CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight - Transcript

CNN

SHOW: LOU DOBBS TONIGHT 18:00

HEADLINE: Condoleezza Rice to Testify Before 9/11 Commission; U.S. Allies Crack Down on Terror

GUESTS: Charles Schumer, Timothy Roemer, Slade Gorton, Charles Schumer, Peter King, Marcy Kaptur, Ron Brownstein, Karen Tumulty

BYLINE: Bill Tucker, Kitty Pilgrim, Dana Bash, John King, Peter Viles, Christine Romans

HIGHLIGHT:
The White House today decided to allow Condoleezza Rice to give public testimony to the 9/11 Commission. In the global war on terror, three key U.S. allies are cracking down on suspected radical Islamists. Gasoline prices have hit record highs.

BODY:
KING: The White House today reversed itself and said National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice will testify publicly before the 9/11 Commission. In a moment, I'll talk to Republican Congressman Peter King, who says Rice's appearance could help the White House politically.

But first, Democratic Senator Charles Schumer says the about-face proves the White House was only using the executive privilege as an excuse to keep Rice from testifying.

Senator Schumer joins us now from Capitol Hill.

Senator, you said a bit earlier today the stonewalling over or there's no more room for stonewalling. What do you think is the biggest discrepancy that you want resolved between what Richard Clarke told this commission and what you think Dr. Rice knows?

SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: Well, the bottom line is how carefully the administration listened to people like Dr. Clarke, who said that the focus ought to be on al Qaeda, rather than Iraq.

And there are two different stories here. None of us know which is true. Clarke stated his under oath. Condoleezza Rice has not been either public under oath or under questioning from the commission. And I'm glad that now we'll find out the real truth. Whatever it is, we ought to know it. The whole impetus, John, for this commission came from the families. They are not political.

They walk around with a hole in their heart every day for their lost ones but they have the nobility to say we want to figure out what happened so it doesn't happen again. And the truth is what we want to get at. It should be complete. It should be unvarnished and I'm glad it's going to come out.

KING: Glad it's going to come out. Is this a good deal, in your view, top to bottom? Rice testifies. The president and vice president meet jointly with the full commission now in private. Is that acceptable to you, this entire deal?

SCHUMER: I haven't read it yet. I do hope the commission will be able to follow up with questions with Condoleezza Rice, with the president and vice president after they get to digest what they have said in the initial interview. If those questions are in writing, I suppose, answered in writing, I suppose that's OK. We don't want to make this a circus.

We do want to give the commission, which is bipartisan, seems to be filled with very reputable people on both sides of the aisle, the ability to get at the whole truth and nothing but.

KING: And there's still a debate over whether previous briefings or testimony by Richard Clarke to the joint committee, the congressional committee, should be declassified and made public. Is that a moot point now that the White House provide this extra testimony or should the Congress and the commission still move ahead with that?

SCHUMER: Well, Clarke has said that he would like all of his stuff declassified. And I think that's probably to the good. He says that he was giving constant warnings about al Qaeda, that these warnings were ignored. There probably are two sides to this story. But we ought to get Clarke's side to it fully.

And the fact that the White House will declassify certain documents for its own purposes but then not declassify others that have the same security level shows that they are not approaching this in an evenhanded way.

KING: We are in a political season, Senator. You know that all well. Did the Democrats lose an issue today?

SCHUMER: Well, I don't think it matters whether we lost an issue or not. I think the truth of the commission is what is important. If you look at it politically, the White House has stonewalled this from the get-go. They stonewalled the commission. Then they stonewalled who should be its membership. Then they stonewalled who should come before it.

I think that they are trying to do damage control today, but it won't do much good. The overall impression of the American people, that they really weren't fully for what the families wanted, the whole truth coming out, has been made.

KING: I want to ask you quickly in closing, Senator, about another issue, rising gas prices.

SCHUMER: Yes.

KING: You were among the senators that wrote a letter to OPEC today, saying the cartels should increase production, put more oil on the markets. What is it that this administration, this country, can do in the short term...

SCHUMER: In the long term, of course, there's both conservation and more production. We have to do that.

But in the short term I've been advocating we release some oil from the strategic petroleum reserve, if and only if OPEC won't release more oil itself.

If we were to even threaten to use the strategic petroleum reserve, I bet my bottom dollar that OPEC itself would release the oil, because they'd rather make the money than have us make the money. And that's what's happened in the past.

The administration seems to feel that the only answer when gas prices are high is to beat up on John Kerry. That's not going make prices come down. It's not going to make lives easier on any families.

They ought to come up with a solution. If they say there's no solution, then there ought to be a debate between Kerry's solution, which is the SPRO, which I've been advocating for years, releasing the SPRO. And their view that there's none.

But this constant, you know, just attack, attack, attack and not solve our problems I don't think is going to win them reelection on gasoline prices or on anything else.

KING: Senator Charles Schumer, Democrat of New York. Sir, we thank you for your time tonight on these two very important issues. Thank you very much.