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CNN LIVE AT DAYBREAK

Highlights of Last Night's Vice Presidential Debate; Examining Impact of Remarks by Paul Bremer

Aired October 6, 2004 - 05:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And, senator, frankly, you have a record in the Senate that's not very distinguished.

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D-NC), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Mr. Vice President, I don't think the country can take four more years of this kind of experience.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And the gloves come off as the V.P. candidates go head-to-head.

It is Wednesday, October 6, and this is DAYBREAK.

And good morning, everyone, from the CNN Global Headquarters in Atlanta.

Carol Costello is off today.

I'm Rick Sanchez.

And now in the news, the final report from the weapons inspectors who scoured Iraq goes to a Senate panel later today. The main conclusion -- Saddam Hussein didn't have weapons of mass destruction at the time of the U.S. invasion. But the report also says he was looking to revive his WMD programs.

In Iraq today, new hopes for an end to the violence in the Baghdad slums. An Iraqi source tells CNN the interim government may be close to a deal to end weeks of deadly fighting in Sadr City.

A new deal this morning in South Korea, where the U.S. plans to pull out a third of its forces. The withdrawal will still happen, but the deadline has now been pushed back to 2008.

In Iran, a top nuclear official tells the A.P. his nation has processed a few tons of raw uranium. Iran says it's for peaceful purposes, not for building weapons.

All right, let me say good morning and hello there to Chad Myers -- hey, Chad, the first time we get a chance to work together.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, exactly. SANCHEZ: It's an honor for me, by the way.

MYERS: Well, you know, you did great work down there in Panama City. So for me, too, up here. A mutual admiration society. And there's a pot of coffee up here, by the way, if you want me to bring it down for you.

SANCHEZ: I'll come see you.

MYERS: Welcome to DAYBREAK.

SANCHEZ: Thanks.

(WEATHER REPORT)

SANCHEZ: Twenty-seven days to go until the national election and George Bush and John Kerry are gearing up for round two. Meantime, the number twos have had their one and only debate. And there was plenty of tough talk. That's what Dick Cheney and John Edwards dished out.

Judy Woodruff from CNN's "INSIDE POLITICS" with the highlights.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): No punches pulled around this debate table.

EDWARDS: That was a complete distortion of my record. I know that's going to come as a shock.

CHENEY: Senator, frankly, you have a record in the Senate that's not very distinguished.

WOODRUFF: Dick Cheney and John Edwards trading stinging barbs throughout a 90 minute showdown, their only debate of the campaign. The vice president seeking to portray the North Carolina senator as inexperienced and ineffective.

CHENEY: Your hometown newspaper has taken to calling you Senator Gone. You've got one of the worst attendance records in the United States Senate.

WOODRUFF: Edwards trying to pain Cheney as a servant of big business, who lied to the American people about the war in Iraq.

EDWARDS: And I want the American people to hear this very clearly. Listen carefully to what the vice president is saying, because there is no connection between Saddam Hussein and the attacks of September 11, period.

WOODRUFF: Iraq and the war on terror dominated the first half of the debate, with the candidates echo icing charges leveled by their running mates.

CHENEY: You're not credible on Iraq because of the enormous inconsistencies that John Kerry and you have cited time after time after time during the course of the campaign.

WOODRUFF: But other issues found their way into the discussion, like the Bush-backed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, something Cheney, who has a lesbian daughter, opposes.

EDWARDS: It's nothing but a political tool. And it's being used in an effort to divide this country.

WOODRUFF: The vice president was given an opportunity to respond to the comment. He declined. What Cheney did was fire back on another close to home matter -- Halliburton.

EDWARDS: When the vice president was CEO of Halliburton, they took care -- took advantage of every offshore loophole available.

CHENEY: The reason they keep trying to attack Halliburton is because they want to obscure their own record.

WOODRUFF: And what of the reaction shots, those pesky cutaways that bedeviled the president in his first debate with John Kerry? Both men kept their faces straight and their noses in their notes.

Judy Woodruff, CNN, Cleveland.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

SANCHEZ: Two of the hot button issues, the economy and also gay marriage, this in this V.P. showdown. And they sure pushed some buttons.

CNN held a town hall meeting during the debate. What we did is we used a tracking meter to try and measure the reaction to both candidates. A yellow line reflects women, a blue line reflects men. The spikes indicate approval.

More now as we break this down with Bill Hemmer.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The highest spike that we found for the vice president came on the issue of gay marriage. Watch what happened there.

CHENEY: Freedom doesn't mean freedom for everybody. People ought to be free to choose any arrangement they want. It's really no one else's business. That's a separate question from the issue of whether or not government should sanction or approve or give some sort of authorization, if you will, to these relationships, because traditionally that's been an issue for the states. States have regulated marriage, if you will. That would be my preference.

HEMMER: You can literally watch the meters rise as the vice president is speaking on that topic.

Now for John Edwards, the North Carolina senator. When he talked about the economy, and specifically mentioned outsourcing, watch the meters go there.

EDWARDS: It's a fundamental difference with us. The administration says over and over that the outsourcing of millions of American jobs is good. We're against it. We want to get rid of tax cuts for companies sending jobs overseas. We want to balance this budget, get back to fiscal responsibility and we want to invest in the creative, innovative jobs of the future.

GWEN IFILL, PBS, MODERATOR: Mr. Vice President?

CHENEY: Gwen, we've got 111 million American taxpayers that have benefited from our income tax cuts.

HEMMER: And you can see just a slight lag there. It's only because the system is on a slight delay there. But, again, that was the highest mark that we picked out for the senator from North Carolina.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

SANCHEZ: Here's the question now, as we ask you to chime in. What about you? Were you swayed one way or the other by either of these men? That's our DAYBREAK e-mail Question of the Day. Did the vice presidential debate help you decide which way you're going to vote? Let us know at DAYBREAK right here @cnn.com.

And the debating is not over yet. From previews to post-debate reacts, CNN is going to bring you the second presidential debate, as well. Our coverage starts Friday night at 7:00 Eastern, live, as you've come to expect, from St. Louis.

No weapons of mass destruction in Iraq -- that's the final word from the chief U.N. -- or, pardon me -- U.S. weapons inspector, Charles Duelfer. He delivers a 1,500 page report to the Senate Armed Services Committee today. Senior administration officials say the findings are going to show former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had no stockpiles at the time of the U.S. invasion last year, but that Saddam Hussein did want to reconstitute his weapons program if international sanctions ended.

As you know, President Bush's main argument for war was that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

Another of the Bush administration's prewar allegations is coming into question now. There's a new CIA report. It says that it has found at this point no conclusive evidence that Saddam Hussein harbored Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. He is the militant believed to have masterminded many of the suicide bombings, the kidnappings and the beheadings that we've been seeing in Iraq. Before the war, the Bush administration had portrayed Zarqawi as al Qaeda's link to Saddam Hussein.

Now, adding to all of this, the Bush administration is now having to defend itself against comments from Paul Bremer, the former U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq himself.

Senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre has these details.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Former Iraq administrator Paul Bremer now admits what critics have been saying for a year and a half -- the U.S. did not send enough troops to Iraq to keep the peace.

Bremer is quoted in a press release as saying, "We never had enough troops on the ground." That from an insurance group Bremer addressed Monday. And in remarks at DePaul University last month that drew little attention at the time, Bremer went even further, telling a student forum, "The one thing that would have improved the situation would have been having more troops in Iraq at the beginning and throughout."

Bremer's second guessing is political dynamite and was seized on by John Kerry to buttress his argument the war plan was flawed.

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now Paul Bremer is saying what a terrible mistake it was. The president needs to take accountability for his own judgments.

MCINTYRE: In a clarifying statement, Bremer says there are now enough troops in Iraq, and insists his comments referred to his belief when he arrived in May of 2003 that more U.S. or Iraqi forces were needed to contain looting in the immediate aftermath of the invasion. At the time, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld dismissed the looting, saying, "War is imperfect and stuff happens."

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: It's untidy and freedom is untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things.

MCINTYRE: Bremer says the U.S. paid a big price for not stopping the looting, because it established an atmosphere of lawlessness. It's not clear whether he argued for more troops, either with military commanders or with Rumsfeld. But he said, "Although I raised this issue a number of times with our government, I should have been even more insistent."

(on camera): The Bush campaign acknowledged that Ambassador Bremer differed with commanders in the field and said that's his right. The White House refused to say if Bremer ever asked President Bush directly for more troops, insisting the president relied on the Pentagon and military commanders to determine troop requirements.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Across America this Wednesday morning, Mount Saint Helens quite literally blew off some steam. Two new vents opened up in the mountain. The venting slowed down earthquake activity at the volcano, though.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON MAJOR, U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY: For lack of any better way of describing it, you know, something is acting as a lid, so to speak, and it's allowing pressure to build up. And then that lid somehow opens, lets these steam bursts, the steam and ash bursts come out. At that point, the material is freely flowing out of the vent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Here's another story we're following this morning. Prosecutors in the Scott Peterson trial have rested their case. The final witness detailed fears that Peterson was planning to possibly flee the country. A Modesto detective talked about camping and survival gear that was found in Peterson's car before his arrest. The prosecution called 174 witnesses over the first 19 weeks of this trial. The defense's case could take several more months still.

Rescue teams in central Virginia will continue their search today for a missing 3-year-old boy. The search was launched after the man last seen with the boy admitted leaving the toddler in the woods while he went to buy drugs. The boy has been missing now for seven days.

Comedy legend Rodney Dangerfield died Tuesday, just a week after coming out of a month long coma. Dangerfield made a career out of his self-deprecating humor, but his greatest role may have been as comedy mentor to many of today's top stars. Rodney Dangerfield was 82 years old. We're going to have more on Dangerfield and his contributions to comedy coming up right here on DAYBREAK.

Still to come, people across Afghanistan have been through some amazing changes, no doubt, since the fall of the Taliban. But no one has felt it more than Afghan women. We're going to take a look at what the upcoming elections mean to them specifically.

Also, it's going to be tough again this year to get a flu shot. Why? Well, shortages mean that you may have to wait and flu season is already here, by the way.

Also, fans and friends are mourning the loss of a man who found success the hard way, but always did it with a laugh, as we just mentioned.

First, here's a look, though, at what else is making news on this Wednesday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

SANCHEZ: Your news, money, weather and sports.

Well, right now it's 16 minutes after the hour of 5:00 out east.

Here's what else is new this morning.

A government report on Iraq and the search for weapons of mass destruction will say that none existed at the time of the U.S. invasion. But the report will also say that Saddam Hussein planned to restart his banned weapons program once U.N. sanctions were lifted.

A military strike in Falluja targeted a house reportedly used by insurgents. The planned attacks on American and Iraq forces -- three houses were destroyed in the air strike. No injuries were reported, by the way.

And in money, another record high for oil prices. Fear over heating oil supplies led the price of crude oil to top $51 a barrel. Production problems caused by hurricane Ivan have added to the uncertainty.

In culture, Michigan Republicans say documentary filmmaker Michael Moore is illegally bribing college students. They want charges filed because Moore has offered food and even clean underwear to students promising to vote in November.

In sports, the Minnesota Twins beat the New York Yankees 2-0 in the first game of the American League Division series. The Twins also beat the Yankees in game one last year. But then they went on to lose the series.

Chad Myers standing by right now to bring us up to date on what's going on with the weather.

How about them Twinkies, huh? I mean Harmon Killebrew...

MYERS: How about them Twinkies? How about...

SANCHEZ: Zolo Versayez (ph), Tony Alva, they're all sitting there going is this going to be another one of those miraculous years for this team?

MYERS: And the folks in Boston are going yes, we're 1-0 now, too. So, yes, what an amazing day yesterday. Obviously, the Braves play today against Houston. We'll see how that goes. There should be pretty decent weather in Atlanta for that.

(WEATHER REPORT)

SANCHEZ: Afghanistan is just three days away from the presidential elections and millions of women have registered to vote there. It's a huge step, need we say, in a country where women are considered second class citizens in many cases.

Our senior international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, looks at the fate of Afghan women nearly three years after the fall of the Taliban.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The roof may be made of rags and the blackboards may be broken, but in this school for girls, the bright eyes and happy faces show what's changed for Afghan women since the Taliban. This shelter shows what has not. These young women cover their faces as they describe being forced to work at age eight, being forced into marriage and much worse. "The governor of my state forced me to marry him," says this girl, "and afterwards he beat me up and threatened to kill me. So I escaped."

This young woman was gang raped and now she's left with a baby. In almost all cases, it's the women who are accused of adultery and rape barely ever gets to court.

We asked the chief justice of the supreme court why not.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Under Islamic law, there needs to be four witnesses to prove rape. If it is determined it happened with the consent of the woman, her crime is equal to the man's.

AMANPOUR: When a presidential candidate spoke up for women's divorce rights and questioned a man's right to take four wives under Islam, the supreme court tried to get him disqualified.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Our law is based on Islam. And according to Sharia law, he must be punished. We oppose what he said.

AMANPOUR (on camera): So what about a woman's future here? In some provinces, women say they'll be too scared even to come out to vote on Saturday. On the other hand, they say they want the freedom to choose, for instance, who to marry. But first, they say, they need to be educated.

(voice-over): 98 percent of Afghan women are illiterate and even girls' schools like these report a lack of enrollment from grades 10 through 12, about the age girls get married off. But even those suffering the most say life is better without the Taliban. "The Taliban would come to our family homes and demand the girls at gunpoint," she says. "When one pointed his gun at my father and asked for me, my father died of a heart attack."

Christiane Amanpour, CNN, Kabul, Afghanistan.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

SANCHEZ: Meanwhile, the entire world is looking to see what happens in the U.S. elections next month. Just ahead, we're going to look at how the world is going to be affected by our next president.

Wandering the corn fields is a fun fall diversion. We're going to tell you about a maze with a political agenda. Can you guess?

Also, don't forget our e-mail Question of the Morning. Did the vice presidential debate help you decide which way you're going to vote?

You're watching DAYBREAK for Wednesday.

This is October 6. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: And look who's here to help me get through this segment.

MYERS: Hi, buddy.

Good to see you.

I enjoy working with you. You're so nonchalant, kind of like me. It's like me.

SANCHEZ: Is that right?

MYERS: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Well, it's good to be here.

MYERS: All right.

SANCHEZ: This is wonderful.

I am a little like Carol in many ways, I imagine.

MYERS: I hope not.

SANCHEZ: Well, don't be like that.

MYERS: Oh, OK.

SANCHEZ: Let's talk about this. Not everything about the vice presidential debate was serious. Let's take a look now at one of the jabs that comedians got in our "Late Night Laughs."

Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O'BRIEN, COURTESY NBC)

CONAN O'BRIEN, "LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O'BRIEN": And, of course, the big vice presidential debate was tonight. You all watched that and then came right to the show, I'm sure. Good. It's a good crowd that'll show up at 12:35. All right, now, you know, the big vice presidential debate was this evening. Some political experts -- this is true -- say that Dick Cheney was at a disadvantage during tonight's debate because Cheney is short, fat and unhealthy looking. That's what they said. I know. That's what they said.

Yes, the debate's moderator made it worse when he introduced Cheney as the white Rubin Stoddard (ph).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Fair or unfair? I don't know.

MYERS: I don't know. SANCHEZ: You know, Don Imus called him the Breck girl. Not talking about Cheney, by the way.

MYERS: Oh, because of the hair?

SANCHEZ: Yes.

MYERS: Obviously.

SANCHEZ: Great hair.

MYERS: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Great hair sells.

MYERS: Hey, you know what? Hair is good.

SANCHEZ: That was Conan O'Brien, by the way.

MYERS: I'll take any I can get.

SANCHEZ: Not everything, also, about this thing.

Time for a DAYBREAK "Eye Opener."

For those of you with a lot of extra cash, we bring you with $100 cheese steak sandwich. It's a new upscale restaurant in Philadelphia...

MYERS: I hope it's upscale.

SANCHEZ: ... that's hoping to make the city's most famous food also the most expensive. But it's not just the typical onions, peppers and cheese on top of this sandwich. This restaurant uses goose liver and truffles.

MYERS: So is it really a Philly cheese steak or is it a cheese goose?

SANCHEZ: And a hundred dollars.

MYERS: I know.

SANCHEZ: A hundred dollars.

Last week we told you about a Wisconsin corn field maze featuring the presidential candidates. Now there's one for you on the West Coast, as well, in California. In Corona, the eight acre display adds the element of a presidential trivia quiz to the wandering through the cornfield experience. Not bad, huh?

MYERS: Not really. I can tell.

SANCHEZ: God, how do they do that? Incredible talent.

MYERS: I think those are the aliens that did that. Those are actually crop circles.

SANCHEZ: Exactly. Just like the ones in Peru.

MYERS: Right.

SANCHEZ: This cat is on the prowl for its life. In Irving, Texas, workers at the records management office saved this cat from the pound in order to guard their boxes. They say the cat keeps rodents and other small animals from messing with the city's records.

MYERS: That's kind of what cats do.

SANCHEZ: Paid well, huh?

MYERS: I mean right?

SANCHEZ: So, it's nice to be able to run through some of those.

But did you get a chance to watch the debate or did you watch the ball game or were you in sports intensive or politics intensive?

MYERS: You will -- no, I was sleeping.

SANCHEZ: I appreciate your honesty.

MYERS: I got some of the debate, you know, on the show before ours, because they reran it and all that.

SANCHEZ: Yes?

MYERS: But, you know, I don't know who won. I can't tell. I think it's a (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

SANCHEZ: A lot of people are saying a draw, but right now there's at least one poll out that's saying that it was Cheney, not Edwards. That's the way it goes.

MYERS: All right.

SANCHEZ: Well, we're going to take a little break now.

This is the time when we take our day break.

We're going to take a break, as we just said, and we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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