us.
SCHIEFFER: Mr. Secretary, the president, what he hoped would be his signature achievement, what has come to be called Obamacare, has had nothing short of what I would call a disastrous rollout. It has almost become a parody of the government can't seem to do anything right. You have held a variety of posts, committee chairman in Congress, you have held two cabinet posts, you have been a White House chief of staff. If you were on the president's staff right now what would you advise him to do?
PANETTA: I think the most important thing is some of the steps that he has taken to acknowledge the mistakes that were made, to apologize for them, to make clear that he's going to do everything possible to fix the Web site so that it works. I think it's really important, at least in my own experience, that you cannot rely on the bureaucracies to do this kind of work. I mean, you know, they're good people, they're dedicated but very frankly they're not the ones that really have the capabilities to in fact get this done. And so, I would drive this out of the White House, I would have an ongoing task force, I'd have one person in charge of it and I would meet every day to make sure that they're getting this straight, because I think the president's trust on this program is really going to be dependent on his ability to fix it and they have said they want to fix it by the end of November. But I think that's going to be tough. These are complicated processes and you've got to make sure very sure that you are in fact fixing it.
SCHIEFFER: Well, do you think they should just shut the whole thing down and basically start over is that what is going to have to be done?
PANETTA: No, I think they ought to be able to try and fix the systems. I mean frankly they should have done it before it started, they should have gotten it right in place. And there are too many players. So they really ought to try to make sure that they're going to be able to fix this system by the end of November. I hope they can. But if they can't, they ought to be honest about what they're confronting. And I think ultimately that if they can fix it, they can put this back on the right track. If they can't fix it, then I think the president may very well have to accept some changes in order to make sure that we can continue to implement it. Medicare went through this, the shakedown. Medicaid went through the shakedown. I mean, these are complicated programs. But you've got to be able to adjust. You've got to be able to see what you have to do in order to make them work better and you ought to be open to that this if in fact that's required.
SCHIEFFER: The president has apologized for telling people that they could keep their health care plan if they liked it. Now that's obviously not going to be possible. Do you think he's done enough by saying that?
PANETTA: I think it's important for him to acknowledge that. I do think that they need to do everything possible now with regards to those that may be having their policies canceled to make sure that those people are being well served and can get new plans at a reasonable premium. That's something you really ought to focus on.
SCHIEFFER: I want to ask you about the ongoing revelations about the National Security Agency. Do you think this agency went too far, Mr. Secretary?
PANETTA: Bob, you know, my experience with these intelligence agencies is that these are professionals who do a great job at gathering the kind of intelligence that's important to protecting this country. We went through 9/11. And we learned that very frankly we did not have good intelligence with regards to what al Qaeda was doing. They have developed very good approaches to going after that intelligence. And let me tell you something else, that these agencies don't go out just gather intelligence on their own, they do it pursuant to priorities that are established by the national security council and the White House. They don't just do this hit and miss on their own. They do it pursuant to what they're direct to do.
SCHIEFFER: You were in the rare position of running both the CIA and Defense Department. Which agency do you think is better suited to run the drone program?
PANETTA: You know, this is -- without getting in to classified information, it is an operation that obviously I think we made a great deal of progress on at the CIA. It was a very effective operation in terms of establishing targets and conducting very specific strikes at going after core al Qaeda leadership. So, they did a very good job. and At the Pentagon, there is a comparable capability to do that. And one of the things, frankly, when I was secretary was I said we ought to pay more attention at the Defense Department to how CIA handled this operation, because they really have a very effective process. So, I think that's happening. I think the Pentagon is beginning to develop that kind of capability. I think ultimately, the more we can probably put in to the military the better because it's a much more open process. But there are always going to be the need for the kind of clandestine operation that the CIA and the CIA alone can operate. So I think we are best off if we can maintain both of those capabilities.
SCHIEFFER: Leadership, it seems to me, is about priorities. President Obama has three years to go here, what do you think his priorities should be over the next three years?
PANETTA: I want President Obama to be successful, to have a legacy in office. And there are important areas where I think he has made an important contribution, but more is going to have to be done. I mean, I think he's got a good legacy on the economy in terms of what he was able to do. But he's going to have to cut a deal on the deficit in order to make sure we don't constantly confront these crises that we've been confronting. That has to be done. I think he's got -- obviously a legacy on health care, but he is going to have to do everything necessary to make sure that that program works. We're a country that's going to become energy independent, but we need energy reform and we need to deal with climate change. And lastly in the world, you know, he's kept America safe, but we also have to continue to exercise world leadership. So, yes, he's made some good steps but he can't just -- can't get caught in what I call second term blues where you kind of sit back and hope that things are going to be okay. You got to keep working at it. And if he does I think he could develop a hell of a legacy.
O'DONNELL: And for more on those second term blues we bring in our political roundtable. Joining us now for some analysis Stephanie Cutter was a top adviser to President Obama. She's now a co-host at CNN's Crossfire. Phil Muster is a long-time is a long time Republican strategist and the former director of the Republican Governors Association. Amy Walter is the national editor of The Cooke Political Report. And John Dickerson is our CBS News Political Director. Welcome all of you. Stephanie, let me start with you. You served in the administration, worked for President Obama. This is a little bit more, though, than second term blues. I mean, this was a failed roll out of Obamacare. Is the credibility of his presidency on the line?
STEPHANIE CUTTER, FRM. ADVISER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, I think the credibility of the presidency is always on the line no matter what is going on. And I don't think anybody inside the White House right now, including the president, is happy with the way this has rolled out -- the health care law. And I think that he's trying to take steps to fix it, you know, making sure that the website is up and working by the end of this month so that people can go online and sign up for health care. And of course we heard what he said couple of nights ago, apologizing for what's happening to some people in the individual market. So, I think that this -- we are in a snapshot of time right now. We know how quickly these things change. Remember, just three weeks ago we were talking about a government shut down. So I think we have to see how things progress, the president's committed to it. And there are people across this country who are already benefiting from the health care law whether it be of a preexisting condition, you're getting preventive care, women no longer paying 50 percent more than men. Those are -- those are signs of progress in a very broken market.
O'DONNELL: Well, it turns out that the president, thought, said that this is more than just a website. And it turns out when you look beyond the website, there are a lot of real problems out there. Millions of Americans who are being kicked off their current insurance plans. They may be sub-par plans, but being kicked off. And after the White House pushing back for several days on that, then the president, John, came out said I'm sorry. That's extraordinary to have a presidential apology.
JOHN DICKERSON, CBS NEWS POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yeah, well presidents don't usually apologize. And this one was late, too. I mean, the president was apologizing for those people in the individual market who had gotten these cancellation notices, that's been going on for several weeks now. And he's tried some other exits to this problem, re-defining what his original promise was, putting it in important context which is, this is why it's more than a website, because what is supposed to happen, these people would lose their insurance that they had, and the president knew that was going to happen because that was the point of this whole law was to disrupt the health care system from the bad form that it was in previously where people had to worry about ever getting covered, if they were covered getting it dropped, or going bankrupt if they had coverage. So he said, I'm going to replace that with something else. He knew this disruption was going to happen. And so that's why the apology is a little weird because he's apologizing for something that happened as result of policy he knew what was in place. But the problem with the website is that what was supposed to happen is you lose your coverage, but then you get all these wonderful options that you can look at on the website and you can learn that you're going to get something that might very well be better. That didn't happen. And so what's interesting going forward is they're going to be winners and losers in this law and the hope was there would be vastly more winners than losers. Well, the president got the situation which losers are in the news now and so it's not just how he manages this, but how he manages the future disruption that are going to come about as result of this law.
O'DONNELL: And now you have Democratic senators going to the White House who are in a lot of trouble, in fact there are 21 Democratic seats that are up for re-election. The Democrats could lose majority in the Senate.
AMY WALTER, COOK POLITICAL REPORT: That's right. I mean, it's a mid term election, the president's second term. We know historically is always a bad time to be part of the president's party in a second term mid-term election. But to John's point, it's exactly right, it's not just the individual market that's going to be disrupted, people who have employer-centered health care are also go likely to feel something about this. Their premiums may get changed. Maybe they lose their access to the doctor they've always liked. So this isn't going to go away once HealthCare.gov gets fixed. The apology should be, to John's point, doing the broader outline, which is this is meant to disrupt the process, because the process was broken. But in disrupting it, yes, you people who have health care right now, you may find that your health care doesn't look the same.
O'DONNELL: Phil, you were in the Republican Governors Association. We just saw two big races. But in Virginia where a Democrat, Terry McAuliffe, won there, that was tighter than many people thought. And it might have been because of ObamaCare. Did that help him? What did you learn?
PHIL MUSSER, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: You know, I'm not sure. I think there's a -- I think there have been a lot of shooting of the muskets saying that ObamaCare, in the narrowing days of the Cuccinelli campaign, was the result was directly correlated to the closeness of the race. I'm not sure the evidence totally bears that out. And I think Republican Party -- the Republican Party should think carefully before we kind of draw that conclusion. I think that to the 21 races next year, that 5 percent in the individual market, we do know is impacted. And we do know that the president prevaricated fundamentally fundamentally on this issue, talking to them about what they would get. So that is a voter slice of the electorate. And we learned -- we should learn as Republicans, from the Democrats' campaign of 2012 and we should copy them. We should narrow cast on the 5 percent because in states like North Carolina, Iowa, Louisiana, these are states where senators voted for ObamaCare, where that 5 percent is very persuadable. And 5 percent matters a lot in these swing state elections next year.
O'DONNELL: You cover all these races. Do you think that's true?
WALTER: Well, I think that the environment in Virginia is very different -- the political environment -- than it is in a lot of these red states (INAUDIBLE) Louisiana, Alaska, Arkansas. But I think in the -- what happened in the Virginia governor's race is as much about the success of the McAuliffe campaign in creating a turnout that looked a lot like Obama 2012. If you look at the exit polls, the people who turned out this election in 2013 looked almost exactly like the people that turned out in 2012. If I'm Republicans, I'm going to be a little bit nervous, because it says, wow, Democrats can actually turn out in Obama model in an off year. And let's be clear, Terry McAuliffe was not a perfect candidate by any means. So if you can do it...
(CROSSTALK)
WALTER: -- with that candidate...
(CROSSTALK)
MUSSER: This was a race to the bottom in a lot of ways. And, frankly, the Republican candidate, Ken Cuccinelli, made a series of strategic mistakes early.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
MUSSER: This was a convention that produced a ticket that was too far to the right for the center of the Virginia electorate, that should have been focused on bread and economy issues. But there were some good things that happened. You know, the RNC went in early and has learned the lesson about outreach. Governor Christie talked early about the importance of showing up. That is a fundamental lesson out of this election cycle for Republicans. The Republican Party nationally invested in a lot of outreach, a lot of staff. They're spending a lot of money early in a way that they haven't done before. That's really important and that's a lesson that we learned from the Democrats, frankly, from the last cycle that I think we're going to perpetuate moving forward as we go ahead.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You just need a better candidate.
DICKERSON: Another interesting thing about the Virginia governor's race that will be watched in the 2014 races -- and Stephanie knows how to draw the message, so this is her expertise. But if you look at health care, well, that was in the news everywhere, OK? So 27 percent in the exit polls said health care was their number one voting issue. Well, you might expect that because Cuccinelli brought that up. It was also in the news all the time. But 20 percent said abortion was their number one issue. That was an issue that was not on the front pages for any reason than that Terry McAuliffe was relentless in driving that. And Terry McAuliffe won with women by a big margin. And that is a playbook similar to the one that was run in Virginia by the Obama campaign.
MUSSER: Right.
DICKERSON: That's something Democrats can be happy about in future races.
(CROSSTALK)
CUTTER: Yes. The McAuliffe campaign ran a great campaign. But let's remember who they were running against.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
CUTTER: Those messages only worked because they were true. Cuccinelli was outside of the mainstream, whether it was on women making their own health care decisions, being the first attorney general to sue to overturn the Affordable Care Act, which did work against him with certain demographics. Being a climate denier. Not putting out a pro-active, positive economic plan. Those things matter in an election. And I don't think you saw that at all from Cuccinelli. All of the positions he had taken previously outside of the mainstream worked against him with the key populations that he had to turn out.
MUSSER: And a lot of this was -- an interesting side note to this is that the -- the outside money on the left showed up for the first time in this election. And that hadn't happened in a main scale, mainstream kind of way. And as I mentioned, the closeness of this race was not accurately reflected in public polling. And I'm not sure...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
MUSSER: -- that it was reflected in GOP polling. And so that's something that needs to be addressed, because the central thrust of Cuccinelli's campaign should have revolved around his tax cut and his messaging, but he was put on defense early by outside liberal groups. O'DONNELL: I want to come back after this break and we'll talk more about Governor Chris Christie's victory, a Republican who won in the State of New Jersey, a very Democratic state, and the future of the Republican Party. We'll be back in one minute.
O'DONNELL: And we're back with more of our panel. As we mentioned, Governor Chris Christie had a huge win this week. And not only two-thirds of Independents turned out for him, he won 51 percent of Hispanic voters. Amy, what does that tell us about Governor Christie's appeal?
WALTER: Well, certainly, it's a very big win. Now, I don't want to take anything away from him, but unlike the other race we talked about in Virginia, the Democrat in this race really had very little support, very little money, didn't get the kind of outside help from -- even from Democrats. So he did run a very strong, solid race. He didn't have a very strong opponent. That said, I think his profile looked very strong going into 2016. And I know there's a lot of talk about, well, that's great, from 2016, as a general election candidate, but, boy, he's going to have trouble in the primaries -- another Northeastern governor. We've already tried that. It didn't work last time. The thing about Chris Christie is when you look at his policies, he is not Rudy Giuliani. He is not Mitt Romney. He's much more conservative than they are. And I think he can attract a conservative electorate in a way -- in a primary -- in a way that Rudy Giuliani, who was pro-choice, Mitt Romney, who had to run away from his record in Massachusetts, couldn't.
O'DONNELL: Phil, do you think Governor Christie can attract conservatives in a primary?
MUSSER: I think he absolutely can attract conservatives in a primary. He just proved it in his own state. Governor Christie got 94 percent of self-identified Republicans, 92 percent of self- identified Tea Party supporters in this...
O'DONNELL: These are in New Jersey.
MUSSER: This is in New Jersey, correct. This is in New Jersey.
O'DONNELL: But not in Iowa...
MUSSER: Well, look, if anyone...
O'DONNELL: Not in South Carolina. MUSSER: -- if anyone looks at the Chris Christie performance this Tuesday and doesn't think that it's absolute slam dunk as a model for future of the Republican Party, they need to have their head examined. And the truth is, I've spent a lot of time in Iowa and I've spent a lot of time in New Hampshire, seen a lot of you along the way.
(LAUGHTER)
MUSSER: But the reality is that Governor Christie has got a proven record of now appealing to both the center and the conservative part of the Republican Party. If -- he's got a great opportunity, in the context of leading the RGA, which currently is the largest political committee in American politics right now. It's got $40 million plus in the bank. It will raise another $100 million and try to help Republican governors. That's an important post that will help him focus on the main -- the old Haley Barbour rule, the main thing, which is electing more governors next year.
DICKERSON: What's interesting about that role of the head of the Republican Governors Association is that the Republican Governors Association, before Christie came to head it, was making the Christie case, which is, don't pay so much attention to the conservatives in Washington, who are hurting our brand, pay attention to the conservatives who are in office, getting thing done...
MUSSER: Right.
DICKERSON: -- running as conservatives. What's interesting about Governor Christie, in your interview with him, Nora, you never heard the word conservative once from him. Now, does that matter? Well, not too much. But people who are running as conservatives never stop saying it. And his model in his victory speech was interesting for what he was talking about -- clearly a pitch to 2016. He said he can get the job done. And he talked about effective government. He didn't talk about dismantling government until it could barely breathe so that people could have their individual liberty, he talked about making government work. And that's a really interesting argument to see. It's in line with the RGA argument, but not necessarily in line with the dismantle Tea Party argument.
MUSSER: Right. Right.
O'DONNELL: And how will Democrats run against Chris Christie if he seeks the Republican nomination?
CUTTER: Well, we have to remember that Chris Christie is not going to be running in a vacuum. He's going to have primary opponents, which are going to try to drag him to the right. We've seen this happen before. You know, it struck me, on the night that Governor Christie was giving his acceptance speech and talking about reaching across the aisle and we can get things done and still stick to our principles, you had Ted Cruz saying, we need more people who have courage to stand up and fight for our principles. So you really have two different Republican Parties here going into the next cycle. And, you know, the most important thing for Chris Christie is that he shouldn't change his positions. He shouldn't move to the right. He should stay exactly who he is, because that is the most -- that's the thing that people like about him, is there is an authenticity to him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But to the degree...
O'DONNELL: All right...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- to the...
O'DONNELL: -- we've got to leave it there. But Stephanie Cutter and Phil Musser, thank you. John Dickerson and Amy Walter. And we'll be right back with our "Face The Nation" flashback.
O'DONNELL: The next presidential election may be three years away but speculation about possible candidates is already dominating the headlines. Will they run or won't they? It's a guessing game journalists have played for decades, as far back at 1958, when then- Senator John F. Kennedy was grilled about his political intentions on this broadcast.
And that's our "FACE THE NATION Flashback."
ANNOUNCER: FACE THE NATION.
STUART NOVINS, FORMER HOST: When the presidential elections are talked about here in Washington, and that's most of the time, the name of Senator Kennedy of Massachusetts emerges as one of the White House possibles on the Democratic side.
O'DONNELL (voice-over): Kennedy appeared on FACE THE NATION on March 30th to talk about his Senate re-election bid. But the panel of reporters questioning him had another campaign in mind.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator, I wonder if I could get a direct answer to the question of whether or not you are interested in the presidency in 1960.
JOHN F. KENNEDY, 35TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, THEN- SENATOR: Well, I don't know whether you consider the answer direct, Mr. Laurence (ph), but I'm a candidate for the United States Senate and I think that that is acquiring all my attention and it seems to me that should take care of that matter before I'd even consider doing anything else.
O'DONNELL: Kennedy would be re-elected to the Senate later that year by a huge margin. In February 1959 he returned to FACE THE NATION and to the same questions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator, when are you going to drop this public pretense of non-candidacy and frankly admit that you already are seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 1960?
KENNEDY: All right. Well, Mr. Laurence, I think there's an appropriate time for anyone to make a decision and a final announcement as to whether he's going to be a candidate. The 1960 election is almost two years away. And I would think that it would be an appropriate time in 1960 to make such an announcement when a final decision is made, not today.
O'DONNELL: Kennedy didn't waste any time once 1960 arrived. He announced his campaign for president on January 2nd.
O'DONNELL: And CBS News continues this coverage of the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination on Saturday, November 16th, with a prime time special hosted by Bob Schieffer. That will air 9:00 p.m. Eastern. Next Sunday Bob will be in Dallas to host FACE THE NATION from the Sixth Floor Museum, formerly the Texas School Book Depository. We'll be right back.
O'DONNELL: That's it for us today. Bob will be back next Sunday. I'll see you tomorrow on "CBS This Morning," along with Charlie Rose and Gayle King. Thanks for watching FACE THE NATION.