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CNN Live Today
Interview With Trent Gegax
Aired February 16, 2004 - 10:05 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk more now about the primary and the possible No. 2 position. Here to join that discussion Trent Gegax, political correspondent for "Newsweek" magazine. Good morning. Thanks for being here with us.
TRENT GEGAX, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "NEWSWEEK": Sure. How are you?
KAGAN: We're going to get to the No. 2 in a second. First of all, let's focus on Wisconsin. Kerry does seems to have an overwhelming lead with that primary.
GEGAX: Yes, it seems like it's all but over. No disrespect to the voters and also the other candidates, but in many ways we've moved on to the general election campaign. And we've seen it with a lot of early mud slinging and whisper campaigns about peccadilloes that John Kerry may or may not have.
And also the AWOL issue which John Kerry could have doused early on if he wanted to. So both parties have said we're going at one another.
KAGAN: They're playing dirty. The mud slinging's there already.
Let's talk about what happened last night with this debate. Not a ton of news coming out of that. Howard Dean kind of playing nice and John Edwards kind of swinging a little bit. They switched rolls roles there.
GEGAX: Yes. And I think John Edwards just wanted to keep his profile up and make sure everyone realized he's still in this race. And actually Howard Dean looked like he was resigned to bowing out after Wisconsin.
KAGAN: Although he says he's not going to.
GEGAX: Well, he has to to keep up appearances.
KAGAN: And this is for the support of his party. At some point you have to look like a team player.
GEGAX: That's right. Yes.
KAGAN: All right, now at some point they got to pick a No. 2. This is, of course -- I mean John Kerry only has a quarter of the delegates. But just for the sake of conversation as we move forward, John Edwards with his mainly nice talk. We heard his wife say he's not interested in No. 2, and yet could you see that happening?
GEGAX: Well nobody's ever said they're interested at this stage of the game. He would certainly, I can't imagine, wouldn't take the position if he was offered.
And by the way, the Kerry campaign refuses to even acknowledge that the veep is something that they even think of. But then you also have, you know, for conversation's sake, the two senators in Florida, Senator Nelson and Graham.
You can see a scenario where you just park those two, one of them there...
KAGAN: In Florida. Win Florida.
GEGAX: Whether they win Florida or not -- you know, ideally they do, but it draws resources from the GOP into that state.
You also have Governor Richardson in New Mexico.
KAGAN: Let's head West, let's talk about Latino. That kind of makes things interesting.
GEGAX: Right. He's -- also very likely could pull Arizona and New Mexico, both swing states. And of course, yes, the Latino vote is obviously more and more important.
KAGAN: Let me just throw one more out there for you, just make it interesting. Hillary Clinton.
GEGAX: Yes.
KAGAN: I mean you can't talk Democratic politics without bringing her name up.
GEGAX: Yes it would be very interesting, especially if she saw that Kerry was -- maintained high polls versus Bush and she'd look at it like, Well I can't get in until 2012.
So -- but Wes Clark was brought up by President Clinton in reports.
KAGAN: Well the Clintons have been backing his campaign all along. And Wesley Clark did come out and endorse John Kerry.
GEGAX: He did. But I think there's redundancy and that's they're both war heroes. I would imagine that Senator Kerry will be looking elsewhere. Maybe even John Breaux from Louisiana. Very middle of the road, moderate. Or Dick Gephardt.
KAGAN: Missouri. All right, we'll be watching it. So will you. Appreciate your insight today.
GEGAX: Sure. Thank you.
KAGAN: Trent Gegax from "Newsweek." Thank you. See you on the campaign trail. Appreciate it.
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 February 16, 2004 - 10:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk more now about the primary and the possible No. 2 position. Here to join that discussion Trent Gegax, political correspondent for "Newsweek" magazine. Good morning. Thanks for being here with us.
TRENT GEGAX, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "NEWSWEEK": Sure. How are you?
KAGAN: We're going to get to the No. 2 in a second. First of all, let's focus on Wisconsin. Kerry does seems to have an overwhelming lead with that primary.
GEGAX: Yes, it seems like it's all but over. No disrespect to the voters and also the other candidates, but in many ways we've moved on to the general election campaign. And we've seen it with a lot of early mud slinging and whisper campaigns about peccadilloes that John Kerry may or may not have.
And also the AWOL issue which John Kerry could have doused early on if he wanted to. So both parties have said we're going at one another.
KAGAN: They're playing dirty. The mud slinging's there already.
Let's talk about what happened last night with this debate. Not a ton of news coming out of that. Howard Dean kind of playing nice and John Edwards kind of swinging a little bit. They switched rolls roles there.
GEGAX: Yes. And I think John Edwards just wanted to keep his profile up and make sure everyone realized he's still in this race. And actually Howard Dean looked like he was resigned to bowing out after Wisconsin.
KAGAN: Although he says he's not going to.
GEGAX: Well, he has to to keep up appearances.
KAGAN: And this is for the support of his party. At some point you have to look like a team player.
GEGAX: That's right. Yes.
KAGAN: All right, now at some point they got to pick a No. 2. This is, of course -- I mean John Kerry only has a quarter of the delegates. But just for the sake of conversation as we move forward, John Edwards with his mainly nice talk. We heard his wife say he's not interested in No. 2, and yet could you see that happening?
GEGAX: Well nobody's ever said they're interested at this stage of the game. He would certainly, I can't imagine, wouldn't take the position if he was offered.
And by the way, the Kerry campaign refuses to even acknowledge that the veep is something that they even think of. But then you also have, you know, for conversation's sake, the two senators in Florida, Senator Nelson and Graham.
You can see a scenario where you just park those two, one of them there...
KAGAN: In Florida. Win Florida.
GEGAX: Whether they win Florida or not -- you know, ideally they do, but it draws resources from the GOP into that state.
You also have Governor Richardson in New Mexico.
KAGAN: Let's head West, let's talk about Latino. That kind of makes things interesting.
GEGAX: Right. He's -- also very likely could pull Arizona and New Mexico, both swing states. And of course, yes, the Latino vote is obviously more and more important.
KAGAN: Let me just throw one more out there for you, just make it interesting. Hillary Clinton.
GEGAX: Yes.
KAGAN: I mean you can't talk Democratic politics without bringing her name up.
GEGAX: Yes it would be very interesting, especially if she saw that Kerry was -- maintained high polls versus Bush and she'd look at it like, Well I can't get in until 2012.
So -- but Wes Clark was brought up by President Clinton in reports.
KAGAN: Well the Clintons have been backing his campaign all along. And Wesley Clark did come out and endorse John Kerry.
GEGAX: He did. But I think there's redundancy and that's they're both war heroes. I would imagine that Senator Kerry will be looking elsewhere. Maybe even John Breaux from Louisiana. Very middle of the road, moderate. Or Dick Gephardt.
KAGAN: Missouri. All right, we'll be watching it. So will you. Appreciate your insight today.
GEGAX: Sure. Thank you.
KAGAN: Trent Gegax from "Newsweek." Thank you. See you on the campaign trail. Appreciate it.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
