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American Morning
White House Will Hold Firm in GAO Suit
Aired January 31, 2002 - 08:36 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.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: The General Accounting Office is going to sue the White House over the refusal on the part of the White House to surrender the minutes of the meetings that Dick Cheney had with several private sector energy company executives, including the guys from Enron, back when the administration was formulating its energy policy. The White House says, Hey, if we can't have private discussions with the private sector about policy and what's going on, then what's the world coming to? Congress wants to know what they talked about.
A distraction, an administration trying hard to focus on policy issues, the president raised in his State of the Union address?
Let's go to another of our fine White House correspondents. We have an army of them.
Major Garrett, traveling with the president, joining us from Daytona, Florida.
Major, this reminds me of that Hillary Clinton situation that the Clinton administration got into where the GAO was threatening to sue, and at the last minute, the White House surrendered her minutes on her health care task force. It almost went to court. This one isn't there yet, but it's headed that way.
MAJOR GARRETT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's headed that way,Jack. The White House would makes one key distinction. They say the difference between the vice president's energy task force and Mrs. Clinton's health task force is the health care task force brought in people from outside of government, paid them to serve on the task force, therefore, they became temporary government employees, therefore subject to open meetings rules and things like that. They say what's different about this is it was the vice president acting as a constitutional officer with his vice presidential staff, simply going through deliberations with people from a wide range of opinions on energy policy.
A good many of them, as you pointed out, from the energy industry, also people from labor unions and environmental groups. One thing Congressional Democrats are always concerned about is there are far too few environmental groups and far too many energy groups meeting with the vice president's task force. That's the distinction the White House draws. I can tell you, Jack, the White House basically bristles with confidence about their legal footing in this case. A little less sure about the communications aspect of all this. They know the president getting wrapped up around Enron and this suit about open access and open records and things puts them on a little bit of a defensive posture. Yesterday, while traveling to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Ari Fleischer called a hastily called briefing to answer a couple of questions, and he tried to put the principle behind the legal position of the White House in this conflict that may come with the General Accounting Office.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president will stand strong on principle, fighting for his right and the right of all future presidents to receive advice without it being turned into a virtual news release. The president will fight for this right in a court of law, and the White House expects to prevail, because our case is strong, our policy is sound, and principle is on our side.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GARRETT: As you said, Jack, this whole Enron-GAO conflict was a bit of a distraction as the president's victory lap after the State of the Union, a well-received State of the Union -- the polls indicate -- and the president -- and I've listened to his stump speech many, many times -- a this was a State of the Union variation of it -- for the first time when he got to the section talking about personal responsibility, he put in a section about corporate responsibility, and though Enron was not mentioned by name, you didn't have to be a brain surgeon to understand that's who the president was talking about.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Part of the responsibility is corporate responsibility. And corporate America must be open about its books and accounting systems so that shareholders and employees know the full truth about what's going on on balance sheets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GARRETT: The White House says there's nothing congruous about the president talking about those corporate balance sheets and openness and the White House not being so open in this potential conflict with the General Accounting Office. One is about legal principle protecting presidential prerogatives; the other is about fixing what's wrong in corporate America.
CAFFERTY: Major, thanks. Major Garrett, traveling with the president in Florida.
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