CNN Judy Woodruff's Inside Politics - Transcript
CNN
SHOW: JUDY WOODRUFF'S INSIDE POLITICS 15:30
HEADLINE: 9/11 Investigation: Capitol Hill Clashes; Politics of Gas Prices
GUESTS: Ron Brownstein, Craig Gilbert
BYLINE: Candy Crowley, Joe Johns, Kelly Wallace, Daniel Sieberg, Dana Bash, William Schneider, Bruce Morton
HIGHLIGHT:
Fallout from the 9/11 investigation remain as source of friction on Capitol Hill.; Flash point between the Kerry and Bush campaigns: gas prices.; The latest in campaign tools.; Interview with Craig Gilbert.
BODY:
CROWLEY: We want to remind you that we are expecting President Bush to appear in the White House briefing room now at about 4:45. We expect him to be discussing the White House decision to allow his national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to testify under oath and in public to the 9/11 Commission.
Earlier today I discussed the 9/11 investigation and the testimony of Rice with Republican Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia. I started by asking Senator McConnell what's behind the change of heart and why Rice will now testify in public and under oath.
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SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), KENTUCKY: I think it certainly was a smart thing to do. It was hard to explain the legalistic argument surrounding presidential aides not testifying. That has been the case over the years. But she's such a marvelous spokesman. This is such an unusual situation that I'm glad she is going to testify. She's one of the best people in the administration to make these kinds of public appearances and she, of course, knows what happened.
CROWLEY: So, Senator Rockefeller, I'm going to sort of somehow interpret this answer from Senator McConnell and say, did politics push the White House or the perception of what was going on, push the White House into agreeing to let her testify?
SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D), WEST VIRGINIA: I'm not sure if politics pushed them, Candy, but I think that the-I think the public opinion did. And I think they made the right decision. Primarily because Condi Rice is the direct link between the intelligence community and the Oval Office. And the American public, I think, has a right to understand how all of that evolved and I think after her testimony, which I hope will not be selectively declassified, the American public will have that understanding.
CROWLEY: Well, let me go to the question of politics because it seems to me-and it's borne out to certain extent in our polls that people are now beginning to look at the causes pre-9/11 of missing some information or what has happened post-9/11 in a very political light. Is there-how much burden does Congress bear for this?
MCCONNELL: Well, there's no question that the timing of Dick Clarke's book, the fact that he voted for Al Gore, he's contributed to Democrats since 2000 and the timing of the book certainly made this whole inquiry much more political. But the good news, and your own poll is that the president's approval is going up. I think he's sort of working his way through this effort to politicize the whole 9/11 inquiry led by Dick Clarke and I don't think in the end it's going to cloud the judgment of the American people. When they look at the president and his leadership on this issue.
CROWLEY: Senator Rockefeller, I sort of cast dispersions on both sides of the aisle. It seems to me that if you are sitting back west of the Mississippi or east of it and outside the beltway you are looking at 9/11 and looking at the war in Iraq and you are thinking, those guys are all about politics.
ROCKEFELLER: I'm not thinking that. I just simply am not thinking that, candy. And I don't think anybody who knows Dick Clarke would think that about Dick Clarke. He is the ultimate 30-year professional. He's done it all. He doesn't really like politicians very much of either stripe. He's a Republican. He voted for Gore. He was a little bit unhappy with Bush in some respects. And all of that, I think, is what's going to become known to the public in terms of terrorism, in terms of declassification of some of the materials we're talking about.
But this is not-the last thing in the world that either Mitch McConnell or I would want would be for 9/11 to become a political thing and for Dick Clarke, who is so involved with that whole process, for the four administrations, including Clinton and Bush II, for that to be political. And I have known, also, I've gone back over the weekend and I read his entire testimony before that Senate intelligence committee and House intelligence committee back in 2002 and there's virtually no difference between that and what he gave to the 9/11 commission.
That needs to be said because Senator Frist, on the floor, accused him of perjuring himself and that's a false charge. If he really feels that, he should come to the Senate intelligence committee and say where he felt he perjured himself and then take it on to the Justice Department for prosecution. I feel that strongly.
CROWLEY: Senator McConnell, I know you want to get so this.
MCCONNELL: Well, look, I mean, this book, if he had not been interested in injecting this in the political season, he would have come out with this book after the election. Instead he not only comes out with a book during the election but he comes out with a book the week he's supposed to appear before the 9/11 commission. Regardless of what Dick Clarke's past may be, his current effort is to politicize this whole inquiry and I think that's really unfortunate.
CROWLEY: But if we can take this out of the realm of Dick Clarke, it seems to me, when we look at the poles now, we see that those who are inclined to believe Dick Clarke, 80 percent of them support John Kerry. 80 percent of the people who are inclined to believe the administration, support the administration.
You've got Senator Daschle on the floor today responding to Senator Frist who was on the floor, all talking about this. And it begins to look, I think, from the outside, that we have so politicized this that nothing anyone comes up with will be left as, hey, this is really what happened. It's going to look like politics. Do you worry about that, Senator Rockefeller?
ROCKEFELLER: Candy, I will respond to that now. I do and I don't. I think one of the most important facts in this book is going to be at the top of the charts for a long time. People haven't read that book yet. I have read that book. I've read his testimony. I'm, you know, a ranking Democrat on the intelligence committee so I can have insights about him. But as you read the book, which is not what this is all about, it is really-it really becomes very clear this is an utterly sincere professional who got furious at Clinton at times, at Bush at times, at Reagan at times, at Bush I at times. And fairly distributed it throughout...
CROWLEY: Senator Rockefeller, let me-I'm totally running out of time and I have to give 15 seconds to Senator McConnell to respond to that.
ROCKEFELLER: Sure.
CROWLEY: Thank you.
MCCONNELL: The guy is trying to make money off the book. Drops it on the public right before his testimony on the 9/11 Commission. He's the one that's trying to politicize the whole inquiry. It's unfortunate to see this professional take this political turn at the end of his career.
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