Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Interview with Gary Hart
Aired February 24, 2004 - 07:31 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Back to politics. The campaign is on. The president in full mode now. He questions John Kerry's credentials and accuses the senator of waffling on many issues.
Gary Hart, former senator and presidential candidate himself, a Kerry supporter, with us this morning in Denver, Colorado, here to share his reaction to the speech from last evening.
Senator, good morning.
GARY HART, JOHN KERRY SUPPORTER: Good morning.
HEMMER: Welcome back here to AMERICAN MORNING.
HART: Thank you.
HEMMER: Listen to a part of the speech from last night from Washington here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The other party's nomination battle is still playing out. The candidates are an interesting group with diverse opinions -- for tax cuts and against them, for NAFTA and against NAFTA, for the Patriot Act and against the Patriot Act, in favor of liberating Iraq and opposed to it. And that's just one senator from Massachusetts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: That line last night got a humorous reaction from the Republican governors there in D.C.
Your reaction to the speech last night and what you heard.
HART: Well, it's all politics all the time. I think this campaign is starting earlier than most, but it's total nonsense. I think what the president probably doesn't realize is when you're in the minority in the Senate, which I have been, you don't have a lot of choice over what -- how the votes are cast, how you frame the issues. You can't offer amendments or the amendments are rejected. And so you have to vote up or down on some fairly bad stuff.
HEMMER: Senator, here's what the White House says, though. They say that the Democrats so far have not offered a plan to fight terrorism.
HART: Well, that's nonsense...
HEMMER: What is the plan?
HART: That's nonsense, also. The fact of the matter is I co- chaired a commission which warned this administration that we would be attacked by terrorists and this administration did nothing. They had eight months, nine months to get ready. They rejected the idea of having a national homeland security agency and we were attacked. And this president better tread very carefully on this national security issue, particularly given Senator Kerry's strong war record and his war heroism. I don't think the president wants to go on a platform with him on those issues.
HEMMER: Let's go to the platform of tax cuts.
Listen to the president and what he said about that issue last night now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: By saving, spending and investing and to help create new jobs, the American people have used their money far better than the federal government would have. Our opponents have their own plan for these tax cuts. They plan to take them away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Senator Kerry is already on record saying he wants to repeal some of the Bush tax cuts.
HART: Yes.
HEMMER: Is that going to win in 2004?
HART: Yes, because the ones he wants to repeal are those for the wealthiest people in our country who don't need them and quite often don't reinvest that money. To say you're against tax cuts that haven't occurred yet is just total nonsense. The fact of the matter is this is a very unwise policy and we're $500 billion in deficit because of it.
HEMMER: Back to the issue of terrorism. You mentioned that you co-chaired a group that looked at homeland security. There's a report today in the "New York Times" that talks about German authorities notifying the CIA about a year and a half prior to the attacks of 9/11, giving the first name and a phone number for what is believed to be the man who eventually flew the plane into the South Tower here in New York City.
Your reaction to something that may or may not have gone noticed by the intel community?
HART: This all has to come out. Sixty years after Pearl Harbor, books are still being written about what we knew and what we should have known. And the same is going to be true in this case. I think everybody ought to come clean. I think the White House ought to put everything on the record for not only its own sake, but history's sake. And I would not be at all surprised if this administration did not ignore some pretty specific warnings.
HEMMER: They're saying this was a year and a half before 9/11. That would go to the previous administration, then, Senator.
HART: Well, everybody's accountable, previous administration and this one, as well.
HEMMER: Gary Hart, thanks for your time, in Denver, Colorado.
HART: A great pleasure.
Thank you.
HEMMER: We'll have live coverage later today. The CNN/"L.A. Times" Democratic presidential debate gets under way later in the week, Thursday evening, 9:00 on the East Coast, 6:00 in L.A., hosted by our own Larry King here on CNN. That's Thursday of this week.
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 February 24, 2004 - 07:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Back to politics. The campaign is on. The president in full mode now. He questions John Kerry's credentials and accuses the senator of waffling on many issues.
Gary Hart, former senator and presidential candidate himself, a Kerry supporter, with us this morning in Denver, Colorado, here to share his reaction to the speech from last evening.
Senator, good morning.
GARY HART, JOHN KERRY SUPPORTER: Good morning.
HEMMER: Welcome back here to AMERICAN MORNING.
HART: Thank you.
HEMMER: Listen to a part of the speech from last night from Washington here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The other party's nomination battle is still playing out. The candidates are an interesting group with diverse opinions -- for tax cuts and against them, for NAFTA and against NAFTA, for the Patriot Act and against the Patriot Act, in favor of liberating Iraq and opposed to it. And that's just one senator from Massachusetts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: That line last night got a humorous reaction from the Republican governors there in D.C.
Your reaction to the speech last night and what you heard.
HART: Well, it's all politics all the time. I think this campaign is starting earlier than most, but it's total nonsense. I think what the president probably doesn't realize is when you're in the minority in the Senate, which I have been, you don't have a lot of choice over what -- how the votes are cast, how you frame the issues. You can't offer amendments or the amendments are rejected. And so you have to vote up or down on some fairly bad stuff.
HEMMER: Senator, here's what the White House says, though. They say that the Democrats so far have not offered a plan to fight terrorism.
HART: Well, that's nonsense...
HEMMER: What is the plan?
HART: That's nonsense, also. The fact of the matter is I co- chaired a commission which warned this administration that we would be attacked by terrorists and this administration did nothing. They had eight months, nine months to get ready. They rejected the idea of having a national homeland security agency and we were attacked. And this president better tread very carefully on this national security issue, particularly given Senator Kerry's strong war record and his war heroism. I don't think the president wants to go on a platform with him on those issues.
HEMMER: Let's go to the platform of tax cuts.
Listen to the president and what he said about that issue last night now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: By saving, spending and investing and to help create new jobs, the American people have used their money far better than the federal government would have. Our opponents have their own plan for these tax cuts. They plan to take them away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Senator Kerry is already on record saying he wants to repeal some of the Bush tax cuts.
HART: Yes.
HEMMER: Is that going to win in 2004?
HART: Yes, because the ones he wants to repeal are those for the wealthiest people in our country who don't need them and quite often don't reinvest that money. To say you're against tax cuts that haven't occurred yet is just total nonsense. The fact of the matter is this is a very unwise policy and we're $500 billion in deficit because of it.
HEMMER: Back to the issue of terrorism. You mentioned that you co-chaired a group that looked at homeland security. There's a report today in the "New York Times" that talks about German authorities notifying the CIA about a year and a half prior to the attacks of 9/11, giving the first name and a phone number for what is believed to be the man who eventually flew the plane into the South Tower here in New York City.
Your reaction to something that may or may not have gone noticed by the intel community?
HART: This all has to come out. Sixty years after Pearl Harbor, books are still being written about what we knew and what we should have known. And the same is going to be true in this case. I think everybody ought to come clean. I think the White House ought to put everything on the record for not only its own sake, but history's sake. And I would not be at all surprised if this administration did not ignore some pretty specific warnings.
HEMMER: They're saying this was a year and a half before 9/11. That would go to the previous administration, then, Senator.
HART: Well, everybody's accountable, previous administration and this one, as well.
HEMMER: Gary Hart, thanks for your time, in Denver, Colorado.
HART: A great pleasure.
Thank you.
HEMMER: We'll have live coverage later today. The CNN/"L.A. Times" Democratic presidential debate gets under way later in the week, Thursday evening, 9:00 on the East Coast, 6:00 in L.A., hosted by our own Larry King here on CNN. That's Thursday of this week.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
