MSNBC Hardball - Transcript

MSNBC

SHOW: HARDBALL 22:00

July 27, 2004 Tuesday

HEADLINE: HARDBALL 2200 Hour for July 27, 2004

BYLINE: Howard Fineman; Joe Scarborough; Andrea Mitchell; Brian Williams; Campbell Brown; Chris Matthews

GUESTS: Dick Gephardt; Barack Obama; Michelle Obama; Diana DeGette

BODY:

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CAMPBELL BROWN, NBC CORRESPONDENT: (AUDIO GAP) Congresswoman Diana DeGette, who is a co-sponsor of legislation to increase funding for stem cell research.

And I want to ask you, the Bush administration is obviously trying to neutralize this issue. They are putting out press releases saying that he is trying to strike a balance. Why do you believe that it could be a deciding issue in this campaign?

REP. DIANA DEGETTE (D), COLORADO: The majority of Americans support stem cell research. Since the president issued his executive order three years ago, Americans understand the promise of this wonderful research now.

The majority support it. And yet the president is continuing to block it. So, I think it's going to be an issue in this election if he doesn't expand the research.

C. BROWN: Let me ask you a question. How does Senator John Kerry square his support for additional stem cell research with his stated belief that life begins at conception?

DEGETTE: Well, what they are doing this research with, as Ron Reagan explained to the audience, it's embryos that are created for in vitro fertilization that are slated to be destroyed. So these are already being created.

What we are saying in our legislation is, let the parents decide do they want to donate them or not. So there are no additional embryos being created for the research. Many people, including pro-life voters, believe it's a greater good to use this for this life-saving research.

C. BROWN: And despite the fact that the Bush administration has offered some funding and is allowing some research, or certainly more than you saw before, you believe they are blocking efforts to pursue it as strongly as you would want?

DEGETTE: President Bush tried to strike a balance to appeal to the very farthest of the religious right. And what he said was, we are going to limit the stem cell lines to lines existing in August 2000.

C. BROWN: That's not entirely fair, because the farthest parts of the religious right were not entirely happy with his decision.

DEGETTE: Well, they wanted him to ban it altogether.

But what he said is, we are going to limit it to stem cells available August 2001. And those lines, there's only a few of them. They are contaminated with other cells. Research is going offshore. It's going private, and it's not nearly sufficient to cure these diseases.

C. BROWN: Congresswoman DeGette, thank you very much for joining us.

Throwing it back to you, Chris.

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