Tim Russert, NBC Meet the Press this Morning: Tad Devine, Ken Mehlman - Including SBVFT Discussion. Ken Mehlman was indeed impressive from the RNC, and Tad Devine....what can you say. He looks like he's snarling every other word...like Carville.
msnbc.msn.com
NBC News
MEET THE PRESS Sunday, August 22, 2004
GUESTS: Sen. George Allen, R-VA, Chairman, National Republican Senatorial Committee;
Sen. Jon Corzine, D-NJ; Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee;
Tad Devine, Senior Adviser, Kerry-Edwards '04;
Ken Mehlman, Campaign Manager, Bush-Cheney '04
MODERATOR/PANELIST: Tim Russert - NBC News
This is a rush transcript provided for the information and convenience of the press. Accuracy is not guaranteed. In case of doubt, please check with:
MEET THE PRESS - NBC NEWS
(202) 885-4598
(Sundays: (202) 885-4200)
MR. TIM RUSSERT: Our issues this Sunday...
(Videotape):
SEN. JOHN KERRY, (D-MA): They're a front for the Bush campaign. He wants them to do his dirty work.
(End videotape)
(Videotape):
MR. SCOTT McCLELLAN: Now, Senator Kerry knows that his latest attack is false and baseless.
(End videotape)
MR. RUSSERT: Kerry-Edwards vs. Bush-Cheney, 72 days to go. With us, the campaign manager for Bush-Cheney, Ken Mehlman; the senior campaign adviser for Kerry-Edwards, Tad Devine. The presidential campaigns square off on MEET THE PRESS.
Then, there are currently 51 Republicans in the Senate. Can the Democrats take control? And how might this man's scandal affect the outcome? With us, the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Senator Jon Corzine of New Jersey, and his Republican counterpart, Senator George Allen of Virginia. But, first, the Bush-Kerry campaign. Gentlemen, welcome, both.
MR. KEN MEHLMAN: Morning.
MR. RUSSERT: Let's go right to it. Viewers have been watching ads from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Here is two of their ads, or portions thereof.
(Videotape, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads):
MR. VAN ODELL: John Kerry lied to get his Bronze Star. I know. I was there. I saw what happened.
LT. JACK CHENOWETH: His account and what actually happened are the difference between night and day.
Unidentified Man: Cut off limbs, blown up bodies.
COL. KEN CORDIER: That was part of the torture, to sign a statement that you had committed war crimes.
(End videotape)
MR. RUSSERT: Senator Kerry on Thursday responded. Let's watch his response.
(Videotape, Thursday):
SEN. KERRY: But here's what you really need to know about them. They're funded by hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Republican contributor out of Texas. They're a front for the Bush campaign. And the fact that the president won't denounce what they're up to tells you everything that you need to know. He wants them to do his dirty work.
(End videotape)
MR. RUSSERT: Mr. Mehlman, a front for the Bush campaign, doing the president's dirty work.
MR. MEHLMAN: Tim, that charge is entirely baseless, it's meritless. We've actually sent a letter to the Federal Election Commission, which the Kerry campaign had contacted, asking them to look into this. We've told them to dismiss the complaint that the Kerry campaign has put forward. There is absolutely no connection between the Bush campaign and this organization. In fact, Tim, as you know, our president from the beginning has praised Senator Kerry's service in Vietnam. I can't think of a campaign in history where the campaign has so strongly praised the opponent's service in Vietnam. The president's praised it, I praised it, our chairman Mark Rosco's praised it. Ed Gillespie's praised it. This organization and its focus on Vietnam is not what our campaign is about.
MR. RUSSERT: So then those ads should be taken off the air?
MR. MEHLMAN: We have called for all of these ads to be taken off the air. We've had $63 million in these soft money ads run against this president. Only 2.5 run against Senator Kerry. But from the beginning we've said we believe these ads should not be on the air, we believe that the law the president signed, the BICRA law, prohibits them and we've called for them to be taken down. We wish the Kerry campaign had joined us in calling for them to be taken down then. And we hope that maybe Tad will do the same thing today.
MR. RUSSERT: The connection between the Bush campaign and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, Colonel Kenneth Cordier, who was in that commercial, was on the Bush veterans steering committee. He resigned last night. But there's more. This was how The New York Times described it: "...a review of documents show a web of connections to the Bush family, high-profile Texas political figures and President Bush's chief political aide, Karl Rove. Records show that the group received the bulk of its initial financing from two men with ties to the president and his family, one a longtime political associate of Mr. Rove's, the other a trustee of the foundation for Mr. Bush's presidential library. A Texas publicist who once helped prepare Mr. Bush's father for his debate when he was running for vice president provided them with strategic advice."
Robert Perry, Houston, Texas, has given the president about $50,000 during his career. He's given Jeb Bush money. He worked with Karl Rove in a gubernatorial campaign back in Texas. Merrie Spaeth, the person who described prepping Vice President Bush for his debate, as recently as last year was in the White House preparing the president's economic adviser for a television interview. Who paid her? Who admitted her to the White House?
MR. MEHLMAN: Tim, reading that New York Times article I was reminded of that old Kevin Bacon game about six degrees of separation. The fact is this campaign has from the beginning said that the issue of what happened 35 years ago with John Kerry and the issue that happened 35 years ago with George W. Bush is not relevant. What's relevant is what is happening today.
And, Tim, if you think about it, the campaign that has brought up the Vietnam issue, the campaign that has divided Americans over Vietnam, is not the Bush campaign, it's the Kerry campaign. Senator Kerry himself has attacked the president for his service during the Vietnam years. The chairman of the Democratic National Committee said that the president was AWOL, an outrageous charge. The DNC Web site, even today, attacks the president for the Vietnam service. We believe this election ought to be about the issues we face today, not about what happened 35 years ago.
MR. RUSSERT: Do you know Robert Perry?
MR. MEHLMAN: I personally do not.
MR. RUSSERT: Have you ever met him?
MR. MEHLMAN: I have not.
MR. RUSSERT: Karl Rove does. He's acknowledged it.
MR. MEHLMAN: I think he's a friend of Karl Rove's. He's someone who I think they haven't spoken to in a long time. Karl Rove is friends with lots of different people. He's friends with Jim Johnson. Does that mean he was responsible for the choice of John Edwards for vice president?
MR. RUSSERT: But will Mr. Rove pick up the phone, call Robert Perry and say, "Stop giving this group money. Pull those commercials down"?
MR. MEHLMAN: We have from the beginning said we believe that these commercials, the commercials of all these 527s--remember, Tim, there's $500,000 behind this new ad. There have been $63 million of these ads run against this president with all kinds of outrageous charges. We've said from the beginning we think these ads are wrong, we think these ads are contrary to the BICRA law. We've called for them to be pulled down. And it is somewhat ironic that the Kerry campaign, after months of benefiting from these ads, after not joining us on this call, now suddenly today are all of a sudden raising
this issue.
MR. RUSSERT: We'll get to the Kerry campaign. I just want to talk more about the possible connection between the Bush campaign and these ads. This was a flier down in Florida--"Swift Boat Votes For Truth, Alachua County Republican, Alachua County Bush-Cheney Committee"--all co-sponsoring an event for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
MR. MEHLMAN: We have looked into this. This has nothing do with the Bush-Cheney campaign. In fact, I noticed on the Swift Boat Veterans Web site last night it has nothing to do with them. This is an independent person who decided to put together a flier. Anything that this campaign has done has to say at the bottom: "Approved By Bush-Cheney '04." It was not. It has nothing to do with this campaign. From the beginning, Tim, we've said and we continue to maintain and we will always maintain, this election is about the future. This campaign in no way is supportive of any independent ads or any 527 ads. From the beginning, we've called for them to be taken down.
MR. RUSSERT: John McCain who supports President Bush said this. "I think the [swift boat] ad is dishonest and dishonorable. ... I think the Bush campaign should specifically condemn the ad."
Here's your chance. Is the ad dishonest and dishonorable? Do you condemn it?
MR. MEHLMAN: Tim, I'm not focused on this specific ad. I'm focused on the issues the American people face over the next four years. And I'll tell you this, Tim, also one of the things that was most disturbing to me was just a week ago or I think it was the week before last, Senator Kerry came out and Wesley Clark and also Stansfield Turner also held a press conference on behalf of the Kerry campaign. And in that press conference, they condemned the president's activity during the Vietnam era. And Senator Kerry's response, the campaign's response was to say these Vietnam veterans have earned their right to speak.
I don't believe we ought to have a double standard for Vietnam veterans earning the right to speak. It is my position, it is the campaign's position, that all of these 527 ads are wrong and they should all come down. But we should not have a double standard as to whether you support Senator Kerry or oppose Senator Kerry in terms of your right to speech.
MR. RUSSERT: But you don't condemn the ad.
MR. MEHLMAN: We condemn all of these 527 ads and we have from the beginning.
MR. RUSSERT: You know, the interesting pattern here is that Merrie Spaeth and others were involved in a campaign against John Kerry, and then in 2000, against John McCain. There seems to be a pattern of people who have given President Bush money or who have worked for him or his father coming together and taking on opponents of George W. Bush. And then when it happens like that, in 2000, McCain was--said, "not temperamentally suited to be president." And now Scott McClellan, the White
House press secretary, said, "Senator Kerry's losing his cool." Mark Rosco, the chairman of your committee, saying "He's unhinged and wild-eyed." Do you see a pattern?
MR. MEHLMAN: I see no pattern, Tim. The fact is this campaign is unprecedented in our praise of our opponent's service during Vietnam. The president called it noble, he called it honorable. The leadership of our campaign has done that from the beginning. That is our position. We think the important issue in this campaign is Senator Kerry's judgment as a United States senator over the past 20 years. You won't hear a lot about that from the Kerry campaign, but I think that's what the American people are concerned about.
MR. RUSSERT: Senator Kerry is releasing a new advertisement today. And it was going to be seen for the first time here on MEET THE PRESS, trying to make some of those points. I'm going to play it, give you a chance to respond and then I'm going to focus on the Kerry campaign. Let's watch.
(Videotape, Kerry-Edwards '04 ad):
SEN. KERRY: I'm John Kerry and I approve this message.
Announcer #1: American soldiers are fighting in Iraq. Families struggle to afford health care, jobs heading overseas. Instead of solutions, George Bush's campaign supports a front group attacking John Kerry's military record, attacks called smears, lies. Senator McCain calls them dishonest. Bush smeared John McCain four years ago. Now, he's doing it to John Kerry. George Bush, denounce the smear. Get back to the issues. America deserves better.
(End videotape)
MR. RUSSERT: Mr. Mehlman, what do you think?
MR. MEHLMAN: I think that the ad is another example once again of the Kerry campaign saying one thing and doing another. They had a convention a few weeks ago. Twenty-six seconds of the convention talked about what Senator John Kerry had done, talked about his record. We have a president that today is working very hard to find solutions to our nation's problems and to lead our country forward. He talks about Iraq. This is a candidate that voted in favor of sending our troops into harm's way in Iraq and then voted against providing our troops with the body armor and the ammunition they needed to accomplish their mission.
They talk about the issues. One of the most important issues is how do we deal with the war on terrorism, how do we strengthen our intelligence. We pointed out that John Kerry missed three out of four intelligence hearings that were public hearings. One of the things that Tad can do today if he wants to help, talk about the issues our country faces, is to ask for the release of the private hearings so we can know. Maybe at these private hearings, Senator Kerry got important information that convinced him it was the right thing to do two years after the first attack on the World Trade Center to cut intelligence
funding by $7.5 billion, which he proposed.
So this ad is another example of a campaign that is not talking about the issues we face and then running an ad saying the president needs to talk about the issues we face. The president is. American people ought to stay tuned to New York because they're going to hear a vision for the next four years rooted in with what the president's done in the past four years, something that was noticeably absent at the convention in Boston.
MR. RUSSERT: Mr. Devine, this new ad today--is it an acknowledgment, coming some three weeks after the Swift Boat Truth Committee formed and began to publish their book and provide their ads, that those ads have hurt your campaign?
MR. TAD DEVINE: Well, Tim, I think they've hurt the American people. We want a debate and a campaign about the issues: You know, why is the economy of this nation failing today? Why have four million Americans lost their health care since George Bush became president? Why do we have no policy for energy independence in America? Why are we having so many problems in securing this nation and so many problems in Iraq? That's the campaign the American people deserve but, unfortunately, the Bush campaign is doing precisely what they did before. These are the same tactics they employed against John McCain in South Carolina in the 2000 primary, the same tactic--a front group, which does their dirty work for them.
It's incredible. They're describing John Kerry with the same language they used to describe John McCain's service in Vietnam. They say, "It was noble," exactly the same words--the same tactics, the same words and the same pack of lies being advanced for their cause, obviously because of the president's record of service during the time of the Vietnam War, and the vice president's record of a number of deferrals. They themselves cannot advance this argument against John Kerry. They've let others do their dirty work for them, and that's what we're seeing today.
MR. RUSSERT: The New York Daily News intervened on this yesterday with an editorial and said this:
"As for Kerry, he might ask why the Swifties' attacks have been effective. The answer is his propensity to exaggerate. Kerry exaggerated about `atrocities' in testimony before Congress. And it's looking more likely that he exaggerated, if not worse, when he claimed through the years that he was in Cambodia on Christmas Eve 1968. He has said the memory was `seared' into him, but it's now clear Kerry was elsewhere, at least at that time. He has yet to explain. Until he does, the Swifties will have a powerful weapon in their arsenal." And this is...
MR. DEVINE: Sure.
MR. RUSSERT: ...so we--be clear and give you a chance to respond. Senator Kerry in '86 on the floor of the Senate: "I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there, the troops were not in Cambodia. ...I have that memory which is seared--seared--in me."
In '79 in the Boston Herald: "I remember Christmas Eve of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South Vietnamese allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas. The absurdity of almost being killed by our own allies in a country which President Nixon claimed there were no American troops was very real."
First of all, Nixon was not president...
MR. DEVINE: Right.
MR. RUSSERT: ...in December of '68.
MR. DEVINE: Sure.
MR. RUSSERT: He didn't take office until January '69. Does Senator Kerry stand by that statement that on Christmas Eve of '68 he was physically in Cambodia?
MR. DEVINE: Right. Well, his memory, Tim, is being there, around there. And I'll tell you what happened on December 25th...
MR. RUSSERT: No--being there or around there?
MR. DEVINE: No, being right at the Cambodian border, over the Cambodian border. That's what he remembers. That's his clear memory. Now, Tim...
MR. RUSSERT: Five miles across the border.
MR. DEVINE: Now, Tim, obviously, as those records demonstrate, particularly in respect to President Nixon, you know, there's some difference between some of the records. Let me tell you what happened on December 24, 1968. John Kerry started that morning 50 miles away from the Cambodian border and they headed towards Cambodia, deep behind enemy lines. First, they were ambushed once. Second, they were fired upon, again in a separate incident. And that night they encountered friendly fire. Three times in one day he was fired upon deep behind enemy lines. And that certainly was seared into his memory.
And by the way, that's three times more than the president and the vice president have ever been fired on in the course of their life. The president and the vice president, who sent our troops to Iraq without the body armor they need to live. And, listen, is the fog of war real? Obviously, it is. But as we look at this episode more and more--like, for example, today in the Chicago Tribune, when William Root, one of the editors, came forward and offered firsthand testimony of what happened on the day that John Kerry won the Silver Star, February 28, 1969, the first-person accounts of this revealed the truth. John Kerry served heroically in Vietnam.
And it is a shame today that the president of the United States and his campaign are once again resorting to the tactics that they used in the South Carolina primary. John McCain said to the president he should be ashamed of himself for what did he in South Carolina. And the president should be ashamed of himself today for what he's allowing to do. The president should denounce this ad and he should do it now.
MR. RUSSERT: The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are not the only group who are full of negative ads. MoveOn.org has attacked President Bush. Let's watch that.
(Videotape, MoveOn.org ad):
Announcer #2: George Bush used his father to get into the National Guard, was grounded and then went missing.
(End videotape)
MR. RUSSERT: Now, your campaign said that ad was inappropriate.
MR. DEVINE: Right. John Kerry did, moments after John McCain asked him to do it.
MR. RUSSERT: You condemn that ad?
MR. DEVINE: John Kerry absolutely said, "It is totally inappropriate. I agree with Senator McCain." And John Kerry said, moments after Senator McCain called on him to do it--he said he wanted a campaign of issues, not insults. And yet we stood here weeks later, after Senator McCain made the same challenge to President Bush, and he, President Bush, refuses to denounce the Swift Boat ad.
MR. RUSSERT: But as Mr. Mehlman pointed out, here's what happened. "Kerry label is
`inappropriate' in a new commercial...by MoveOn.org."
MR. DEVINE: Right.
MR. RUSSERT: ..."Hours after that statement, the Kerry campaign organized a conference in which two high-profile ex-military supporters simply parroted the MoveOn commercial's line. Bush `scrambled and used his family's influence to get out of hearing a shot fired in anger,' said failed presidential candidate Wesley Clark. ...Added Stansfield Turner, retired admiral, Carter CIA director, `[Bush] used his family influence to get into the Air National Guard and avoid going to war.'"
It's the same message.
MR. DEVINE: First, that's factually inaccurate. The press conference occurred in the morning. The statement was issued in the afternoon. So it wasn't--you know, one occurred after the other not before. And they did occur in the same day. That's absolutely true. Let me say this...
MR. RUSSERT: So senator--let's be clear. So Senator Kerry condemns the comments made by Wesley Clark and Stansfield Turner?
MR. DEVINE: No, he doesn't.
MR. RUSSERT: Are they inappropriate comments?
MR. DEVINE: The general and the admiral, who served, have the right to speak out on this issue. Senator Kerry wants to focus on the real issues of this campaign, but when he is attacked by lies, by people like the authors, for example, of this book, who have been demonstrated to be both liars and bigots, he will stand up and he will speak out. And that's what's going on right now.
MR. RUSSERT: But do they have a right to speak out just like Turner and Clark?
MR. DEVINE: Sure, but they don't have a right to lie, Tim. And that's what's going on right now. They are lying to the American people. And we will send the truth to the American people. And let me tell you something, John Kerry is not going to allow to happen to him what these guys did to John McCain four years ago.
MR. RUSSERT: How is this going to turn out?
MR. DEVINE: This is going to turn out the way it's turned out in every Kerry campaign. He will prevail on this because the truth is very strong and his service in Vietnam is remarkable.
con't - part 1 of 2 |
