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American Morning

Lott Apologizes for Comments

Aired December 10, 2002 - 09:31   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: Time to turn our attention to Senator Trent Lott and his apology. During a 100th birthday celebration for South Carolina's Strom Thurmond, Lott said the nation might be better off if Thurmond had been elected president in 1948.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TRENT LOTT (R), MISSISSIPPI: I want to say this about my state. When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years either.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Well, the fallout from that has spread far and wide. Jonathan Karl joins us now from Capitol Hill with the latest on all of that -- Jonathan, good morning.

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. Well, after four days of being relatively defensive on this subject and not apologizing for it but simply insisting that he was joking at a birthday celebration, Trent Lott, last night, pretty late last night, Paula, issued this apology.

He said, -- quote -- "A poor choice of words conveyed to some the impression that I embraced the discarded policies of the past. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I apologize to anyone who was offended by my statement."

That was the statement that Trent Lott put out last night. It followed an interview yesterday on CNN with Vice President Al Gore where -- the former Vice President Al Gore, where he said that Lott must apologize, and if he doesn't, he should be censured by the U.S. Senate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AL GORE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Strom Thurmond, God bless him, has changed. Trent Lott has not, to say that a segregationist should have become president and that that would have avoided a lot of the problems that we have now, that is racist. That's racist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KARL: Now Senator Lott's spokesperson says that this is not something that came in response to the former vice president's comments or the other people who criticized him. If you remember, Jesse Jackson actually said Trent Lott should resign for those comments, but Lott's spokesperson said Lott made the apology simply because he has a real concern that some people may have misconstrued his remarks -- Paula.

ZAHN: Is anybody saying this is going to affect his ability to become Senate majority leader again?

KARL: Well, no, although there is certainly a lot of second guessing about how he handled this. I spoke to one senator this morning who said that what Lott should have done is kind of like take off a Band-Aid. You take it all off at once. He should have apologized immediately and put this beyond him, instead of letting it go on for four, almost five days.

But Lott, in point of fact, has already been elected the majority leader. Those elections happen on November 13, and this is not the kind of thing that would create a revolt that would result in him losing his job. Not at all.

ZAHN: So, is the sense there that this is over, that this apology buttons it all up, or is there still a mess to clean up?

KARL: Well, the sense is that it is over for now, but it certainly is a mess that will come up again. You can imagine that Democrats would use this in certain targeted places in future elections, especially regarding the African-American vote in various places, so it is an issue that certainly may come back to haunt Trent Lott in the future. For now, though, it looks like the story is over for now.

ZAHN: Jonathan Karl, thanks for the update. Appreciate it.

KARL: Sure.

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 December 10, 2002 - 09:31   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Time to turn our attention to Senator Trent Lott and his apology. During a 100th birthday celebration for South Carolina's Strom Thurmond, Lott said the nation might be better off if Thurmond had been elected president in 1948.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TRENT LOTT (R), MISSISSIPPI: I want to say this about my state. When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years either.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Well, the fallout from that has spread far and wide. Jonathan Karl joins us now from Capitol Hill with the latest on all of that -- Jonathan, good morning.

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. Well, after four days of being relatively defensive on this subject and not apologizing for it but simply insisting that he was joking at a birthday celebration, Trent Lott, last night, pretty late last night, Paula, issued this apology.

He said, -- quote -- "A poor choice of words conveyed to some the impression that I embraced the discarded policies of the past. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I apologize to anyone who was offended by my statement."

That was the statement that Trent Lott put out last night. It followed an interview yesterday on CNN with Vice President Al Gore where -- the former Vice President Al Gore, where he said that Lott must apologize, and if he doesn't, he should be censured by the U.S. Senate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AL GORE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Strom Thurmond, God bless him, has changed. Trent Lott has not, to say that a segregationist should have become president and that that would have avoided a lot of the problems that we have now, that is racist. That's racist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KARL: Now Senator Lott's spokesperson says that this is not something that came in response to the former vice president's comments or the other people who criticized him. If you remember, Jesse Jackson actually said Trent Lott should resign for those comments, but Lott's spokesperson said Lott made the apology simply because he has a real concern that some people may have misconstrued his remarks -- Paula.

ZAHN: Is anybody saying this is going to affect his ability to become Senate majority leader again?

KARL: Well, no, although there is certainly a lot of second guessing about how he handled this. I spoke to one senator this morning who said that what Lott should have done is kind of like take off a Band-Aid. You take it all off at once. He should have apologized immediately and put this beyond him, instead of letting it go on for four, almost five days.

But Lott, in point of fact, has already been elected the majority leader. Those elections happen on November 13, and this is not the kind of thing that would create a revolt that would result in him losing his job. Not at all.

ZAHN: So, is the sense there that this is over, that this apology buttons it all up, or is there still a mess to clean up?

KARL: Well, the sense is that it is over for now, but it certainly is a mess that will come up again. You can imagine that Democrats would use this in certain targeted places in future elections, especially regarding the African-American vote in various places, so it is an issue that certainly may come back to haunt Trent Lott in the future. For now, though, it looks like the story is over for now.

ZAHN: Jonathan Karl, thanks for the update. Appreciate it.

KARL: Sure.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com