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Pentagon to Deploy 'Rapid Response' P.R. Team; Why is North Korea Coming Back to Six-Party Talks?; America Votes 2006; Kerry Responds to Controversial Comments Firestorm
Aired October 31, 2006 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Seven days to go until midterms, and those partisan gloves are so off.
While speaking at Pasadena City College in California yesterday, former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry pulled the pin on a verbal grenade.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: You know education, if you make the most of it and you study hard and you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you -- you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, Press Secretary Tony Snow was snappy with a White House comeback.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: An extraordinary thing has happened since September 11th, which is a lot of people, America's finest, have willingly agreed to volunteer their services in a mission that they know is dangerous but is also important. And, you know, Senator Kerry not only owes an apology to those serving, but also to the families of those who have given their lives in this. This is an absolute insult.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: But Kerry says he was aiming his comment at the president, not U.S. soldiers. Here's Kerry's response: "If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they're crazy. This is the class GOP playbook. I'm tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who can never be found to serve in war but love to attack those who did."
Arizona Republican John McCain also jumping in to the political fray. He says, "The suggestion that only the least educated Americans would agree to serve in the military and fight in Iraq is an insult to every soldier serving in combat and should deeply offend any American with an appreciation for what they suffer and the risks so that the rest of us can sleep more comfortably at night. Without them, we wouldn't live in a country where people securely possess all their God-given rights, including the right to express sensitive, ill-considered and uninformed remarks."
Now, you can hear from Senator McCain live from the CNN NEWSROOM at the bottom of this hour.
And CNN has learned that Senator Kerry is holding a news conference in Seattle this hour. We're going to bring those comments as soon as we can.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the Pentagon wants to get ahead of the news cycle. It's launching a rapid-response operation like the ones in political campaigns. It will quickly respond to news stories critical of the war or the secretary of defense.
Our Barbara Starr joins us now from the Pentagon.
Barbara, just how concerned is the Pentagon with the coverage Secretary Rumsfeld's been getting?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, they've been very concerned, Don. And, you know, perish the thought. Could there be politics going on in these 17 miles of Pentagon corridors? In fact, as always, there is.
Secretary Rumsfeld has long expressed his utter dismay at the news media and the coverage of the war. Let's start there and listen to one of the most recent comments the secretary made when reporters last week asked him about what was going on in Iraq.
Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: This is complicated stuff. It's difficult.
We're looking out into the future. No one can predict the future with absolute certainty. So you ought to just back off, take a look at it, relax, understand that it's complicated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: Well, OK. We're not backing off. We're here.
What's the Pentagon doing? The Pentagon has now, in the news media office, the press office, begun what some people around here call a bullpen operation, rapid response. They're hiring a number of people that will very rapidly listen to news media reports and write letters to the editor, write objections, post things on the Pentagon Web site, objecting to what they believe are inaccuracies in news media reporting.
What's pretty interesting about all this, Don, is the Pentagon won't say how many people they're hiring, how much it's going to cost to run this new operation. They say it is not politically motivated, but what we have seen so far, all of it does center around any media criticism of either Secretary Rumsfeld or the war in Iraq. Whether they get on to criticizing other topics remains to be seen -- Don.
LEMON: Barbara, how unusual is this? Is this unusual at all for them to do this?
STARR: Well, you know, let me -- let me answer that by offering the other side of the equation. It is unusual, but what the Pentagon will say is, because insurgent groups like al Qaeda, terrorist groups are so adept at using the Internet, at putting videos out, because there is new media out there such as podcasting and YouTube, that people are getting their information from all sorts of places, and that they have an obligation in the Pentagon to try and respond quickly when they see things that are inaccurate and try and respond to that 24/7 global village of media information that's out there around the world.
That is what they say they are doing. But whether it does become strictly an operation to answer critics of the war remains to be seen. That's what we've seen pretty much so far. All of us in the Pentagon press corps will be keeping a close eye on it to see how it all evolves.
LEMON: I'm sure you will, Barbara. Sort of an idea whose time has come. I would think that's how they would put this
Thank you very much for that.
STARR: Sure.
LEMON: Even though much of the news out of Iraq is about fighting or some other type of violence, there is good news, too. The commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is just back from a trip to Iraq and also Afghanistan. He says that progress is being made in rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure, and that includes boosting oil production and getting electricity to homes and businesses.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. GEN. CARL STROCK, ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: In the area of oil, we are routinely producing two million barrels a day, which was about what the Iraqis produced. We have been as high as 2.5. And we have another three or four projects that are close to being completed which should boost the production by about another million barrels per day or so. So we feel confident we can get to the three million barrel per day target, which exceeds prewar conditions.
We are producing more electricity than they could before the war. A challenge there, though, is that demand has increased because we have turned loose the economy. And people are buying more goods that require electricity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: And General Strock says more than $13 billion in U.S. aid is committed to contracts to help rebuild Iraq. PHILLIPS: Talks over North Korea's nuclear weapons program could be back on by the end of this year. North Korea agreed to sit down again with five nations, including the U.S., after a seven-hour meeting between Pyongyang -- actually, among Pyongyang, Beijing and Washington. The North walked away from the six-party talks nearly a year ago and exploded some type of nuke earlier this month.
Now, earlier today, the president noted there was a lot of work ahead on North Korea.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We'll be sending teams to the region to work with our partners to make sure that the current United Nations Security Council resolution is enforced. But also, to make sure that the talks are effective, that we achieve the results we want, which is a North Korea that abandons her nuclear weapons programs and her nuclear weapons.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: United Nations economic sanctions imposed after North Korea's October test remain in place.
North Korea felt heavy international pressure over its nuclear program, including those U.N. sanctions.
Zain Verjee joins us now live from Washington, where she's been speaking with her contacts at the State Department and across the region.
Zain, why is North Korea coming back to the talks?
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A lot of U.S. officials, Kyra, have said, look, it's because of a unified international voice. It's the unified international pressure that has been borne to get the North Koreans back to talks. But a lot of analysts in the region, Kyra, that I spoke to said, look, North Korea test-fired seven missiles back in July, it conducted a nuclear test, and it's coming back to the table with leverage. It's coming from a position of strength, they say.
The North Koreans say, look, you know, we're coming as equals, equals to other nuclear powers. And they could be in a position to demand more and say, hey, you know, you can't push us around.
China also would have been key to this. China, as you know, offers a lifeline to North Korea, giving them food and fuel. So there could have been some arm-twisting here involved.
I talked to one analyst who said, "Who knows what China has promised North Korea?" That could be something that we won't know. But North Korea really, many saying, has nothing to lose by coming to these talks.
PHILLIPS: So why six-party talks? Why does the U.S. not want one-on- one talks?
VERJEE: The U.S.'s position on that, the administration has said, look, back in 1994 we had this agreement known as the agreed framework, and that essentially failed, they say. And so, why go down that road again?
You know, North Korea cheated on that program. They pursued a highly- enriched uranium program. And that -- that didn't take us anywhere.
So their position is six-party talks, get the regional powers in there, they give North Korea food and fuel, like countries like South Korea and China. And they have the leverage, they can bring the pressure to bear.
What matters now, though, Kyra, a lot of people are saying, is, OK, you go back to the six-party talks, but what actually happens in the room when they start talking? What is Chris Hill going to have in his pocket to negotiate with the North Koreans?
They say that they're going to go back to the September 19th declaration where it was agreed that North Korea would end its nuclear program and North Korea would get incentives and security and economic guarantees. But that didn't go anywhere and North Korea left the talks. And the whole atmosphere has been poisoned.
So it's going to be interesting to see what the U.S. and other countries come to the table with. Or what North Korea demands.
PHILLIPS: Well, what do you think North Korea hopes to get out of all this?
VERJEE: Well, North Korea wants a number of things. First of all, they're looking essentially for the normalization of relations with the United States.
You know, they're looking around and they think, look, most of the communist countries around us have collapsed, we're the last man left standing here. You know. And they realize -- many analysts have said that they need the United States to survive.
They also need economic aid. They want security guarantees. And they also, Kyra, want these financial sanctions that are really hurting them to be lifted. So that's what they're demanding. But who knows if they'll get that.
PHILLIPS: Zain Verjee, thanks so much.
LEMON: Hedging their bets. Big business spreads out the cash ahead of Election Day.
The story ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.
PHILLIPS: And targeting U.S. troops at the cash advance store.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's predatory. It's legalized loan sharking in some cases.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: The troops will soon get some protection.
That story from the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Michael J. Fox helped put the Senate race in Missouri into the national spotlight. He's voicing support for the Democratic candidate. Now some big guns are coming to the Republican incumbent's help.
CNN Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley is in St. Louis.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It comes as no surprise that there's a real battle going on here in the battleground. The latest CNN Opinion Research Corporation poll shows a dead heat, 49 percent for Republican Senator Jim Talent, 49 percent for his Democratic challenger, Claire McCaskill.
Now it's all about turnout.
Jim Talent has returned to the southern portion of the state, his stronghold trying to get out rural voters and consistently Republican voters. He is reminding them of his support for various social issues, including his opposition to gay marriage.
For Claire McCaskill, her support is in the cities St. Louis and Kansas City. On Monday she reached out to African-American voters, which the campaign needs to come out in droves.
There is also some reinforcements coming into the state for Jim Talent. Just yesterday he saw Tony Snow, the White House communications director, come in to help with a fund-raiser. Later on this week, Talent is expecting President Bush to make a return here to help turn out that base vote.
But again, 49-49 in a battle that is as close as it is important.
Candy Crowley, CNN, St. Louis.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, with the midterm election just a week away, corporate America is seeking new political friends just incase.
CNN's Ali Velshi reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
Ali VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Corporate America likes Republicans. BUSH: Thank you, all.
VELSHI: For the most part, Republicans have kept hourly wages and taxes low, and they keep their hands out of business as much as possible. Republicans like corporate America, and its hefty donations. According to one mutual fund company 76 percent of the firms in the S&P 500 lean Republican in their political donations.
But with Republican fortunes flagging, corporate America is looking for some new friends. Remember, big business is big for a reason -- it's smart. It's not that corporate America wants the Democrats to win, but if they do win, Big Business doesn't want to lose.
According to a "New York Times" analysis, as the campaign entered its final month, American corporations shifted more than 10 percent of their political donations from Republicans to Democrats. Lockheed- Martin, for instance, went from being a mainly Republican supporter to being a mainly Democratic supporter, at least in October.
Still, some on Wall Street are staying solidly red. Democratic threats to raise taxes on the oil industry mean that so far this year, 83 percent of Big Oil's money has gone to Republicans. The drug companies aren't looking for new friends either. Democrats want to renegotiate the Medicare prescription drug plan.
So far this year, 69 percent of the pharmaceutical and health care industry's political donations have gone to Republicans. Restaurants and small businesses are worried about Democrats raising the minimum wage, which has been stuck at $5.15 since 1997, though Wal-Mart has been preparing for that for two years. Though, it still gives more to Republicans than Democrats, it now spreads the donation love more evenly.
Now some industries aren't just doing it to get in good with the Democrats, they actually stand to gain from a Democratic win. Life insurance companies, for instance, could get a big payout if the Democrats bring back the estate tax, because people would need more life insurance. And alternative energy companies could also get a boost from a Congress that isn't so much about big oil.
(on camera): Now, not all businesses are shifting their donations. The Republicans have companies that remain solidly in their column, and so do the Democrats. Companies like Coach, Starbucks and Costco all donate more to Democrats than they do to Republicans. In fact, companies like Apple Computer and Google say that they give more than 90 percent of their political donations to the Democrats.
Ali Velshi, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: And you can catch more of Ali Velshi's reports on "AMERICAN MORNING," weekday, 6:00 a.m. Eastern.
LEMON: Well, parents worry about them all year round, but now some sex offenders are seeing a Halloween crackdown by police. We'll explain ahead in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Deep in debt. U.S. service members fight a battle on the home front with the losers unable to return to the front lines.
CNN's Chris Lawrence reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The storefront signs near Camp Pendleton target service members. "Get your money before Uncle Sam cuts the check."
LANCE CPL. CARLOS WEST, U.S. MARINES: They helped me out, because I'm (INAUDIBLE). We don't make that much.
LAWRENCE: Lance Corporal Carlos West has come looking for quick cash. The problem is, he already took out the maximum $300 loan at this payday advance store. So it's on to another store, and another $300 loan. There's no limit on how many a Marine can get.
West finished his first tour in Iraq, but may not qualify for a second.
REAR ADMIRAL LEN HERRING, U.S. NAVY: The individual who has an excessive debt ratio, one, is not deployable. And two, becomes a national security risk.
LAWRENCE: Thousands of young troops have a problem living off their basic pay. They're taking short-term cash advances. But instead of paying them off, they renew the loans over and over, and the interest rate skyrockets to 400, 500, 800 percent.
HERRING: It's predatory. It's legalized loan sharking in some cases.
LAWRENCE: Between Iraq and Afghanistan, the military needs every soldier and Marine it can muster. But in the past four years, the number who lose their security clearance to bad debt has increased nearly 10 times.
(on camera): Why does such a high debt make them a security risk?
HERRING: Most individuals who are lured into espionage-like activities are lured there because they are financially in debt.
LAWRENCE (voice over): Next year, a new law takes effect that only applies to service members. It caps annual interest on their consumer loans at 36 percent
CHARLEY PIEDMONT, CASH & CHECK OWNER: If I can lend $10,000, I could do it at 20 percent. But we can't lend $10,000. We can lend $300. At $300, I make $3, $4.
LAWRENCE: Charlie Piedmont says he's closing his payday advance store because of the new law and expects others near military bases to follow. A spokesman for the Payday Advance Trade Group told CNN they are "... getting out of the military consumer lending business."
PIEDMONT: But the fact of the matter is, the military personnel are underpaid and undertrained in dealing in fiscal matters.
LAWRENCE: The services do have alternatives: the USO, credit unions, emergency loans.
WEST: They don't tell you that, you know? All you see is your paycheck and you go, OK, I need this, I need this.
LAWRENCE: In fact, the services do teach finance classes, as far back as basic training.
The military won a battle against cash advance stores. But the bigger war is on bad money management. That may be more difficult to win.
Chris Lawrence, CNN, San Diego.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Fallen heroes. One hundred and three servicemen and women killed in Iraq in October. One of the deadliest months of this war.
Final good-byes are far too common. Honor Guards with rifles upright and faces full of grace comfort every devastated family, like this one, Private 1st Class Steven Picknell's (ph) family from Prattville, Alabama.
In Philadelphia, words of consolation for the mother of Army Corporal Carl W. Johnson II (ph).
In Bedford, Virginia, it's hugs for the father of Marine 2nd Lieutenant Joshua L. Booth (ph). That's Booth's (ph) daughter, Grace.
They are just three of the 103 men and women who have fallen in Iraq this month.
Here are 26 more.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Most workers say saving for retirement is their number one goal, but it's getting harder and harder to do.
Susan Lisovicz joins us from the New York Stock Exchange with the results of a troubling new study.
It is troubling, and especially for me, too. I'm getting closer to retirement. We all are with each day.
(BUSINESS HEADLINES)
PHILLIPS: We'll let you know we're waiting for John Kerry to step to the mics in Seattle. He's there actually campaigning for Maria Cantwell there in Seattle. But we're waiting for him to step up to the mics to respond to the controversial comments he made about American troops in Iraq. It's really set off quite a firestorm and created a debate today. Seven days until midterm elections and the partisan gloves, as you can see, are off. He was actually speaking at a Pasadena City college news conference for students in California yesterday. Former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry -- well, this is what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Well, you know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard and you do your homework and make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Now, CNN congressional correspondent Andrea Koppel joins me on the phone with more of these controversial comments including what the Kerry camp is doing to recover. Andrea, you're actually saying that a Kerry aide said that he actually mangled his prepared statement and didn't mean to say that?
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, Kyra. According to Kerry's Communication Director David Wade, he said that the senator has misspoke during what were prepared remarks in Pasadena. He said that what Senator Kerry had meant to say in those prepared remarks were I can't overstress the importance of a great education. Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting stuck in a war in Iraq according to David Wade, this was a swipe at President Bush. It was designed to criticize President Bush who Kerry has done repeatedly ever since he threw his hat into the ring in '04. Kerry believes that President Bush hadn't learned the lessons of history, and that is why, in Kerry's opinion, the U.S. is mired in a losing war in Iraq. But Republicans had seized on these remarks, Kyra, beginning with Senator John McCain this morning. Later in the day we saw Tony Snow, the White House spokesman and others basically saying that this is, you know, further evidence of the Democrat cut and run strategy, that this is an antiwar statement. They're trying to fire up their base, Kyra, one week out from the election.
PHILLIPS: And does the same aide believe this is a test? I was looking actually at some of your notes saying that he believes this is now a test of whether Democrats know how to fight back against what's happening here?
KOPPEL: Well, what we're going to hear, when Senator Kerry comes to the microphone shortly, is Senator Kerry is going to be pushing back hard...
PHILLIPS: Andrea, here he comes. Let's listen in. Stay with me.
KERRY: Let me make it crystal clear, as crystal clear as I know how: I apologize to no one for my criticism of the president and of his broken policy.
If anyone owes our troops in the fields an apology, it is the president and his failed team and a Republican majority in the Congress that has been willing to stamp -- rubber-stamp policies that have done injury to our troops and to their families.
My statement yesterday -- and the White House knows this full well -- was a botched joke about the president and the president's people, not about the troops.
The White House's attempt to distort my true statement is a remarkable testament to their abject failure in making America safe. It's a stunning statement about their willingness to reduce anything in America to raw politics. It's their willingness to distort, their willingness to mislead Americans, their willingness to exploit the troops, as they have so many times at backdrops, at so many speeches at which they have not told the American people the truth.
I'm not going to stand for it.
What our troops deserve is a winning strategy. And what they deserve is leadership that is up to the sacrifice that they're making.
Sadly, this is the best that this administration can do in a month when we have lost 100 young men and women who have given their lives for a failed policy.
Over half the names on the Vietnam wall were put there after our leaders knew that our policy was wrong. And it was wrong that leaders were quiet then, and I'm not going to be quiet now.
KERRY: This is a textbook Republican campaign strategy: Try to change the topic; try to make someone else the issue; try to make something else said the issue, not the policy, not their responsibility.
Well, everybody knows it's not working this time, and I'm not going to stand around and let it work. If anyone thinks that a veteran, someone like me, who's been fighting my entire career to provide for veterans, to fight for their benefits, to help honor what their service is, if anybody thinks that a veteran would somehow criticize more than 140,000 troops serving in Iraq and not the president and his people who put them there, they're crazy.
It's just wrong. This is a classic GOP textbook Republican campaign tactic.
I'm sick and tired of a bunch of despicable Republicans who will not debate real policy, who won't take responsibility for their own mistakes, standing up and trying to make other people the butt of those mistakes.
I'm sick and tired of a whole bunch of Republican attacks, most of which come from people who never wore the uniform and never had the courage to stand up and go to war themselves. Enough is enough. We're not going to stand for this. This policy is broken. And this president and his administration didn't do their homework. They didn't study what would happen in Iraq. They didn't study and listen to the people who were the experts and would have told them.
And they know that's what I was talking about yesterday. I'm not going to be lectured by a White House or by the likes of Rush Limbaugh who's taking a day off from mimicking and attacking Michael J. Fox, who's now going to try to attack me and lie about me and distort me.
No way. It disgusts me that a bunch of these Republican hacks who've never worn the uniform of our country are willing to lie about those who did.
It's over.
This administration has given us a Katrina foreign policy: mistake upon mistake upon mistake; unwilling to give our troops the armor that they need; unwilling to have enough troops in place; unwilling to give them the Humvees that they deserve to protect them; unwilling to have a coalition that is adequate to be able to defend our interests.
KERRY: Our own intelligence agency has told us they're creating more terrorists, not less. They're making us less safe, not more.
I think Americans are sick and tired of this game. These Republicans are afraid to stand up and debate a real veteran on this topic. And they're afraid to debate -- you know, they want to debate straw men because they're afraid to debate real men.
Well, we're going to have a real debate in this country about this policy. The bottom line is: These Republicans want to distort this policy. And, this time, it won't work because we are going to stay in their face with the truth.
And no Democrat is going to be bullied by these people, by these kinds of attacks that have no place in American politics. It's time to set our policy correct.
They have a stand-still-and-lose policy in Iraq and they have a cut-and-run policy in Afghanistan. And the fact is, our troops, who have served heroically, who deserve better, deserve leadership that is up to their sacrifice, period.
QUESTION: Senator, John McCain said that you owe an apology to the many thousands of Americans serving in Iraq, who answered this country's call because they are patriots.
To those people who didn't get your joke, who may have misinterpreted you as saying the undereducated are cannon fodder, what do you say?
KERRY: I never said that, and John McCain knows I've never said that and John McCain knows I wouldn't say that.
And John McCain ought to ask for an apology from Donald Rumsfeld for making the mistakes he's made. John McCain ought to ask for an apology from this administration for not sending in enough troops.
He ought to ask for an apology for putting our troops on the line with a policy that doesn't have an adequate coalition, that doesn't have adequate diplomacy, where we don't have a strategy to win.
And what we need is to debate the real issues, not these phony, sideline issues that are part of the politics. Americans are tired -- sick and tired of this kind of politics.
They know my true feelings. They know I fought to provide additional money for veterans. They know I fought to provide money for combat for veterans. They know I've fought to put money for V.A. They know I've honored those veterans.
They know that this is the finest military -- and I've said it 100,000 times -- that we've ever had. They know precisely what I was saying.
And they're trying to turn this because they have a bankrupt policy and they can't defend it to the nation and they can't defend it to the world.
KERRY: And I'm not going to stand for this anymore; period. That's the apology that people ought to get.
QUESTION: Do you need to go to joke school?
KERRY: Sure.
QUESTION: Senator, do you regret saying the remark? And what were you trying to say?
KERRY: Very simple: that those who didn't study it properly, those who made the decisions, they got us into Iraq. Very simple.
The fact is they know that. The administration knows that. And they're simply trying to distort this. They're trying to play a game.
And, again, I'm not going to stand for it. This is the kind of thing that makes Americans sick. People know -- I mean, there ought to be some level of honor and trust in this process.
I have fought a lifetime on behalf of veterans. We have the finest young men and women serving us in the United States military that we've ever had, and I'm proud of that.
But this administration has let them down, and that was clearly a remark directed at this administration. They understand it. They want to distort it. It's a classic Republican playbook. They want to change the topic.
We're not going to let them change the topic. The topic is their failed policy in Iraq. The topic is that they don't have a strategy, they don't have a way to be able to win.
You got Dick Cheney saying everything's just terrific in Iraq only a week ago. John McCain ought to ask for an apology from Dick Cheney for misleading America. He ought to ask for an apology from the president for lying about the nuclear program in Africa. He ought to ask for an apology for once again a week ago referring to Al Qaida as being the central problem in Iraq, when Al Qaida is not the central problem.
Enough is enough. I'm not going to stand for these people trying to shift the topic and make it politics. America deserves a real discussion about real policy. And that's what this election is going to be about next Tuesday.
One more question, then I got to run.
QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)
KERRY: Let me tell you something: I'm not going to give them one ounce of daylight to spread one of their lies and to play this game ever, ever again. That is a lesson I learned deep and hard.
And I'll tell you: I will stand up anywhere across this country and take these guys on. This is dishonoring not just the troops themselves by pointing the finger at the troops, it's abusing the troops. They're using the troops. They're trying to make the troops into the target here. I didn't do that, and they know that.
KERRY: And for them to suggest that somebody who served their country, as I did, and has a record like I have in the United States Congress of standing up and fighting for the troops would ever, ever insult the troops is an insult in and of itself.
And they owe us an apology for even daring to use the White House to stand up and make this an issue again. Shame on them. Shame on them.
And may the American people take that shame to the polls with them next Tuesday.
Thank you all.
PHILLIPS: Senator John Kerry coming out swinging there in Seattle after remarks he made yesterday at the Pasadena community college. A lot of debate over these words specifically what he had to say. We'll play those for you in just a second. We want to get reaction from what John Kerry just had to say. Joining me from Washington, CNN contributor and Republican strategy Bay Buchanan, also Julian Epstein, Democratic strategist. First his response, Bay Buchanan, really ripping Republicans, saying this all goes back to President Bush and the administration. They didn't do their homework with regard to the war in Iraq. They have no strategy. They can't win. It's the Katrina foreign policy. BAY BUCHANAN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: You know, it's amazing. This man was very clear. He made a candid remark. He made a remark to the students. And it was very clear, you just need to run it. The American people can see what he did. And what he basically said was that they would be stupid if they caught themselves in a position where they were stuck in Iraq. That is what he said. Now he's blaming those remarks, saying no, no, no, I didn't say that. It's the vast right wing that put those words in my mouth. He says this is classic Bush. This is classic Democrat. Blame other people for my mistakes. The man either made a mistake, or this is a candid remark when reveals which are the most revealing, a sentiment that he has that it would be foolish for young Americans to find themselves in the service of this nation in Iraq.
PHILLIPS: Let's listen to the remarks again, and then Julian, I'll get you to respond.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: You know, education, if you make the most of it, and you study hard and you do your homework and make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Now, Julian, one of Kerry's aides came forward and said, oh, he misspoke. He actually, quote, unquote, mangled his prepared statement. But then you just heard from Kerry right there saying, oh, this is the Republicans just distorting what I said.
JULIAN EPSTEIN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I think he did botch the joke. I think what he intended to say was that if you don't do your homework, you make bad decisions like the one the president made in getting us stuck in Iraq. And, I think he should say that he made a mistake and did botch the joke. I think the larger point here is that this is a very bad fight for Republicans, because you have, on the one hand, with Senator Kerry, a war hero who has been no better friend to the veterans since he's been in the senate versus Republicans in the White House who did not serve, who did not give the troops in Iraq enough cover and who now have us in a situation, as Senator Kerry says, a stand-still and lose situation in Iraq. And even Republicans, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Senator Warner and others -- in fact, I think Bay doesn't even support this war. And I think what you have here is a very, very negative contrast for Republicans. So while this was a botched joke for them to start going after Kerry about who's been on the side of the troops and who hasn't been on the side of the troops particularly now when Republicans are talking about how to get out of Iraq, is a very, very bad fight for Republicans.
BUCHANAN: You know, John Kerry claims he's done all this homework, you know, that Bush hasn't done their homework. I'll tell you who hasn't done their homework -- who did not do his homework was John Kerry. When this vote came up to give the president authority to go to war, he didn't do his homework. He instead read the polls. It was popular in the country. The war was popular. Political expediency, he voted for this war. He did not do due diligence for the troops that are now over there. And now he says, okay, it was a big mistake. Well, that's unacceptable. There's people dying in Iraq because he did not do his homework then and now blames it on the president. I do support this war, now that we're in there, I most definitely do. And this man is unwilling to recognize his mistake yesterday. And now he's blaming everything on Republicans. It's just a Democratic strategy, throw it on the other side. This man made a major mistake yesterday, he should live up to it or just tell us that's indeed his candid feelings about people going to Iraq.
EPSTEIN: Everybody is trying to put blame on the other side. That is the nature of the adversarial process in politics. Democrats do it and Republicans do it. The bottom line of this debate however is that most of the American public feels that this war has been a mistake. Most of the American public feels that this war has not been managed well, meaning that the Republicans, the White House, in particular, did not give the troops the cover they needed before they went into the deadly situation that they're in Iraq. And so I do not think that there is any way, even with Senator Kerry having botched this remark, I think there is no way, given his record as a war hero, given what he's done for veterans for twenty years in the senate, that Republicans like Karl Rove and Dick Cheney and others who didn't serve, are going to be able to make an effective case that Senator Kerry is not somehow on the side of the troops. I think the Republicans have lost the argument on Iraq, and the more that this argument is out there in the public, the more they're going to continue to lose it. And the more that it will hurt them in elections.
PHILLIPS: Julian -- I want to hit a couple more political questions with you and take a quick break. We'll be right back. Stay with me.
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KERRY: Let me make it crystal clear, as crystal clear as I know how. I apologize to no one for my criticism of the president and of his broken policy. If anyone owes our troops in the fields an apology, it is the president and his failed team and a Republican majority in the Congress that has been willing to stamp, rubber stamp, policies that have done injury to our troops and to their families. My statement yesterday, and the White House knows this full well was a botched joke about the president and the president's people. Not about...
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PHILLIPS: Bay Buchanan, should John Kerry apologize?
BUCHANAN: Oh, he absolutely should. And if, indeed, you know, we all make mistakes, but he should say listen. It appears that the words I said could, indeed, be interpreted as insulting the troops. I made a mistake. I didn't mean to say it. I slipped and I apologize if anyone was offended. What's wrong? He's a big man. Here's an experienced spokesperson, he's been the daggone Democratic nominee. And so for him to make this kind of mistake is curious, to say the least. But I would accept that apology.
PHILLIPS: Julian?
EPSTEIN: No, I don't think he should apologize. I think he should do what he did which is to say that the joke was botched. But I think for Republicans, given who their man is at the top, President Bush, the number of mangled statements that he's made, I think this is a little bit of the pot calling the kettle black.
I think he should say what exactly what he said, which is that the joke was mangled. He meant to ascribe it to the president and the president not having done the proper study before putting the troops in Iraq.
PHILLIPS: So does the president need to apologize for what's happening in Iraq, Julian?
EPSTEIN: I think the president has said that he has made mistakes. I think more so than an apology, I think what people need to see from the president is an acknowledgment of all of the mistakes going back to 2003 from the faulty intelligence that was hoisted on the American people, the decisions that were made, the failure to give the troops the amount of support that they needed and the cover they need before Iraq.
I think he has a lot of explaining to do. And I think even more importantly, what he needs to do is stop trying to use the Iraq war and the war on terrorism as a political weapon.
PHILLIPS: Julian, I don't think the president has ever come forward and said I apologize for the war in Iraq.
EPSTEIN: I didn't say that.
BUCHANAN: He absolutely doesn't and he should not because it was not a mistake.
EPSTEIN: I didn't say that he did.
PHILLIPS: OK, well do you think he should?
EPSTEIN: No.
PHILLIPS: He shouldn't?
BUCHANAN: He should definitely not apologize.
EPSTEIN: I think what is more important is for the president to acknowledge all of the mistakes that have been made and to talk about how to correct the course. That's what's more important. He hasn't really done that sufficiently.
PHILLIPS: Bay, should he do that? Should he come forward and say, look, I apologize for not having the proper equipment like John Kerry says? Should he apologize for all the death, more deaths this month?
BUCHANAN: No. He shouldn't apologize. Obviously, his heart is broken by this. War is chaotic. Things happen that you don't anticipate. And he's responding to those things as he goes along. But the key here is what does America want? We want to win over there. We want to give the Iraqi people a decent chance at self- determination. And it doesn't look good right now, but he's doing his best. And that, Americans know, and if Democrats have some great idea how we can turn the situation around, let's have it. We're all Americans.
PHILLIPS: So Bay, do you believe the president did all his homework before he went into the war and that he knew the insurgency was going to be this strong and he knew these many men and women were going to die?
BUCHANAN: No. I think that he had advisers who suggested this. This was -- people talked about this nationally. There were national debates. And some people said this is going to happen. Others said no, this is going to happen. But no one knew the future. The key is the president went there for one reason. He thought we, as Americans, were threatened by Saddam Hussein. And that threat to him was serious enough that he needed to do take action. That's his job.
PHILLIPS: But shouldn't you have confidence in what the future's going to look like if you go to war in another country?
BUCHANAN: You never know exactly how it's going to work. There was two arguments, some very, very brilliant men on both sides, and women, were saying no don't do this. Others were saying yes, you need to do it, the country is threatened.
He made his call. Some of us, believe at the time that we shouldn't have gone to war. I didn't think we needed to go to war. He did. He was the president. His job is to make certain we're secure. He took the action. He's always taken responsibility for Iraq. He has stood up to the commitment that he has made to this country to keep us secure. And so he has no apology whatsoever.
PHILLIPS: Julian, has the president always taken responsibility for what's happened in Iraq?
EPSTEIN: No, I don't think he has sufficiently taken responsibility. I think he should take responsibility. And I think she should acknowledge all of the mistakes in getting us into the war and how this war was managed. All the president says is let's stay the course. That's like saying as you're driving off a cliff, let's keep staying the course. The president's policy as Kerry said is stand still and lose. And I think what at least Democrats are talking about is something different from that.
PHILLIPS: What is it?
EPSTEIN: A deescalation, a gradual withdrawal and probably some type of partition between the Sunnis, the Shiites and the Kurds, which is probably inevitably what's going to have to happen. Otherwise you will have a civil war that's just going to break out.
But the president clearly has not acknowledged any of the mistakes that were made. And even worse, doesn't seem to have a plan that he can articulate. Even when he says stay the course, if you look at his comments over the past month, they've consistently shifted. He said I didn't say stay the course, I did say stay the course. He's all over the map and nobody understands what the plan is at this point. And I think yes, he has a lot of responsibility to take for that.
PHILLIPS: Final thought there, Bay.
BUCHANAN: The plan is being orchestrated by the military. He's given them complete authority to make certain that what needs to be done is done. And as I said, it's chaotic. You can't predict the future. You do your best in the circumstances that are created every single day. And John Kerry made a mistake yesterday. He's the one that caused this debate. And for him to suggest that somehow the conservatives or Bush and them have made him look bad, he made himself look bad. Take responsibility, big guy.
PHILLIPS: Bay Buchanan, Julian Epstein, appreciate you both.
EPSTEIN: Thanks for having us.
BUCHANAN: Thank you.
LEMON: You know, we didn't talk is how this is going to affect the upcoming election next week. Because according to Kerry, the voters are tired of this back and forth between the Democrats and Republicans. Last week it was the water-boarding incident with the vice president, that people said was misconstrued. Now it's John Kerry's comments that people are saying are misconstrued. So I think people are wanting to come together instead of fighting so much about it, whether it was misconstrued or not.
We're definitely going to have much more on this issue coming up, plus how it's going to affect the upcoming election. That's happening on Tuesday. And then we're going to talk about campus controversy at elite Johns Hopkins.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It appears, unfortunately, quite apparent that you have, in fact, problems of blatant racism here on this campus. And it's not just this one incident.
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LEMON: Black students offended and a frat suspended. Details ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.
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