Axis of Evil Back in the News; How Will Republicans Respond to Controversy Over Trent Lott?
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to CNN's SATURDAY EDITION, where our journalists have the inside scoop on the stories they covered this week. I'm Andrea Koppel. The axis of evil is back in the news, this time with a high-seas drama involving North Korean missiles and nuclear development in Iran.</s>SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Suzanne Malveaux. For President Bush, a full plate: Iraq, smallpox and how to respond to the furor over Senator Lott.</s>LINDA ROTH, CNN PRODUCER: I'm Linda Roth in Doha, Qatar. I'll be talking about war games and the agreement that lets U.S. planes use a big airbase here, should war with Iraq breakout.</s>DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Deborah Feyerick in New York. What happened to the promise of a speedy trial for the only man formally charged in the September 11 attacks?</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: And I'm Christine Romans. The new team driving Bush economic policy: Will new faces mean new ideas? We'll be talking about all of these stories, we'll listen to the president's weekly radio address at the end of the hour, but first this news alert from CNN headquarters in Atlanta.</s>MALVEAUX: Well, it takes a lot to push Iraq out of the headlines, but this week, as the U.S. continues to evaluate the documents Iraq provided about its weapons, the president found himself talking about a variety of other complex issues as well: missiles from North Korea, nuclear construction in Iran, protecting the country against smallpox, rebuilding his economic team, and slapping down Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott over what seemed to be an endorsement of segregation.</s>SEN. TRENT LOTT (R-MS), MAJORITY LEADER: I want to say this about my state. When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it.</s>MALVEAUX: So I don't know if you guys have had the kind of week that I've had. Andrea, I think you have. You just don't even know where to start with the White House. But this was a real problem for the president. I mean, it really put them in a bad situation. They had to -- they came out, they defended him ultimately. But the president did admonish Lott publicly, came out with very strong words. They had a phone conversation following that. But really, the White House very concerned that this is going to have long-term implications, that this is going to mean they're going to lose the African-American support that they've been trying to build up, really that this -- that Lott would speak for the Republicans and for the White House. A very tricky situation.</s>FEYERICK: Suzanne, Bush really came out so strongly against Lott. I mean, he gave the impression that Lott was going down. Kind of ironic, given that the Republicans won the midterm elections; didn't seem like the Republicans were having so much difficulty. Why go after him? I mean, what was the real motivation, the closed-door talks on that?</s>MALVEAUX: Well, you know, behind the scenes are telling me, "Look, you know, this is really a dangerous situation, if we've got somebody like Lott who is speaking for us. And really, two years from now, you know, if he's still in this position, what are we going to do if people remember, hey, you know, maybe they have the idea, well, he's a racist? That's not something that they want to deal with. They wanted to make sure, let's get this over quickly. They did not want to deal with it. They put it on Lott, hoped that with his apologies, to come out forcefully, that he would do that. But again, it is the concern about the African-American vote. They've been trying to build support in that community, that they would lose that kind of momentum, and that this would reflect badly on the party and on the White House as well.</s>ROMANS: Why four apologies? He's made four apologies, all of them slightly different and more, I guess not indignant, but strong, each one. I mean, is he going to have to continue to apologize, or when does this thing blow over for him?</s>MALVEAUX: You know, I really don't know. I don't know how many apologies it's going to take. I know that the NAACP, the Urban League, you've had a number of black leaders who have come out and who have said, "We want Congress to censure, tell Lott that they would not be satisfied otherwise." But the White House is really at this point taking a stand-off view and saying, "We're finished with this."</s>ROMANS: And so far, Trent Lott not saying that he's going to resign his post. But it's interesting because this has been a week and a half of resignations right and left, from members of the president's economic team to Cardinal Bernard Law in Boston yesterday. It really has been a very brisk couple of weeks for, you know, watching the resignations in Washington, on Wall Street and in Boston.</s>KOPPEL: Had you gotten any kind of a sense -- I know publicly the administration is backing Lott. But have you gotten any kind of an idea behind the scenes just how concerned they are and how much advice they might be giving Lott as to how he should be plotting his moves?</s>MALVEAUX: Well, you can bet that he has been talking to the Republican leadership, and there has been a lot of pressure for him to come forward and to come forward very forcefully. Because White House aides were not happy with this, the president was not happy with this, and they were very concerned about it. I mean, quite frankly, they wanted to make sure that he was out on the front lines. And yes, that the president -- Ari Fleischer said just yesterday when I spoke with him that the president does not believe that Lott should resign. At the same time, White House aides are saying they really want to make it very clear this is not the position of the administration. I should also mention as well, the dramatic, dramatic announcement that happened that totally caught the White House off guard was just yesterday when former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger announced that he was resigning from the 9/11 commission to investigate events leading up to 9/11. That was really a bombshell for the White House. They did not expect that at all.</s>KOPPEL: Wouldn't you have thought that -- I mean, Kissinger, Kissinger is now the second person on the -- leaders of the 9/11 commission, with George Mitchell also stepping down for conflict-of- interest reasons. Wouldn't he have thought about that before they accepted the position?</s>ROMANS: Right.</s>MALVEAUX: And what happened was that they really thought, the White House at least thought, "Here you have somebody like Kissinger who has the weight behind him. This will really give us the kind of credibility we need with this type of commission." What they didn't anticipate was the kind of criticism, really that the bar has been raised so high. And that is one thing administration officials are saying, it really caught them off guard to realize that yes, there were Democrats, there were family members who were saying, "We want full disclosure. Give us the names of your clients. Tell us about your financial records." Ultimately Kissinger said he would do that, but that he felt he could never satisfy his critics, that it would never end. And the White House spin on this, their take, is that the bar is too high. I mean, how do we fill these positions when you have a Democrat like Mitchell as well as Kissinger, both of them stepping down for literally the same reasons?</s>KOPPEL: Now, what about the president's announcement that he is going to have a smallpox...</s>ROMANS: Ouch. Ouch.</s>KOPPEL: Exactly.</s>MALVEAUX: That was really funny because somebody was trying to find out before they made the announcement, is the president going to get the shot, is he going to get it? And one of his aides was just like...</s>FEYERICK: And it can be dangerous, that's the big debate.</s>MALVEAUX: Exactly. And that was something that...</s>FEYERICK: And the big difference, of course, is going to be that he's going to be surrounded by a team of doctors. So if there are any side effects, certainly they're going to be treated immediately, as opposed to anybody else who may be considering it who may be at risk or vulnerable to some of the side effects that the shot can give.</s>MALVEAUX: He's also in excellent shape, as we know, with his running and so forth. But one of the things -- I mean, it was something that the White House aides went back and forth on, on this point. Because on one hand, the message was, "Americans, look, we're not encouraging this, we're not endorsing this, to get this vaccination." Because as you mentioned before, it's possibly dangerous. But at the same time, he wanted, as commander in chief, if he's going to require the military to get the shot, that he would get the vaccination as well, but that his family members would not and nor would his staff.</s>KOPPEL: Well, from the danger of smallpox to another danger, one of the biggest stories of the week, Scud missiles hidden in a ship bound for the Persian Golf -- a reminder for the Bush team of one of its nagging diplomatic problems, arm sales from North Korea. More on that and the surprising way it was resolved when CNN's SATURDAY EDITION continues.