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CNN Saturday Morning News

Constituents Question Condit's Political Future

Aired August 04, 2001 - 08:09   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.
REA BLAKEY, CNN ANCHOR: Congressman Gary Condit is returning to California, where supporters and critics alike are questioning his political future. He remained silent, however, about the disappearance of Chandra Levy, missing for more than three months now.

We have the latest from CNN's Bob Franken in Washington -- good morning, Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Rea.

And he has a lot of explaining to do and he has gone back to where a lot of that explaining is going to have to happen. Gary Condit has left Washington with the rest of Congress, headed back to his district. But this is not the normal down time for a congressman. This is one who is, first, according to members of his staff, first going to have to spend some time repairing relations with his family. You see the congressman there getting special treatment as he's taken off the plane along with his chief of staff in Washington Mike Dayton.

And there are the cameras that greeted him as he left the plane. He is back home in Ceres, California, presumably with his family. We were told, by the way, that his wife had been here with him in Washington the last several weeks, returning to the district just a day or so before he went back. He also has plans for a variety of meetings with his constituents.

As far as the investigation is concerned, the family now is not only living in the pain of missing their daughter, Chandra Levy, but also the pain of an investigation that has apparently slowed down quite a bit, as we were getting a distinct impression of that from the chief of police here in Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF CHARLES RAMSEY, D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE: Detectives are continuing to comb through evidence and information that they've obtained. We'll continue to do that. We've searched these wooded areas so that, you know, at least that part of it now is out of the way and we're comfortable with that, although quite frankly as thick as the woods are this time of year, you know, it's still possible you could miss something with the heavy growth that you have in there.

But, we gave it our best try. DR. ROBERT LEVY, CHANDRA'S FATHER: This has been really tough. We want to thank everybody for their help and support and their love. And, you know, we just...

SUSAN LEVY, CHANDRA'S MOTHER: It's been a stressful week, just so stressful.

R. LEVY: It's always stressful and we just appreciate everybody's concern and we just hope, you know, they continue, continue to try to help us and continue with the search and, you know, and we just ask for justice. That's all we want. We just, we want justice. We want to find Chandra.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: It was a stressful week that included, of course, a couple of leads that didn't pan out. Police are looking for other ideas, ideas that might somehow get an investigation going that, after more than three months, has had no success whatsoever -- Brian.

BLAKEY: Bob, actually it's Rea here in Atlanta.

Just curious, you mentioned that the congressman will have sort of a working vacation in the sense that he'll be sort of mending bridges with his family. Any idea on what percentage of that work will be done with constituents, as well?

FRANKEN: We are told by members of his staff that he will be spending time with his constituents. We are also told by his staff -- they won't tell us his schedule. They say A, that's routine, and certainly they won't now with the media group that is out there just watching every move that they can of Congressman Condit. But he is going to make this as normal as he can, a working period. We all know, of course, this is hardly the normal working period for a congressman.

BLAKEY: All right, Bob Franken reporting from Washington. Thanks, Bob.

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