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MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript


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I`m joined tonight by Maryland Governor Martin O`Malley. Governor, good to have you with us tonight. Appreciate your time on the program.

GOV. MARTIN O`MALLEY (D), MARYLAND: Good to be with you.

SCHULTZ: You know, how big an issue is this, do you think it is with the American people? Are the Democrats just --

O`MALLEY: I think it`s a very big deal.

SCHULTZ: Do you really think Americans care about this?

O`MALLEY: Oh, absolutely. You know why we should all care about it is this, there is no progress without a job. We all want faster job creation. We want our economy to grow by greater strides than it has coming out of this Bush recession.

So we have two theories here as to how to do it. One, that President Obama has advanced that our parents and grandparents believed in, which was to work hard, to invest in our country, to believe enough in our country that we could make it better for our children with more jobs and opportunity.

The problem that the Romney campaign has is this -- with Governor Romney, shielding his income outside the country, either in the Cayman Islands or in this Bermuda shell corporation or in Swiss bank accounts, he is really undercutting their story.

SCHULTZ: The unpatriotic -- I want to play this. President Obama was asked in a television interview in New Hampshire, he was asked this question, and I think every elected official should answer this question.

That`s my opinion. Here it is.


REPORTER: Is it your belief that it`s unpatriotic for someone to have a Swiss bank account?

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, I think what`s important if you are running for president is that the American people know who you are, what you have done, and that you`re an open book.

And that`s been true of every presidential candidate dating back to Mr. Romney`s father.


SCHULTZ: Pretty clear that President Obama is walking a fine line there. He didn`t answer the question directly. He talked about transparency.


O`MALLEY: You know, I think what`s very, very clear is that having your money sheltered overseas and avoiding paying your taxes in America when you`re part of the highest earning 1 percent of our country means that you`re not contributing to our economy and not making it grow.

I appreciate -- you know, I know people have asked, is it patriotic or not patriotic? I think more fundamentally, we need to ask, does it work to make the economy grow or not? I mean, their theory is that if you cut taxes even more deeply for the top 1 percent of people, they`ll invest it back in creating jobs.

That`s not what Romney is doing with his money, is it? He put it in Switzerland. He put in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and that`s the core of
this and why the Romney campaign is so very afraid of this issue and why
they won`t release the taxes.

SCHULTZ: I think it`s a character issue. I think it`s far beyond the economy. I understand the connection you`re making to the economy.

But when you have a sitting senator saying this whole thing is a game, playing a game. Do you agree --

O`MALLEY: Yes, that was appalling. I found that -- I found that utterly appalling. You know, most of us go to line of duty funerals all too regularly. And what so many hard working families have had to endure over this protracted conflicts, that`s a sacrifice. That`s a tremendous sacrifice.

And to have the United States senator talk about playing the game at the same time that his Tea Party extremist allies in the House are talking about dismantling large portions of our Army, of our Navy, of our Marine Corps, I think is really disgusting. And I think it is not befitting of a great and free people and the once proud Party of Lincoln.

The question we have to answer this fall is do we want to move forward with a economy that`s growing or continue to believe the ridiculous story that the bigger and richer a guy`s Swiss bank account is, the more jobs is creates in America. Give me a break.

SCHULTZ: Well, I agree with you, Governor. And I also find it very ironic that the very same people who are clamoring for Obama to come forward with a birth certificate that they always say is not real, these are the same people who don`t want to vet Mitt Romney and find out about his finances. I find it interesting.

O`MALLEY: That`s ridiculous.

SCHULTZ: Governor Martin O`Malley, great to have you with us tonight.

O`MALLEY: Thank you, Ed.


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