CNN Judy Woodruff's Inside Politics - Transcript

CNN

SHOW: JUDY WOODRUFF'S INSIDE POLITICS 15:30

HEADLINE: Rumsfeld Under Fire; Interview With Senator John Cornyn, Senator Bill Nelson

GUESTS: Richard Holbrooke, John Cornyn, Bill Nelson, Donna Brazile, Bay Buchanan

BYLINE: Dana Bash, Candy Crowley, Judy Woodruff, Ed Henry, William Schneider, Jane Arraf, Dan Lothian, Bob Novak, Kelly Wallace

HIGHLIGHT:
There are new calls from the Congress for Donald Rumsfeld to resign.; Interview with Senator John Cornyn, Senator Bill Nelson.; Interview with Donna Brazile, Bay Buchanan.; Security is beefed up for Democratic Convention.

BODY:
WOODRUFF: Thank you very much.

Well, two members of the Senate Armed Services Committee join us now to weigh in on the Donald Rumsfeld debate on the eve of the defense secretary's testimony. They are Republican John Cornyn of Texas and Democrat Bill Nelson of Florida.

Senator Nelson, first of all, the President says Donald Rumsfeld has done-in his words, he's done a really good job as secretary of defense, and he is going to stay on in the cabinet. Is that the end of the story?

SEN. BILL NELSON (D-FL), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: No, it isn't. Let's see what he has to say to the United States Senate tomorrow. Let's see, for example, why he basically has suspended the application of the Geneva Convention Accords to prisoners of war. And also, let's see why he never told the President, the commander in chief, about what all was going on in that prison until it broke in public on a TV network.

WOODRUFF: Senator Cornyn, are you satisfied with the president's statement that Secretary Rumsfeld has done, in his words, a really good job as secretary, and that he will keep him on in the cabinet?

SEN. JOHN CORNYN ®, TEXAS: Well, I hope the attitude of my leagues in the Senate will not be let's hang him and then give him a fair trial. I agree with Senator Nelson, we ought to hear what he has to say.

At breakfast this morning, during a meeting where this subject came up, he pointed out that the first complaint that was made was on January the 13. Two days later, there was a press release issued by the Pentagon and, ultimately, on March 20, there were six criminal charges brought arising out of this abuse.

So this is not a new matter. There hasn't been a cover-up. It hadn't been swept under the covers.

What shocked us into the reality of this is the leak of these terrible pictures. And no one is trying to justify it, but we ought to take a deep breath, listen to what the secretary has to say, and then decide, based on the evidence, what we think the appropriate course of action should be.

WOODRUFF: Well, Senator Nelson, if that's the course that events took, why wouldn't you and other senators be satisfied that this was handled properly by the Pentagon?

NELSON: Well, let's hope that this is an isolated incident for the sake of our country. Let's hope it's isolated. But there are another 25 to 35 investigations going on now all over Iraq and Afghanistan.

Fortunately, I think they brought in a good commander, Major General Miller, who had run the operation at Guantanamo. And he just got there to Iraq and now he's having to answer for all of this. So there's still a lot of poking and probing and a lot of answers to be provided.

WOODRUFF: Senator Cornyn, what questions do you want answered tomorrow?

CORNYN: Well, I want to make sure that we've done everything possible to get to the bottom of this, that we follow this path wherever the facts may lead. And I think that's what we all should expect. And from what I heard this morning from Secretary Rumsfeld, and what I've seen reported, so far I don't see any problems in terms of the way they responded to it.

But I share Senator Nelson's concern that this-I hope this is a limited-a limited, you know, case of abuse on behalf of some misguided-a small number of misguided troops. The fact is we have tens of thousands of other troops in the field fighting this war on terror and serving honorably. So I would hope that we don't paint with too broad a brush and that we don't get ahead of ourselves before we've allowed the secretary to tell us what he knows tomorrow.

WOODRUFF: Very quickly, Senator Nelson, I want to ask both of you about the word from the administration yesterday, they're asking for an additional $25 billion to fight the war in Iraq and Afghanistan in the coming months. There are other members of Congress, even Republicans, who are saying this is not going to be enough money. How much do you think it is going to cost the United States to fight the war in Iraq, keep 138,000 troops there through the end of next year?

NELSON: I think it's going to cost a lot of money, and I think we're going to have to increase the troops even more than we have now. And I think we're going to be there for a very long time, Judy. At the end of the day, what we have to do is stabilize Iraq politically and economically. That's what's in the interest of the United States.

WOODRUFF: Very quickly, Senator Cornyn, do you agree with Senator Nelson it's going to take more money that even, more troops?

CORNYN: Well, I don't think we know how much it's going to cost, but I think we need to appropriate whatever it takes. This is not a situation where we can sort of wring our hands and say, well, maybe we should stay or maybe we should go. We have to finish the job that we started out. War is ugly. This is going to be expensive and difficult, but we need to stay the course.

WOODRUFF: All right. Gentlemen, we're going to leave it there. Senator Cornyn, Senator Nelson, it's good to see both of you. We appreciate your time. Thank you very much.

CORNYN: Thank you.

NELSON: Thanks, Judy.