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CNN Live Sunday

Enron Collapse Brings Bush Administration Under Scrutiny

Aired January 13, 2002 - 18:07   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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The Enron collapse continues to reverberate in Washington. Top Bush administration officials today appeared on Sunday news programs to shed more light on their contacts with the energy giant.

CNN senior White House correspondent John King joins us now with more -- John.

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good evening to you Carol.

We learned more about those contact today. We also saw a shift, if you will, in the Democratic focus in its criticism of the Bush administration for its dealing with Enron before Enron filed for bankruptcy.

One Democratic criticism is two secretaries in the Bush Cabinet -- Don Evans in Commerce, Paul O'Neill at Treasury -- had phone calls from the top official at Enron, the CEO and the Chairman Ken Lay in the weeks prior to Enron's filing bankruptcy. Many Democrats say Secretary Evans and O'Neill had a responsibility to give a public warning so that shareholders and employees at the company who were continuing to buy the stock had some indication the company's finances were headed south.

Secretaries O'Neill and Evans dismissing that today, saying they were told nothing by Ken Lay that wasn't available in the public domain. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill says yes, he had two conversation with Ken Lay, but he considered them routine; and he says there was no reason at all to tell the president.

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PAUL O'NEILL, TREASURY SECRETARY: Well again, you know, if you put this in the context of what's going on -- the president's prosecuting a war against the terrorists. You know, I have been involved in big league events for, I don't know, most of the last 40 years. I didn't think this was worthy of me running across the street and telling the president. I don't go across the street and tell the president every time somebody calls me.

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KING: Secretary Evans said today that Ken Lay did ask for his help, but that he refused and decline to intervene. Secretary Evans also disclosed that several weeks after that phone call he did tell the White House Chief of Staff Andy Card. He says Andy Card did not tell the president; that, in fact, that the president learned about all these phone calls from Ken Lay to the members of his Cabinet just last Thursday, a full two months after the fact.

As all this plays out, four committees in Congress looking into it. Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, the Democratic vice presidential candidate in the last election, is the chairman of one. He says Democrats have many questions of the administration, but that so far he sees no evidence of any wrongdoing.

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SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: I have not seen any evidence up to this time that officials of the Bush administration acted improperly with regard to Enron. In fact, based on the stories that are being told, I'd say that the Cabinet members in the Bush administration who were called by Enron executives for help as the company was about to go into bankruptcy acted properly by not giving any help.

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KING: Still, other Democrats say they want men many more details of any and all administration dealings with Enron -- not just in the weeks before its bankruptcy. Democrats want to know if the administration made any regulatory or other policy decisions that could have benefited the company once its top officials here in the administration found out that Enron was in trouble.

Bush officials saying they will cooperate with those congressional investigations and, indeed, are investigating the company from the administration's standpoint. They say in the end it will be proven the administration did nothing wrong.

But again Carol, Democrats have questions. The political side of this inquiry could go on for weeks, if not months.

LIN: All unfolding as we speak. Thank you very much. John King reporting live from the White House tonight.

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