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American Morning
Interview with Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS)
Aired October 02, 2002 - 08:19 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Iraq's certainly on the menu this morning at the White House. President Bush meeting with top congressional leaders for breakfast.
Fresh from that meeting, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott is with us now live this morning on AMERICAN MORNING.
Good morning, Senator.
Good to see you again.
TRENT LOTT (R-MS), SENATE MINORITY LEADER: Good morning. Glad to be back with you.
HEMMER: We, listen, we can go round and round on the whole U.N. resolution deal and what's going to happen in the Senate, what may or may not happen in the House. The question we consistently hear from viewers is this. Is the U.S. going to war with Iraq?
LOTT: That is a distinct possibility, but we're going to explore all other possibilities first. The president has come to the Congress and asked for our involvement in developing a resolution outlining the problems with Iraq and what the United Nations Security Council has already said should be done, outlining the need for the authority to take action if we must. He's gone to the United Nations Security Council. Secretary Colin Powell was there working on a resolution. He has been talking to our allies around the world, the leaders of all the countries in the world, quite frankly. And obviously we'd like to have inspectors go in unfettered, find the weapons of mass destruction and destroy them.
If that happened, then military action would not be necessary. But we have got to act in this area because it is a threat to his own people, to the region and to the world, and to the American people.
HEMMER: All right, that's one issue, Senator.
Here's another one for you this morning. The White House right now does not want these inspectors to go back into Baghdad unless it has this new tougher resolution. Can the U.S. right now stop inspectors from going back in if they do not get that tougher resolution?
LOTT: Oh, I think we can, and I think we do need completely unfettered, total access. I mean, once again, Saddam Hussein is up to his old tricks. Oh, yes, bring the inspectors in, but you can't go to this 12 square miles of area. They will, I'm sure, you know, try to keep us from finding where these things are. We're going to have to go to all kind of lengths to try to get informants and try to get people to give us information about where these weapons may be.
But we are still pushing very hard to get the world community to join us and to get Iraq to do what they have not done for 11 years now. Remember this. We know what the track record is. He has refused to allow complete inspections. We're not talking about just finding them, we're talking about destroying these weapons of mass destruction, which do include chemical and biological, which don't have to be delivered, by the way, by a missile or a bomb. They can be delivered perhaps even in an envelope. And that's very scary. And that's what really worries us about the possibility of some terrorists getting access to some of the things we know they have in Iraq.
HEMMER: Understood. Understood. Ari Fleischer yesterday suggested it would be easier and cheaper to use a single bullet to take out the Iraqi leader. Do you agree?
LOTT: Well, it certainly would be easier and it would be cheaper. But we do have an executive order in America on the books that says that we don't assassinate leaders of other countries in the world, whether we like it or not. I mean he is a dictator. He wasn't democratically elected, but he is the leader. And we are, we don't support that kind of policy.
You can argue about whether that's the right policy or not, but, in fact, that is our policy.
HEMMER: David Kay, a former weapons inspector, was on the air live with us an hour ago and he said he cannot understand why the U.N. would be so happy with the agreement reached in Vienna yesterday. He says it's the same deal that was set up four years ago in 1998 when the inspectors were pulled out.
Do you have a better understanding as to why the folks in Vienna would be content with what they've negotiated right now in terms of getting in on the ground and stopping Saddam Hussein and whatever he's up to?
LOTT: Well, Saddam Hussein may have all kinds of problems, but he proven he's pretty adept at public relations. Plus, there are people in Vienna and the United Nations that are so anxious for something to appear to happen, they don't seem to really care whether it's really effective or not.
But I think that the National Security Council, the leaders of the world are going to see through this. They're not going to accept just, you know, a show of letting the inspectors in. This is going to have to be real. It's going to have to be total. It's going to have to be unrestricted or we're wasting our time.
HEMMER: Got it.
LOTT: So that's where we have to go.
HEMMER: Need a quick answer on this one, Senator. You said 10 minutes ago progress is being made on bipartisan language. How far away are you from that? Five seconds. We've got to run.
LOTT: Well, on a homeland security department, we made some progress yesterday. I'm hoping we can come together on that. On the Iraqi resolution, the House has shown leadership. The Speaker, Congressman Gephardt have come to an agreement. The Senate, as usual, is taking a little more time, but we're planning to get there and give the president the authority he needs.
HEMMER: Thank you, Senator.
LOTT: Sure.
HEMMER: Trent Lott, front lawn of the White House in D.C.
Good to talk to you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired October 2, 2002 - 08:19 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Iraq's certainly on the menu this morning at the White House. President Bush meeting with top congressional leaders for breakfast.
Fresh from that meeting, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott is with us now live this morning on AMERICAN MORNING.
Good morning, Senator.
Good to see you again.
TRENT LOTT (R-MS), SENATE MINORITY LEADER: Good morning. Glad to be back with you.
HEMMER: We, listen, we can go round and round on the whole U.N. resolution deal and what's going to happen in the Senate, what may or may not happen in the House. The question we consistently hear from viewers is this. Is the U.S. going to war with Iraq?
LOTT: That is a distinct possibility, but we're going to explore all other possibilities first. The president has come to the Congress and asked for our involvement in developing a resolution outlining the problems with Iraq and what the United Nations Security Council has already said should be done, outlining the need for the authority to take action if we must. He's gone to the United Nations Security Council. Secretary Colin Powell was there working on a resolution. He has been talking to our allies around the world, the leaders of all the countries in the world, quite frankly. And obviously we'd like to have inspectors go in unfettered, find the weapons of mass destruction and destroy them.
If that happened, then military action would not be necessary. But we have got to act in this area because it is a threat to his own people, to the region and to the world, and to the American people.
HEMMER: All right, that's one issue, Senator.
Here's another one for you this morning. The White House right now does not want these inspectors to go back into Baghdad unless it has this new tougher resolution. Can the U.S. right now stop inspectors from going back in if they do not get that tougher resolution?
LOTT: Oh, I think we can, and I think we do need completely unfettered, total access. I mean, once again, Saddam Hussein is up to his old tricks. Oh, yes, bring the inspectors in, but you can't go to this 12 square miles of area. They will, I'm sure, you know, try to keep us from finding where these things are. We're going to have to go to all kind of lengths to try to get informants and try to get people to give us information about where these weapons may be.
But we are still pushing very hard to get the world community to join us and to get Iraq to do what they have not done for 11 years now. Remember this. We know what the track record is. He has refused to allow complete inspections. We're not talking about just finding them, we're talking about destroying these weapons of mass destruction, which do include chemical and biological, which don't have to be delivered, by the way, by a missile or a bomb. They can be delivered perhaps even in an envelope. And that's very scary. And that's what really worries us about the possibility of some terrorists getting access to some of the things we know they have in Iraq.
HEMMER: Understood. Understood. Ari Fleischer yesterday suggested it would be easier and cheaper to use a single bullet to take out the Iraqi leader. Do you agree?
LOTT: Well, it certainly would be easier and it would be cheaper. But we do have an executive order in America on the books that says that we don't assassinate leaders of other countries in the world, whether we like it or not. I mean he is a dictator. He wasn't democratically elected, but he is the leader. And we are, we don't support that kind of policy.
You can argue about whether that's the right policy or not, but, in fact, that is our policy.
HEMMER: David Kay, a former weapons inspector, was on the air live with us an hour ago and he said he cannot understand why the U.N. would be so happy with the agreement reached in Vienna yesterday. He says it's the same deal that was set up four years ago in 1998 when the inspectors were pulled out.
Do you have a better understanding as to why the folks in Vienna would be content with what they've negotiated right now in terms of getting in on the ground and stopping Saddam Hussein and whatever he's up to?
LOTT: Well, Saddam Hussein may have all kinds of problems, but he proven he's pretty adept at public relations. Plus, there are people in Vienna and the United Nations that are so anxious for something to appear to happen, they don't seem to really care whether it's really effective or not.
But I think that the National Security Council, the leaders of the world are going to see through this. They're not going to accept just, you know, a show of letting the inspectors in. This is going to have to be real. It's going to have to be total. It's going to have to be unrestricted or we're wasting our time.
HEMMER: Got it.
LOTT: So that's where we have to go.
HEMMER: Need a quick answer on this one, Senator. You said 10 minutes ago progress is being made on bipartisan language. How far away are you from that? Five seconds. We've got to run.
LOTT: Well, on a homeland security department, we made some progress yesterday. I'm hoping we can come together on that. On the Iraqi resolution, the House has shown leadership. The Speaker, Congressman Gephardt have come to an agreement. The Senate, as usual, is taking a little more time, but we're planning to get there and give the president the authority he needs.
HEMMER: Thank you, Senator.
LOTT: Sure.
HEMMER: Trent Lott, front lawn of the White House in D.C.
Good to talk to you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
