Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Cheney Denies White House Trying to Change Subject by Issuing New Terror Alerts

Aired May 23, 2002 - 09:21   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: Vice President Dick Cheney denies the White House is trying to change the subject by issuing new terror alerts. Mr. Cheney told CNN's Larry King last night that there is reason to believe that the threat level has increased somewhat, and he says the latest warnings would have been issued even if Democrats had not been criticizing the Bush administration's handling of pre- September 11th intelligence reports.

For today's Sound-Off, let's ask Democratic political strategist Bob Beckel in Boise, Idaho.

You must love it there. Two days in a row we checked with you there.

BOB BECKEL, DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL STRATEGIST: It's beautiful, it's beautiful.

ZAHN: We're jealous.

And in Washington, former communications director for the Republican National Committee Cliff May, good morning to you as well.

CLIFF MAY, FMR. RNC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Good morning, Paula. Good morning, Bob,

Hope the Motel 8 is very nice for you.

BECKEL: That's where we Democrats stay.

ZAHN: Oh, no. Here it comes.

Bob, I will start with you this morning. Do you think these terror alerts are necessary, or do you subscribe to the view that the administration is turning the page to distract us from the controversy over what individual members knew and what they knew leading up to the September 11th attacks?

BECKEL: I think there's no doubt that what Cheney is talking about, I frankly doubt that all this would be coming out right now. But right now, they want to cover themselves in case something happens. I mean, this has been a series of embarrassing disclosures. And again, I don't blame President Bush, but you certainly have to blame the chain of command, and so now, I suppose any hint that there may be something is going to cause them to issue alerts in case something happens.

But I can tell you, Paula, I flew to Seattle yesterday from Boise, and I have never seen more security in any airport since September 11th than I saw yesterday, and that was a result directly of Cheney saying in a very nebulous way, well, you know, the chances are increasing. You know, it's like a weatherman saying it's a 50/50 chance of rain tomorrow, you can't miss.

ZAHN: What about that, Cliff, about the collective covering of political backsides here?

MAY: I think there's no question the administration was stung last week when there were those who seemed to want to score political points by making a "Memogate" out of all of this. What did the president know and when did he know it? I don't think that effort has been taking seriously, and I think Democrats have rightly backed off from it.

I also think that there was a natural kind of instinct to say, look, if the media as well as Democrats wants to know everything we're hearing, we'll give them everything we're hearing. Here it is. Finally, I think it's important that Cheney, and Rumsfeld and others make sure that there is no complacency setting in because we've gone quite a number of months without a successful terrorist attack in this country. There have been other terrorist attacks, obviously. Tunisia, the synagogue there, that was Al Qaeda. German tourists were killed in that one.

ZAHN: But, Cliff, before you go any further, what about the complacency that may set in with the public, particularly those that Tom Friedman described, who feel that by making these threats, which are quite unspecific, sort of on a daily basis, that you leaf the public in a state of terror from the warning?

MAY: Well, you're right, and there's two things to say. One, is, again, a lot of politicians, and some in the media were asking for that by saying, if you don't tell us everything you are hearing, we are going to slam you with that later. But the second point, and I think it is a valid criticism. Once you say, look, we live in a much more dangerous world. We have enemies out there. Terrorists, militant Islam that wants to hurt us, and they're working on that. Then you need to say, here's how we are going to take self-defense more seriously than ever before. And I'm not sure we heard all of that.

I was particularly -- and this is where I disagree with the administration, disturbed when the transportation administration said, you know what, pilots, no way can they have weapons to defend their aircraft. That would just be distracting. I think it's pretty distracting if you find out that the fight attendants and passengers are being murdered. I think it's pretty distracting if you have a terrorist banging on your door, trying to kill you.

ZAHN: Bob?

BECKEL: When you say, that there's been no terrorist attacks since September 11th because of the monumentally good job the administration has done there, may I remind you my friend, there hadn't been one for five or six before that. So it's not as if this is a daily occurrence, and all of a sudden, because of this vaunted machine in this White House, that all of a sudden we're safer.

The fact is that these kind of alerts, which are very vague are altering the way people go about their daily lives, and if you can't be more specific than this, frankly, I think you ought to be quiet about it.

The fact was, is specific information they had found it's way to Crawford, Texas in August, about a month and a half before that bombing, and I will tell you something, when you put all of that together, that was something we should have known about now. The stuff they're talking about now isn't nearly as specific.

ZAHN: Cliff, you get the last 10 seconds left here, and that's all we got.

MAY: You're misunderstanding me. I'm saying it's important that Americans do realize that we're in a war and we're in a war right now. And we have had terrorist attacks on a routine basis. Don't forget the bombing of our embassies in Africa during the 1990s, the USS Cole, the dragging of our soldiers through the streets of Somalia. This goes back through 20 years. We are in a war right now. We must never forget that, not for a day. But we mustn't be complacent or defeatist. We have got to say, we're going to win this war. We're going to do whatever it takes to win this war.

ZAHN: Hey, Bob, he went seven seconds over. You get the extra seven seconds next time.

BECKEL: Oh, OK that's fair enough.

MAY: He owes me at least 15 seconds.

BECKEL: After you covered your political analyst butt. I will give you whatever time you need.

ZAHN: All right, gentlemen, we are going to leave it there.

MAY: Enjoy the beaches of Boise.

ZAHN: Bob Beckel from Boise, Idaho this morning, Cliff May from Washington D.C. Always great to have the two of you on board.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com