Fox Special Report with Brit Hume

SHOW: FOX SPECIAL REPORT WITH BRIT HUME (18:13)

June 23, 2004 Wednesday

Transcript # 062302cb.254

SECTION: News; Domestic

LENGTH: 1078 words

HEADLINE: Republican Leaders Held Up a Vote to Keep Senator Kerry From Scoring Points In Washington

BYLINE: Brit Hume, Major Garrett, Steve Centanni

BODY:
HUME: Democratic presidential candidate, John Kerry made one of his rare appearances in this campaign year on the Senate floor yesterday. But the vote for which Kerry had canceled a campaign appearance and spent the day on Capitol Hill never came. And today the candidate accuses the Republican leadership of disrespecting him.

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More than a dozen members of Congress are defending their attendance at an event in a U.S. Senate building in March. The lawmakers say they thought they were invited because their constituents were receiving peace awards. Now some claim they were tricked.

Fox News correspondent Steve Censanni-Centanni reports.

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STEVE CENTANNI, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There were colorful costumes, a variety of religious figures, a coronation ceremony, and a reputed cult leader claiming he is the messiah. Strange happenings by any standard. But what's even more bizarre is that it happened at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill, and that several members of Congress were there.

REP. DANNY DAVIS (D), ILLINOIS: When I doubt people, I feel pain. When I judge people, it is unbearable.

CENTANNI: Democratic Congressman Danny Davis of Illinois read from a poem written by the Reverend Sun Young Moon, who was the center of attention at the event. Wearing white gloves, Davis also presented a jeweled crown that was then placed by some someone else on Moon's head. Moon spoke declaring he is the messiah, who came to save the earth. And saying his teachings helped Hitler and Stalin to be reborn as new persons. Davis told us he only went to the ceremony because he believed it was promoting world peace.

DAVIS: I think the coronation, as people are calling it, went a bit far, and went a bit a field. That's not what I went there for.

CENTANNI (on camera): But had you known, you...

DAVIS: I would not have been there.

CENTANNI: You would not have...

DAVIS: There's no doubt about it. There isn't even a sliver of doubt. CENTANNI (voice-over): A video of the event was posted on a Moon- related web site but later removed. Another Congressman, Elijah Cummings of Maryland seemed to praise the Reverend Moon at the March 23 ceremony.

REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS (D), MARYLAND: And I'm so pleased that he will be receiving an award tonight.

CENTANNI: But today Cummings said he wasn't talking about Moon, but a constituent who was being honored.

CUMMINGS: I'm the son of two Pentecostal ministers. And my mother would die almost to think that I would say something like that about Mr.-reverend...

CENTANNI: The 84-year-old Moon, well known for his mass weddings, is accused of running a religious cult, and once spent time in jail for tax fraud. He is also the head of the company that owns the conservative "Washington Times" newspaper. House speaker Dennis Hastert said members are free to attend any event they want.

REP. DENNIS HASTERT (R-IL), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: That's up to every member to make up his decision-his or her decision on what type of events they're going to be participating in, and what the consequences of those events are.

CENTANNI (on camera): Some members of Congress who attended say they had no idea Reverend Moon would even be there, since the invitation did not mention him by name. And nobody we talked to believes Moon is the messiah.

In Washington, Steve Centanni, Fox News.

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LOAD-DATE: June 24, 2004