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CNN Saturday Morning News
Bush Holds Teleconference Security Meetings at Camp David
Aired September 29, 2001 - 09:08 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.
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: We want to shift gears now to President Bush. He's spending the weekend at Camp David, far away from most members of his national security team, but not completely out of touch.
For the latest on that, let's bring in Major Garrett up near Camp David, Maryland -- Major.
MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.
Not out of touch at all. The president, as he did last Saturday, will convene a National Security Council meeting by teleconference, which is a system by which the president sits in a secure area of Camp David, in a compound.
He'll have a couple of top military, diplomatic advisers with him. And then the rest of his national security team will be able to see the president and he will be able to see them via teleconference, big television screens on the wall across from the desk that the president uses at the Camp David compound.
That is exactly what happened last Saturday, it will happen again today. That's the big agenda item for the president today, in addition to the radio address.
And though the president in no way directly confirmed any of the reports about potential special operations activities in Afghanistan yesterday, when he was meeting in the Oval Office with Jordan's King Abdullah, he did say one thing that might provide indirect confirmation of exactly what U.S. personnel are doing there. He said the United States government is in "hot pursuit" of those suspected of being behind the terrorist attacks of September 11.
Also, John, I mentioned the radio address. There is a continued effort on both parties, Republican and Democrat, to maintain the bipartisan nature of their alliance right now. The Senate Democrats, it was their turn to provide the radio address response this Saturday.
Instead, they handed it over to the Democratic National Committee, who asked the new mayor of Los Angeles, James Hahn, a Democrat, to do the response. He in fact will have another supportive radio address for the president, talking about the need for the nation to stick together. No partisan lines being drawn, no Democrat contrasting message against what the president says in his radio address.
So the bipartisan atmosphere remains very strong.
One other point, John. Over this weekend, the White House will be more urgently looking at the specifics of an economic stimulus plan. When the president flew out to Chicago with the House Democratic leader, Richard Gephardt, on Thursday, on the way back Mr. Gephardt told the president that he really needed to put in this airline security bill, which was the reason the two flew out to Chicago, some compensation for airline employees who lost their jobs, lost health care and other things like that.
Mr. Gephardt told the president, If you don't put that in that bill, it's going to be very, very hard for my members to support that airline security bill. As a result, the White House is now looking much more urgently at that, and other economic security measures to be taken for those also who indirectly lost their jobs as a result of the tragedies in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
All that work going on this weekend as well -- John.
KING: Major, could that be the first test of this bipartisan spirit, the White House plan working on a proposal, our sources telling us, that would extend unemployment benefits perhaps by 132 weeks or so? On Capitol Hill, as you know, the Democrats want to do this 52 weeks or so.
Is this likely? The fight over a stimulus package and direct aid to workers perhaps the first opening to some prosecution battles?
GARRETT: Well, everyone understands that this could be the first breach. There has been remarkable, I wouldn't even say in my experience in Washington, unprecedented bipartisanship, a sense of the leadership on both sides, that even though members are complaining privately, some of them quite loudly, all those complaints are being kept inside. No one's running to the floor and screaming, no one's running to the floor making denunciatory speeches against the president or the other party.
That the leadership and the president and the White House understand that can only last so often, and they've got to keep working together. This reassessment of an economic stimulus plan and the kinds of things the Democrats say needs to be in it has been accelerated at the White House as a result of that. They know if they had kept to their original position, there was going to be a break in this bipartisan spirit. They're trying to keep it together.
An economic stimulus plan both for the airline workers and those indirectly affected to that industry plus Americans across the country will be costly. Everyone understands that. So there's going to be an effort to try to keep the cost down but also try to solve and at least address the many problems that both sides have brought to the table. Doing that will be a very stiff challenge indeed -- John.
KING: All right, Major Garrett, keeping track of the president's movements up near Camp David, Maryland. We'll check in with you a bit later in the day, hear the president's radio address as well.
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