Rick Perry: ‘I don’t worry too much about polls’

Governor reacts after his wife alleges he was unfairly singled out for his faith

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LAUER: All right, Kelly O'Donnell , thank you very much . Texas Governor Rick Perry joins us now. Governor Perry , good morning. Good to see you.

Governor RICK PERRY (Republican, Texas): Good morning, Matt. How are you?

LAUER: I'm doing fine, thanks. We have a lot to talk about, let's jump right in. Back in August you jumped into this race. Immediately you had 38 percent of support from likely primary voters. Today that support is at 16 percent, according to the latest NBC News / Wall Street Journal poll. What happened?

Gov. PERRY: Well, polls are going to go up and down. I mean, it's going to be a long race, so I don't worry too much about polls. I know a lot of people obsess with them and watch with them and talk about them. I'm more worried about those people out there who don't have a job in America . And that's the reason I'm in Pittsburgh today laying out a jobs plan that clearly shows within 100 days when I'm the president of the United States , without having to deal with Congress , opening up those federal lands ...

LAUER: Right.

Gov. PERRY: ...and waters, pulling back those regulations that are killing jobs, and rebuilding the EPA , we can do that and get 1.2 million working.

LAUER: And I want to talk more...

Gov. PERRY: That's what Americans are concerned about.

LAUER: I want to talk more about your plan, your economic plan in a second. You say polls go up and down, though, but you have lost more than half of your support in about a seven-week period and I'm wondering if you think you can put your finger on any particular reason why that's happening.

Gov. PERRY: Well, I've run for office now three times as the governor of the state of Texas , my numbers have been up, they've been down. And again, I don't worry about those. I go out every day and try to do my job, in this case laying out a jobs plan so that someone sitting around the living room who doesn't have a job, doesn't have the dignity of a job, knows that there's somebody on that stage that's going to focus on creating the environment where they can get back to work and take care of their family.

LAUER: And I get where you're trying to take me here, Governor, but I do want to talk about the comments that your wife, Anita , made on Thursday. She said that you are being brutalized by your opponents and your own party. Do you feel you've been singled for unfair criticism anything more than any of the other candidates have endured during this early primary process?

Gov. PERRY: Family members always take these campaigns a little more personally than the candidates do. I've been shot at and missed and shot at and hit for 20 years running for public office . And being the chief executive officer of the state of Texas we have our ups and downs. But the fact is those are just distractions. Americans want to hear a conversation about who's going to get this country back working again. And that's what I'm staying focused on.

LAUER: But...

Gov. PERRY: So I hope at 10:00 Eastern time this morning that you got cameras there covering a speech that is truly going to get America focused on the most important issue of this campaign.

LAUER: And we absolutely...

Gov. PERRY: That is getting this country back working again.

LAUER: And we will have cameras there. But I want -- I'm sorry to keep harping on this...

Gov. PERRY: Good on you.

LAUER: ...but when Anita said she thinks so much of it is that "I think they look at him because of his faith," I feel it's a little ironic because the issue of faith was really introduced, the can of worms was opened by a surrogate of your own campaign while introducing you recently who said that you are a genuine follower of Jesus Christ , and then Pastor Jeffress went out to the hallway and said that the Mormon religion is a cult and that Mitt Romney is not a true Christian. So isn't it a bit hypocritical to say you're being targeted because of your faith when it was a surrogate for your campaign that introduced faith in the first place ?

Gov. PERRY: Well, I think you're stretching it to say that he was a surrogate. He was picked and he made his comments on his own. We've distanced ourselves from those comments. I've clearly said that I did not agree with his comments and that stands on its face. But if we're going to spend the time in the campaign defending what someone who has endorsed us has said out there in the public, President Obama 's going to spend a lot of time talking about defending people who are saying things about him that he probably doesn't stand by. So again, these are all distractions, Matt , and I understand the issue of distractions. We've got to get this country focused on getting back to work.

LAUER: You talk about your economic plan...

Gov. PERRY: And we're laying out a plan today that does that.

LAUER: One of the centerpieces of that plan is energy production, opening up federal lands and waters to energy exploration. That's going to take a long time. The lawsuits alone for that are going to go through courts for years. How's it going to help in the short term getting people back to work?

Gov. PERRY: Well, I'm not sure that you have to have that type of legal system that locks down the opening up of our federal lands and waters. We passed some significant tort reform in Texas ; I think you need to do that at the federal level to stop that type of activities. Shorten the permitting periods of time. What I would do is pull back all of these job-killing regulations that this administration has sent forward and sent forward in conjunction with an activist environmental community working hand-in-hand with this administration. And also build the EPA . Let it become an agency where you clearly have its appropriate role...

LAUER: Right.

Gov. PERRY: ...of making decisions between states , if there's conflicts, but allowing those decisions to flow back to the states . I'll promise you, men and women who are in the environmental divisions in the states know well better how to take care of those communities whether it's the air or the water. Their kids are living there, it's their future, it's their generations that they're taking care of.

LAUER: Governor Rick Perry . Governor Perry , thank you for your time this morning. I appreciate it. I know you're very busy.

Gov. PERRY: Thank you, Matt.

Show transcript

By Scott Stump

TODAY contributor

updated 10/14/2011 12:22:30 PM ET

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Though his wife went on the defensive and suggested that he had been negatively singled out in the Republican presidential nomination race for his faith, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Friday that those arrows slung his way are just part of the normal campaign process.

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"Family members always take these campaigns a little more personally than the candidates do. I’ve been shot at and missed and shot at and hit for 20 years, running for public office,’’ Perry told Matt Lauer in a live interview on TODAY. “Being the chief executive officer of the state of Texas, we have our ups and downs. The fact is, those are just distractions. Americans want to hear a conversation about who is going to get this country back working again and that’s what I’m staying focused on.’’

But in a separate Friday morning interview on “Good Morning America,” Perry took a different tack. “I’ll stand by my wife,” he said. “My understanding is that she said I’m the most conservative candidate in the race and ‘he’s a Christian.’ So I haven’t got anything I can add to that, and she’s hit me on my mark both times there.”

At a recent gathering of devout Christians, Perry’s wife, Anita, let her guard down and discussed a month in which her husband’s poll numbers have plummeted while his campaign has been under fire after controversial statements by a Texas pastor regarding the Mormon faith of rival candidate Mitt Romney. She has admitted that she did not know the campaign would be this intense, and empathizes with the families of other candidates.

Video: Perry’s wife: He’s being attacked for his faith (on this page)

“It’s been a rough month,’’ Anita Perry said at the event. “I don’t have to tell you. We’ve been brutalized and chewed up in the press.’’

The 15-point lead Perry enjoyed less than two months ago in the race to become the GOP presidential candidate has evaporated. He has gone from the front-runner in August to a distant third place behind Herman Cain and Romney. Perry, who has never lost an election, has watched his numbers plummet from 38 percent to 16 percent in the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.

Ups and downs
“Polls are going to go up and down,’’ Perry told Lauer on TODAY Friday. “I don’t worry too much about polls. I know a lot of people obsess with them and watch them and talk about them. I’m more worried about those people out there who don’t have a job in America.

“I’ve run for office now three times as the governor of the state of Texas. My numbers have been up, they’ve been down, and again, I don’t worry about those. I go out every day and try to do my job.’’

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When Lauer suggested that the Texas pastor who recently said Mitt Romney was not a true Christian due to his Mormon faith was a “surrogate” for the Perry campaign, the governor took issue: “I think you’re stretching to say that he was a surrogate,’’ he said. “He was picked, and he made his comments on his own. We’ve distanced ourselves from those comments. I’ve clearly said that I did not agree with his comments. If we’re going to spend the time in the campaign defending what someone who has endorsed us has said out there in the public, President Obama is going to spend a lot of time talking about defending people who are saying things about him that he probably doesn’t stand by. These are all distractions, and I understand the issue of distraction.’’

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Speaking from Pittsburgh, Perry gave Lauer a preview of a planned speech later Friday in which he intends to discuss his plan for creating more jobs, which includes opening up federal lands and waters to exploration and “pulling back those regulations that are killing jobs,’’ as well as rebuilding the Environmental Protection Agency. He argued for tort reform to prevent an onslaught of lawsuits that would tie up opening federal lands for years as well as a facelift for the EPA.

“Let (the EPA) become an agency where you clearly have its appropriate role of making decisions between states where there’s conflict, but allowing those decisions to flow back to the states,’’ Perry told Lauer. “I promise you men and women who are in the environmental division of the states know well how to take better care of those communities.’’