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Interview With Frank Newport

Aired June 03, 2003 - 15:01   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.


JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. forces searching for weapons of mass destruction inside Iraq are under increasing scrutiny. The teams have found little evidence so far, but U.S. administrator, Paul Bremer, said today he thinks weapons of mass destruction eventually will be found inside Iraq. On Capitol Hill, meanwhile, Senator John McCain said that he would not oppose the idea of congressional hearings to look into U.S. claims before the war about Iraq's weapons programs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I think that it's very appropriate for the Congress to have hearings on this whole issue. You just mentioned charges that are being made about manipulation and all that. Fine; let's have hearings. It's appropriate after every conflict to have hearings. But I'm satisfied that Saddam Hussein not only had weapons of mass destruction, but if we hadn't overthrown him, he would have gone back to pursuing the development of weapons of mass destruction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOODRUFF: With me now from Princeton, New Jersey, to shed some light on where the American people stand on the search for weapons of mass destruction, Gallup editor-in-chief Frank Newport. Frank, first of all, how concerned are Americans?

Sorry. I thought you were going to be on a screen behind me. You're right in front of me. First of all, Frank, how concerned are Americans that the hard evidence of weapons of mass destruction has so far not been found? We do know the mobile labs are there, the president has referred to that, but in general?

FRANK NEWPORT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GALLUP POLL: Well, it's a good question, Judy. I get lots of calls, particularly from overseas reporters asking about it. They think it's the big story of the day. For Americans, the public, not so much a big story.

We asked the key question: "Do you think it's going to be necessary for those weapons to be found in order to have the war justified?" And this is probably what I think is most comforting to the administration at this point. Right in the middle, there are 56 percent, and that's not a huge majority. But a majority of Americans, Judy, say it doesn't matter whether or not those weapons are ultimately found. They think the war was still justified.

Eighteen percent say the war is never justified, in their opinion. And another quarter say they would need the weapons to be found to find it justified. But that majority is about what we found a month or two ago. So, so far, not seeing much change. And the majority say, OK, we don't care whether those weapons ultimately come to life.

WOODRUFF: Well, Frank, does your polling show any evidence that Americans actually think the Bush administration mislead them?

NEWPORT: Well, this is an interesting interpretive question. I was talking about these data earlier today to somebody and they said, well, a third of Americans do believe that the Bush administration -- and these are the words we used in the poll -- deliberately mislead them prior to the war about the existence of those weapons. That's just 31 percent right there.

On the other hand, 67 percent, a very solid majority, say, no, they don't think the administration mislead. So it is really a matter of interpretation, Judy.

My take on the data is that this is a fairly solid number. So at least at this point -- a lot of Democrats over here who are going to say things negative about the administration regardless of what we pollsters put in front of them. So, so far, I think the Bush administration not getting strong criticism from the public on this issues of what they were telling the public prior to the war.

WOODRUFF: OK. Frank Newport with the Gallup Organization. Always good to see you. Thank you.

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 June 3, 2003 - 15:01   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. forces searching for weapons of mass destruction inside Iraq are under increasing scrutiny. The teams have found little evidence so far, but U.S. administrator, Paul Bremer, said today he thinks weapons of mass destruction eventually will be found inside Iraq. On Capitol Hill, meanwhile, Senator John McCain said that he would not oppose the idea of congressional hearings to look into U.S. claims before the war about Iraq's weapons programs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I think that it's very appropriate for the Congress to have hearings on this whole issue. You just mentioned charges that are being made about manipulation and all that. Fine; let's have hearings. It's appropriate after every conflict to have hearings. But I'm satisfied that Saddam Hussein not only had weapons of mass destruction, but if we hadn't overthrown him, he would have gone back to pursuing the development of weapons of mass destruction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOODRUFF: With me now from Princeton, New Jersey, to shed some light on where the American people stand on the search for weapons of mass destruction, Gallup editor-in-chief Frank Newport. Frank, first of all, how concerned are Americans?

Sorry. I thought you were going to be on a screen behind me. You're right in front of me. First of all, Frank, how concerned are Americans that the hard evidence of weapons of mass destruction has so far not been found? We do know the mobile labs are there, the president has referred to that, but in general?

FRANK NEWPORT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GALLUP POLL: Well, it's a good question, Judy. I get lots of calls, particularly from overseas reporters asking about it. They think it's the big story of the day. For Americans, the public, not so much a big story.

We asked the key question: "Do you think it's going to be necessary for those weapons to be found in order to have the war justified?" And this is probably what I think is most comforting to the administration at this point. Right in the middle, there are 56 percent, and that's not a huge majority. But a majority of Americans, Judy, say it doesn't matter whether or not those weapons are ultimately found. They think the war was still justified.

Eighteen percent say the war is never justified, in their opinion. And another quarter say they would need the weapons to be found to find it justified. But that majority is about what we found a month or two ago. So, so far, not seeing much change. And the majority say, OK, we don't care whether those weapons ultimately come to life.

WOODRUFF: Well, Frank, does your polling show any evidence that Americans actually think the Bush administration mislead them?

NEWPORT: Well, this is an interesting interpretive question. I was talking about these data earlier today to somebody and they said, well, a third of Americans do believe that the Bush administration -- and these are the words we used in the poll -- deliberately mislead them prior to the war about the existence of those weapons. That's just 31 percent right there.

On the other hand, 67 percent, a very solid majority, say, no, they don't think the administration mislead. So it is really a matter of interpretation, Judy.

My take on the data is that this is a fairly solid number. So at least at this point -- a lot of Democrats over here who are going to say things negative about the administration regardless of what we pollsters put in front of them. So, so far, I think the Bush administration not getting strong criticism from the public on this issues of what they were telling the public prior to the war.

WOODRUFF: OK. Frank Newport with the Gallup Organization. Always good to see you. Thank you.

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