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American Morning

President Bush will Appear Before a Crowd of Union Carpenters

Aired September 03, 2001 - 10:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We will begin this hour with a red- carpet welcome and a blue-collar audience. Less than 30 minutes from right now, President Bush will appear before a crowd of union carpenters to nail down, if you will, a plank in his administration's platform.

Mr. Bush will focus on the American worker on this Labor Day, and court a powerful group long aligned with the Democrats.

CNN White House correspondent Major Garrett is traveling with the president. He checks in now with a preview.

Good morning, Major.

MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon.

Well, To extend your metaphor just a bit, I don't think that the white house would be so doved say that they will have a plank that they're going to nail down with organized labor. Probably since we're here in northern Wisconsin talking to carpenters, first they probably need a couple of I-beams before they can put any planks. You really have the start of the very basic, the very foundation of trying to develop a Republican relationship with trade unions across the country, and that's a little bit about what is happening on this Labor Day. President Bush and Laura Bush just arrived in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They're now in the motorcade, heading here to Kaukauna, Wisconsin, where the president will address very shortly, the Northern Regional Carpenter's Association here in Kaukauna.

The whole point of the speech is to sort of tee up what the president will be talking about for a good deal in the next coming weeks. The economy, he's going to tell the Carpenters that it's in trouble, he is concerned about it, and that he doesn't want obstructionists, particularly Democrats in Congress, standing in the way of either his tax cut or his budget, and this speech is going to be sort of a foundation he's going to lay with these trade unions, and again, later today in Detroit, when he meets with the Teamsters to talk about the budget and the economy. The White House it's a bit on the defensive, because the surplus has dwindled, and there is concern about the future of the U.S. economy.

The president is going to tell these carpenters here he's got a plan, and warn Democrats not to stand in the way -- Leon. HARRIS: Major, let me change gears, if I may, slightly with you and talk about something else that is raising some concerns this morning. Reports in the press, quite a number of different outlets as well, saying that the White House is sending signals to China that it's OK for China to begin or continue testing of nuclear weapons. What are hearing from the White House on this topic, and what is their stance on this?

GARRETT: The white house says all part of their preparations for the president's first trip to China in October, and what they're saying is they are not giving a green light to China for nuclear testing. But they are basically accepting the fact is that China will continue to modernize its nuclear forces. And by accepting that fact, what they are trying to is to send a signal to China, is while they will pursue that policy anyway, the United States will not engage in strenuous.

But what he would like to engage the Chinese in is continued dialogue, to see if that green light, more or less, or that acknowledgement that they're going to continue to modernize their nuclear forces, can be joined with Chinese acceptance and Chinese willingness to understand that the United States is going to press ahead with development and deployment of a missile shield system. The U.S. hopes that by each country giving the other a green light on things that are going to happen anyway, tensions can be reduced, not accelerated.

But there are still many questions among many Senate Democrats about the wisdom of this particular policy. The White House is going to have a good deal of explaining to do about it when the Congress gets back in just a couple of days in Washington.

HARRIS: Major, do you know if there has been any feedback at all from Europe on this particular issues, because they are quite concerned over there as well?

GARRETT: Not, concrete feedback, Leon.

This all comes under the umbrella the administration says of consultations. There's been heavy consultation with European allies and the Russians of course. What the U.S. says is now we're just simply trying to talk to the Chinese in much the same way we've talk to the Europeans and the Russians about missile defense, but again, come September, some Senate Democrats, particularly Joseph Biden, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, who's been very critical initially of this outreach, will have some very tough questions indeed -- Leon.

HARRIS: Good deal. That is Major Garrett reporting from Wisconsin this morning.

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