'This Week' Transcript: Sen. John McCain and Sen. Robert Menendez

Sen. John McCain and Sen. Robert Menendez are interviewed on 'This Week'

ByABC News
January 25, 2013, 3:14 PM

NEW YORK, Jan. 27, 2013— -- (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RADDATZ (voice-over): Good morning. Welcome to "This Week."

ROBERTS: So help you God?

OBAMA: So help me God.

RADDATZ: The president takes a stand.

OBAMA: We are made for this moment, and we will seize it.

RADDATZ: How far will he push in his new term?

The secretary of state takes on her critics.

CLINTON: What difference at this point does it make?

RADDATZ: And tough words as Republicans regroup.

JINDAL: We've got to stop being the stupid party.

RADDATZ: Plus, senators crossing the aisle to work on immigration reform. What's in their plan? We'll ask our headliners, Arizona Republican Senator John McCain and New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez.

Then, our powerhouse roundtable takes on all the week's politics. And is there really a controversy over this?

LENO: You know who caught her? Lance Armstrong. Yeah, that's -- he is such a stickler for the truth now.

RADDATZ: Joining us, George Will, Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, Republican Congressman Dave Schweikert, New Republic publisher and Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, and the host of NPR's "Morning Edition," Steve Inskeep.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: From ABC News, "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos. Reporting from the Newseum in Washington, Martha Raddatz.

RADDATZ: Hello. Great to have you with us. George is off this weekend.

So much to get to this morning, including that controversy over the Oscar-nominated film "Zero Dark Thirty" and so-called enhanced interrogation. Mark Boal, the producer and screenwriter, is here to answer critics.

But first, front and center this morning, Washington is set to tackle an immigration overhaul. The president is planning to speak about it on Tuesday, and our two headlining senators are working on a plan, as well. Let's start with Arizona Republican senator and ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, John McCain.

Welcome, Senator McCain. You have spent a great deal of time in your career working on immigration issues. When do you think you can get this bipartisan plan out? And how much can you tell us about what's in it?

MCCAIN: Well, we're going to be announcing the principles that will be guiding our translation of it into legislation. We've still got a lot of hard work ahead, but I'm very pleased with the progress. Frankly...

RADDATZ: You're announcing this week?

MCCAIN: Yeah, we'll be -- Senator Menendez and I and Senator Schumer, Senator Graham, Senator Durbin, and some -- we are -- we've been working together for some weeks now. We'll be coming forward. It's not that much different from what we tried to do in 2007. Martha, what's changed is -- honestly, is that there is a new, I think, appreciation on both sides of the aisle -- including maybe more importantly on the Republican side of the aisle -- that we have to enact a comprehensive immigration reform bill.

RADDATZ: So this is comprehensive. It's not piecemeal?

MCCAIN: Yeah, this piecemeal stuff, the way the Senate works -- very briefly -- is that you bring up one section of it, somebody has an amendment that brings up another part.

RADDATZ: We've seen a lot of that lately. We've definitely seen a lot of that. But what about a path to citizenship?