CNBC News - Capital Report - Transcript
CNBC News Transcripts
SHOW: Capital Report 7:00 AM EST CNBC
HEADLINE: Representatives Jim Turner and Joe Wilson discuss the presidential election
ANCHORS: GLORIA BORGER
BODY:
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
BORGER: Joining me now are two guests with very different reactions to John Kerry's speech to the National Guard. Democratic Congressman Jim Turner of Texas is a former captain in the US Army, and Republican Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina retired from the National Guard last year. Both are on the Armed Services Committee.
Thanks to both of you for being with me tonight.
Representative JOE WILSON (Republican, South Carolina, Armed Service Committee): Thank you.
Representative JIM TURNER (Democrat, Texas; Armed Services Committee): Thank you.
BORGER: Let me start with you, Congressman Turner. You heard what John Kerry said. He said that the president is not leveling with the American people about what is going on in Iraq. What's your response?
Rep. TURNER: Gloria, apparently, that is true. I read in the paper this morning that the National Intelligence Estimate that was produced in July that the president has been briefed on clearly shows that the prospects in Iraq for achieving our objectives in any time soon are very remote. In fact, it predicted the possibility of civil war. And yet the president has been going around telling us we're making progress, that things are better.
The reality is things are not well in Iraq. We have a mess there. We've lost over 1,000 lives. And according to the National Intelligence Estimate, which is the cream of the crop in terms of intelligence community-they've clearly advised the president back in July that things are not going well at all. So I think what the president should have done is level with the American people, tell us the truth. That's the kind of leadership the American people expect, a president who will level with us, tell us what we need to know, tell it like it is, because America doesn't need to go back through...
BORGER: Well...
Rep. TURNER: ...a period that we went through in Vietnam, where the government hid from us the reality of the fact that we weren't winning.
BORGER: Well, Congressman Wilson, is the president just spinning here, as your colleague says? I mean, we did have that front-page story in The New York Times today saying that his own intelligence advisers told him in July that Iraq could dissolve into civil war.
Rep. WILSON: Well, I believe that we have a president who's facing the reality. We are in a war on terror. We have terrorists who attacked our country, and we have a president who has the fortitude, as John McCain said, to go after the source. So I'm proud of the president.
I've been to Iraq three times. I have a son serving in Iraq right now, and so I'm virtually in daily contact. I know progress is being made. And I'm just so proud of our troops, the National Guard troops, the reserve troops. I served 31 years in the Guard, and I've never been prouder of the Guard. I was proud of the Guard today with their conference. They were respectful to Senator Kerry, who had said that their service is not military service. He should have apologized to the National Guard today.
BORGER: Well, are you saying that he is anti-National Guard, as the Bush campaign charges?
Rep. WILSON: Absolutely. Absolutely. His statement specifically was that President Bush refused to serve. That's what he characterized President Bush's...
BORGER: He didn't say that today, I should say. He did not say that today.
Rep. WILSON: No. No. No, no, no. He said it earlier. And, also, the chairman of the Democratic Party had said that National Guard service is not military service. This was a great opportunity for Senator Kerry to apologize for slandering and insulting those of us who have served in the military, served in the National Guard and reserves. And I'm just so proud of what our troops are doing to protect American families.
BORGER: Well, Congressman Turner-well, let me ask you, Congressman Turner, does John Kerry owe the Guard an apology as far as you're concerned?
Rep. TURNER: You know, Joe is a friend and a good colleague...
Rep. WILSON: Good friend.
Rep. TURNER: ...but, frankly, I don't even believe, Joe, that you believe that John Kerry doesn't honor service in the National Guard. John Kerry respects the service of every Guardsman. We have-almost 40 percent of our troops in Iraq today are members of the Guard or reserves. John Kerry respects that service, he honors that service. He believes that every member of the Guard is doing what they believe is best for their country. We honor all of the young men and women who are fighting in Iraq.
The problem, Joe, is that the president embarked on a war in Iraq because we thought there was weapons of mass destruction there, not because we thought there were terrorists there. And it turned out there were no weapons of mass destruction. And now we're bogged down in a war that the president won't even be forthcoming with the American people about the problems that we have succeeding there.
BORGER: But let's...
Rep. TURNER: We've got to have some honest, straightforward leadership, and that's what John Kerry told those Guardsmen today. And I think that's what every military man or woman and their families deserve. When our young men are put in harm's way, they deserve a government, a president, who will tell them the truth about the challenges that we face and the difficulties we face.
BORGER: OK. Well, I want to play for both of you something that John Kerry said to radio host Don Imus and then a little bit of a response from the president today in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Then we'll talk about it.
(Excerpt from "Imus In The Morning")
DON IMUS (Host, "Imus In The Morning"): Do you think there's any circumstances we should have gone to war in Iraq? Any?
Sen. KERRY: Not under the current circumstances, no, there are none that I see. I voted based on weapons of mass destruction. The president distorted that, and I've said that. I mean, look, I can't be clearer.
(End of excerpt)
President GEORGE W. BUSH: Yesterday in a radio interview, he tried to clear things up. He said there were no circumstances, none, under which we should have gone to war, although he said his own vote to go to war was the right vote and it was right to hold Saddam Hussein accountable. The radio interviewer concluded, 'I can't tell you what he said.'
BORGER: Joe Wilson, is that a big problem?
Rep. WILSON: It really is. And what you've got is Senator Kerry said, 'I voted for it before I voted against it.' It's flip-flopping. He's also indicated he obviously voted to authorize force, and then he didn't vote to fund the body armor and the ammunition and the combat pay for our troops. And so it's an inconsistency. And I just disagree with Jim. I believe we've got a president who is leading our country in a very vicious war against terrorism, people who want to come after the people of the United States right here. And we've got to stop the war at its source.
BORGER: Well, Jim Turner, can you clarify the senator's position? He's been twisted in a pretzel about Iraq ever since the Iowa caucuses, if I recall. Why does he have so much trouble with this?
Rep. TURNER: Well, I think he was very clear in what he said on "Imus" this morning. I feel the same way. When we were in the run-up to the war and the president took us down to the White House in groups of 10 and 12 and briefed us on the intelligence, it was all about the weapons of mass destruction that Saddam supposedly had. We saw the aerial photographs. We held the aluminum tube that was supposed to be part of a nuclear centrifuge. We were led to believe that Saddam Hussein was about to produce a bomb, and we were led to believe that he had biological capabilities that he could imminently and imminently use against the United States. Any member of Congress would be impressed with that kind of information, and I joined with John Kerry and voted to give the president the ability to use force...
BORGER: Do you regret your vote?
Rep. TURNER: ...to invade and to take out those weapons of mass destruction. Yes, I do. I wish I had been told the truth. I wish we had all known the truth because, frankly, I don't believe we'd ever gone to war simply because Saddam Hussein is a bad man. Kim Jong Il in North Korea is a bad man. We have bad men in Iran. We have bad men in a lot of places, and we don't go to war.
BORGER: OK.
Rep. TURNER: So I think the reality is that we're in a war that we never would have been in had we known the truth.
BORGER: OK.
Rep. TURNER: And because of that, we're now bogged down in a war that, according to the National Intelligence Estimate that we've read about in the papers today, is creating a circumstance...
BORGER: OK.
Rep. TURNER: ....that will be very hard for us to extricate ourselves from successfully.
BORGER: OK.
Rep. TURNER: And the president needs to be honest about that with the American people.
BORGER: Congressman Jim Turner and Congressman Joe Wilson, we're going to have to leave it there. Thanks so much.
Rep. WILSON: An honor to be with you.