This Week with George Stephanopoulos

'This Week' Transcript: John Brennan, Sens. Cornyn and Menendez

What they vilified in a civil, reasonable way, was the fact that the media have stopped being what they call -- what Jon Stewart calls (ph) the unity (ph) of our democracy, and that is something that goes back to Jefferson. That--

ARMEY: Absolutely.

(CROSSTALK)

HUFFINGTON: One second, Dick. What we choose to do with our magnifying glass in the media matters. If we only magnify the extremism, that's going to be amplified.

AMANPOUR: Let me turn to --

ARMEY: And I am so certain that makes all the sense in the world to you, Arianna. But the rest of us don't believe it.

AMANPOUR: Let me turn to Jon Karl.

ARMEY: But let's face it, it just was a fun day. I enjoyed it. I thought -- I got a big kick out of it. I'm down here in New Orleans, and I watched that for a while, then I went out to the French Quarter last night, and I--

(CROSSTALK)

ARMEY: -- pretty well enjoyed the entire day.

AMANPOUR: OK, let me turn to Jon Karl. Because Jon, you've been around the country, you have been covering a lot of these races. What are you hearing from people? Because certainly obviously asking those there, they talk about wanting much more, a cooperation in terms of finding solutions for the very real problems that they have. What are you finding?

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KARL: What I'm sensing is we're going to have a Congress that's going to be far more polarized than even this last one, which has been one of the most polarized Congresses in recent memory. You have a situation where the moderate Democrats or the conservative Democrats that are most likely to work with Republicans, they are going to be decimated as a group in this new Congress. You're going to have a more ideological, more left-wing Democratic Party certainly in the House, and you're going to have a more energized and ideological right wing in the House on the Republican side.

ROBERTS: And also -- and the people who have been aisle crossers have gotten a very strong message from this election, which is cross the aisle at your peril. And the people who have lost in their primaries have lost because they have done that. And so it's not going to be any -- there's no incentive now to try to work together.

AMANPOUR: And on this note, George, when Mitch McConnell says our prime goal must be to make sure that President Obama is a one-term president, and when John Boehner says this is not the time for compromise, I mean, where does that get the country, in fact?

WILL: Well, it gets the country to a stark choice in 2012. We have a presidential system, and he who controls the White House is going to control the regulatory apparatus of the country and the initiative in shaping public opinion. So that's not an unusual thing to say, but let's note one thing. We constantly say there's going to be a Congress full of people who are inexperienced and anti-politics. The following seven states will in all likelihood on Tuesday elect fairly seasoned politicians as Republican senators -- North Dakota, Missouri, Arkansas, Indiana, Ohio, Florida, and New Hampshire. That's not a rebellion against experience.

AMANPOUR: Well, let me ask Dick Armey, though, because obviously some of the candidates that you're supporting are challenging the establishment. That's the whole point. And former Republican Leader Trent Lott has said that once the election is over, we have to co-opt the Tea Party. Is that going to happen?

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