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CNN Live Sunday
White House Frustrated, Impatient in Week Two of Standoff
Aired April 08, 2001 - 17:02 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.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: For the Bush administration, the second week of the standoff bringing increasing calls for resolution, tempered with a conciliatory tone. Add now, an expression of sorrow over the loss of the Chinese pilot. From Washington is CNN White House correspondent Major Garrett.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MAJOR GARRETT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From the president's personal condolences, from his national security team's signs of impatience. First: the president wrote a letter to the wife of the Chinese fighter pilot that recently called the president's conduct in the spy plane conduct in the spy plane stand off cowardly.
COLIN POWELL, SECRETARY OF STATE: She had some tougher things to say in the early part of the letter, but I think in a very humanitarian way in recognizing she has lost a husband and her son, a father, that it was appropriate for him and the traditional American spirit to respond to that with an expression of compassion for her loss.
GARRETT: But this gesture could not hide increasing U.S. frustration that 24 Americans are entering second week in Chinese custody.
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: The longer this goes on however, the more damage that will be done to the U.S.-China relationship, whether we want it to or not.
GARRETT: Senior administration officials made it clear the U.S. will not apologize, leaving a path to a breakthrough unclear.
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT: The notion that we would apologize for being in international airspace, for example, isn't something that we can accept.
GARRETT: Small scale protests outside the Chinese Embassy in Washington suggested public patience may also be wearing thin. The White House still refuses to describe the crew as hostages. But officials were irked the Chinese limited access to only eight of the 24 crew members in a recent visit.
SEN. CARL LEVIN (D-MI), ARMED SERVICES CMTE: I must tell you determination of the Chinese to try to extract an admission of responsibility in the form of an apology just reinforces their human rights as people who are willing to extract confessions, who detain people improperly.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GARRETT: The White House says the president's letter is unrelated to the ongoing negotiations to win release of the U.S. crew, but the letter could carry great weight in China and administration officials hope that it will, because it now appears it's the close the Chinese will ever get to an official U.S. apology -- Stephen.
FRAZIER: Major, I get the sense today that some of the senior administration officials are beginning to echo the comments made by Congress. Is he following their lead or is he using this in some way -- the president?
GARRETT: Well, it's hard to know for sure. There is, of course, so much going on behind the scenes right now, cloaked in diplomatic language that we don't know. But clearly, in the last 48 hours, after on Friday, the administration was expressing both publicly and privately some degree of optimism that this might be wrapped up soon, the chorus on Sunday talk shows today expressing their impatience and warning China that their relationship between the United States and their country have already been damaged and it could be worse, indicates that they don't feel they can soft pedal this crisis very much longer.
FRAZIER: In terms of United States politics, would you say there's any kind of silver lining for the administration in its dealing with Congress as it handles this?
GARRETT: There might be just one, and it's a slight one, as I might point out. Congress is on recess for two weeks and as Senator John Breaux, a Democrat from Louisiana pointed out, that prevents the White House from having to be hectored by 535 amateur secretaries of state.
The fact that Congress isn't here in Washington means that it would be hearing a cascade of speeches from the House or Senate floor, but the White House is very sensitive to public opinion and it knows acutely that this situation cannot drag on very much longer without the president being pressured to talk tougher and to do more.
FRAZIER: At the White House, Major Garrett, thank you for joining us this afternoon.
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