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CNN Live Saturday
Pick for Corporate Task Force Directed Company Accused of Fraud
Aired July 13, 2002 - 18:11 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.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the man picked by the Bush administration to crack down on corporate crime, Larry Thompson, once headed a company that had to deal with troubling charges of its own. Let's go to CNN White House correspondent, Suzanne Malveaux who is joining us on the White House. Good afternoon.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Catherine. That's right. President Bush in his radio address again calling for corporate responsibility, accountability. The hope is that Americans will gain confidence once again in the markets.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): President Bush leaving the White House for Camp David this weekend, putting a rough week behind. But the head of Bush's new corporate fraud SWAT team making unwanted headlines. Revelations that Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson was a director for a credit card company that paid $400 million two years ago to settle allegations of consumer and securities fraud.
A Justice Department spokesman says Thompson was unaware of any wrongdoing until the inquiry, moved swiftly to correct the problems, and even implemented new reforms. A White House spokesman says the president thinks Deputy Attorney General Thompson will do an excellent job leading this task force.
But the White House is concerned. Its call for corporate responsibility is getting lost in distractions. On Monday, questions about a controversial 1990 stock sale when Mr. Bush was a director of the Harken Energy Group, which led to an insider trading investigation, later dropped. But, on a separate issue, the SEC did require the company to make an accounting adjustment.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In the corporate world, sometimes things aren't exactly black and white when it comes to accounting procedures.
MALVEAUX: Tuesday, a stock markets plunge despite Bush's call for investor confidence delivered on Wall Street. A torrent of partisan bickering, Democratic criticism Mr. Bush's new get-tough measures are weak.
REP. DICK GEPHARDT (D-MO), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: Outrage, concern, strong feelings. They're fine, they're useful, but they don't get us anywhere.
MALVEAUX: Wednesday, revelations that Mr. Bush engaged in a business practice he is now trying to ban, taking out corporate loans while serving on the board. A weary White House responds.
ARI FLEISHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: People are seeing a scandal-seeking Washington that's out of touch with a solution-seeking nation.
MALVEAUX: But, with all these questions, is the public's confidence in the president's ability to clean up corporate America eroding? A new CNN-"Time" poll shows 49 percent of Americans don't think Bush's policies on corporate responsibility go far enough. Twenty-seven percent do.
BILL MCINTURFF, REPUBLICAN POLLSTER: There is this enormous sense of -- that the rich guys are getting away and the little people are getting stuck.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: The message from the administration this coming week, again, is going to be corporate responsibility. Mr. Bush is going to be taking his message on the road to Birmingham, Alabama. That's where he's going to lead an economic roundtable. The emphasis of this administration now is to keep Americans focused on Mr. Bush's domestic agenda -- Catherine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CALLAWAY: Well, Suzanne, as you mentioned in your report, both Democrats and Republicans now jumping on this corporate reform bandwagon. And, you mentioned about the corporate loan suggestion or proposal. Also, a proposal out there that CEOs not be able to sell their stock while they're still in charge, right?
MALVEAUX: That's right, all those proposals out on the table and right now what you're looking at is competing legislation from Democrats and Republicans. Aides are telling us that they hope the president will sign something when it comes across his desk, but of course, it has to go into conference committee, work out those details, those differences.
But we are told that it is very likely that the president will sign that legislation when it comes here.
CALLAWAY: All right, thank you Suzanne. Suzanne Malveaux at the White House.
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