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American Morning

William Bennett Discusses Empower America Group

Aired March 14, 2002 - 08:21   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, Americans are firmly behind the president's war on terror, but as the campaign drags on, will that support start to fade?

Bill Bennett and his Empower American organization have a plan to keep that patriotic feeling strong as the war moves forward. It is a campaign for public opinion called Americans for Victory Over Terrorism.

And Bill Bennett, the man behind the plan, joins us from Washington this morning.

Welcome back.

WILLIAM BENNETT, EMPOWER AMERICA: Good morning. Thank you, Paula.

ZAHN: Good morning, Bill.

So, the latest Gallup Poll shows that 91 percent of all Americans support the military action against terrorism. So why launch this campaign now when public support is so strong?

BENNETT: Well, it's a good time to get organized because even though that 91-percent figure is true, there are some other indications that support may not be quite so strong over the long run. A "USA Today" poll pointed out that only 52 percent of Americans support a long-term effort to rid the world of global terrorism networks, and the president has told us it's going to be long term.

It's interesting with the historical sense, there was probably more unanimity at the beginning of the Vietnam War than at the beginning of this war. We're beginning to see some of the cracks. You've seen some on Capitol Hill. You heard President Carter, I've been reading the academic journals and checking out the campuses and certainly there's a lot of anti-war format going on there.

ZAHN: Let's go back to the point you just made about some of the dissension on Capitol Hill. You know we had Sen. Tom Daschle ...

BENNETT: Sure.

ZAHN: ... making remarks. Tom Byrd and Sen. John Kerry said in a speech just two weeks ago that -- quote -- "Those who try to stifle the vibrancy of our democracy and shield policies from scrutiny behind a false cloak of patriotism miss the real value of what our troops defend and how we best defend our troop. We will ask questions. We will defend our democracy".

Now you're ...

BENNETT: Right.

ZAHN: ... not saying that Congress shouldn't have an oversight role here, are you?

BENNETT: Absolutely. We're not saying that. We're not saying people shouldn't ask questions. They should ask questions and there should be responses to those questions. But we're going to exercise our First Amendment rights. We invite Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, and we've had people from all political stripes join us. What we want to do is respond when people say things that are not right, are not fair, are not true about this war, and about our effort, and we're seeing more and more of that.

You can go right to the top or the former top, Paula, former President Jimmy Carter criticized the president very harshly. That's his constitutional right to do so, but I think that deserves a response. Jimmy Carter said, you know, he thought this axis of terror -- axis of evil comment was most unfortunate. Well, I think Carter's comment was most unfortunate. There -- there's his exercise First Amendment right ...

ZAHN: And there you have yours.

(CROSSTALK)

ZAHN: But even ...

(CROSSTALK)

ZAHN: ... but even Sen. Lott ...

BENNETT: Keep the debate going.

ZAHN: ... Sen. Lott admitted that he had some very mixed and harsh judgments of President Clinton during Bosnia inactions and then he later said well, that he regretted the tone of those remarks and if he had to do it all over again -- these aren't his exact words, he probably wouldn't do it that way again. But how is it that our public leaders can ask questions without being accused of being unpatriotic?

BENNETT: Well, I think one makes distinctions. Again, there are questions -- questions should be raised, but what's the tone of the question? How central is the question? Is the question being raised in a genuine effort to find out the truth or is the question being raised to seek some sort of partisan or political advantage.

And I -- you know public opinion will determine that. One of the centers of activity for us, Paula, will be those intellectual salons, those magazines, editorial pages, and college campuses where, obviously, the next generation is being raised up and something very interesting is happening on college campuses right now. A majority of students are in support of this effort against terrorism and this war.

We think the numbers would be somewhat different for college faculty, but you're seeing reactions even from places like Berkeley that would be very surprising to people who have the memory of Vietnam. Students are saying you know I'm not buying this left-wing stuff from the professors. The difference -- students saw this with their own eyes. They didn't hear about 9/11 from somebody else ...

ZAHN: Sure.

BENNETT: ... or read it through a distorted textbook. They saw it with their own eyes.

ZAHN: So you are taking your campaign to college campuses and I'd like to play for our audience some of the sound of students you actually spent some time with when they were asked if their college professors had agendas. Here's what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am a third-year student, and after 2 1/2 years, all I've gotten is like this very left-wing hug the tree, hug the world kind of approach.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we have a lot of Vietnam anti-world activists that are kind of holdovers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For the most part, I think the professors are pretty mutual.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There seems to be sentiment that these professors are a little bit more liberal than I mean -- than family members that I have that are very conservative.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

ZAHN: So that was a compilation of a ...

BENNETT: Yes.

ZAHN: ... wide array of views. How much work do you have to do on college campuses to accomplish what you want to accomplish?

BENNETT: Well, Paula, holy Toledo, that was not Bob Jones -- that was Berkeley, you know. I mean there's some work to be done, obviously, but the work probably has to be done more with the faculty than with the students. Look, a lot of kids are telling us based on their education in high school, and some in college, that they don't have the capacity to make moral judgments any more because they've been told that moral judgments are bad things to make. Well, some of them are breaking through and making moral judgments about this war and we want to lend support to them. So we'll be on campuses with teach-ins -- do you remember that phrase?

ZAHN: Oh yes, I do.

BENNETT: We will be there.

ZAHN: All right, William Bennett, always good to see you. Thanks for joining us on "A.M."

BENNETT: Thank you.

ZAHN: And see you next week. He has become a regular ...

BENNETT: OK.

ZAHN: ... contributor for us here at "A.M." Have a good day.

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