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American Morning

Rumors Begin About Hillary Clinton Run for Veep

Aired May 14, 2002 - 08:19   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Say what you will about political promises. Hillary Clinton has vowed to serve out her full six year term as a U.S. senator from New York and not to run for president in 2004. But what if the Democrats want her as a running mate?

Well, there is plenty of buzz surrounding a newspaper report, a front page story, indeed, that says she is a prime candidate for the vice presidency in 2004. The Clinton camp, of course, is denying it.

Joining us now from Washington with more on the Hillary 2004 spin and the Clintons' legal legacy, CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider.

Good morning.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

ZAHN: So how real is this buzz surrounding a potential Hillary for vice president slot?

SCHNEIDER: It makes a great tabloid headline, but we've gotten in touch with Hillary Rodham Clinton's office, with the senator's office, and they dismiss it completely. They say that she has pledged to serve out her full six year term as senator from New York. That's what she intends to do. She does not intend on running for any other office.

So take that for what it's worth, but it made a great tabloid headline.

ZAHN: Well, Bill, what is it worth? Do you take it for what her people have just told you?

SCHNEIDER: Well, look, when someone is, I always say, the vice presidency is like the last cookie on the plate. No one ever wants it, but someone always takes it. It's bad form to indicate you're ever interested in becoming vice president. But when the opportunity comes around and it looks like you can help the ticket, who knows what's going to happen?

Remember, her husband pledged in 1990 when he ran for his final term as governor of Arkansas that he was not going to run for president and he turned around two years later and he ran. So it's not clear that these pledges are worth a great deal. ZAHN: Well, we're going to run down the list of front-runners for the 2004 tickets and sort of plop Hillary's head there to see what they would look like as running mates.

SCHNEIDER: OK.

ZAHN: But, you know, you've got the Representative Gephardt, Senator Daschle, Senator John Edwards -- I'm going to quickly go through this -- Senator John Kerry, Lieberman, Vice President Al Gore, Al Sharpton. Who, which ticket would she balance out here?

SCHNEIDER: Well, I think she, you know, the hot candidate at the moment who has all the buzz is John Edwards of North Carolina. Now, that would be two United States senators, one from North Carolina, one from New York. It sounds like a pretty good balance. John Edwards, a lot of people say, wants to be the new Bill Clinton. But I don't think he wants to do that with Clinton baggage by having Clinton's wife as vice president.

But one of the questions, of course, is if she went on the ticket how much influence would her husband, the former president, have? A lot of people might suspect that you really might be electing him behind-the-scenes.

ZAHN: Well, and in that front page story yesterday there seemed to be an indication he's the one that's floating this idea.

SCHNEIDER: Yes, that's right. Well, you know, he's an inveterate talker and he appears to, and he was quoted in the "Daily News," a trustworthy newspaper, he said that he, she might be interested in becoming vice president. I think she'd make a better vice presidential candidate, Clinton said. That's the quote from the "Daily News." That's probably his position.

Not clear that he's cleared that with her or with her office, however.

ZAHN: That's kind of faint praise coming from her husband. You make a better vice president than a president. Is that kind of what he was saying there?

SCHNEIDER: Well...

ZAHN: Don't take my old job.

SCHNEIDER: I think he's respecting her decision that she wasn't going to run for president in 2004. She's concentrated, clearly, on getting reelected in 2006. After that, a lot of people look at her and say hey, the first woman president of the United States. She's very much in line for that.

ZAHN: Let's move on to some of the legal problems that continue to confront the Clintons. There's been a lot made of the kind of money both of them have come into since the president left office. He's making, what, $100,000 a speech and he's done some 20 of them. She got a huge advance for her book. He's getting a huge advance for his book. And yet there are some disgruntled lawyers out there that, who say they've been stiffed by the Clintons. What's that all about?

SCHNEIDER: That's right. Well, it's about $4 million, is what it's all about. And those are legal fees that have not been paid. Their legal fund, which was put together by supporters, apparently has been depleted. Now, they're making pretty much money right now. He's paid off, by the way, about $7.5 million already in legal debts. But they got $18 million in book advances, $10 million to $15 million he's made already in speeches.

The two of them together pull about $300,000 a year in salaries. You might think, well, they could just pay those bills. My guess is -- and this is only a surmise -- I have no information on this. But my guess is that the president and the first lady believe those are really political debts rather than personal debts. They were debts incurred because their political enemies went after them in all those cases that we just listed and that, in a way, this should be handled more politically than personally.

ZAHN: And Bob Bennett is one of the guys they owe, right, how was the president's staunchest defenders during the impeachment crisis?

SCHNEIDER: Yes. That's right. He's one of the people they owe a lot of money to. David Kendall, of course, from a different firm. They owe them millions of dollars. And I think they're going to try to raise the money from their political supporters because, look, this is the first time in his life Bill Clinton has ever made real money. You know, one of the interesting things about Bill Clinton is he has never been a guy who anyone said was in it for the money.

ZAHN: All right, Bill, we're going to look forward to having you back later this week.

President Bush holding a huge fund-raiser tonight.

SCHNEIDER: Yes.

ZAHN: Both parties trying to beat the clock when it comes to campaign finance.

What's he going to raise tonight, maybe $30 million?

SCHNEIDER: For the party? That's right. And they're both struggling to raise this money as quickly -- as much money as quickly as possible, because by the end of this year you can't raise or spend any more soft money. So there's this huge race with both parties trying to raise that money, spend it, buy new party headquarters, do whatever before campaign finance reform goes into effect.

ZAHN: Beat the clock.

SCHNEIDER: Beat the clock.

ZAHN: William Schneider, thanks so much for your perspective this morning.

SCHNEIDER: Thanks.

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