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CNN Live At Daybreak
Wake-Up Call: 'Lott' of Controversy
Aired December 12, 2002 - 06:59 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: For the inside scoop on the Lott controversy, we want to check in with our congressional correspondent, Jonathan Karl, for this morning's "Wake-Up Call."
Good morning -- Jonathan.
JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Thanks for the "Wake-Up Call."
COSTELLO: No problem. I know you're on the way to work, but we appreciate you joining us on DAYBREAK.
So, what are Republicans saying privately about this Lott controversy, and what do they want him to do?
KARL: Well, you know, what's happening with the Republicans is there's pretty much a united front saying that Lott does not need to resign. I mean, you have no Republicans, in the Senate anyway, which is what matters -- I mean, the Republicans of the Senate are the ones, after all, that put Lott in his position, and they're the ones that would decide whether or not he would have to go.
But Republicans in the Senate, neither privately nor publicly, are calling on him to resign, but Lott faces some very significant anger from his colleagues in the Senate, from his Republican colleagues for the remarks obviously, but also for the way he's handled this.
I mean, Bill Frist, who is a senator from Tennessee and one of the -- really, one of the most influential Republican voices in the Senate, told CNN publicly that, you know, Lott could have put this behind him in one day by coming out immediately and apologizing. And instead what's happened is this thing has dragged on for now, you know, a week.
COSTELLO: Well, why didn't Lott come out and just explain himself from the get-go?
KARL: Well, from the beginning -- Lott in the very beginning really did not believe he did anything wrong, and you saw that with his first statements were not apologetic, but were actually quite defensive. I mean, what he said is, look, this was a 100th birthday party. I was trying to say nice things about the old man. You know, I didn't mean anything racist. I certainly wasn't implying that I support segregation. That was Lott's attitude in the beginning. And then slowly it dawned on him, hey, this wasn't going well. COSTELLO: Well, the Democrats have certainly seized on this as their issue of the moment. What's going to happen later today, do you think?
KARL: Well, the big question now is: What happens with the moderate Republicans? You mentioned John Kerry. John Kerry is the only voice in either party in the Senate -- and again, that's where it matters -- that has called on Trent Lott to resign. It's not even, you know, Ted Kennedy or Tom Daschle or the other Democrats have done that. But we haven't really heard from any of the moderate Republicans, and the reason for that is that Congress is out of session, so they're spread out all over the whole country.
One of the most influential moderate Republicans is Arlen Specter. He came out and said Lott's apology should have ended this matter. Lott is not a racist. He's not a segregationist. I've known him for a long time. So, we have heard from some of them.
But you know, really, the end of the day on this might not be until Congress actually returns in January, and you get to actually see these people in person and really go up.
Now, one interesting point, and you asked where we go today, is what do we actually -- when we do actually see Trent Lott? You noticed that he called Larry King. He didn't come in person.
COSTELLO: Yes.
KARL: And the reason for that is, is that he's at an undisclosed location, not like Dick Cheney is frequently for security purposes, but he's on vacation, because Congress is out of session. He is out of Washington. He's with his family in a cabin somewhere, and his office won't tell us where he is, because they don't want us to go and hound him.
But eventually, we're actually going to see Trent Lott, and we'll actually get a chance to, you know, to put some questions to him.
COSTELLO: And that should be interesting, and I'm sure the Democrats will keep this issue alive until January.
Jonathan Karl, we'll let you go on to work -- thanks very much.
KARL: Great. Thank you.
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 December 12, 2002 - 06:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: For the inside scoop on the Lott controversy, we want to check in with our congressional correspondent, Jonathan Karl, for this morning's "Wake-Up Call."
Good morning -- Jonathan.
JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Thanks for the "Wake-Up Call."
COSTELLO: No problem. I know you're on the way to work, but we appreciate you joining us on DAYBREAK.
So, what are Republicans saying privately about this Lott controversy, and what do they want him to do?
KARL: Well, you know, what's happening with the Republicans is there's pretty much a united front saying that Lott does not need to resign. I mean, you have no Republicans, in the Senate anyway, which is what matters -- I mean, the Republicans of the Senate are the ones, after all, that put Lott in his position, and they're the ones that would decide whether or not he would have to go.
But Republicans in the Senate, neither privately nor publicly, are calling on him to resign, but Lott faces some very significant anger from his colleagues in the Senate, from his Republican colleagues for the remarks obviously, but also for the way he's handled this.
I mean, Bill Frist, who is a senator from Tennessee and one of the -- really, one of the most influential Republican voices in the Senate, told CNN publicly that, you know, Lott could have put this behind him in one day by coming out immediately and apologizing. And instead what's happened is this thing has dragged on for now, you know, a week.
COSTELLO: Well, why didn't Lott come out and just explain himself from the get-go?
KARL: Well, from the beginning -- Lott in the very beginning really did not believe he did anything wrong, and you saw that with his first statements were not apologetic, but were actually quite defensive. I mean, what he said is, look, this was a 100th birthday party. I was trying to say nice things about the old man. You know, I didn't mean anything racist. I certainly wasn't implying that I support segregation. That was Lott's attitude in the beginning. And then slowly it dawned on him, hey, this wasn't going well. COSTELLO: Well, the Democrats have certainly seized on this as their issue of the moment. What's going to happen later today, do you think?
KARL: Well, the big question now is: What happens with the moderate Republicans? You mentioned John Kerry. John Kerry is the only voice in either party in the Senate -- and again, that's where it matters -- that has called on Trent Lott to resign. It's not even, you know, Ted Kennedy or Tom Daschle or the other Democrats have done that. But we haven't really heard from any of the moderate Republicans, and the reason for that is that Congress is out of session, so they're spread out all over the whole country.
One of the most influential moderate Republicans is Arlen Specter. He came out and said Lott's apology should have ended this matter. Lott is not a racist. He's not a segregationist. I've known him for a long time. So, we have heard from some of them.
But you know, really, the end of the day on this might not be until Congress actually returns in January, and you get to actually see these people in person and really go up.
Now, one interesting point, and you asked where we go today, is what do we actually -- when we do actually see Trent Lott? You noticed that he called Larry King. He didn't come in person.
COSTELLO: Yes.
KARL: And the reason for that is, is that he's at an undisclosed location, not like Dick Cheney is frequently for security purposes, but he's on vacation, because Congress is out of session. He is out of Washington. He's with his family in a cabin somewhere, and his office won't tell us where he is, because they don't want us to go and hound him.
But eventually, we're actually going to see Trent Lott, and we'll actually get a chance to, you know, to put some questions to him.
COSTELLO: And that should be interesting, and I'm sure the Democrats will keep this issue alive until January.
Jonathan Karl, we'll let you go on to work -- thanks very much.
KARL: Great. Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
