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American Morning

Discussion with Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott

Aired January 29, 2002 - 09:09   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: President Bush speaks to the nation tonight in his first State of the Union Address. This war effort.

Kelly Wallace is at the White House this morning.

So, Kelly, you got to look at these popularity ratings and wonder just how much pressure is on the president to perform tonight. It seems the American public has very high expectations of what this speech has to deliver.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You can say, Paula, definitely the pressure is on. Sky-high approval rating, a lot of people expected to tune in. Also the president following, Paula, as you know, that speech he delivered back in September when went before the Congress about 10 of 11 days after the September 11th attacks, received very, very large praise for that speech. So expectations is certainly high. Aides say they will not compare that speech with this one. They say that was a unique moment in the country's history; this is another unique moment, and the president will certainly deliver tonight -- Paula.

ZAHN: As if the president didn't have enough to do. I know he was meeting with security team, talking about the status of detainees. In addition to that, he met with these legislatures, many of who we interviewed today. When has he had time to get prepared for the speech?

WALLACE: It's a good question. Well, certainly, practice a little bit yesterday. We understand he's up to at least draft number 25. We are not expecting to see the president today. He's likely to do more run-throughs of this speech.

Paula, you know, aides say this is a president who sorts of thrives on the pressure, and normally delivers when the pressure is the largest. Certainly he will be working on this speech. Aides say he is likely to sort of deliver the goods tonight when goes before Congress.

ZAHN: Draft number 25, I wonder how that compares to previous presidents?

WALLACE: You know, I wonder, but likely to be around the same ballpark, because certainly the president and other presidents will receive drafts from their speechwriters and will tinker with it. You know former President Bill Clinton was someone who was known to be sort of, you know, updating the speech even on the way to Capitol Hill. Not sure if Mr. Bush will do the same thing, but he will be working on the speech throughout the day -- Paula.

ZAHN: Thanks for the update. Kelly Wallace.

The president's performance, as Kelly just mentioned, of course, will be not only scrutinized by the public, but by both Democrats and Republicans in Congress.

And Senate Republican leader Trent Lott has just come from a meeting with President Bush at the White House, and he joins us now from the capitol.

Good to have you back here on A.M. Welcome, senator.

SEN. TRENT LOTT (R-MS), SENATE MINORITY LEADER: Great to be back, Paula. I enjoy checking with you every morning when I'm having my coffee.

ZAHN: I'm happy to hear. Are we your morning habit now?

LOTT: I must confess, I surf around a little bit, but I like your format, and I have been watching. You're a good bit.

ZAHN: That's very gracious of you to share that with us. Don't surf too much. Just let it land now on A.M. every now and then.

We had the opportunity to speak with your colleague Dick Gephardt earlier this morning, and he talked about how the Democrats want the president to know that they are with him on the war effort, but he also indicated on the issue of the economy, that's where the divisions come in.

What is that you expect the Democrats to key in on tonight after the president's speech? Is the president vulnerable there?

LOTT: First of all, I think it's important that the president continues to have the bipartisan, bicameral leadership meetings, even today when he will be quite late doing the State of the Union Address, he met with us at 7:00 a.m. for breakfast.

As a matter of fact, Congressman Gephardt, during our breakfast, suggested that we ought to try to find a way to work together on economic security the way we have on national security and homeland security. I think he's right. We need their help to do that. The American people expect us to produce. We are at war. We do have a recession. We need to fight both of those, overseas and here at home. We need to talk about jobs, and make sure we do what's necessary to create those jobs, including a national energy policy and a trade policy. It looks like a lot of Democrats will try to hug the president until the war. But we don't agree on a lot of domestic issues.

But this a president that is not going to ignore domestic issues. I predict that a lot of speech on jobs, and volunteerism and what we have learned from experience and how we need to come together and do the right thing for economic growth. I think he will be make tough for them to box him in or be partisan.

ZAHN: Let me ask you about -- I know you said you would welcome the Democrat's help in coming up with economic security plan, but when you have someone like Senator Daschle out there accusing the president of Enron-ing the economy, are you at all optimistic that that will happen?

LOTT: Well, I'm very disappointed he uses that kind of inappropriate comparison. And you know, I fired back at him and saying we shouldn't Daschle-ize the budget by raising taxes, and spending more money and obstructing the agenda. But let me just tell you, on a personal and a private basis, we're talking about in the Senate trying to find a way to come together on a stimulus package. We're going to a foreign bill, which is important for agriculture and jobs connected with that. We're going after that to an energy bill, and he's indicated that he agrees we should go to trade shortly after that.

So while he's talking tough and partisan and political, he appears to be wanting to work with us in addressing the issues the president is asking us to take up. I hope that will happen, and I hope that we as Republicans will reach out and say, good, let's come to a conclusion. It may not be perfect, but let's get these bills into conference and stop stalling in the Senate, where they've been lingering, many of them, since summer.

ZAHN: You just used interesting an phrase. It appears as those that's the case. And yet there was a piece in "The Washington Post" yesterday where a top adviser to President Bush basically said that he wasn't going to break any major new ground tonight on big projects that he was pretty much stay the course, because he wasn't going to get anything past by this current Congress. Do you think the president basically saying this Congress is gridlocked, and I can't achieve some of these larger things that I would like to do?

LOTT: After a unique period after September 11th, we did a lot of things together in totally unified way, and the House, and Senate with the administration. As the year went on, though, toward the end, the Senate become a sinkhole of inactivity. We didn't pass the energy bill. We didn't pass the farm bill. We didn't past the trade bill. We didn't do election reform. And unfortunately, 150 nominees were left pending before the Senate. That's not good. That's not a good record. But I do think that the Democrats in the Senate and Senator Daschle are feeling a little pinch that that obstructionism is not working well. And now they're talking about going to those issues.

Also, last Friday, the Senate moved 38 nominees. The president raised that issue this morning, and he pointed out that some of these nominees are in critical positions, you know, as we fight terrorism at home and overseas and urge the Senate to act on even more nominees.

So, you know, maybe the ice the breaking. The president is trying to change the tone. He's trying to reach out. I think he's making it difficult for the Democrats to resist that. And I think the American people like when they see us doing things together, and they don't like it when we get into partisan squabbles this early in the year. OK, it's a political year. It'll be tough, and we don't know quite what to expect. But we ought to make huge effort, particularly here at the beginning, to get some things done.

ZAHN: Well, we wish you luck, and congratulations on the $100,000 check you presented the children from your home state of Mississippi for the children of Afghanistan.

LOTT: I'm very proud of our children there. They pull together in schools, and all kinds of schools, and some of the leaders where African-Americans and my home county are there. They've done a great job.

ZAHN: Senator Lott, always good to see you, and thank you very much for putting AMERICAN MORNING on your daily agenda.

LOTT: OK, Paula, thank you.

ZAHN: Just make sure you stick on that and don't surf too much.

(LAUGHTER)

LOTT: OK.

ZAHN: Good luck to you. Thank you.

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