Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live At Daybreak
What's on Tap in Washington, D.C. Today?
Aired October 15, 2002 - 06:11 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Speaking of Iraq, we want to check in now with our Washington morning producer Paul Courson to find out if that subject will come up on Capitol Hill today.
Good morning -- Paul.
PAUL COURSON, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU MORNING PRODUCER: Hi, Carol, welcome back. How are you today?
COSTELLO: Thank you. It's good to be back at Atlanta.
Will the president or his spokesman, Ari Fleischer, talk about Iraq today?
COURSON: Well President Bush does have one public event today, he'll be talking about the Minority Ownership Program that he's trying to initiate. He hopes to increase by five-and-a-half million people the number of minorities who are able to get into homes. Now you probably have heard about how the home refinancing market is real strong right now because mortgage rates are real low, well the president returned last night from Michigan and a couple of political events to prepare for a panel today on minority home ownership. The idea is to figure out with the Federal Trade Commission how to watch out for unscrupulous lending practices as well as to help minorities get into homes with the proper kind of financing, the proper kind of rates.
Now the president is real good at staying on message so to answer your question about whether he might speak to other issues besides minority ownership, perhaps not, unless he chooses to.
We also today, though, have a 12:30 briefing at the White House where his spokesman, Ari Fleischer, might speak about Iraq, might speak about the bombings in Bali, Indonesia as well as any other issues, including the al Qaeda message.
COSTELLO: President Bush is also meeting with the British Foreign Secretary today, what about?
COURSON: We have a meeting over at the State Department with Secretary of State Powell. I wasn't sure that President Bush was also hosting Jack Straw the Foreign Minister for the United Kingdom. However, Secretary of State Powell and Jack Straw will be coming out of the State Department to cameras later this afternoon, and they'll probably be discussing world affairs, including the situation in Iraq. You'll know that the British Armed Forces are part of the U.S. coalition that helps enforce the military constraints the U.S. is trying to impose on Iraq in the years since the Gulf War. While Jack Straw and Secretary of State Powell may be discussing futures options and strategies as the talk heats up about intervening once again in Iraq.
COSTELLO: You know I just had a thought because of the sniper attacks that are going on in the Washington area, has security been heightened around public figures like Colin Powell and President Bush?
COURSON: Well they're not going to tell us that if that's the case. We already were on a fairly high level of alert in the -- in the time since, but any other security details we haven't really seen.
The sniper attacks, we should point out, are in the immediate Washington area so when there are dignitaries in town or top U.S. officials security will always be heightened. We will return to the sniper shooting story throughout the morning, by the way. We have a 9:00 briefing, as you mentioned, in Fairfax County and one in -- at noon in Montgomery County where the joint sniper task force is meeting. We may get some more details there.
COSTELLO: Hopefully so. Paul Courson, thank you very much. We'll let you get back to work down at the Washington bureau and check back with you tomorrow.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 15, 2002 - 06:11 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Speaking of Iraq, we want to check in now with our Washington morning producer Paul Courson to find out if that subject will come up on Capitol Hill today.
Good morning -- Paul.
PAUL COURSON, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU MORNING PRODUCER: Hi, Carol, welcome back. How are you today?
COSTELLO: Thank you. It's good to be back at Atlanta.
Will the president or his spokesman, Ari Fleischer, talk about Iraq today?
COURSON: Well President Bush does have one public event today, he'll be talking about the Minority Ownership Program that he's trying to initiate. He hopes to increase by five-and-a-half million people the number of minorities who are able to get into homes. Now you probably have heard about how the home refinancing market is real strong right now because mortgage rates are real low, well the president returned last night from Michigan and a couple of political events to prepare for a panel today on minority home ownership. The idea is to figure out with the Federal Trade Commission how to watch out for unscrupulous lending practices as well as to help minorities get into homes with the proper kind of financing, the proper kind of rates.
Now the president is real good at staying on message so to answer your question about whether he might speak to other issues besides minority ownership, perhaps not, unless he chooses to.
We also today, though, have a 12:30 briefing at the White House where his spokesman, Ari Fleischer, might speak about Iraq, might speak about the bombings in Bali, Indonesia as well as any other issues, including the al Qaeda message.
COSTELLO: President Bush is also meeting with the British Foreign Secretary today, what about?
COURSON: We have a meeting over at the State Department with Secretary of State Powell. I wasn't sure that President Bush was also hosting Jack Straw the Foreign Minister for the United Kingdom. However, Secretary of State Powell and Jack Straw will be coming out of the State Department to cameras later this afternoon, and they'll probably be discussing world affairs, including the situation in Iraq. You'll know that the British Armed Forces are part of the U.S. coalition that helps enforce the military constraints the U.S. is trying to impose on Iraq in the years since the Gulf War. While Jack Straw and Secretary of State Powell may be discussing futures options and strategies as the talk heats up about intervening once again in Iraq.
COSTELLO: You know I just had a thought because of the sniper attacks that are going on in the Washington area, has security been heightened around public figures like Colin Powell and President Bush?
COURSON: Well they're not going to tell us that if that's the case. We already were on a fairly high level of alert in the -- in the time since, but any other security details we haven't really seen.
The sniper attacks, we should point out, are in the immediate Washington area so when there are dignitaries in town or top U.S. officials security will always be heightened. We will return to the sniper shooting story throughout the morning, by the way. We have a 9:00 briefing, as you mentioned, in Fairfax County and one in -- at noon in Montgomery County where the joint sniper task force is meeting. We may get some more details there.
COSTELLO: Hopefully so. Paul Courson, thank you very much. We'll let you get back to work down at the Washington bureau and check back with you tomorrow.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
