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Minnesotans to Hold Public Service for Wellstone
Aired October 29, 2002 - 14:34 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.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Folks in Minnesota are preparing to say goodbye to Senator Paul Wellstone four days after he and seven others were killed in a plane crash -- 20,000 expected at a public memorial service tonight. There will be one very conspicuous absence.
CNN congressional correspondent Jonathan Karl joins live from Bloomington.
And what is the absence there?
JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The absence you referred to is Vice President Cheney. The White House had offered to send the vice president to attend the service today, but the family, Senator Wellstone's surviving family, said they would rather not have that be the case. A couple of things went into that decision. One is when you bring the vice president you also bring incredibly high security, you bring Secret Service; it would have changed the nature of this event. This event is really the family trying to make it into a populist event for the people of Minnesota, not a very formal gathering featuring big dignitaries.
But there are also some hard feelings here among Senator Wellstone's family and those close to him in Minnesota. They believe the Republican Party has jumped into politics too quickly, that today is a day for remembering Paul Wellstone, not a day for politics.
But there will be a lot of people here, a lot of Republicans. As a matter of fact, Marty, what we're looking at is more than half of the United States Senate will be in this arena behind me at this service. About 50 or so of them will flying out, are flying out, from Washington on chartered planes from Andrews Air Force Base, others coming here on their own. And they will be here including Senator Trent Lott, the Republican leader of the Senate, and representing the administration, representing the White House, will be Tommy Thompson, the secretary of Health and Human Services, the former governor of neighboring Wisconsin.
To get underway, there will be eulogies here not just for Senator Wellstone but also for the others that died on the plane, including his daughter and his wife and the three staffers who all died in that plane crash on Friday.
This set to get understood way in just a little while. And it will be something that is going to feature music, a very populist field. There will also be a film about Wellstone's life that has been kind of hastily put together here for this event -- Marty. SAVIDGE: You mentioned the significant players politically that will be on hand, but what about the people he represented, his constituents? How easy is it for them to come and mourn the man that represented them?
KARL: Well, they're trying to make it just as easy as they possibly can. This is an open-door, first-come-first-served. As a matter of fact, what Wellstone's people, very much in his spirit, what they have done is there is no reserved seating, with the exception of the Senate delegation, which will be all in one place. No VIPs of dignitaries are going to have reserved seating, they say. It's just first come, first served. They want the people of Minnesota to come out in a very grassroots way to attend this service.
As a matter of fact, they are already starting to line up, even though they won't be let in for some time. But they want to have a real grass roots feel to this. So Wellstone was not one that was big on dignitaries. As a matter of fact, on the flight over here, I overheard some of Wellstone's staffers talking; one of them was talking about how when he flew commercially, he often refused to accept upgrades -- if he was able to get an upgrade into first class, he didn't want it; he wanted to be back in coach with the rest of the people.
SAVIDGE: Man of the people.
Jonathan Karl, thank you very much for that live report.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 29, 2002 - 14:34 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Folks in Minnesota are preparing to say goodbye to Senator Paul Wellstone four days after he and seven others were killed in a plane crash -- 20,000 expected at a public memorial service tonight. There will be one very conspicuous absence.
CNN congressional correspondent Jonathan Karl joins live from Bloomington.
And what is the absence there?
JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The absence you referred to is Vice President Cheney. The White House had offered to send the vice president to attend the service today, but the family, Senator Wellstone's surviving family, said they would rather not have that be the case. A couple of things went into that decision. One is when you bring the vice president you also bring incredibly high security, you bring Secret Service; it would have changed the nature of this event. This event is really the family trying to make it into a populist event for the people of Minnesota, not a very formal gathering featuring big dignitaries.
But there are also some hard feelings here among Senator Wellstone's family and those close to him in Minnesota. They believe the Republican Party has jumped into politics too quickly, that today is a day for remembering Paul Wellstone, not a day for politics.
But there will be a lot of people here, a lot of Republicans. As a matter of fact, Marty, what we're looking at is more than half of the United States Senate will be in this arena behind me at this service. About 50 or so of them will flying out, are flying out, from Washington on chartered planes from Andrews Air Force Base, others coming here on their own. And they will be here including Senator Trent Lott, the Republican leader of the Senate, and representing the administration, representing the White House, will be Tommy Thompson, the secretary of Health and Human Services, the former governor of neighboring Wisconsin.
To get underway, there will be eulogies here not just for Senator Wellstone but also for the others that died on the plane, including his daughter and his wife and the three staffers who all died in that plane crash on Friday.
This set to get understood way in just a little while. And it will be something that is going to feature music, a very populist field. There will also be a film about Wellstone's life that has been kind of hastily put together here for this event -- Marty. SAVIDGE: You mentioned the significant players politically that will be on hand, but what about the people he represented, his constituents? How easy is it for them to come and mourn the man that represented them?
KARL: Well, they're trying to make it just as easy as they possibly can. This is an open-door, first-come-first-served. As a matter of fact, what Wellstone's people, very much in his spirit, what they have done is there is no reserved seating, with the exception of the Senate delegation, which will be all in one place. No VIPs of dignitaries are going to have reserved seating, they say. It's just first come, first served. They want the people of Minnesota to come out in a very grassroots way to attend this service.
As a matter of fact, they are already starting to line up, even though they won't be let in for some time. But they want to have a real grass roots feel to this. So Wellstone was not one that was big on dignitaries. As a matter of fact, on the flight over here, I overheard some of Wellstone's staffers talking; one of them was talking about how when he flew commercially, he often refused to accept upgrades -- if he was able to get an upgrade into first class, he didn't want it; he wanted to be back in coach with the rest of the people.
SAVIDGE: Man of the people.
Jonathan Karl, thank you very much for that live report.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
