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American Morning

Situation Not Improving For Condit

Aired August 27, 2001 - 09:06   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, things don't seem to be improving for Congressman Gary Condit since he broke his silence on the Chandra Levy case. New poll numbers now show that his media blitz bit backfired on him, and now an attorney is seeking to have Condit indicted.

Our national correspondent Bob Franken, as you've got to know by now, he's been covering the story for us from the very beginning, and he's in the congressman's hometown of Modesto, California, this morning. Bob?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Leon, we are at the Stanislaus County courthouse where in about an hour and a half, or actually about three hours -- I'm sorry -- I was on the wrong coast as far as my time is concerned, the attorney for Anne Marie Smith is going to be coming and filing -- trying to file criminal action against Congressman Gary Condit.

Of course, Anne Marie Smith is the flight attendant that has charged that she had a romantic relationship with Congressman Condit. Congressman Condit in his recent interview said that there was no relationship. He also made other comments about Anne Marie Smith.

The charge is, is that the congressman tried to get her to lie under oath about the relationship. And of course, there's a lot of conversation about possible civil action on the part of James Robinson, the attorney. But he says, under California law he is able to try to go directly to a grand jury to seek criminal action.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM ROBINSON, SMITH'S ATTORNEY: California allows the victim of a crime, and in this sense the crime is suborning perjury, to go directly to a grand jury through the foremen of the grand jury, and request a criminal indictment directly without going through the direct attorney, which is what we intend to do this morning. And ask for three criminal indictments to be handed down to Congressman Condit, to his chief of staff, Mike Lynch, and to his investigator, Don Thorton in San Mateo County.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: Now, there's no result that will be expected from this presentation to the grand jury today. It will be taken under advisement. The charge suborning perjury of course means: Attempting to cause perjury.

This is not the only problem facing Congressman Condit, polls have now come out in the wake of his speech which bring some bad news. a CNN poll of the voters in this district, of course that's the important poll. They were asked: Would they vote for Congressman Condit? And the answer said: 61 percent said no, 29 percent said yes. You've got to remember that that compares to Condit's last election where he won with 67 percent of the votes. Moving along.

It was an interesting comparison. The same time were asked how was he handling his job. They said that 48 percent of those who were polled approved, 38 percent expressed their disapproval. That had a plus or minus error rate of five percent.

Third poll, this one was also very bad news for Congressman Condit. The question was, was he directly involved in Chandra Levy's disappearance; 52 percent of the respondents here said it was likely, 29 percent said not likely. That has a plus of minus rate of four percent.

So, the fallout after Congressman Condit's effort to try and persuade the voters that it was time for them to start thinking favorably again has not been good. Congressman Condit seems to have lost ground. There is talk now that there's going to be possibly more media strategy, or a strategy of saying nothing more. Leon.

HARRIS: Well, Bob, the one thing that surprises me is that I'd looked at the same polls, and there was also a question about whether or not Congressman Condit should leave office right now and resign, and the numbers there did not say that people there thought he should.

FRANKEN: No. It's really interesting. That probably compares to the fact that they believe that he's done a good job. The feeling, however, is the next time they get a chance, that they would say: Leave office.

We have to remember, however, that there is 14 months to the next election. As we've said many times, that's a political eternity. Congressman Condit's belief has been that he can recover the momentum that has really been lost because of the Chandra Levy controversy. Thus far, most accounts believe that he has lost momentum.

HARRIS: All right, good deal. Thanks, Bob. Bob Franken in Modesto, California, this morning.

Now, once again, Marie Smith's lawyer has planned a news conference for this afternoon to talk about legal action against Condit. You can see Jim Robinson's announcement live right here at CNN at 1:30 eastern. And then tonight, the congressman's son, Chad Condit, is going to be the guest on "LARRY KIND LIVE." So don't miss his comments. He'll be there at 9:00 p.m. eastern.

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