Kendrick Meek Denies Clinton Exit Claims on MSNBC

Last Updated on Sunday, 31 October 2010 12:27 Sunday, 31 October 2010 12:27

Republican Kendrick Meek, the Democratic nominee for Florida Senate, disputed reports that President Clinton asked him to leave the Florida Senate race on MSNBC's Jansing & Co.

Meek told MSNBC's Chris Jansing that the reports were completely false, and that the story was being pushed for various political reasons.

Below is a transcript of the interview;

CHRIS JANSING, MSNBC ANCHOR: Joining me now is Kendrick Meek.

Good morning. Thanks for being here.

REP. KENDRICK MEEK (D), FLORIDA SENATE CANDIDATE: Good morning.

JANSING: You were on MSNBC a little earlier on "MORNING JOE", and you admitted having a conversation with the former President Bill Clinton.

His aides said that Bill Clinton tried to convince you that if you got out of the race, Charlie Crist would win and Marco Rubio would lose. Is that true?

MEEK: Oh, that's not true. I mean, the bottom line is the president – and he said last night, his statement was the fact that we did have a conversation, amongst many conversations. We talked about a lot.

This is one of the things we talked about, but he never encouraged me to get out of the race. He never tried to paint a picture for me of what it would look like.

We had a conversation. I told him that there’s no way in the world, you know, that I'm going to get out of this race, and I'm moving forward. We had two wonderful rallies here, where he promoted my candidacy to Floridians.

So, I think there are a lot of people that are pushing this story for various political reasons, but I can tell you that I'm not going to sell out on the people of the state of Florida, that there are a lot of people that are standing with me and voting for me, and the outcomes that some people may think that may happen in this race may not.

And I don't think a loss –

JANSING: Well, let me – let me just go back to something –

MEEK: -- or a victory.

JANSING: -- you just said, if I can, because you said you told him there's no way I'm getting out of this race, so he must have said something to you for you to have said to him, I'm not getting out.

MEEK: Oh. No. The thing about it is that this has been a story that the Crist campaign has been pushing for weeks. He saw the story and he said, "Is there anything to this?" and I said no. And I said there's no way that I'm getting out of the race.

He didn't say, hey, you need to get out of the race. He just said that, you know, I'm hearing these stories, and as Bill Clinton – and if anybody knows him, he's a good friend of mine, you know, we talk politics all the time. We talked about where we can get the votes from, how the votes will shake down, the fact that there's questions the vote may be split, question of Marco Rubio.

We talked about a number of things. This was just one of them. And it was nothing to where that he felt very, very strongly that I needed to make a – a move one way or another. But he has always been a – a great supporter of mine.

I'm running for the people of the state of Florida. I'm in this race.

People are voting now. People will continue to vote, and the outcome may very well be a lot different than people expect.

JANSING: You are, however –

MEEK: And if they don’t have the opportunity to vote for me –

JANSING: You are, however, way behind in the polls. And I know you’ve come from behind before, but the difference is pretty significant – 15 percent for you; Charlie Crist, 35 percent; Marco Rubio, 42 percent.

So, did you ever, at any point when you saw these numbers, think, I can drop out. It would be good, potentially, for the Democratic Party. I could be a game changer?

MEEK: Well, let me just tell you this. The polls have been up and down all during this race. The only poll that I believe in is the one that comes in next Tuesday.

If I'm in this race or not, the outcome is going to be the outcome, and we're going to work hard to make the outcome favorable for us.

So, I guess, if I was to believe in polls, I would say there’s no lead – no reason why we should have elections. We should just have polls, and let polls dictate who gets elected and who doesn't.

But, guess what? I don't believe in polls. I believe in people of the state of Florida. I believe in people who work hard every day. And I believe people who stand with people like me. And the bottom line is, in this scenario, I'm gaining votes.

So those that want to sit around and – and play pundit, they can play it all day. I'm going to live in the world that Floridians are living in right now. That's a – a world of struggle and commitment and hard work, and I'm going to continue to do that through November the 2nd.

JANSING: All right. Kendrick Meek, it’s good of you to talk to us today.

MEEK: Thank you.

JANSING: Good luck.

MEEK: Thank you. Thank you.