Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Sunday Night

Debate Over CIA Outing: Overblown or Major Crisis?

Aired October 05, 2003 - 22:23   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 LIN, CNN ANCHOR: At the White House, the search is on for the Deep Throat who outed a CIA officer. Now some are calling the whole episode a tempest in a teacup. But others say it's a major crisis for the Bush team. So what is it?
Doug Hattaway is a Democratic strategist. He's in Boston. And from Washington, Sheri Jacobus. She is a Republican spokeswoman. Thank you very much, the two of you, for being here tonight.

CHERI JACOBUS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Thank you.

DOUG HATTAWAY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Good to be here.

LIN: Doug, let me begin with you. Do you think here a crime has been committed?

HATTAWAY: I think there's no question a crime has been committed. It's against the law to reveal the identity of covert CIA operative. That's exactly what has happened.

So it's a very serious crime. It has implications for national security. And the question now is who did it? That's really the question that's under investigation now. The problem for the Bush administration is that it's probably somebody hiding in the administration. It could be somebody close to the president himself. And it's not going to go away now that it's under a legal investigation.

So I think they'll be dealing with this for a while.

LIN: Cheri, are we talking about another Watergate level sort of crime, scandal?

JACOBUS: No, I think the Democrats wish that they had that on their hands because they're obviously not doing well with the people that they have on their large field, the 10 Democrats that are running.

But this is not even on the level of a lot of the scandals during the Clinton administration. While it's a very serious issue, it's not a political scandal for President Bush. The reason being...

LIN: How can it not be a political scandal, Cheri, when -- I mean, there is a consensus out there that says this woman's life is now in danger?

JACOBUS: Well, I -- to be honest with you, no, this is a very serious issue if they feel her -- if she felt her life were in danger, you know, I think her husband has a lot to do with that, too, because he's been so public about things.

The point I'm trying to make here, however, is that when you look at the types of things that were surrounding the Clinton administration or Janet Reno, who is the attorney general then, was resisting appointing a special independent investigator to look at Bill Clinton and Al Gore for their fundraising scandals, you know, directly dealing with the president and the vice president, we now have a situation that really is very separate from the president and the vice president. And we don't see them circling the wagons. We don't see a White House lockdown.

In fact, we see quite the opposite. They've been very -- you know, the president was very clear. Everybody is to cooperate fully. So I really think that for him personally, from a political scandal standpoint, as serious of an issue as this is, this is not a political issue for the president in his re-election.

LIN: Well, Doug, do you think it's enough for the president to be forthcoming in that manner, produce the e-mails, produce your phone logs, let's get this over with and investigate it ourselves?

HATTAWAY: He could get to the bottom of this tomorrow. This is an incredibly disciplined White House. It's a close knit team. He said he was going to bring honor, integrity to the White House. He should sit them down tomorrow morning and find out who did it.

I think it is close to the president. He has to answer for it. His credibility has already taken a hit.

JACOBUS: No evidence of that, Doug.

HATTAWAY: His credibility has already taken a hit over exaggerating the threat posed by Saddam Hussein and not being up front with the American people about the cost of Iraq.

This is another hit on his credibility. This totally makes any of the Clinton peccadilloes look like child's play. This is a serious threat to national security. It's out of the highest levels of the White House. And Bush has a responsibility for it.

LIN: Cheri?

HATTAWAY: If he doesn't get to the bottom of it...

JACOBUS: Doug, the point is you keep saying -- Doug, you keep saying this is somebody close to the president. You have absolutely no evidence of that. Again, this is wishful partisan thinking on your part, because you folks really don't have a lot to run on issue-wise.

I think the president has done everything possibly that he can do. And everybody will be cooperating. The other thing is this is -- I believe this is only a felony if the person who leaked the information knew that Mr. Wilson's wife was in fact a covert agent. And in terms of this being -- I think it was identified as a senior administration official, I would even cast some doubt on that, because as you know, the egos in Washington can be very large. And everybody likes to elevate their title and would like to refer to themselves as some sort of a senior official wherever they are.

HATTAWAY: I think we'll be finding out who it is.

JACOBUS: So there's an awful lot in question. We may found out...

HATTAWAY: This is a lot of wishful thinking.

JACOBUS: ...who it is, but I don't think that this something that really is going to hurt the president per se. It's going to give the person who did this in an awful lot of trouble, but this is not like, you know, Bill Clinton, Al Gore with their fundraising scandals...

LIN: Well...

JACOBUS: ...and holding coffees of -- fundraising coffees in the house.

LIN: We'll find out what paperwork comes forth out of the White House on Tuesday. Thank you very much, Doug Hattaway, Cheri Jacobus.

JACOBUS: 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 October 5, 2003 - 22:23   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: At the White House, the search is on for the Deep Throat who outed a CIA officer. Now some are calling the whole episode a tempest in a teacup. But others say it's a major crisis for the Bush team. So what is it?
Doug Hattaway is a Democratic strategist. He's in Boston. And from Washington, Sheri Jacobus. She is a Republican spokeswoman. Thank you very much, the two of you, for being here tonight.

CHERI JACOBUS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Thank you.

DOUG HATTAWAY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Good to be here.

LIN: Doug, let me begin with you. Do you think here a crime has been committed?

HATTAWAY: I think there's no question a crime has been committed. It's against the law to reveal the identity of covert CIA operative. That's exactly what has happened.

So it's a very serious crime. It has implications for national security. And the question now is who did it? That's really the question that's under investigation now. The problem for the Bush administration is that it's probably somebody hiding in the administration. It could be somebody close to the president himself. And it's not going to go away now that it's under a legal investigation.

So I think they'll be dealing with this for a while.

LIN: Cheri, are we talking about another Watergate level sort of crime, scandal?

JACOBUS: No, I think the Democrats wish that they had that on their hands because they're obviously not doing well with the people that they have on their large field, the 10 Democrats that are running.

But this is not even on the level of a lot of the scandals during the Clinton administration. While it's a very serious issue, it's not a political scandal for President Bush. The reason being...

LIN: How can it not be a political scandal, Cheri, when -- I mean, there is a consensus out there that says this woman's life is now in danger?

JACOBUS: Well, I -- to be honest with you, no, this is a very serious issue if they feel her -- if she felt her life were in danger, you know, I think her husband has a lot to do with that, too, because he's been so public about things.

The point I'm trying to make here, however, is that when you look at the types of things that were surrounding the Clinton administration or Janet Reno, who is the attorney general then, was resisting appointing a special independent investigator to look at Bill Clinton and Al Gore for their fundraising scandals, you know, directly dealing with the president and the vice president, we now have a situation that really is very separate from the president and the vice president. And we don't see them circling the wagons. We don't see a White House lockdown.

In fact, we see quite the opposite. They've been very -- you know, the president was very clear. Everybody is to cooperate fully. So I really think that for him personally, from a political scandal standpoint, as serious of an issue as this is, this is not a political issue for the president in his re-election.

LIN: Well, Doug, do you think it's enough for the president to be forthcoming in that manner, produce the e-mails, produce your phone logs, let's get this over with and investigate it ourselves?

HATTAWAY: He could get to the bottom of this tomorrow. This is an incredibly disciplined White House. It's a close knit team. He said he was going to bring honor, integrity to the White House. He should sit them down tomorrow morning and find out who did it.

I think it is close to the president. He has to answer for it. His credibility has already taken a hit.

JACOBUS: No evidence of that, Doug.

HATTAWAY: His credibility has already taken a hit over exaggerating the threat posed by Saddam Hussein and not being up front with the American people about the cost of Iraq.

This is another hit on his credibility. This totally makes any of the Clinton peccadilloes look like child's play. This is a serious threat to national security. It's out of the highest levels of the White House. And Bush has a responsibility for it.

LIN: Cheri?

HATTAWAY: If he doesn't get to the bottom of it...

JACOBUS: Doug, the point is you keep saying -- Doug, you keep saying this is somebody close to the president. You have absolutely no evidence of that. Again, this is wishful partisan thinking on your part, because you folks really don't have a lot to run on issue-wise.

I think the president has done everything possibly that he can do. And everybody will be cooperating. The other thing is this is -- I believe this is only a felony if the person who leaked the information knew that Mr. Wilson's wife was in fact a covert agent. And in terms of this being -- I think it was identified as a senior administration official, I would even cast some doubt on that, because as you know, the egos in Washington can be very large. And everybody likes to elevate their title and would like to refer to themselves as some sort of a senior official wherever they are.

HATTAWAY: I think we'll be finding out who it is.

JACOBUS: So there's an awful lot in question. We may found out...

HATTAWAY: This is a lot of wishful thinking.

JACOBUS: ...who it is, but I don't think that this something that really is going to hurt the president per se. It's going to give the person who did this in an awful lot of trouble, but this is not like, you know, Bill Clinton, Al Gore with their fundraising scandals...

LIN: Well...

JACOBUS: ...and holding coffees of -- fundraising coffees in the house.

LIN: We'll find out what paperwork comes forth out of the White House on Tuesday. Thank you very much, Doug Hattaway, Cheri Jacobus.

JACOBUS: 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