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House Speaker to Address Foley Scandal; Candidates Coping with Foley Factor

Aired October 05, 2006 - 12:55   ET

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

RALITSA VASSILEVA, CNN ANCHOR: Straight to the White House, Tony Snow addressing pointed questions about Mark Foley and the fate of Dennis Hastert. Right now, live at the White House.
TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: You guys are conducting a trial. So that's really the way I was putting it. Go ahead.

QUESTION: That's what you meant to say?

SNOW: Yes.

QUESTION: Do you -- does the president agree the leader should be put under oath to say everything they knew?

SNOW: The president is not fly specking. I'll tell you, you can decide whether you think people need to be put under oath. And what I've said is you need to find out all the facts. So you figure out the appropriate way to do it, but we're just not going to into the procedural stuff like that. It's not appropriate .

QUESTION: The president is very aggressive in calling for thorough investigations. But when it comes to something that affected actual peoples' lives in a demonstrable way, he won't get into the details of how it should be pursued?

SNOW: Now wait a minute.

Number one, I don't believe that the president has ever gotten into saying, well, we need to get to the bottom of this and we need to have people testifying under oath. I don't believe he's ever gotten into that level of detail, walking through these things. What the president says, you got to find the truth. The Justice Department is conducting an investigation. Presumably they will do what they think is necessary to get the truth. The Ethics Committee is conducting an investigation. Presumably, they're going to do what they think is necessary...

QUESTION: On the president's behalf, would you call for all the leadership to say everything that they know, come clean?

SNOW: What we say is you got to get the facts out. And that's it. So you can figure out exactly how to respond.

(CROSSTALK)

I just said I believe, you know, we're public. QUESTION: Just assume for a second that president's message to his base is getting out, to Republican communication apparatus, talk radio, Internet. So the base is hearing very loudly what he is saying in terms of the war on terror. But the base is perhaps a little irritated by immigration, or spending, or perhaps Iraq. So maybe the Foley thing is putting the base over the edge and it doesn't matter what the president says, that these people are going to stay home during the midterms. Does the administration at all worry about this scenario?

SNOW: Oh, my goodness, Jim. This is -- No. I mean, the fact is that, as people get ready for an election, they're going to ask themselves what's important to them. Safety? Security? The economy? They're going to ask those questions.

QUESTION: Well maybe, they're going to say, you know what? It's not worth...

(CROSSTALK)

SNOW: Well, let's have this conversation after the election.

QUESTION: Is this a reasonable concern for any Republican that's worried about this?

SNOW: I'll tell you what. What you're saying is, is turnout important? Yes. Is passion important? Yes. And it's important for both parties.

QUESTION: What do you think about turnout?

SNOW: I don't know.

QUESTION: What do you think?

SNOW: I don't know. I don't know. I think that anybody who gets up here and tries to make grand predictions about what an event is going to mean in an election that is more than a month away is absolutely certain to be wrong, and is also going to be guilty of committing folly from the podium. I've done that in other ways, but I'm not going to pursue that particular course today.

QUESTION: Not to change the subject, but I want to pick up on two headlines.

SNOW: OK.

QUESTION: What did our envoy mean when it said that a nuclear armed North Korea is unacceptable?

And what did the president mean that Iraqi war is only a comma?

SNOW: OK. Thank you for both of those.

First, the position has always been that you can't have a nuclear Korean peninsula. That has been the reason for the six-party talks. And the president and our diplomats continue consulting because it's important that North Korea not develop and try to deploy nuclear weapons. That is enormously important.

As for the comma because I know...

QUESTION: Is this a threat, a lethal threat against...

SNOW: No. It's a statement of...

QUESTION: No?

SNOW: No, it's not a lethal threat...

QUESTION: Well, how do you phrase it, how do you say it's not a threat when it's unacceptable?

SNOW: Have you noticed that the president has in fact been leading diplomatic activity through the United Nations Security Council, trying to get the nations all around North Korea, the nations that have the greatest vested interest, to work together to put pressure on that government, not to collapse, but, in fact, to return to a table where they are many positive inducements. If they come back there's a possibility -- and they renounce weaponry and cease to pursue weaponry. Then what do they get?

First, they have the possibility of a formal end to the Korean War. They have a possibility of economic aid, of stronger diplomatic ties, of talking with the United States. All those things are possible if they simply do it.

I mean, what we're trying to do here -- this is -- this is a time when the international community, the United States and the league (ph) was offering carrots. It is -- it's no secret that we're opposed to -- I'm just telling you what the policy is, and it has been.

Now as for the comma...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

SNOW: Well, again, it's a statement of our policy, which is we don't think they should have nuclear weapons. And I think the Chinese agree, and the South Koreans agree, and the Russians agree. And the Japanese agree. So all the parties stood, with one possible exception, in the six-party talks, and that would be the North Koreans, agree. And we hope that they will agree, too.

As for the comma, this is -- Peter had a word or two about it to say today. The comma refers to the period of time between last year's election and today. We're talking about -- the president making the point is when you look at a history book, a 10-month period is a comma.

Now some people have tried to say, how dare the president refer to this as a comma. He's -- he's being glib about the deaths of Americans. That's outrageous. And the people who know -- who say that know it. What they're trying to do is, willingly or not, wrench a statement out of context and try to use that as an opportunity to accuse the president, who is deeply aware of the human cost of war, of being callous about those costs. It's just not true.

And I've talked to him about this a number of times. It is simple -- what he means is that, in the grand scheme of history, 10 months is not an epic.

Now, there is -- if there is a chasm in here, it has to do with what the president's said and the way it's been twisted by people who know what the context was...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

SNOW: I know, but notice, that comma reference was simply referring to the time since -- what he really is referring to is the short lifetime so far of the government. Everybody trying to say, aha, and trying to draw conclusions: isn't it working, is it working, do you have confidence in the prime minister, do you not? It's 10 months old. It's a government that is still in its infancy and trying to deal with a host of complex and very important issues.

So when you think of the broad sweep of history, as we look back -- you and I may -- well, you may centuries from now, but I don't think I'm going to last as long as you will, Helen.

But the fact is that if you look back...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

SNOW: Yes, probably. But if you look back at the broad sweep of history, that will be seen as a comma. That small beginning of a new government. That's what he's referring to. He's not talking about the war as a comma.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) period of significance only because in fact the violence has been so terrible? The reason we're talking about that...

SNOW: No, it's significant. No, it's significant, Peter, because it is the dawning of a new government. And if you take a look at the violence -- violence is a factor. We've been saying for sometime and we expected it to spike up, but also you have a number of things that are going on that are very important.

You probably saw yesterday, they demobilized a police unit in Iraq because of suspicion that they've been working with militias and committing acts of terror. That was one of the things that we have talked about, the importance of getting control of the police. Having assertiveness on the part of the national government to make sure that you had all the institutions working towards the benefit of the people.

So there are a number of things that have been going on that you would expect at the beginning of a government. It's being tested. And furthermore, as the 9010 document, that is the Pentagon's quarterly paper, noted back in May -- this is the one that Bob Woodward cites -- that the bulk of the violence right now -- you have some sectarian violence and you also have...

KYRA PHILLIPS, CO-HOST: As we continue to monitor the White House briefing, Tony Snow talking with reporters, you'll see on the other side of the screen, we are waiting for House Speaker Dennis Hastert to step up to the mic. We are being told something pretty dramatic to come out of that conversation, once he addresses reporters. We'll take it live as soon as it happens.

Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.

DON LEMON, CO-HOST: And I'm Don Lemon. Thanks for joining us today in the NEWSROOM.

Foley fallout. The investigation and the finger-pointing.

PHILLIPS: Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, expected to speak out again any minute. We will bring it to you live. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

LEMON: Six days after Mark Foley's life and career imploded, the heat has shifted to the House speaker, Dennis Hastert. There's growing pressure for him to quit too, after new assertions by a former Foley aide.

PHILLIPS: Hastert is due to hold a news conference minutes from now. You're going to see it live here from the CNN NEWSROOM.

And while we're waiting, CNN congressional correspondent Dana Bash joins us now from Capitol Hill. We're hearing possibly something dramatic will come out of this discussion.

Dana, are you getting any word to what it would be?

BASH: Well, I can tell you we are told what it is not and that is what we just mentioned, the calls for the speaker to step down, or at least to not run -- promise he won't run in the next -- in the next term. That is something we are told from a senior congressional source that is not going to happen.

However, what we are seeing, the picture you are seeing right now, is this is an effort by the House speaker and his top aides to take control of this story, to try to turn this story line around.

So what we understand is that there will be some kind of big announcement, some kind of way for the speaker to make clear that he is taking responsibility, that he takes this seriously. As he said on a radio program this morning, the buck stops with him.

That is something that -- that many people in and around him, certainly Republicans around Washington and very much around the country simply do not think that he and his top aides have done a good job of, of explaining exactly what happened, who knew what when.

As a matter of fact, the feeling up until now is that the more they have spoken about it the more it has confused the issue. And sort of the harder it has been in terms of getting over this political problem.

So what we expect to hear from the House speaker at some point in the near future is to -- is to make some kind of announcement that he hopes will turn his political future around.

We understand that some of the speaker's aides, press aides, had conversations with other Republican press aides, making the case that they are going to try to get on the offense, they're going to try to turn this around, and this announcement today is how they're going to attempt to do that.

Now, we understand from a Republican source that this might include some kind of steps towards reform, some kind of steps towards better investigating the situation, but we know the House Ethics Committee has already -- has already met today to do just that. In fact, we expect to hear from them in about half an hour to look at how they're going to proceed.

So this -- what we're going to see shortly is going to be the House speaker making a statement. But certainly, very much a political statement, trying to get better control of the story, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Dana, you mentioned, of course, the ethics committee conducting an investigation, also the Department of Justice. Could it possibly be an independent investigation? In times like this, a lot of times, top leaders will call for an independent source, individual, to investigate, as well.

BASH: That is a very good question. And that is definitely one of the possibilities that we are hearing, a very strong possibility that we are hearing. But we have not been able to confirm that. But it would not be surprising if that is the kind of thing that the speaker announces.

Now, you know, some of the things that he's been encouraged to do is to fire some of his staff. Some of the questions have been just what did his staff know and why is it that his office admits that some of his staff was told about the e-mail exchange that Mark Foley had with a former page in 2005 and didn't conduct a proper investigation.

And of course, in the last 24 hours, we have a whole new set of allegations that the speaker's chief of staff actually was told about it more than two years ago and didn't do anything about it so...

PHILLIPS: Dana.

BASH: Yes.

PHILLIPS: It seems that Dennis Hastert is the one that is taking all the heat. Everybody's pointing the finger at him, saying this is the guy that should resign, this is the one that should take responsibility.

Yet you bring up an interesting point: other people are starting to be, I guess, held accountable, or take the fall for this, whether it be Fordham or -- still haven't heard what could happen to John Shimkus, the head of the page program.

BASH: You're right, and you make a good point, too, and that's sort of the point I was trying to make here, is that initially there had been some advice, we know, or some people around Speaker Hastert, for example, somebody who was close to him, Congressman Ray LaHood told me that he thinks he should just fire his staff.

Now, other Republicans we talk to say, you know what? That would be a bad idea, because it would look like there was a scapegoat there. So it's unclear what the speaker is going to do.

But the one thing that they are going to try to do with this announcement is make it clear that he is trying to take responsibility, that he is going to try to change the direction of this. And he understands the gravity of what happened, not only with Mark Foley, but the political gravity of what has happened with this scandal and how it has really swept and overshadowed everything else that is going on, one month before election day.

Because I can tell you, we're hearing about it from the campaign trail, from very upset Republicans around the country. I know that he's hearing it, as well.

LEMON: And Dana, let's talk about the symbolism of all this. While we're talking to you, we're looking at live pictures there, being held in his hometown of Batavia, Illinois.

It's important for him to get in front of this, because as you said, top Republicans, some top Republicans were calling for his resignation, or at least were questioning him in this matter. And then the Democrats, as well. So it's important that he gets ahead of this, and it's important that he's speaking from Batavia, Illinois, which he has support from.

BASH: You're right, and you know, the other thing that we've been hearing from the speaker in the past couple of days that he really stepped up earlier today, especially during a couple of conservative radio talk shows and even in an interview last night with "The Chicago Tribune", is trying to throw some red meat, frankly, to the Republican base who are very upset.

They're not so upset with the way that they've handled this politically but the core of this. They're upset that they simply don't think the speaker and other top Republican leaders handled this issue well, that they put politics in front of morality, that they knew that there was a potential big problem in their midst and that they hid it. That's exactly what many conservatives are say, and that's why some of them have called point blank for the speaker to step down.

So what you've heard today from the speaker in terms of damage control is to try to say to these conservatives, "Wait a minute, you don't want me to step down because just think of what would happen if I did step down. A, you would be giving the Democrats a big win politically. But they could very well take control of Congress if the story line is a Republican speaker resigns in the wake of a sex scandal. And just think of what would happen then. Democrats would come in; they would raise your taxes; they would grow the government."

That is the kind of line that Republicans were already planning to use right about now, as they get close to the election, but they're doing it in a big way, to try to fight back on this issue, really trying to stir up the base to aim their fire, not at Speaker Hastert, not at their own leaders, but at the Democrats.

So we'll see if that is going to -- if that is going to sort of fly with the base, because many Republicans, many conservatives, you know, simply are just not happy at all.

LEMON: All right, Dana Bash, and stand by. We're getting official word here that Speaker Hastert has been delayed until 1:45. But stand by. We're going to let you go. But there you are, looking at live pictures from Batavia, Illinois, the speaker of the House expected to speak today at 1:45.

PHILLIPS: Well, who knew what and when did they know it? The timeline in the Mark Foley scandal and why it's so important. Straight ahead from the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Continue to wait for Speaker Dennis Hastert to hold his live news conference with regard to what he is going to do to be proactive with regard to investigating the Foley fallout. We're not quite sure what he's going to say. There's been talk about an independent investigation. There's been talks, of course, about his position, what he's going to do with his career.

Dana Bash monitoring this, as well. We'll have live coverage and lots of analysis once he speaks. And we'll take that live, of course, and talk about it right afterwards.

LEMON: Yes, we're going to carry that possibly in about 30 minutes, but you never know. So stay tuned. We'll keep monitoring these live pictures, and also monitoring Batavia, Illinois, to see what happens there.

Let's move on. We'll continue to speak about the speaker, dissing the speaker, as a matter of fact, that's dis, as in "disinvite." A Republican House member from Kentucky asking him Dennis Hastert not to come to his fund-raiser after all.

The Foley matter could be a factor in dozens of congressional races. Among them, the race to represent the 15th District of Ohio. And that's where we find CNN's Jonathan Freed.

How you doing, Jonathan?

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, both sides in a tight race here in the Ohio 15th are dealing, both of them, with what is being called that Foley factor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARY JO KILROY (D), OHIO CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: Hello, how are you?

FREED (voice-over): It's 10 a.m., and Mary Jo Kilroy is working the crowd at a breakfast gathering in Columbus, Ohio.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Got to get you elected?

KILROY: That's right, we are.

FREED: Kilroy is a first-time Democratic candidate for Congress, trying to unseat Deborah Pryce, a member of the House Republican leadership, in a tight race here in Ohio's 15th Congressional District.

KILROY: I'm going to go to Washington and fight for that.

FREED: There's a political elephant in the room: the Mark Foley scandal rocking the GOP, about suggestive electronic messages the former representative allegedly sent to underage House pages.

Democrats across the country are hoping the scandal will energize their campaign to take back Congress, and in this Columbus living room, it's definitely on voter's minds.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What went on in Washington with this -- with Congressman Foley?

FREED (on camera): Do you think that the Foley factor is the extra piece of momentum that you need to pull this off (ph)?

KILROY: I do. It's sort of like that's the final straw. It's going to topple the whole thing and bring change to Washington.

FREED (voice-over): Midday, downtown Columbus.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... has endorsed you for re-election in the United States...

FREED: Congresswoman Deborah Pryce picks up the backing of a veterans group. But when it's time for reporters' questions...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When did you first learn of these e-mails between himself and the page?

REP. DEBORAH PRYCE (R), OHIO: I learned of them the Friday afternoon.

FREED: ... any Republican in a close race is going to be concerned about potential Foley fallout.

PRYCE: This is a despicable, horrible act by a sick member of Congress.

FREED: But, as the Republican conference chairwoman, part of the inner circle on Capitol Hill, Pryce also must deal with allegations the GOP leadership engaged in a Foley cover-up, something she denies.

(on camera) Are you angry that you have to deal with this now, so close to election day?

PRYCE: Yes. I'm so angry with him. I'm so angry with the fact that this is a distraction from the campaign that the Americans want to hear about, our issues. They want to hear about the war on terrorism. They want to hear about the economy.

FREED (voice-over): Seasoned Ohio political watchers like Joe Hallett believe the Foley scandal will stick through election day.

JOE HALLETT, POLITICAL WRITER: It's, you know, a form of water torture after a while. It just begins to peck away, and I think it does dent even normally solid and safe Republicans like Deborah Pryce.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREED: Now, the Democrats here are telling us that the Foley factor, they're expecting that it's going to help reconnect with not just independents here in the 15th, but also with wavering Republicans, as well -- Don.

LEMON: All right, Jonathan, and just live television. Just before we came to you, we heard some squeals of car tires and then a bump. Everybody OK with that?

FREED: Yes, I'm glad you're asking. We can see them from here. There was an accident. One car hit another, and everybody seems to be OK.

LEMON: Yes, we all heard that, so we just wanted to -- I'm sure our viewers heard it as well. Glad everybody's OK. Thank you very much, Jonathan Freed.

PHILLIPS: Well, the ethics committee meets on the Mark Foley scandal. Can House Speaker Hastert save his job? We're going to hear from the committee live this hour.

LEMON: And we're waiting for the man himself, House Speaker Dennis Hastert. We also expect him to hold a news conference this hour. Live coverage right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: And we're waiting for two live news conferences right now. First the House of Representatives Ethics Committee, behind closed doors right now, in a session, discussing whether the congressional leadership was aware of former Representative Mark Foley's contacts with teenage pages and whether the leaders acted appropriately to stem that behavior. They are behind closed doors. We are waiting for a live news conference once they return from that meeting.

On top of your screen, also, we're waiting for House Speaker Dennis Hastert to hold his news conference. Not sure quite what's going to happen there. That's been talk that he might announce an independent investigation into what happened with Mark Foley and if there were any individuals that had come forward, warning about his behavior: was something done, not done, was it swept under the rug? That is a possibility that an independent investigation may be launched.

And it may have something to do with his future. As you know there have been calls for his resignation. We are waiting to see what he has to say.

We'll bring you the outcome of both of those events live. Of course, that closed door session and also Dennis Hastert as soon as he steps up to the mic. We'll take them both as soon as they happen.

LEMON: Speaking of investigations, the HP drama is now a criminal case. So which players are in the spotlight today?

PHILLIPS: Cheryl Casone live at the New York Stock Exchange with some answers, we believe. Hey, Cheryl.

CHERYL CASONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I hope so. Hello, Kyra and Don, to both of you.

Well, California's attorney general late yesterday filing criminal charges against former HP chairwoman Patricia Dunn, as well as the former chief ethics officer and three outside investigators. This, in connection with the company's investigation into boardroom leaks.

The indictment accuses Dunn and the others of violating California's privacy laws while trying to get to the bottom of HP boardroom leaks. Each of the five players face four felony counts, each of which carries a penalty of up to three years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

California's attorney general says Patricia Dunn is expected to surrender to authorities later this afternoon.

And guys, I'm just getting in that CNN has confirmed she's going to be surrendering to authorities at the Santa Clara County Superior Courthouse later on this afternoon. So we will certainly keep ahead of that, Kyra and Don.

LEMON: Yes, we'll keep viewers updated about that. Let's talk about this case again. This case obviously will have broader implication, right?

CASONE: Definitely likely to affect more than just Hewlett- Packard here. The drama has shifted privacy investigations into the spotlight on a national level for everyone. And that could set precedence for corporate boardrooms and private investigators around the country.

You know, many thinks it's one of the most embarrassing corporate scandals in years, guys, and it certainly has played out as a soap opera, as we've all watched, Kyra and Don.

PHILLIPS: Well, in other corporate news, word of a huge work stoppage just coming in, right? CASONE: Yes, we're getting that in, as well. Actually, this is involving Goodyear.

Workers at Goodyear Tire and Rubber have gone on strike. The work stoppage involves more than 15,000 workers in the U.S. and Canada and 16 plants. The workers' contract expired back in July. And earlier this week, the union had set a strike deadline for today to reach a new pact.

(STOCK REPORT)

LEMON: All right, Cheryl, thank you very much for that. See you a little bit later.

PHILLIPS: The ethics committee meets on the Mark Foley scandal. Can House Speaker Hastert save his job? We're going to hear from him live this hour. We're also going to hear from the ethics committee. Live coverage from the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: And from Washington to Illinois, we have you covered. You're looking at, the bottom of your screen there, the Bipartisan House Ethics Committee, meeting behind closed doors to begin investigating Mark Foley, that scandal. They're expected to grill house leaders about what they knew and when in this.

The top of your screen, you're looking at live pictures from Betavia (ph), Illinois. House Speaker Dennis Hastert expected to speak in just a few minutes regarding the Mark Foley scandal and what he know and when as well.

PHILLIPS: Sex, politics, and finally today, ethics. A House panel meets behind closed doors. It will begin investigating the scandal that's consumed Washington for almost a week, former Congressman Mark Foley's lurid Internet contacts with teenage pages. Ranking members of the ethics committee scheduled to hold a news conference shortly.

Meanwhile, feds are collecting information, information that could lead to a formal criminal investigation.

CNN Justice Department correspondent Kelli Arena brings us up to date.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Behind this door in what used to be Mark Foley's office sits his computer, disks and other materials that could be considered evidence. A senior justice official says the Justice Department requested it all be kept under lock and key and not touched, pending a full criminal investigation.

When the time comes to remove it all, agents want to do that themselves, and don't expect any challenge from Congress. In the meantime, investigators are questioning former congressional pages about their relations with the former congressman.

DAVID SCHERTLER, FMR. FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: To the extent that the FBI gets information from pages, leading them to conclude that there was e-mail correspondence between a particular page and Congressman Foley, it could provide the FBI the necessary probable cause basis for obtaining search warrants.

ARENA: Officials who have been briefed say investigators have enough information to warrant a full sex crimes investigation. But the attorney general is refusing to comment at this stage.

ALBERTO GONZALES, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Obviously we consider these allegations very seriously. It's early in the process, and so please give us an opportunity to do our jobs, to ensure that our children remain safe.

ARENA: The investigation has been moving very quickly over the past 48 hours. The woman who first brought the original e-mails to the FBI's attention back in July says she doesn't know why it took so long.

MELANIE SLOAN, CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBILITY & ETHICS: It took literally less than 24 hours after the first set of e-mails were revealed for all the rest of the instant messages to come out. So if the FBI had just done even just a modicum of digging, they would have found out much more about Mark Foley.

ARENA: She alleges the FBI dragged their feet and her watchdog group sent a letter to the Justice Department's inspector general, asking him to investigate.

(on camera): The FBI is refusing comment, but government officials insist that the FBI did investigate. In fact, they say, three squads looked at the e-mails: a public corruptions squad, a criminal squad and finally, a cyber-squad.

We're told agents determined that there wasn't enough evidence at the time to suggest any criminal activity.

Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: And whatever the scandal, whatever the issues and circumstances, two questions always rise to the top -- who knew what? And when did he or she know it?

CNN congressional correspondent Andrea Koppel traces a timeline, as far as we know it, of the Foley case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): November 2005, a 16-year-old page from Louisiana contacts staff members in the office of Louisiana Republican Rodney Alexander and tells them about questionable e-mails he's received from Congressman Mark Foley.

Alexander's staff then contacts aides in House Speaker Dennis Hastert's office, who refer the matter to the house clerk. It's at this time Republican Congressman John Shimkus, the chairman of the page board, also gets involved. Together, Shimkus and the House clerk meet with Foley and warn him to immediately cease any communication with the young man. No other action is taken. And Hastert's office says his aides never told the speaker or anyone else in their office about the e-mails.

Fast forward to the spring of this year. That's when Congressman Alexander says he told New York Congressman Tom Reynolds about the Foley e-mails.

REP. THOMAS REYNOLDS (R), NEW YORK: I reported the incident. Sometimes I think, you know, as we look at -- what's a good citizen do? I mean, we have been taught that if you see a circumstance that isn't right, take it to your supervisor.

KOPPEL: Reynolds heads up the House Congressional Election Committee, and says he passed this information on to House Speaker Dennis Hastert. But Hastert told CNN this week he doesn't remember the conversation.

REP. DENNIS HASTERT (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: You know, I don't recall Reynolds talking to me about that. If he did, he brought it in with a whole stack of things. And I think if he would have had that discussion, he would have said it was also resolved, because my understanding now that it was resolved at that point. The family had gotten what it wanted to get.

KOPPEL: It isn't until last Friday that Foley abruptly resigns over news reports he'd exchanged sexually explicit instant messages with other teenage pages, dating back to 2003. The very next day, House Republican leaders issue a joint statement, calling Foley's communications with the pages "an obscene breach of trust," and recommending the House page board conduct a full review.

On Sunday, Democratic leaders in both the House and Senate are suggesting a GOP election year coverup. Later that same day, Speaker Hastert's office releases letters he's written to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Florida's governor, Jeb Bush, asking them to conduct an investigation to determine if Foley's actions violated federal or state law.

On Monday, Hastert and Congressman Shimkus tell reporters no one in the Republican leadership had seen the more sexually explicit instant messages until last week.

HASTERT: Congressman Foley duped a lot of people.

KOPPEL: By Tuesday morning, an editorial in a conservative newspaper calls for Hastert to resign his speakership at once.

(on camera): Then Wednesday, Congressman Reynolds' chief of staff suddenly resigns, accusing Democrats of making him a political issue in his boss' race. Kirk Fordham had earlier been chief of staff to now disgraced former Congressman Mark Foley, and in a parting shot at House Republican leaders, alleges that he tried to warn top House leaders about Foley before 2005.

Andrea Koppel, CNN, Capitol Hill.

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LEMON: Andrea Koppel and Kelli Arena, both part of the best political team on television. See more of their reports in "THE SITUATION ROOM" this afternoon at 4:00 p.m. Eastern and in primetime at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

Plus, make sure you get your daily dose of political news at CNN's new political ticker. Just go to CNN.com/ticker.

PHILLIPS: Well, the Ethics Committee is meeting behind closed doors right now. Can House Speaker Hastert save his job? We're going to hear live from the committee this hour.

LEMON: And live pictures.

Also waiting to hear from House Speaker Dennis Hastert. He's expected to hear a news conference sometime this hour. Live coverage of both of these vents right here on CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Two live events we continue to monitor right now. Actually waiting for House Speaker Dennis Hastert to step up to the mic. Also, House Ethics Committee members meeting behind closed doors right now, discussing whether the congressional leadership was aware of Mark Foley's contacts with teenage pages and whether the leaders acted appropriately to stem that behavior. Meeting behind closed doors, waiting for them to wrap, come to the mics. Also, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, what he's going to do to pursue this further as well.

Well, lots of people are shocked and dismayed by the Foley case. That was President Bush's phrase. Others are just simply dismayed.

LEMON: Some former pages who didn't speak out before the scandal broke are speaking out now, saying they too, were on the receiving end of some inappropriate attention. CNN's Brian Todd has their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tyson Vivyan says when he was a page in 1996 and 1997 Congressman Mark Foley didn't speak to him. But Vivyan says shortly after he left Capitol Hill, the congressman initiated contact with instant messages. Vivyan says he was 17 at the time, a minor.

TYSON VIVYAN, FORMER CONGRESSIONAL PAGE: The conversation turned sexual almost immediately.

TODD: It went on for years, according to Vivyan, e-mails, brief phone conversations, instant messages.

VIVYAN: We're probably talking upwards of 40-to-50 instant message conversations that took place over that entire period. Some of them sexual nature -- the majority of them sexual nature, some of them not.

TODD: Vivyan tells CNN on one occasion after his tenure as a page, when he was about 19, he returned to Washington and was invited to Foley's house. He says he brought another former page with him to make sure things didn't get out of hand.

VIVYAN: He and I went together to Congressman Foley's brownstone on Capitol Hill, a few blocks away from the Capitol. He ordered pizza for us. He offered us beer. We were minors at the time. We both declined.

TODD: The other former page who went with Vivyan that night, Josh Abrons tells CNN he doesn't recall alcohol being present. Vivyan and Abrons both say nothing inappropriate happened. But Abrons also says Foley had exchanged instant messages with him after he left the page program, but while he was still a minor. Abrons said he initiated contact with Foley, but only to talk about politics. He says Foley did talk politics and...

JOSH ABRONS, FORMER CONGRESSIONAL PAGE: He did make explicit references. He talked about anatomy, his own and other people's. He did enjoy talking about sex frequently and he did ask if I was attracted to him physically or if I would ever be interested in him in the future.

TODD: Neither Abrons nor Vivyan could provide copies of their alleged communications with Foley from that time. Vivyan showed us correspondence he said he said he had with Foley when Vivyan was in his mid 20's. Abrons and Vivyan say they made it clear they weren't interested in physical relationships with Foley, but why didn't they report this contact to authorities?

ABRONS: For a 17-year-old to receive instant messages from a member of Congress is quite something. And you don't want to burn that bridge with a member of Congress.

TODD (on camera): We tried to reach Mark Foley's attorney, David Roth for reaction to Vivyan's and Abrons' accounts. He did not return our calls. Tyson Vivyan tells us he is a liberal Democrat. John Abrons says he's been both Republican and Democrat and now considers himself Independent. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

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LEMON: Brian Todd is also part of the best political team on television. You can see his reports in "THE SITUATION ROOM" this afternoon at 4:00 Eastern and in prime time at 7:00 Eastern.

PHILLIPS: Well the Foley scandal, some Republicans are accusing some Democrats of an October surprise.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This seems to be a fairly well-orchestrated war-room tactic, to go after a congressman like this just short of an election. And if Democrats were holding back information of this sort, they could also be held liable under criminal law for endangering the welfare of minors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Claims and counterclaims on the campaign trial.

LEMON: And following here live all afternoon in the NEWSROOM, as we mentioned, the ethics committee is meeting behind closed doors right now. Can House Speaker Dennis Hastert save his job? We'll hear from the committee live this hour. And we're also waiting to hear from the House speaker. Live coverage of both events right here in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Well six days after Mark Foley's life and career imploded, the heat has shifted to House Speaker Dennis Hastert. There's growing pressure for him to quit, too, after new assertions by a former Foley aide. Now Hastert is due to hold a news conference minutes from now. Looking at it live now, right from Batavia, Illinois, that's his hometown there. We'll bring it to you as soon as that happens.

But while we're waiting, why don't we go to CNN's congressional correspondent, Dana Bash. She joins us from Capitol Hill with an update. Dana, what do you know now?

DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, as we've been reporting for the past couple of hours, we understand the speaker does intend to make what they hope will be seen as a major announcement, trying to -- as the speaker's aides have been saying, go on the offense, trying to take back control of the story, which they very much understand had spiraled out of their control, especially in the past 24 hours, when the story line had been that there were new allegations from a top Republican aide saying that the speaker's office knew about it well before they have admitted up until now.

So what we're seeing outside of Chicago, in the speaker's district, is an attempt to try to change that. Now, as we've been reporting, what the speaker is going to do is try to take responsibility for what happened. Aides close to him, associates, have told us that they simply don't think that he has made that clear. And that has been part, just part, of the political problem here.

So we understand that he is going to do that. And according to a Republican leadership aide, that he is not only going to do that, but he is also going to make some announcements about some reforms and he will also, as we reported earlier, make clear that he will not resign because in the words of this aide, "that would be giving into the Democratic Party's best wish." Now, that is something that the speaker has already made clear in a series of radio interviews today, in an interview with his hometown newspaper, the "Chicago Tribune."

So what you're going to see is part aggression, if you will, trying to make it clear they will still try to throw some red meat to their base and say this is the Democrats who are doing this, don't let them get away with it. But also try to be perhaps a little bit humble and contrite, if you will, about the fact that this -- it did happen on his watch. And that is something that even his top deputies have made very clear in public statements, that it was his responsibility, that it's the speaker -- the speaker runs the House. And the pages, essentially at the end of the day, report to him and everybody essentially does, that he's responsible.

And that is the statement that he is going to try to make clear, unequivocally, at least communicate that in a way, we are told, that he hasn't done yet. That, we hope, may try to change this. We'll see exactly what he says, especially about those reforms that he's going to talk about.

As you mentioned, we are also waiting for the ethics committee to talk about how they're going to proceed. They were charged, according to a resolution that passed last week, with looking into this. We understand that they are going to possibly announce the steps they'll take, the investigation. We'll see how the speaker's reforms that he will announce will weave into what the ethics committee will already be doing.

LEMON: And Dana, speaking of reforms, John Shimkus, who is the head of the page program, talked about some reforms with that program the other day, allowing for a system for pages to yell out, if you will, if they had some trouble. Talk to me about that. Nothing else from him besides what he said -- what he spoke about earlier in the week.

BASH: From John Shimkus?

LEMON: Yes.

BASH: He certainly has been somebody who has said the board needs reforms. He's also somebody who is under intense fire, who hasn't gotten a lot of attention, because obviously the big story is the speaker. But he is, for our viewers who haven't been following the nitty-gritty in this very complicated story -- John Shimkus is also a Republican from Illinois who is the head of the page board, who admitted that he actually went to Mark Foley at the end of 2005, after the speaker's office got word that a former page complained about an e-mail that he got. And he did it with just one other Republican on the page board. They didn't inform the Democrats at all.

So he is under fire from that. As a matter of fact, not just from Democrats on the page board, but from another Republican, who says that she wasn't clued into it also. So he's calling for reforms, perhaps, but in terms of -- if it's not on the books as a standard operating procedure, some are saying that he didn't follow the rules that perhaps already exist, if not by rule, than by tradition at least.

LEMON: All right, Dana Bash, standing by. And we are standing by, as well, to hear from the house speaker and also hear from the House Ethics Committee. Thank you, Dana.

BASH: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Well, you sure can't schedule a scandal, or can you? With the Foley scandal breaking when it did, suspicions, insinuations, allegations, are flying like autumn leaves and it's every candidate for himself or herself.

Here's CNN's Joe Johns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Scarcely 72 hours after the resignation of Mark Foley, Democrats were already working the story into their campaign ads -- no surprise.

But what's more striking on the campaign trail is that some Republicans running for Congress were also using questions about Mark Foley to separate themselves from the House Republican leadership.

In Maryland's Senate race, the Republican taking an uncompromising stance, saying -- quote -- "We need to investigate every member who touched this matter. And, if they're found conduct unbecoming, then, they, too, should resign, before they're removed."

In a House debate in Iowa, the same warning from the Republican...

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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