Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Kennedy Attacks Bush

Aired January 15, 2004 - 09:06   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: Senator Ted Kennedy, Democrat from Massachusetts, says that the war in Iraq could become, quote, "one of the worst blunders in more than two centuries of American foreign policy." Yesterday he launched a scathing attack at the White House and at Congress.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: I believe that this administration is indeed leading this country to a perilous place. It has broken faith with the American people, aided and abetted by a congressional majority willing to pursue ideology at any price, even the price of distorting the truth.

The administration and the majority in Congress have put the state of our union at risk, and they do not deserve another term in the White House or in control of Congress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Senator Kennedy now live with us today, the day after in D.C.

Good morning, Senator. Thanks for your time here on "American Morning."

KENNEDY: Good morning.

HEMMER: The criticism's coming back your way now. Republican Tom DeLay said this after your speech yesterday: "Kennedy's hateful attack against the commander in chief would be disgusting if it were not so sad. In his speech Ted Kennedy insulted the president's patriotism, accused the Republican Party of treason, and resurrected the weak and indecisive foreign policy of Jimmy Carter and Michael Dukakis."

Your response today on that is what, Senator?

KENNEDY: Garbage. I just -- ask Tom DeLay to read the speech.

HEMMER: You allege that the White House set out to attack Iraq before the events of 9/11. You also allege in your speech yesterday that the voting is set up, the transfer of power anyway in late June, timed to the election for the White House in '04. How do you back up those claims?

KENNEDY: Well, first of all, as we have seen with Paul O'Neill and it's increasingly evident that this administration came in with a hidden agenda and that was to go to war with Iraq.

And what we have seen over the period of these past months is how this administration has really cooked the books with regards to intelligence. It's distorted it. It's misrepresented it. It's manipulated it. And it effectively convinced the American people to its case that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11, that the Al Qaida was very much involved in the attacks on -- with Iraq, and 9/11, that they had nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. All of that is false.

HEMMER: Where does the -- back to the original question, if I could just interject here, where is the evidence you say that war was declared on Saddam Hussein privately at the White House before the attacks of September 11th? KENNEDY: Just if you had the opportunity to read the speech, you can start off with Paul O'Neill, who has put a book out and now has been bitterly attacked by the president of the United States. And ABC has got independent confirmation that in the discussion in the first meeting in the White House, they talked about the military option, all of the time that the White House representing that they hadn't even considered the military option. That's just at the very beginning.

But there's no question that this administration cooked the books with regards to intelligence. They represented that Saddam Hussein had nuclear weapons, weapons of mass destruction, that American service men were going to be treated as liberators, that Al Qaida was over there. All of this is false.

The point that I'm making is if they were going to go to war, if they were going to go to war to remove Saddam Hussein -- and no one carries a brief for Saddam Hussein, but we have to ask ourselves whether Saddam Hussein was an imminent threat to the United States. If they were going to go to war and believe it, they should have leveled with the American people. They didn't. That's my point.

And by not leveling with the American people, they show a disdain for the American people and for the institutions, and they misrepresented the intelligence and scared this country and brought us to war.

And I do not believe that the war with Iraq is making the United States safer today. It's diverted our attention from Al Qaida and has not helped us in the war on terror.

HEMMER: You've endorsed John Kerry, a senator from your home state.

KENNEDY: Sure.

HEMMER: He's voted for the war. Howard Dean's been against it. You're throwing your support behind Senator Kerry. Is that a bit of a mixed message though based on what you're saying today?

KENNEDY: Absolutely not. Absolutely not.

HEMMER: Why not? KENNEDY: I've known John Kerry for 35 years. I was out in the -- outside the Capitol when he came back as a young hero, a lieutenant and who spoke to the Congress about ending the war in Vietnam.

I've worked with him for 18 years on foreign policy, national security and defense. I strongly support him.

We need a steady hand at the helm of this country. We have seen now an administration that has distorted and misrepresented intelligence. We need a steady hand, a consistent hand and that hand is John Kerry.

And I understand he's on fire out there in Iowa. I'm looking forward to going back out.

HEMMER: Why don't we talk about that quickly here, the dog fight in Iowa, with these Democratic candidates really beating on each other just about every day, even more so yesterday than we've seen in the past? What does that dog fight suggest to you about the current state of your party, a party that you've worked doggedly for for about three decades?

KENNEDY: Well, now, look, let's go back to 1960: Hubert Humphrey ran, Stu Symington ran, Lyndon Johnson ran, Adlai Stevenson was running, President Kennedy was running. It was a hotly contested battle at that time. We eventually had our convention, we got behind, that time President Kennedy went on to win the election.

The fact is the differences between all of these candidates and President Bush is the dramatic difference. And what happens in these campaigns is they try and point out the differences that exist between themselves on this.

And I think this process is working. I think we'll have a strong nominee. I think my candidate, John Kerry, has now demonstrated that he's a fighter. People are paying attention in this campaign to his message. I was out there. He's connecting, and I'm very hopeful that he'll have a real surprise on Monday night.

HEMMER: We'll see on Monday. Thank you, Senator.

KENNEDY: OK. Thank 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 January 15, 2004 - 09:06   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Senator Ted Kennedy, Democrat from Massachusetts, says that the war in Iraq could become, quote, "one of the worst blunders in more than two centuries of American foreign policy." Yesterday he launched a scathing attack at the White House and at Congress.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: I believe that this administration is indeed leading this country to a perilous place. It has broken faith with the American people, aided and abetted by a congressional majority willing to pursue ideology at any price, even the price of distorting the truth.

The administration and the majority in Congress have put the state of our union at risk, and they do not deserve another term in the White House or in control of Congress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: Senator Kennedy now live with us today, the day after in D.C.

Good morning, Senator. Thanks for your time here on "American Morning."

KENNEDY: Good morning.

HEMMER: The criticism's coming back your way now. Republican Tom DeLay said this after your speech yesterday: "Kennedy's hateful attack against the commander in chief would be disgusting if it were not so sad. In his speech Ted Kennedy insulted the president's patriotism, accused the Republican Party of treason, and resurrected the weak and indecisive foreign policy of Jimmy Carter and Michael Dukakis."

Your response today on that is what, Senator?

KENNEDY: Garbage. I just -- ask Tom DeLay to read the speech.

HEMMER: You allege that the White House set out to attack Iraq before the events of 9/11. You also allege in your speech yesterday that the voting is set up, the transfer of power anyway in late June, timed to the election for the White House in '04. How do you back up those claims?

KENNEDY: Well, first of all, as we have seen with Paul O'Neill and it's increasingly evident that this administration came in with a hidden agenda and that was to go to war with Iraq.

And what we have seen over the period of these past months is how this administration has really cooked the books with regards to intelligence. It's distorted it. It's misrepresented it. It's manipulated it. And it effectively convinced the American people to its case that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11, that the Al Qaida was very much involved in the attacks on -- with Iraq, and 9/11, that they had nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. All of that is false.

HEMMER: Where does the -- back to the original question, if I could just interject here, where is the evidence you say that war was declared on Saddam Hussein privately at the White House before the attacks of September 11th? KENNEDY: Just if you had the opportunity to read the speech, you can start off with Paul O'Neill, who has put a book out and now has been bitterly attacked by the president of the United States. And ABC has got independent confirmation that in the discussion in the first meeting in the White House, they talked about the military option, all of the time that the White House representing that they hadn't even considered the military option. That's just at the very beginning.

But there's no question that this administration cooked the books with regards to intelligence. They represented that Saddam Hussein had nuclear weapons, weapons of mass destruction, that American service men were going to be treated as liberators, that Al Qaida was over there. All of this is false.

The point that I'm making is if they were going to go to war, if they were going to go to war to remove Saddam Hussein -- and no one carries a brief for Saddam Hussein, but we have to ask ourselves whether Saddam Hussein was an imminent threat to the United States. If they were going to go to war and believe it, they should have leveled with the American people. They didn't. That's my point.

And by not leveling with the American people, they show a disdain for the American people and for the institutions, and they misrepresented the intelligence and scared this country and brought us to war.

And I do not believe that the war with Iraq is making the United States safer today. It's diverted our attention from Al Qaida and has not helped us in the war on terror.

HEMMER: You've endorsed John Kerry, a senator from your home state.

KENNEDY: Sure.

HEMMER: He's voted for the war. Howard Dean's been against it. You're throwing your support behind Senator Kerry. Is that a bit of a mixed message though based on what you're saying today?

KENNEDY: Absolutely not. Absolutely not.

HEMMER: Why not? KENNEDY: I've known John Kerry for 35 years. I was out in the -- outside the Capitol when he came back as a young hero, a lieutenant and who spoke to the Congress about ending the war in Vietnam.

I've worked with him for 18 years on foreign policy, national security and defense. I strongly support him.

We need a steady hand at the helm of this country. We have seen now an administration that has distorted and misrepresented intelligence. We need a steady hand, a consistent hand and that hand is John Kerry.

And I understand he's on fire out there in Iowa. I'm looking forward to going back out.

HEMMER: Why don't we talk about that quickly here, the dog fight in Iowa, with these Democratic candidates really beating on each other just about every day, even more so yesterday than we've seen in the past? What does that dog fight suggest to you about the current state of your party, a party that you've worked doggedly for for about three decades?

KENNEDY: Well, now, look, let's go back to 1960: Hubert Humphrey ran, Stu Symington ran, Lyndon Johnson ran, Adlai Stevenson was running, President Kennedy was running. It was a hotly contested battle at that time. We eventually had our convention, we got behind, that time President Kennedy went on to win the election.

The fact is the differences between all of these candidates and President Bush is the dramatic difference. And what happens in these campaigns is they try and point out the differences that exist between themselves on this.

And I think this process is working. I think we'll have a strong nominee. I think my candidate, John Kerry, has now demonstrated that he's a fighter. People are paying attention in this campaign to his message. I was out there. He's connecting, and I'm very hopeful that he'll have a real surprise on Monday night.

HEMMER: We'll see on Monday. Thank you, Senator.

KENNEDY: OK. Thank 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