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In Pennsylvania's Coal Country, Bush Doing a Little Mining

Aired August 05, 2002 - 12:03   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now to Pennsylvania's coal country, where President Bush is saluting those rescued miners and doing a little mining of his own, for cash. Campaign contributions, that is, for Pennsylvania's Republican candidate for governor.

CNN's Kelly Wallace joins us from the town of Green Tree.

Hi, Kelly.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kyra. Very interesting turn of phrase here.

This fund-raiser definitely a big focus for President Bush's trip here to Pittsburgh. He is raising $1,000,000 for the Republican gubernatorial cabinet, the current attorney general, who has been trailing in the polls behind his Democratic opponent. This is very important, the president would definitely like to see a Republican leading this state, this an important state, a state that the president lost to Al Gore during the 2000 election.

But the president also using this visit to salute those nine coal miners, and he saluted the spirit of the miners who were trapped for 77 hours, and then miraculously rescued safely.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It was their determination to stick together, and to comfort each other. It really defines kind of a new spirit that's prevalent in our country, that when one of us suffers, all of us suffers, that in order to succeed, we've got to be united, that by working together, we can achieve big objectives and big goals. Here is a living example of people working together to save nine precious lives, to make sure that nine families were reunited.

And by the way, it is that spirit that will prevail in the challenges we face around the world, the challenge of making sure that we hunt down every terrorist and bring them to justice, because we love freedom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: And the president met with the miners and their families, he met with them privately, and then of course, shoot -- he shook hands with them after this the event. The president, as you heard in his remarks, really saluting their spirit, and then linking it to current concerns in the country, saying that same spirit will help the U.S. Win the war on terror.

He also said that the same spirit will help the U.S. confront what he calls a economic downturn. The president will be talking a lot about the economy in the weeks ahead. This president very concerned about this issue. He knows if the American people are concerned about an economic slowdown, he knows his party can really suffer in the November election. So, Kyra, Look for the president to be traveling quite a bit around the country this month. He heads to Crawford, Texas tomorrow to talk about the economy, to try to boost consumer confidence and boost Republican chances in November -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Kelly, and I know what we want to talk about this next hour, maybe get a bit of a preview, and that is this born alive Infant's Protection Act?

WALLACE: It is. It's somewhat complicated. What it does, it really amends the legal definition of human being and child to include a live birth which is the result of an abortion procedure, so the same rights that are afforded to a delivery, a normal delivery, an infant delivery, also afforded to a case of a live birth as a result of a abortion. Know it is viewed somewhat as a really symbolic bill, and one pushed by abortion rights opponents. The president doing it in this state because it would was pushed by Republican Senator Rick Santorum. It's also a way for the president to reach out to a constituency, abortion rights opponents, and to do it in a very important, which could be an important forum in 2004 - Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Kelly, thank you so much. We will talk about it about next hour. Kelly Wallace.

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