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American Morning

Discussion with House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt

Aired January 29, 2002 - 08:16   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: Welcome back. It's 16 minutes after the hour. In advance of the president's speech tonight, Senior Bush Aide, Karen Hughes, spoke with us last hour. Here's what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAREN HUGHES, COUNSELOR TO PRESIDENT BUSH: What we've learned is that up to 100,000 people have been trained -- trained killers in the camps of Afghanistan, and they're now spread throughout the world in more than 60 different countries. And so the president will talk about the fact that what we've learned there has only shown us the broad scope of the war against terror. And we cannot stop short, because if we did, our feeling of greater security would only be false, as he says, and temporary. And that's the case he will make to the American people tonight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: Fresh from a leadership breakfast this morning with the president, House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, who joins us from the White House lawn. Welcome back, good to see you, sir.

REP. DICK GEPHARDT (D-MO) MINORITY LEADER: Good to see you.

ZAHN: So Rep. Gephardt, what did the president tell you this morning?

GEPHARDT: Well, he went through what's happening in Afghanistan. He met with the Afghan leader yesterday. We're going to meet with him today. He talked about plans to try to help rebuild Afghanistan so it doesn't remain a training camp for terrorism. We talked about the continuing threat.

He talked about his speech tonight and what he's going to talk about. He's going to give us an update on the war, he's going to thank all the countries and all the people that have helped in this effort. And he's going to say that it's going to be a long effort, and I believe that. I agree with him on that. And he's going to have a call for national service, which I truly agree with. I think this is a time to keep the momentum going with all the great civic- mindedness that's come from the American people.

ZAHN: Let's come back to the point you were making where the president was talking about the war effort. There were an interesting series of interviews in "The Washington Post" and the "New York Times," interviews with the crowned prince of Saudi Arabia, where he indicated he felt that the U.S. war on terrorism was being compromised by the U.S. stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Did the president talk about that this morning?

GEPHARDT: We talked about the Middle East. We talked about what's happening between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Obviously, we are trying very hard to be a constant force for luring the violence, getting back to the peace table if we can. I was just in Israel a week ago. The defense minister said there is no military thing that will solve this problem. We need to settle it around a peace table. And that has been our constant position.

There is a lot of anxiety in the region about this getting out of control. We share that anxiety and we've got to keep the pressure on them. The problem we've got now is Mr. Arafat is not fighting terrorism as he should be.

ZAHN: You refused to meet with him, didn't you, when you were there? And what do you think is the value of isolating him at this point?

GEPHARDT: Well, I think we've got to send a loud, clear message from not only us but the whole world. Terrorism is unacceptable. It's unacceptable here, it's unacceptable there. It's unacceptable anywhere. And we've got to be crystal clear that that is the world's position. He had a boat from probably Iran, we believe, going to the top Palestinian officials that was filled with the most sophisticated kind of weaponry. That is not taking a fight against terrorism.

So we've got to send that message. We've got to get moderate Arab nations to sent that message to Mr. Arafat as well.

ZAHN: Before we talk about your response later this evening, one quick question about a CBS news report last night suggesting that Osama bin Laden was spirited out of Afghanistan on the night before the September 11th attacks, taken to a military hospital in Pakistan, where he received some sort of medical treatment for his kidney problems. If -- first of all, do you believe this report to be true? And if it is, what are the -- what are its implications?

GEPHARDT: Well I have no idea if it's true or not. Obviously, it's something that will have to be run down. The president this morning said that we do not know where he is. We are still seeking to find him. And, in fact, they think that he may be in another country. They just don't know. So we'll have to run this down.

I think the best intelligence is that he's probably still in Afghanistan hidden away in some of these caves and it may be a long time to find him.

ZAHN: Let's move on to the issue of what you have to do this evening. The Pew Research Group would indicate that most of America has very high expectations of what the president needs to do today. But by the same token, you're going to be addressing the nation at a time when the president has some of the highest approval ratings ever of any president.

I want to read to you what Ken Duberstein said, who is a former chief of staff for President Reagan. And he said, "An 80 percent job approval rating makes it very difficult to oppose the president, because you are opposing 80 percent of the American people." How do you get your message to resonate through such thick approval ratings?

GEPHARDT: Well, I don't expect to have the ability to give anything long or involved. I don't want to do that. I'm going to do this in about five or six minutes. But my hope is to say, first, we're with the president on fighting terrorism. Shoulder to shoulder, we've worked with him; we'll continue to work with him, as we should in a unified way. I'm also going to bring up the economic issues, which we believe are very important.

Real security means keeping the economy going strong. It means creating good jobs. Real security means keeping Medicare and Social Security strong and getting a Medicare prescription drug program. So those are some of the things that I'm going to talk about. I'm also going to second the president -- what he is apparently going to say about national service and about a call to public service. This is a time for all Americans to continue the tremendous resolve and unity that we've shown in the days past, in the days ahead.

ZAHN: Well we know you have a very long day, indeed, and you even have to talk live on television very late tonight. Thank you for giving us a preview of some of the things you might address later on this evening.

GEPHARDT: Thanks so much.

ZAHN: Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, I appreciate your time -- Jack.

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