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American Morning

America's New War: Talk with Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert

Aired September 17, 2001 - 10:22   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, we head back to Washington D.C., where John King stands by with an important interview.

Hi, John.

JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hello again to you, Paula. An important interview indeed.

Joining us in Atlanta studios today, the Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, a key voice as the U.S. government decides deciding how to respond to the terrorist attacks, not only in the president military options, but with the events unfolding on Wall Street this morning.

Mr. Speaker, thank you for joining us.

REP. DENNIS HASTERT (R-IL), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Good morning.

KING: Good morning to you, sir.

Let me ask you first, as you see the developments in the market today, obviously a great deal of anxiety on Wall Street and here in Washington as well, how these terrorist strikes will touch the U.S. economy. What is your thinking on that, sir, and specifically, what can and might the U.S. Congress do to help?

HASTERT: Well, there are two things we need to do. First of all, I talked to leader Gephardt yesterday and a couple days ago, that we need to look over the horizon right now, we need to find what the right formula is to sustain and give this market the shoring and people the confidence the market is there. American people are great people, and resilient people. Our markets are resilient. This is kind of like us old people sitting back and watching the kids ride the roller coaster. We don't know what is going to come to the bottom, what will happen when they start up again.

But we need to do some mix, whether it is capital gains or investment tax credits, something to shore up this market to give people the confidence they need to invest, and that's the best investment that folks can make. There is a lot of money on the sidelines. People have cashed out a lot of things, and those dollars are there. We need to give people the confidence that this country's going to move forward, and they have the investment and financial future before them.

KING: Help our viewers, sir, understand, to what degree is there coordination? The Federal Reserve cut key interest rates a half point just before the markets open, obviously designed to help infuse some confidence in the markets. The president and other administration officials speaking not only to yourself and other key members of Congress, but to banks, investment houses and key leaders around the world. Explain, if you can, the detail of coordination here as the administration and Congress has concerns about the economy.

HASTERT: Right now, the last couple days, we are trying to deep this country going. We haven't talked a lot about markets , but I talked to leader Gephardt. We are having a meeting this week with key economists and the administration is laying out what our strategy is. We hope to move to legislation either this week or next week to lay the foundation of that.

We are also concerned about the airline industry. We started last week, just Thursday night, trying to move some legislation that shores up the airline industry short term, especially for the loss and passengers they have suffered the last couple of days and of course their cashflow industry. We need to make sure that America keeps flying. That's very, very important to keep this country going.

KING: Another package of legislation coming your way will come from the justice department and Attorney General Ashcroft. He wants new powers from wire tapping, money laundering, terrorist groups. Most support so far, but many are raising questions about civil liberties. Your view, with this pack and more broadly, will Americans have to give up some freedom in the name of improved security?

HASTERT: We are trying to keep the balance on civil liberties is the important issue. I have said for a long time, money launderers are a cause of drug problems we have had. And I know Osama bin Laden has gotten a lot of money from the drug trade across Central Asia and other places, and money launderers are the way he gets dollars in his pocket to perpetrate these things. We need to crack down on money launderers and have new powers in that area. Other issues we will take one by one and go through our judicial committees and try to be sure we have the right balance.

KING: Mr. Speaker, you are being repeatedly updated by the administration, not only the status of the investigation, but I want to ask you this question, sir, as viewers in the United States and around the world watch, when you get intelligence briefings, do they believe there a risk of terrorist attack here in Washington and around the country.

HASTERT: I think we need to be prudent. We don't know what that risk is. We think most of the people have been watched, and we know where their whereabouts are. Some are being apprehended as we speak. But you never know. I think every American needs to be somewhat prudent. But we think that that risk is turned down. Terrorism is, first of all, a strike, then they play off of everybody's fears after that. We need to be brave, we need to move forward, but we also need to be prudent. KING: As the president mulls his military options, a week or so ago, sir, this may seem a little bit in poor taste, but a week or so a great debate in Washington was dipping into the Social Security surplus and where did the big budget surplus go. As you look at the things the administration is asking for, for investigation, recovery effort, no doubt in your mind we will have to dip into social security spending here. Any sense of all on the impact of the U.S. government's financial situation?

HASTERT: We have to do the fiscal and monetary things that are the right thing to do. Any first-year economic student will tell you that. We passed $40 billion bill on Friday to give the president, first of all, the ability to carry out his war against the folks that perpetrated this crime. The second thing we did was to make sure that we have the things in place for FEMA, so they can continue to take care of the victims and clean up the aftermath of this. We're also looking to make sure that we have the dollars in place so that we can put on the security for our air travel across this country. Those things are taking some of the dollars. Of course, $20 billion to help clean up in the trauma what happened in New York City. We don't know if that's the iceberg or the tip of the iceberg.

But the real issue is we need to give the president the powers and visibility and the dollars to go out and smoke the people out of their shadows.

KING: Mr. Speaker, I would like to close by asking you finally about your personal thoughts. After the vice president, you are next in line of succession to the presidency. Washington, when they realized there was a threat of terrorist attack and indeed sites in Washington targeted, you were spirited away it a secret location outside of Washington, to a secure bunker. Explain to us your thoughts and exactly la happened to you as all this unfolded last Tuesday?

HASTERT: Well, first of all I was in my office early. We heard the first damage to the World Trade Center, and everyone thought it was an accident. When the second one happened, we knew it wasn't. Then we look out the window and there was smoke and flames coming out of the Pentagon. At that point, I decided the prudent thing was to adjourn Congress -- or let everybody go. We were going to move to the floor, to adjourn. And at that time, we had several of our, not Secret Service, but U.S. Capitol Police whisk me away. As we were leaving in a helicopter, skirting Washington, the smoke moving over Northern Virginia, flames and smoke coming out of the Pentagon, I didn't think I would ever see that in my lifetime.

The Capitol had never been moved out of except for the War of 1812 when it was burnt. That certainly is the symbol and it makes you sick at heart. But yet, you know, we came back that night. And the four leaders stood in front of a hundred or 200 members of the Congress and we stood shoulder to shoulder in a bipartisan basis. We will see this thing through with the administration of the president and American people. And members behind us broke out spontaneously, God bless America, shivered down by spine, and we will see this through and we will see to all Americans until it is over. KING: Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert. We thank you for your times. Thank you very much again. We hope to speak to you soon.

Back to Paula Zahn in New York.

ZAHN: John, I won't let you get away so soon. I will want to ask you about a couple things that Mr. Hastert talked to you about. He talked about the health of airline industry and touched upon a short-term bail-out that is being debated right now. Is that something that is likely to have major support for?

KING: Yes, indeed, it does have major support, Paula. It was held up over the weekend, we understand, by the objection of one or two lawmakers who did want to be considered in the middle of the night. It came overnight after midnight that Congress was considering it, and we know Representative Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat of Texas, among those who said, if this is a package that has such support, why don't we debate it in the daylight. But this is a package backed by the president, backed by the Democratic leaders in the House and the Senate, backed by the speaker as well. It's about $2.5 billion in direct aid to the airline industry, and then some and various government loan guarantees that I believe total in the area of another $15 billion, so this package likely to move when the Congress comes back to work on Wednesday, likely to move several days after that.

ZAHN: The House speaker also urged Americans for the need to invest and said this, in fact, is the best investment that can make in the economy, to sort of not lose patience with their investments, but John, you probably heard a couple of economists repeating over and over again how important it's going to be to get the government to spend during this period of time. How will that push affect the budget battles?

KING: Well, the government certainly will be spending on the unfortunate nature of this crisis, the rescue and recovery effort, the investigation, a military buildup that is under way. But certainly, as you heard the speaker said, they are debating other things. There was to be this week, this very week, a big partisan debate on whether the president was squandering the surplus, was the tax cut too big? Instead now, you have bipartisan agreement, and there will be some disagreements along the way over the specifics, make no doubt about it, but bipartisan agreement that there should be government spending, that the president and the recovery effort should get all of the money it needs for that. And There is even a debate about now about another round of tax cuts, something like a capital gains tax cut, that would help the markets.

ZAHN: This a remarkable attitude and cooperative spirit here in Washington right now.

KING: There will be some bumps along the road, no question. Some worry that in this atmosphere of crisis that Congress might go too far, but look for more government spending in the short term and look for the possibility of at least another targeted tax cut.

ZAHN: From a New York perspective, it's been interesting to watch some of the comments Senator Clinton made in the last couple days and Senator Schumer. They are giving the president a great deal of credit for answering their call, and not just those victimized here, but those in Pennsylvania and Washington. How long do you think this bipartisan show of unity can last?

KING: Well, that is a significant and legitimate question. Certainly as long as you see the moving pictures, that you are so much closer to up in New York, and just across the Potomac here. You see the pictures over at the Pentagon. Everyone agrees the reaction so far has been heartwarming and bipartisan. Certainly for the foreseeable future, we see no change in that at all. Again, there will be some disagreements along the way, but there is always in the country a rally around the president in times of crisis, and Democrats and Republican alike, saying his phone line has been open, his advisers have been helpful. Senator Schumer saying when the initial proposal was $20 billion in short-term spending, he said, look, Mr. President, says that's just enough for New York, and the president says, you got it, and they doubled that in a matter of minutes.

So the president drawing praise right now, and they do understand at the White House, this a president in office fewer than nine months now. The eyes of the nation on her, indeed the eyes of the world on him, a defining moment for the country and a testing moment for this president.

ZAHN: John, I know you were in the process of interviewing Speaker Hastert when the market dropped, now down to what, 514 points. Have you gotten any response from the White House directly from what is going on right now the floor of the New York Stock Exchange?

KING: In good times, and bad times and even now in the worst of times, the White House refuses to comment specifically on the movements of the markets. The White House press secretary Ari Fleischer telling reporters a short time ago that -- and it's a standard line at the White House, that the fundamentals of U.S. economy remain strong, that the president and his senior economic team -- and by the way, the president will meet with them this afternoon to discuss the day's events in the markets. The White House believing the fundamentals are strong.

The White House does not comment on specific market moves, nor does it comment on the specific moves of the Federal Reserve. Behind the scenes, they were encouraged, though, that chairman Greenspan and the Fed cut rates today, And they believe the first day might be the worst day, and then the markets will stabilize and hopefully in the views of administration, rally in the days ahead.

ZAHN: One last question. The other thing caught here in your interview with Speaker Hastert is you asked a very direct question about whether the United States continues to be at risk for another terrorist attack. And his answer was -- quote -- "We don't know what that risk is. Give us your perspective on that, and what other members of Congress are saying?

KING: In briefings, intelligence briefings and the investigative briefings, members of Congress are being told there are believed to be in the country small terrorist cells, people affiliated, aligned with, associated with those believed responsible for these attacks. That's why the warrants issued for material witnesses. The FBI saying this is an unprecedented investigation. One of the concern raised early in is if the president decided to act immediately and launch cruise missile sites against sited in Afghanistan, bin Laden camps in Afghanistan, that there were still terrorist running around the United States who might respond by going after major population centers. So quite a bit of tension in the investigative ranks, no one saying at this moment, based on our investigation, that there's any specific threats, any credible specific targets, right now, but there is still a fear of a risk of a continuing terrorist attack.

ZAHN: All right, John, we will be with you throughout the rest of morning. Just about an hour and a half left before noon.

Thanks, John.

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