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Schwarzenegger Set to Name Transition Team

Aired October 09, 2003 - 15:03   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.


CANDY CROWLEY, CNN ANCHOR: We want to move on now to California, where Arnold Schwarzenegger a governor in training. He's expected to fill in some of the blanks at a news conference this afternoon.
We're going to turn now to CNN's Frank Buckley.

Frank, what's going on out there?

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Candy, they're just getting ready for the news conference that's set to happen this afternoon here with Arnold Schwarzenegger, appearing with Congressman David Dreier, who is heading up the transition team.

We expect to hear some of the other names associated with the transition today, also, the look, the structure of this transition, as Arnold Schwarzenegger moves into his political life, advisers telling me that he huddled yesterday with his advisers to talk about exactly how this transition was going to proceed.

Now, yesterday, we also saw Arnold Schwarzenegger engaged in his first news conference since being elected governor. You could get a sense of the urgency to this transition in some of the questions there, many of them related to the budget, because the budget is due in January, the state facing an $8 billion deficit, at least. If Arnold Schwarzenegger goes through on his pledge to eliminate the new increase in the car tax, the license fee, that could swell the budget deficit to $12 billion or more.

Here's what Arnold Schwarzenegger said about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR-ELECT: It could be that our operating deficit is over $20 billion. So the bottom line, really, is what we have to do is open up the books, first of all, like I said, do the audit, and find where the waste is.

And then we have to just go through step by step. But in the very near future, I will be announcing all those details of what we're going to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUCKLEY: Governor Schwarzenegger said on the first night, on election night, at his victory party that there are going to be some -- quote -- "tough choices ahead." And that unusually means budget cuts, especially give the fact, Candy, that he pledged once again yesterday that he was not going to be raising taxes.

So the questions are out there exactly what is going to be cut. And we may get an indication of at least what will be looked at today as the rest of the transition team is named here during this news conference -- Candy.

CROWLEY: Thanks a lot, CNN's Frank Buckley.

Please stay with CNN. We will, of course, carry portions of Arnold Schwarzenegger's news conference live in the next hour.

Schwarzenegger capped his recall victory in the same place where he started it all. He went back on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" to talk about his plans for California and to have a few laughs. Not to be outdone, rivals of the governor-elect and the comic are teaming up. Outgoing Governor Gray Davis is scheduled to appear on the show with David Letterman on Friday to present the top-10 list. This hour, Davis supporters are holding a rally in his honor at the state Capitol.

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 9, 2003 - 15:03   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN ANCHOR: We want to move on now to California, where Arnold Schwarzenegger a governor in training. He's expected to fill in some of the blanks at a news conference this afternoon.
We're going to turn now to CNN's Frank Buckley.

Frank, what's going on out there?

FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Candy, they're just getting ready for the news conference that's set to happen this afternoon here with Arnold Schwarzenegger, appearing with Congressman David Dreier, who is heading up the transition team.

We expect to hear some of the other names associated with the transition today, also, the look, the structure of this transition, as Arnold Schwarzenegger moves into his political life, advisers telling me that he huddled yesterday with his advisers to talk about exactly how this transition was going to proceed.

Now, yesterday, we also saw Arnold Schwarzenegger engaged in his first news conference since being elected governor. You could get a sense of the urgency to this transition in some of the questions there, many of them related to the budget, because the budget is due in January, the state facing an $8 billion deficit, at least. If Arnold Schwarzenegger goes through on his pledge to eliminate the new increase in the car tax, the license fee, that could swell the budget deficit to $12 billion or more.

Here's what Arnold Schwarzenegger said about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR-ELECT: It could be that our operating deficit is over $20 billion. So the bottom line, really, is what we have to do is open up the books, first of all, like I said, do the audit, and find where the waste is.

And then we have to just go through step by step. But in the very near future, I will be announcing all those details of what we're going to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUCKLEY: Governor Schwarzenegger said on the first night, on election night, at his victory party that there are going to be some -- quote -- "tough choices ahead." And that unusually means budget cuts, especially give the fact, Candy, that he pledged once again yesterday that he was not going to be raising taxes.

So the questions are out there exactly what is going to be cut. And we may get an indication of at least what will be looked at today as the rest of the transition team is named here during this news conference -- Candy.

CROWLEY: Thanks a lot, CNN's Frank Buckley.

Please stay with CNN. We will, of course, carry portions of Arnold Schwarzenegger's news conference live in the next hour.

Schwarzenegger capped his recall victory in the same place where he started it all. He went back on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" to talk about his plans for California and to have a few laughs. Not to be outdone, rivals of the governor-elect and the comic are teaming up. Outgoing Governor Gray Davis is scheduled to appear on the show with David Letterman on Friday to present the top-10 list. This hour, Davis supporters are holding a rally in his honor at the state Capitol.

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