Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

President Bush Backing Down Off of Previous Comments; Hurricane Emily Gaining Strength Again

Aired July 19, 2005 - 07:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Miles O'Brien. Watching Hurricane Emily back over open water and gaining strength again. New hurricane warnings as residents along the south Texas coast get ready for the storm. We're live in the strike zone.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Carol Costello, in for Soledad. Not just hurricanes, but oppressive heat: heat warnings in effect for more than half of United States, expected to reach the 90s today. Some cities will be well into the 100s. Some reporting heat-related deaths. We will tell you who's at risk.

O'BRIEN: And at the White House, President Bush backing down off of previous comments, saying he'll fire anyone who committed a crime now in the CIA leak case, and maybe trying to change the news agenda a bit by announcing a Supreme Court nominee, on this AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning to you. I'm Miles O'Brien.

COSTELLO: And I'm Carol Costello, in for Soledad. A lot to talk about with the weather.

O'BRIEN: Yes, let's get to that soon, but let's begin in Washington. Intense focus on every word the president utters right now as two highly politicized issues come before him, the CIA leak probe and his pending Supreme Court. An announcement on the nominee could come as soon as today. It would undoubtedly take the spotlight off the president's political adviser, Karl Rove, who identified a CIA operative. Bob Franken live at the White House.

Bob, is Rove's involvement in this CIA leak story becoming too much of a distraction perhaps for the White House?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the White House would certainly prefer that it was not there. Certainly, the focus on the White House and on the president's comments is intense. Washington is all a-twitter this morning. Did the president change his formulation, his standard for getting rid of somebody involved -- proven to be involved in this matter? He had been discerned as saying before that anybody who was involved in the leaking would be removed from his position in the White House. But now at his brief press appearance yesterday, the president seemed to raise the bar a bit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't know all the facts, and I want to know all the facts. Best place for the facts to be done is by somebody who's spending time investigating it. I would like this to end as quickly as possible so we know the facts. And if someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: "If someone committed a crime." That, in the minds of many, raised the bar.

Now, there's a poll that shows that the White House seems to be suffering credibility problems, an ABC News poll. When the question is, is the White House fully cooperating with the leak investigation? Only 25 percent said yes. That's quite a substantial drop.

And as for your contention about the Supreme Court nominee possibly taking some of the heat off, it's fair to say that that is quickly becoming, Miles, the story du jour.

O'BRIEN: It might be the story of the day. I understand there's some talk that he might be interviewing nominees today. What do we know about that, Bob?

FRANKEN: Well, that's certainly expected to be the case. We can tell you that some of his strategists were here much of the day yesterday. And we can also tell you that here at the White House last evening, Senator Arlen Specter, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, had a long conversation with, you guessed it, Karl Rove.

O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much, Bob Franken.

Let's turn now to Ed Henry. He's live in Washington.

Ed, as we understand it, your producer spoke to Arlen Specter after he met with the president. That's obviously a crucial meeting, and then probably, oh, to be a fly on the wall in that one, right, Ed?

ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, absolutely. And Senator Specter did hint at the fact that an announcement on the Supreme Court nomination is imminent. Last night the Senate Judiciary chairman was supposed to be at an office softball game on the National Mall, but instead, CNN did learn, in fact, that he was called over, hurriedly over to the White House. You can see we've got some exclusive pictures of the senator after his meeting at the White House, talking with Karl Rove outside the White House. Obviously, the Supreme Court nomination on everyone's mind. After that meeting, Senator Specter made his way over to the softball game I mentioned on the National Mall, his office softball game, and my producer Laura Bernadinee (ph) did catch up with the senator, and he hinted that an announcement is coming.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ARLEN SPECTER (R), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: Well, there are certainly no announcements that I'm going to make here on the softball field. And I'm not going to talk about a timeline either. I did not go to the White House incognito, so it was apparent that I was there, but I'm sure you'll understand if it's the sort of thing I can't talk about, at least this evening.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: So you can see there the fact that Senator Specter saying he can't talk about exactly what he and the president spoke about, leading to evermore speculation that, in fact, they're edging closer to actually naming someone. It's key because the Senate Judiciary chairman will handle the confirmation hearings. He would have to get official notification.

But also, secondly, Arlen Specter is a very prominent, moderate Republican. He supports abortion rights. And when I sat down with Senator Specter earlier yesterday for an exclusive interview in his Judiciary Committee offices, he made clear that he would much prefer that the president pick a moderate to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the bench.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Are you looking for a nominee that's going to keep the idea ideological balance that's there now? There's a lot of talk about the O'Connor seat being a more moderate seat. Is that the way you view it?

SPECTER: I do. I think it's important to keep balance on the court, and that is in every respect. And I think that Americans are concerned about having somebody who's too far one side or too far to the other side, and the balance is critical.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: With comments like that, you can see why the White House would want to try to be reaching out to Senator Specter, get him on board for whoever they're going to pick. Also, you may have noticed now, the senator is battling Hodgkin's Disease right now. His doctors have given him only a 70 percent chance of survival. But I can tell you that during that interview yesterday, the senator assured me he feels strong. He said he's ready for these grueling confirmation hearings, and he's going to hit the ground running as soon as a name comes down from the White House -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: We certainly wish him well on that front. Thank you very much, Ed Henry.

Big doings in Washington today. We will hear from the president in a few hours. The president will meet with Australian Prime Minister John Howard. CNN will have live coverage of the joint news conference at 11:50 a.m. Eastern Time -- Carol.

COSTELLO: On to the weather now, there's a new hurricane warning for the south Texas coast this morning, where people are boarding up, packing up and getting ready for Emily. The category-one storm with 90-miles-per-hour winds is regaining strength in the Gulf of Mexico right now. It is predicted to be a major hurricane when it reaches the Mexican coast tonight or early tomorrow. The hurricane warning extends from Port Mansfield, Texas, to La Cruz, Mexico. Emily did considerable damage on the Yucatan Peninsula Monday. Some big hotels lost roofs, but no deaths have been reported.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: We're going to go to Chris Lawrence. He is in South Padre Island, Texas. Because, you know, do you evacuate, or do you not evacuate? That's a big question this morning, isn't it, Chris?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Carol, a lot of people here say -- they're starting to take this a little more seriously than we saw yesterday, when it was more of a feeling of, nah, that's not going to hit us. Now a few more people starting to pack up, move a little further inland. Several schools have shut down now. They've already been converted over to shelters. As we drive up and down the coast, we've seen a lot of businessmen start to board up their windows, trying to do whatever they can to minimize the damage once those winds start gusting later today.

A lot of folks here are very worried about the people who are living in some of the valley areas in south Texas. Those areas have flooded before. And even though the general area is under a drought, the kind of rain that Emily could bring may be enough to flood those areas. Officials have passed out literally tens of thousands of sandbags, trying to help some of the homeowners here do what they can to shore up their home ahead of the storm.

Now, remember, when this storm hit Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, it came ashore as a category 4 hurricane. So we're talking about a very powerful storm, even though it minimized and now is re-energizing, a lot of folks here are very -- starting to take this a little more seriously, get a little bit more worry, making some more preparations -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Chris Lawrence, live in Texas this morning. Stay with us all morning long for continuing coverage of Hurricane Emily. CNN, your hurricane headquarters.

You know we're having a heatwave across much of the country, too, this morning, and things are getting dangerous. Take a look at Arizona, where police are blaming scorching temperatures for at least eight deaths. In Phoenix, people made for the shade on Monday. You could literally see the heat rising off the smoldering city streets, where Monday's thermometer hit a record 116 degrees. I was there on vacation, and I felt it. Heat advisories are in effect for the mid- Atlantic states, as well as the Southwest. Chad will have a little more on the heat later on.

O'BRIEN: You know, they say dry heat, but I don't buy that. It's just hot.

COSTELLO; You don't sweat as you should, so it's actually more dangerous.

O'BRIEN: All right, moving on to Iraq now. In Iraq, a gunman opened fire on a minivan near a U.S. military base. Ten Iraqi civilians were killed in the ambush, three more when the van crashed into another vehicle.

Aneesh Raman live in Baghdad on this developing story -- Aneesh.

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, good morning.

The incident taking place northeast of the capital city in a town called Khalis. There, as you say, a minibus was fired upon by suspected insurgents in two vehicles, as they were transporting civilian workers to a U.S. military base in that town. The gunfire led to the death of some 10 of those civilian workers. As the minibus was fired upon, it swerved out of control, rammed into another car. That accident killing three people in the other vehicle. Police have already said they have three people in custody. This video of the mourners, of people coming out to grieve those that were killed just this morning.

Now, this incident, Miles, again another in the daily attacks we've seen. It is essentially impossible for any of us to keep track of any of these casualty numbers in the abstract, which is why we're awaiting a report that will come out in just about an hour and a half from a group called Iraq body count. They will be putting out comprehensive statistics of casualties of civilians in Iraq since the start of the war until March of this year. Now their group not without a stance. They feel the world has largely ignored civilian casualties in Iraq, and they say that world leaders need to weigh heavily the responsibilities that they have when they go to war, given the human toll. But it's an important window for those of us who watch the story and for the world, of course, to get a better sense of what is happening here on the ground -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Aneesh Raman in Baghdad, thank you very much -- Carol.

COSTELLO: British Prime Minister Tony Blair held talks today with representatives of the Britain's Muslim community. Mr. Blair met with nearly 25 Muslim leaders to discuss how to prevent the spread of radical Islam. The meeting comes a day after news that at least two of the suspected bombers traveled to Pakistan last year. In the meantime, there's news that London lowered its threat-assessment level just weeks before the bombing.

Senior international correspondent Nic Robertson in London this morning.

Nic, bring us up to date.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, the threat was lowered from specific general to substantial. And we understand from security sources, the reason the threat assessment was lowered was because prior to that raised level of specific general, there had been some very specific threats, they say, of information about terrorists in the country, that those specific issues had been dealt with, and therefore they had lowered the threat after that. Immediately after the bombing, they raised the threat level to critical. It has been lowered again since then. But that was the reason, they say, not because they made a mistake, but because they say the specific issues they had had gone away, and that's why it was lowered in the weeks before the bombing. They, obviously, had no idea that these particular bombers were planning the attack.

Also, police have announced today that they will be extending the warrant to keep in detention a man they arrested in Leeds one week ago. They can hold him for up to one more week until they have to charge him. But they've extended that arrest warrant to hold him for another five days from now, in fact. And that meeting with religious leaders, not just Tony Blair, but also the other leading politicians, members of the opposition conservative and liberal parties, were also part of those talks -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Nic Robertson, live in London this morning.

O'BRIEN: General William Westmoreland, the man who led U.S. forces during the Vietnam War, has died. Under his command, American troop strength rose to more than half a million. He was "Time" magazine's man of the year in 1965. He later refused to concede that the U.S. lost the war. Westmoreland passed away last night in Charleston, South Carolina. He was 91. A little later in the program, we'll take a closer look at the life of this career military figure.

COSTELLO: Still to come, an emotional court hearing in Birmingham Monday. Serial bomber Eric Rudolph sentenced to life in prison. One of his victims talks about what it was like to confront him in court.

O'BRIEN: Also, all four bombers in the London terror attacks were British citizens. What's being done to track down homegrown terrorists in the U.S.?

COSTELLO: And we're keeping a close eye on Hurricane Emily. We'll go live to the National Hurricane Center. That's next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Hurricane Emily is heading toward Gulf Coast of Mexico. We're told Texas could be spared the full hurricane-force winds, but wind rainfall, a little storm surge could be an issue.

Ed Rappaport is the deputy director of the National Hurricane Center.

Ed, good to have you back with us.

First of all, let's talk about where the storm is now, where it seems to be headed.

ED RAPPAPORT, DEP. DIR., NATL. HURRICANE CENTER: At this time, Hurricane Emily is centered about 300 miles off the coast from the mouth of the Rio Grande. It's moving towards that area at 15 miles per hour. If we divide that out, that means a landfall in about 20 hours. If we project the track straight ahead, that would bring a landfall right to near the border. We do think there will be a turn back more towards the west just before landfall, perhaps in the next 12 hours or so. And if that's correct, then the worst of the conditions would stay south of the border, but any deviation off of that would mean hurricane conditions would come to far south Texas. And so now there is a hurricane warning up for the southernmost part of the state.

O'BRIEN: OK, and, of course, that -- we've said this so many times now in this busy hurricane season. That part above the eye would be an area that could be more subject to hurricane-force winds because of the counter-clockwise swirl there, right?

RAPPAPORT: That's right. At this point, hurricane-force winds extend about 40 miles to the north of the center, and tropical storm force winds on the order of 100 miles to the north. So we're pretty sure there will be tropical storm conditions in the southern part of the state. But we could also see hurricane-force winds if either the storm moves a little bit more to the north, if the turn is delayed a bit, or if the system expands a little.

O'BRIEN: But what about whether this storm is strengthening? Obviously, it's picked up steam since it went across the Yucatan Peninsula. Is it continuing to strengthen?

RAPPAPORT: The indications are that it is gradually strengthening. We'll have another aircraft in the center within the next 20 minutes or so, and we'll see if that trend has continued.

O'BRIEN: And so folks in Southern Texas, South Padre Island, should be listening pretty carefully, shouldn't they? They shouldn't assume they are dodging this particular bullet?

RAPPAPORT: That's correct. They need to pay close attention to what they're being told by local emergency-management officials. If the center does move a little bit farther to the north, just 50 to 100 miles to the north, they will be subject to a storm surge with as much as seven to 10 feet, and of course we are expecting rainfall on the order of five to 10 inches, and perhaps as high as 15 inches in some local spots.

O'BRIEN: And do you have a sense as to how very evacuations are going on south of the border, where that eye seems to be headed?

RAPPAPORT: I'm not up to date on that yet, no.

O'BRIEN: OK, Ed Rappaport, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center, thanks for your time, as always. We appreciate it.

NASA is still frustrated by a fuel-sensor glitch that delayed Discovery's launch last week. Engineers haven't determined what caused the low fuel gauge to malfunction before liftoff on Wednesday. Nasa brought back an engineer who actually designed part of the system that is in question here in '70s to help conduct some tests.

Now no date has been set for the launch. The manager of the shuttle program says NASA hasn't given up hope for a launch in July.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BILL PARSONS, SPACE SHUTTLE PROG. MANAGER: We've waited two-plus years, two-and-a-half years, to be here. We're trying awfully hard to resolve this issue. But we had a window that extended from July 13th through July 31st, that we're still in that window. We're still trying to launch within that window. And this team is doing everything they can to give us every opportunity to launch in the July window.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: NASA officials are also debating whether that launch window could be extended to August 4th, giving them a little more time to fix the problem -- Carol.

COSTELLO: We've got some good news for parents and students. It could make paying for college a bit easier. We're "Minding Your Business" next.

Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: I don't need to tell you this. College tuition is still increasing. So why is there good news for those paying that big, fat bill? Gerri Willis is in for Andy Serwer. She's "Minding Your Business." So tell us what the good news here.

GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is what passes for good news for people who have college students in the family. Look at this. Tuition only going up at public schools by eight percent this year. This is great news, because last year it went up 10.5 percent. The year before that, 13 percent. So this is what passes for good news if you've got kids in college. And an Important thing to remember, private schools only going up 5.7 percent here, but that's...

COSTELLO: That's like $30,000 a year, though.

WILLIS: Exactly. It's on a bigger base.

And just in case you were interested, because I was very interested in this. If you're going to Harvard, how much are you paying?

COSTELLO: Forty-thousand a year?

WILLIS: Forty-one thousand dollars a year. So it's a lot of dough, a lot of dough. Also, you can see some of the college tuition costs going up. University of Connecticut, we've got a full screen here, six percent. Look at Colorado, up 24 percent.

COSTELLO: Why? Why the wide variation in percentage?

WILLIS: Has a lot to do with the states themselves and how much money they can afford to put towards these educational programs. And I should mention that one of the issues they're dealing with right now is parent outrage. In the middle of the year, they've been raising some of these prices. The parents get really upset. So I think there's a sense out there that maybe we ought to stop raising them sub-annually.

COSTELLO: So they're raising them after the first two semesters. So you have your kid there, and your kid wants to continue, so you're kind of stuck.

WILLIS: You bet. You bet. And I think parents are just fed up with it. Fortunately, local economies are doing better, so more money going into these programs.

COSTELLO: Good luck. That's all I have to say.

WILLIS: That's right.

COSTELLO: Gerri Willis, thank you -- Miles.

WILLIS: Those are big numbers there, big numbers.

All right, still to come, the latest on that flip flop flap at the White House. I got through it. Fashion faux pas, or is it politically correct? A former White House social secretary explains the proper dress code while meeting the president, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com