NBC's Lauer Urges UK Prime Minister to Hit Romney Over Olympic Comments
In an unaired portion of an interview with British Prime Minister David
Cameron meant to be featured on Friday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer
pressed Cameron to compare the London Olympics with the winter games run
by Mitt Romney: "Do you think that Mitt Romney, the challenges
he faced in 2002 in Salt Lake City, compared at all to what you faced
here in London?" [View video after the jump]
After pushing Cameron to criticize Romney, moments later, Lauer went
after Britain's head of Parliament for daring to modestly cut back on
the nation's massive government spending: "You put in place some very difficult austerity measures that were controversial, hard for a lot of people to swallow.
And yet, in the last quarter, your economy shrunk. So, was austerity
the right path to take at that particular time, facing this very
stubborn recession?"
The exchange began with Cameron dismissing media interpretations of his
initial reaction to Romney's comments about security concerns at the
games: "I think Governor Romney could see for himself, when he came to
London, how well prepared we are....When I said it's easier to build –
to put an Olympic games in the middle of nowhere, I did not – and let me
be clear to the people of Salt Lake City and the great state of
Utah....That was not what I was referring to."
Lauer skeptically wondered: "No reference to that?" Cameron replied:
"What I meant was, there have been countries who've bid for Olympic
games and instead of putting them in the capital city, they build
something outside the capital city, freshly built. We built all this
right here in – in London."
During
the portion of the interview that did air on Friday, Lauer asked for
Cameron's impression of Romney, to which Cameron observed: "He's clearly
a very capable man." Lauer continued: "So come the first of the year,
you feel as if you can have that level of trust with either President
Obama or President Romney?"
In response to Lauer's austerity question, Cameron explained: "We did
the right thing because we inherited as a government a budget deficit
that was bigger than Greece's, bigger than Spain's, bigger than
Portugal's. It was one of the biggest in anywhere in the world. And
we've cut that deficit by a quarter in two years."
Lauer followed up: "When you look at those economic numbers that were
recently released, do you have any second thoughts about anything you
did? Would you do anything differently?" Sounding very much like Romney,
Cameron defended his policies: "What I think we need to do is even more
to encourage private sector growth. You know, when you're in a debt
hole, you can't solve that problem by borrowing even more money. You
can't borrow your way out of debt, you've got to get private sector
growth."
Here is a transcript of the exchange meant to air on August 3:
DAVID CAMERON: I think Governor Romney could see for himself, when he
came to London, how well prepared we are. And let me be clear, when I –
the point I was making is that, you know, we are organizing an Olympic
games here in one of the busiest, most bustling, most active cities
anywhere in the world, that's a really tough challenge. Because you've
got security challenges and transport challenges to deal with. When I
said it's easier to build – to put an Olympic games in the middle of
nowhere, I did not – and let me be clear to the people of Salt Lake City
and the great state of Utah-
MATT LAUER: No reference to that?
CAMERON: That was not what I was referring to. What I meant was, there
have been countries who've bid for Olympic games and instead of putting
them in the capital city, they build something outside the capital city,
freshly built. We built all this right here in – in London.
LAUER: But do you-
CAMERON: And that was the point I was making, so-
LAUER:
Do you think that Mitt Romney, the challenges he faced in 2002 in Salt
Lake City, compared at all to what you faced here in London?
CAMERON: I'm not – I'm not going to go there. A winter games and a
summer games, they're different things. And I'm not – I'm not an expert
on the – the Salt Lake City games. I hope I'm a bit of an expert on
these London games, and they're going very well.
LAUER: You are keenly aware in this country of the world economic
crisis. You've got your own fiscal crisis as well. You put in place some
very difficult austerity measures that were controversial, hard for a
lot of people to swallow. And yet, in the last quarter, your economy
shrunk. So, was austerity the right path to take at that particular
time, facing this very stubborn recession?
CAMERON: We did the right thing because we inherited as a government a
budget deficit that was bigger than Greece's, bigger than Spain's,
bigger than Portugal's. It was one of the biggest in anywhere in the
world. And we've cut that deficit by a quarter in two years. Now, of
course the growth figures have been disappointing, but over the last two
years, we've actually seen a growth in the number of private sector
jobs. And a growth in the number of jobs, overall, in the UK economy.
LAUER: When you look at those economic numbers that were recently
released, do you have any second thoughts about anything you did? Would
you do anything differently?
CAMERON: Well, what I want – what I think we need to do is even more to
encourage private sector growth. You know, when you're in a debt hole,
you can't solve that problem by borrowing even more money. You can't
borrow your way out of debt, you've got to get private sector growth.
So, what you're going to see from this government is even more action to
help businesses create jobs, to get off their back, to make sure they
can grow. You know, we're using, frankly, the Olympics. I've been having
a series on investment conferences to get the biggest and best
companies here to invest in Britain, to grow in Britain, and we're-
LAUER: You think it'll have that effect? You think the Olympics can jumpstart an economy?
CAMERON: Oh yeah, look, I mean just – just one example. Warner
Brothers, a great U.S. company, have said they're going to make they're
next big movie with Tom Cruise right here in the UK, that's a big – a
big investment in the UK. We've got a number of those being announced
this week, next week, as we use the Olympics to showcase Britain. I
think a lot of people around the world will have seen that opening
ceremony, see this great Olympics, see that we've done it on time, under
budget, and say this is a country that can deliver.
