Louisiana Governor and Republican presidential candidate Bobby Jindal appeared on Wednesday’s CBS This Morning and was repeatedly hit by the show’s hosts over his approval rating and over Mike Huckabee’s recent comments on the Iranian nuclear deal.
In questioning Jindal, host Charlie Rose vaguely asked him to react to “Mike Huckabee and the Holocaust. What did you think of that remark?” without explaining that Huckabee’s comments were about his strong opposition to the nuclear deal with Iran and not just the Holocaust.
The CBS host chose to not frame his question around the actual substance of the Iran deal but instead on whether or not Jindal agreed with Huckabee’s statement. The Republican condemned the “outlandish comments” but Rose continued to press Jindal as to whether the comments were “just outlandish or is it more?”
For his part, Jindal explained “what’s really at issue is the president trying to push a bad deal with Iran that could start a nuclear arms race in the Middle East” which prompted Rose to again question the Republican “do you agree with Governor Huckabee?”
Earlier in the segment, Gayle King made a point of telling Jindal how badly he was doing in Louisiana and used his low approval numbers to cast doubt on why he was considering a run for the White House:
Your approval rating in your home state of Louisiana is not so great, in fact they’re at an all-time low. How do you intend to translate that to a national stage if people in your own state are saying, well, we have some issues with you?
While King was quick to hit Jindal over his low approval numbers in his home state, the media has been reluctant to openly press Clinton on her abysmal national ratings nationally during the rare instances in which she has given national interviews.
In fact, King was not the first host to hit Jindal for his low approval ratings in Louisiana. During an appearance on Meet the Press in June, moderator Chuck Todd hit Jindal for not “getting a favorite son send-off” and how his approval rating in Louisiana was “actually lower than President Obama’s job rating” in the state.
See relevant transcript below.
CBS This Morning
July 29, 2015
CHARLIE ROSE: The 16 Republican presidential candidates will debate in Cleveland next week but not at the same time. The first of two debates is at 5:00 p.m. on August 6. It is for those who are outside the top 10 according to national polls. That group is likely to include Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. The latest Real Clear Politics average of polls measures his support at 1.3%. Governor Jindal is here in Studio 57 for the first time. Welcome.BOBBY JINDAL: Good morning. Thank you for having me. It is a beautiful studio.
ROSE: Thank you so much. Looking at all this, these upcoming debates and where you are at 5:00 P.M., what is your pathway to the nomination? How do you expect to get the nomination?
JINDAL: Well, a couple of things. One, you look at what’s happening on the ground in Iowa. We’ve said we're going to every county there. Charlie, the crowds have been great. There have been three different polls in the last week showing that we’re on the move in Iowa. We see not only standing room crowds but people in Iowa -- and I hear this in other states as well – they’re saying we're looking for somebody who will stand up to D.C., stand up to both parties. There are a lot of candidates running who don’t have the bandwidth, don’t have the backbone parties who don't have the backbone, don’t have the experience to get the job done. I do.
ROSE: Why aren’t voters getting that message?
JINDAL: Well, I think they are and I think they are in Iowa. I think, look, right now you’ve got a lot of candidates who are willing to say extreme things, outlandish things to get on TV, to get in the debates. We're not doing that. Instead, we're offering specific ideas on how do we fix our healthcare system, how do
we grow our economy, how do we invest in our military, how do we fix our educational systems. We're actually offering specific ideas to voters and I think it is resonating. I think you are seeing that movement growing in Iowa on the ground. We're investing our time in the early states.
GAYLE KING: But your approval ratings governor, sorry to interrupt you but I know our time is limited.
JINDAL: Sure.
KING: Your approval rating in your home state of Louisiana is not so great, in fact they’re at an all-time low. How do you intend to translate that to a national stage if people in your own state are saying, well, we have some issues with you?
JINDAL: Well two things. I’d say, I'd ask people to actually look at what we've accomplished in Louisiana. There are a lot of folks talking a great talk in this race. We’ve actually accomplished, in our state we've cut our budget 26%. Over 30,000 fewer state bureaucrats than the day I took office. More people working than ever before earning a higher income than ever before in my state’s history. I came into office, we were talking about Katrina, I came into office a couple of years after Katrina.
Our state was reeling. We had 25 years in a row with out-migration. We reversed that. We've got statewide school choice. We have proven we can shrink government, grow the private sector economy. If folks are looking for a popular politician, you can govern by the polls. You can kiss babies, cut ribbons, don’t do anything. That's not what our country needs. We're in serious trouble right now. We've got to shrink or federal government and grow our private sector economy. I’ve done that in Louisiana. I can do that in D.C.
--
ROSE: Speaking of other candidates, Mike Huckabee and the Holocaust. What did you think of that remark?
JINDAL: Look, outlandish comments are outlandish but they’re just comments.
ROSE: Is it just outlandish or is it more?
JINDAL: Well, two things. This time, you've got the leadership in Iran talking death to Americans. You want outlandish comments? What we shouldn’t forget, these are outlandish comments, but we shouldn’t forget is that what's really at issue is you've got the president trying to push a bad deal with Iran that could start a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. I don’t think-
ROSE: Then do you agree with Governor Huckabee?
JINDAL: No. Look, I don't make it a practice to compare anything to the Holocaust. I think that was a horrific evil. But I think the bigger issue is we must not sign a bad deal that could start a nuclear arms race. I don't think the Sunni countries, I don’t think the Saudis, the Egyptians, the Turks are going to sit idly by while Iran becomes a nuclear power. Charlie, they're chanting death to America, death to Israel.
We don’t get anytime, anywhere inspections. We have thousands of centrifuges left in Iran. Israel hates this deal. Assad in Syria loves this deal. So our enemies love this deal, our allies don’t like this deal. Israel is our most important ally. We need to be standing with Israel. Let’s look to the substance of this deal. This is a very, very bad deal.
