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CNN Saturday Morning News
White House Says North Korea Using Blackmail
Aired January 04, 2003 - 09:14 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.
HIEDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Now let's go ahead and get the view from the Bush administration and the western White House. CNN White House correspondent Dana Bash is at the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas, this morning.
Dana, North Korea is calling for one-on-one talks again. So what is the administration's response to that?
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Heidi, as you heard in Lisa's report, the administration is saying, No way, really. They're saying, as they have been saying over the past two weeks, that they will not give in to what they say really is blackmail. They won't have one-on-one negotiations.
But they say that they will continue to work through the international community, to work through North Korea's allies. They do have talks planned for early next week here in Washington with representatives of South Korea and Japan to try to talk -- figure out a strategy on dealing with North Korea.
And they also will throw their support behind a plan for the IAEA to really rebuke North Korea for what they're doing.
So they are going to continue dialogue, so to speak, but not directly with North Korea, but just really with its allies.
COLLINS: Going on now, incoming Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle blasted the president's economic stimulus plan in the radio address this morning. What is Bush's plan? Why do you see so much criticism there?
BASH: Well, the Bush administration certainly was prepared for this. They knew that they were going to get attacked by Democrats, who say that they really are out for the wealthy, it's what the Democrats have been saying all along, since the Bush administration took office and since they passed their first large tax cut in 2001.
But what they are saying is that they have a plan that the president will unveil on Tuesday, which they say will stimulate the economy. It's largely tax cuts for people and for businesses. But the Bush administration says that it will help create jobs and it will help those people who don't have jobs.
COLLINS: And interesting too, Dana, I know that he's going ahead quickly this week trying to impress Congress. But his economic team, the new team, is really not in place, right? BASH: That's right. One of the things that, that, that, that was really first out of the gate when Congress comes back is getting his treasury secretary, the nominee, John Snow, confirmed. They hope that that's going to happen very quickly, because they do need to start working on getting this, getting this plan that they have through Congress.
And, of course, remember, the Republicans are now in control of Congress. So they have a lot at stake here. It's really their responsibility to get this through, whereas last year they could blame the Democrats if they couldn't do it.
COLLINS: That's right. And we'll all be listening this week. All right, Dana Bash from Crawford, Texas, thanks.
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 4, 2003 - 09:14 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HIEDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Now let's go ahead and get the view from the Bush administration and the western White House. CNN White House correspondent Dana Bash is at the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas, this morning.
Dana, North Korea is calling for one-on-one talks again. So what is the administration's response to that?
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Heidi, as you heard in Lisa's report, the administration is saying, No way, really. They're saying, as they have been saying over the past two weeks, that they will not give in to what they say really is blackmail. They won't have one-on-one negotiations.
But they say that they will continue to work through the international community, to work through North Korea's allies. They do have talks planned for early next week here in Washington with representatives of South Korea and Japan to try to talk -- figure out a strategy on dealing with North Korea.
And they also will throw their support behind a plan for the IAEA to really rebuke North Korea for what they're doing.
So they are going to continue dialogue, so to speak, but not directly with North Korea, but just really with its allies.
COLLINS: Going on now, incoming Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle blasted the president's economic stimulus plan in the radio address this morning. What is Bush's plan? Why do you see so much criticism there?
BASH: Well, the Bush administration certainly was prepared for this. They knew that they were going to get attacked by Democrats, who say that they really are out for the wealthy, it's what the Democrats have been saying all along, since the Bush administration took office and since they passed their first large tax cut in 2001.
But what they are saying is that they have a plan that the president will unveil on Tuesday, which they say will stimulate the economy. It's largely tax cuts for people and for businesses. But the Bush administration says that it will help create jobs and it will help those people who don't have jobs.
COLLINS: And interesting too, Dana, I know that he's going ahead quickly this week trying to impress Congress. But his economic team, the new team, is really not in place, right? BASH: That's right. One of the things that, that, that, that was really first out of the gate when Congress comes back is getting his treasury secretary, the nominee, John Snow, confirmed. They hope that that's going to happen very quickly, because they do need to start working on getting this, getting this plan that they have through Congress.
And, of course, remember, the Republicans are now in control of Congress. So they have a lot at stake here. It's really their responsibility to get this through, whereas last year they could blame the Democrats if they couldn't do it.
COLLINS: That's right. And we'll all be listening this week. All right, Dana Bash from Crawford, Texas, thanks.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
