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American Morning
Interview with Chairman of Congressional Black Caucus
Aired February 26, 2004 - 08:34 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Rebel forces are poised to take the Haitian capital and overthrow President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Forces loyal to President Aristide looted the city yesterday. After three weeks of fighting, rebels now control half the country. Political opponents, along with the armed rebels, are demanding that President Aristide step down. Without a smooth transition to a new government, a refugee crisis is expected. The Coast Guard boarded a freighter just 10 miles off the coast of Miami. There were 17 Haitian nationals aboard. Some of them were armed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JESUS TORRES, IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT: We boarded the vessel, secured the vessel, secured the weapons, handcuffed everybody for safety reasons and then we're holding the vessel out at sea right now until we can determine what exactly, what happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: U.S. officials are interviewing those on board. Those who are on board claim that the freighter was hijacked. No one has left the vessel yet.
Well, members of the Congressional Black Caucus are urging President Bush to do everything in his power to prevent a human catastrophe in Haiti.
Congressman Elijah Cummings is the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus and joins us from Washington, D.C. this morning.
Nice to see you, sir.
Thanks for being with us.
REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS, CHAIRMAN, CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Members of the Congressional Black Caucus met with President Bush to tell him, really, that you're dissatisfied with the way he had been handling the situation thus far in Haiti.
Specifically, what did you have at issue with what the president's doing?
CUMMINGS: What we said was that lives are being lost daily and hourly and that we felt that the president should move a lot faster. We wanted him to do basically three things. We wanted him to establish, working with our allies, what we call a humanitarian corridor. A lot of people are dying in Haiti because they don't have sufficient clean water and food. And so we wanted him to establish a way so that organizations like the Red Cross and others might be able to bring food in and then that corridor, that humanitarian corridor be secured by the United States troops and our allies.
Another thing that we asked him for was to send anywhere from 300 to 400 troops in, along with allies, to be about the business of keeping the peace. We are worried that the longer we wait, the more people will be harmed. Of course, we are concerned about President Aristide. But our concerns not only go to Aristide, but it goes to the Haitian people. And so we realize that we must have the rule of law in Haiti before we can move to any diplomatic resolution.
We made it clear that many may disagree with the way that Mr. Aristide has governed Haiti, but the fact still remains is that he was elected as a democratic president and a democratic met -- by a democratic method. Haiti sits within 700 miles of our border and with the problems that are occurring down there, we must intervene.
O'BRIEN: There are certainly many people, though, who would say why send in U.S. troops at a time when it is clearly risky to those troops, who'd go in as peacekeepers, as you suggest -- there are 50 marines who are guarding the embassy in Haiti now, as you well know -- at the same time that it is very unclear that both sides are really willing to work toward any kind of resolution.
CUMMINGS: I think if you really listen to the statements of the rebels and certainly to Mr. Aristide, but particularly the rebels, they've basically said that they have a tremendous amount of respect for the United States. We saw the same thing in Liberia, the same expressions of -- that they admire and they respect the United States.
And so we believe that just as in '94 -- although we sent in 20,000 troops, not one person was harmed -- we believe that 300 to 400 troops going in there along with our allies could bring about the peace.
There is controversy as to whether Mr. Aristide should stay or go. But the fact is that you're not even going to be able to get to a new election and a peaceful election unless we bring some type of order and that the rebels lay down their arms.
O'BRIEN: Here is what President Bush had to say about Haitians trying to come to the shores of the United States.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have made it abundantly clear to the Coast Guard that we will turn back any refugee that attempts to reach our shore. And that message needs to be very clear, as well, to the Haitian people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Your reaction to that? CUMMINGS: What we said to President Bush yesterday is that we were concerned that this would happen, as has happened in the past, that is, that refugees would be coming to the United States illegally. But what we made very -- what we said, and we were very clear about it, was that we need to act as fast as we can to create that diplomatic resolution so that we will not have this problem.
People are going to find a way to survive. It is human nature. And so the best thing that we can do is a find a resolution so they don't want to come to the United States, so they'll feel comfortable where they are. And the president did say, to his credit, that he would give consideration to our requests. As a matter of fact, the statement that he issued last evening was one which he promised to make as a result of our meeting on yesterday.
O'BRIEN: Congressman...
CUMMINGS: So we believe we'll hear from the president today, we believe, and I think we'll see some progress.
O'BRIEN: All right, Congressman Elijah Cummings joining us this morning.
Nice to see you, sir.
Thanks for joining us.
CUMMINGS: 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 February 26, 2004 - 08:34 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Rebel forces are poised to take the Haitian capital and overthrow President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Forces loyal to President Aristide looted the city yesterday. After three weeks of fighting, rebels now control half the country. Political opponents, along with the armed rebels, are demanding that President Aristide step down. Without a smooth transition to a new government, a refugee crisis is expected. The Coast Guard boarded a freighter just 10 miles off the coast of Miami. There were 17 Haitian nationals aboard. Some of them were armed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JESUS TORRES, IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT: We boarded the vessel, secured the vessel, secured the weapons, handcuffed everybody for safety reasons and then we're holding the vessel out at sea right now until we can determine what exactly, what happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: U.S. officials are interviewing those on board. Those who are on board claim that the freighter was hijacked. No one has left the vessel yet.
Well, members of the Congressional Black Caucus are urging President Bush to do everything in his power to prevent a human catastrophe in Haiti.
Congressman Elijah Cummings is the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus and joins us from Washington, D.C. this morning.
Nice to see you, sir.
Thanks for being with us.
REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS, CHAIRMAN, CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Members of the Congressional Black Caucus met with President Bush to tell him, really, that you're dissatisfied with the way he had been handling the situation thus far in Haiti.
Specifically, what did you have at issue with what the president's doing?
CUMMINGS: What we said was that lives are being lost daily and hourly and that we felt that the president should move a lot faster. We wanted him to do basically three things. We wanted him to establish, working with our allies, what we call a humanitarian corridor. A lot of people are dying in Haiti because they don't have sufficient clean water and food. And so we wanted him to establish a way so that organizations like the Red Cross and others might be able to bring food in and then that corridor, that humanitarian corridor be secured by the United States troops and our allies.
Another thing that we asked him for was to send anywhere from 300 to 400 troops in, along with allies, to be about the business of keeping the peace. We are worried that the longer we wait, the more people will be harmed. Of course, we are concerned about President Aristide. But our concerns not only go to Aristide, but it goes to the Haitian people. And so we realize that we must have the rule of law in Haiti before we can move to any diplomatic resolution.
We made it clear that many may disagree with the way that Mr. Aristide has governed Haiti, but the fact still remains is that he was elected as a democratic president and a democratic met -- by a democratic method. Haiti sits within 700 miles of our border and with the problems that are occurring down there, we must intervene.
O'BRIEN: There are certainly many people, though, who would say why send in U.S. troops at a time when it is clearly risky to those troops, who'd go in as peacekeepers, as you suggest -- there are 50 marines who are guarding the embassy in Haiti now, as you well know -- at the same time that it is very unclear that both sides are really willing to work toward any kind of resolution.
CUMMINGS: I think if you really listen to the statements of the rebels and certainly to Mr. Aristide, but particularly the rebels, they've basically said that they have a tremendous amount of respect for the United States. We saw the same thing in Liberia, the same expressions of -- that they admire and they respect the United States.
And so we believe that just as in '94 -- although we sent in 20,000 troops, not one person was harmed -- we believe that 300 to 400 troops going in there along with our allies could bring about the peace.
There is controversy as to whether Mr. Aristide should stay or go. But the fact is that you're not even going to be able to get to a new election and a peaceful election unless we bring some type of order and that the rebels lay down their arms.
O'BRIEN: Here is what President Bush had to say about Haitians trying to come to the shores of the United States.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have made it abundantly clear to the Coast Guard that we will turn back any refugee that attempts to reach our shore. And that message needs to be very clear, as well, to the Haitian people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Your reaction to that? CUMMINGS: What we said to President Bush yesterday is that we were concerned that this would happen, as has happened in the past, that is, that refugees would be coming to the United States illegally. But what we made very -- what we said, and we were very clear about it, was that we need to act as fast as we can to create that diplomatic resolution so that we will not have this problem.
People are going to find a way to survive. It is human nature. And so the best thing that we can do is a find a resolution so they don't want to come to the United States, so they'll feel comfortable where they are. And the president did say, to his credit, that he would give consideration to our requests. As a matter of fact, the statement that he issued last evening was one which he promised to make as a result of our meeting on yesterday.
O'BRIEN: Congressman...
CUMMINGS: So we believe we'll hear from the president today, we believe, and I think we'll see some progress.
O'BRIEN: All right, Congressman Elijah Cummings joining us this morning.
Nice to see you, sir.
Thanks for joining us.
CUMMINGS: 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
