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Schwarzenegger Apologizes for Offending Anyone

Aired October 02, 2003 - 13:00   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.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: First, developing news out of California. Just days before the recall vote, a newspaper story quotes six women, all of whom say they were grouped by the front- runner Arnold Schwarzenegger. As you may have heard hear just a short time ago, he denied the charges contained in that story, but he tagged that denial with an apology.
CNN's Bob Franken standing by in Los Angeles to tell us more about what happened. Bob, what do you make of this?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, this looks to be an effort on the part of the Schwarzenegger campaign to try and put this behind as an effort to wrap up the final days of the election on a positive note.

In any case, it's a "Los Angeles Times" article that appeared this morning. It specifies six women, most of them unidentified, talking about incidents that go back to the '70s, and in the '80s and the '90s and the most recent in the year 2000. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in the article where talked about his groping, making unwelcomed sexual advances.

So Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign originally denied the article, then they said that it was an effort by Democrats to try and discredit Arnold Schwarzenegger in the last days of the campaign. But then Schwarzenegger himself spoke at his first rally on a bus tour in San Diego.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIF. GOV. CANDIDATE: ... yes, that I have behaved badly sometimes. Yes, it is true, that I was on rowdy movie sets and I have done things that were not right which I thought then was playful. But now I recognize I have offended people.

And that those people that I have offended, I want to say to them, I'm deeply sorry about that and I apologize because this is not what I tried to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: And by the way, spokesman for Governor Gray Davis' campaign says that the campaign, the Democrats, the anti-recall drive, had nothing to do with "The Los Angeles Times" article, point made by "The L.A. Times" itself.

Schwarzenegger has been ahead in the polls, he's beginning, as I mentioned, a four-day bus tour. Gray Davis continues his campaign to avoid the recall. The question will be, what effect is this going to have on the campaign? And, like everything else in this recall, Kyra, who knows?

PHILLIPS: Isn't that the truth?

Meanwhile, Bob, these women mentioned in this article, no one showing faces, giving names, right?

FRANKEN: Well there are a couple names in the article. For most part they asked to be anonymous. Most of them said that they were worried about what it would do to their employment situation.

PHILLIPS: All right, our Bob Franken on the story. Thanks, Bob.

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 2, 2003 - 13:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: First, developing news out of California. Just days before the recall vote, a newspaper story quotes six women, all of whom say they were grouped by the front- runner Arnold Schwarzenegger. As you may have heard hear just a short time ago, he denied the charges contained in that story, but he tagged that denial with an apology.
CNN's Bob Franken standing by in Los Angeles to tell us more about what happened. Bob, what do you make of this?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, this looks to be an effort on the part of the Schwarzenegger campaign to try and put this behind as an effort to wrap up the final days of the election on a positive note.

In any case, it's a "Los Angeles Times" article that appeared this morning. It specifies six women, most of them unidentified, talking about incidents that go back to the '70s, and in the '80s and the '90s and the most recent in the year 2000. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in the article where talked about his groping, making unwelcomed sexual advances.

So Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign originally denied the article, then they said that it was an effort by Democrats to try and discredit Arnold Schwarzenegger in the last days of the campaign. But then Schwarzenegger himself spoke at his first rally on a bus tour in San Diego.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIF. GOV. CANDIDATE: ... yes, that I have behaved badly sometimes. Yes, it is true, that I was on rowdy movie sets and I have done things that were not right which I thought then was playful. But now I recognize I have offended people.

And that those people that I have offended, I want to say to them, I'm deeply sorry about that and I apologize because this is not what I tried to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: And by the way, spokesman for Governor Gray Davis' campaign says that the campaign, the Democrats, the anti-recall drive, had nothing to do with "The Los Angeles Times" article, point made by "The L.A. Times" itself.

Schwarzenegger has been ahead in the polls, he's beginning, as I mentioned, a four-day bus tour. Gray Davis continues his campaign to avoid the recall. The question will be, what effect is this going to have on the campaign? And, like everything else in this recall, Kyra, who knows?

PHILLIPS: Isn't that the truth?

Meanwhile, Bob, these women mentioned in this article, no one showing faces, giving names, right?

FRANKEN: Well there are a couple names in the article. For most part they asked to be anonymous. Most of them said that they were worried about what it would do to their employment situation.

PHILLIPS: All right, our Bob Franken on the story. Thanks, Bob.

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