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CNN Live At Daybreak

America's New War: Anticipation in Capitol Over Stock Market Opening

Aired September 17, 2001 - 07:27   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go back to Washington, D.C., where John King rejoins us for -- with some more information -- hi, again, John.

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESP.: Hello to you, Paula.

As you discussed, the opening of the markets up on Wall Street, a great sense of anticipation and yes, anxiety here in the nation's capitol. President Bush and his senior economic team working closely with the major banks and major brokerage firms on Wall Street, trying to make sure there is not bad news, terribly bad news in the markets today. The administration also reaching out to other governments around the world, asking them to keep an eye and cooperate with the United States on the strength of the dollar. And in the Congress, bipartisan discussions about some sort of an emergency package to get the economy going again. Key members of Congress talking about additional government spending, also possibly another round of tax cuts.

But I want to bring Major Garrett into our conversation now over at the White House, because Major, as all these discussions go on and as the president prepares to meet with his economic team today to look at the numbers and the early word from Wall Street, a great deal of this is also psychology as well, is it not?

MAJOR GARRETT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A tremendous amount of it is psychology, John. The president has tried, and some of his advisers who fanned out on the Sunday talk shows on Sunday tried to create a very strong sense of underlying confidence not only in the country itself, but its short-term and long-term economic prospects.

Let me give you, before we get more deeply into that subject, a little bit of information about the president's schedule today. Not only will he have that economic briefing, of course, another national security briefing and more updates on the diplomatic front. We're also told he is expected to get a rather full briefing today on the reservists call-up. Some 35,000 reservists called up, the president due at some point today to receive a full briefing on exactly what that will entail.

I can also tell you, John, that over the weekend senior administration officials began to become increasingly concerned about violence committed against Muslim Americans. And there is a debate within the administration how about how best the president can strike a note against that. That's being debated now. We can probably look forward to something from the president some time this week on that topic, as well.

But getting back to our original topic, the topic of psychology, the president returned to the White House Sunday afternoon from the Camp David retreat, where he spent a better part of the weekend focusing on military options. White House advisers thought it was very important for the president to also strike an optimistic note on the eve of the reopening of the stock market and a return to some degree of routine in the United States. The president said very clearly the long-term future of the country, economically at least, is very, very bright.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: People have declared war on America and they have made a terrible mistake because this is a fabulous country. Our economy will come back. We'll still be the best farmers and ranchers in the world. We're still the most innovative entrepreneurs in the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GARRETT: A very close eye on Wall Street and, as you said, John, in continuing negotiations with Congress not only about tax cuts, not only about stimulus spending, but also there's a very strong push in Congress to protect the airline industry, which does appear to be in a certain degree of distress. The administration working on all of those fronts -- John.

KING: All right, Major Garrett at the White House, thank you very much.

Now back to Paula Zahn in New York.

ZAHN: Thanks so much, John.

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