World News Now Transcript

SHOW: WORLD NEWS NOW (2:00 AM ET)
August 14, 2000, Monday
HEADLINE: EXCERPT FROM "THIS WEEK" WITH JOSEPH LIEBERMAN DISCUSSING HIS STAND ON
VARIOUS ISSUES
ANCHORS: STEVE OSUNSAMI; SAM DONALDSON; LIZ CHO

BODY:
STEVE OSUNSAMI, co-anchor: When Al Gore first chose Senator Joseph Lieberman as his running mate, most of the headlines focused on the fact that he is the first Jewish candidate on the national ticket. But as the Democrats prepare to kickoff their convention tonight, there's a growing scrutiny of Lieberman's record, including his past criticism of President Clinton and the entertainment industry. Senator Lieberman talked about some of his ideas on "This Week."

(Beginning of "This Week" footage)

SAM DONALDSON, co-host: Do you agree that President Clinton will go down as one of our greatest presidents?

Senator JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (Democrat, Vice Presidential Candidate): I do agree that President Clinton has done some great things for America while he's been president and it-it's seen in the—in the economy we have, 22 million jobs, unemployment way down, housing ownership up, crime rates down. I mean, it's been a remarkable time and I—I must tell you that one of the reasons that I made my denunciation of President Clinton's mistakes at that point, personal mistakes, is that I was so personally disappointed, even angry because I had worked with him—with Bill Clinton and the new Democratic movement to fashion the programs that he then put into affect. It worked so well and I thought he was jeopardizing all this.

DONALDSON: Well, Senator, you made it clear it was almost a betrayal. I hate to press this point, but let's just look at something you've said on the Senate floor as part of your speech.

Sen. LIEBERMAN: Such behavior is not just inappropriate. It is immoral. And it is harmful, for it sends a message of what is acceptable behavior to the larger American family, particularly to our children.

DONALDSON: Great president?

Sen. LIEBERMAN: Done a lot of great things and in many ways a great president. Stumbled, fell and—and sadly what I said then—I agree with. Incidentally President Clinton said a day after that he agreed with what—what I said and he apologized and he's gone through a process of repentance. And as I said in my speech, ultimately it's God who will judge his behavior.

DONALDSON: Well, Senator, you're known as conscience of the Senate and for a good reason. Let's take fund-raising. In 1996, you sat on the committee and—and you were very stern about both parties.

Sen. LIEBERMAN: Right.

DONALDSON: You said both parties had engaged in—in behavior that was wrong. But the New York Times reports this morning that the Democratic party has raised more soft money this year than it had to this date in 1996. Are you dismayed by that?

Sen. LIEBERMAN: Yeah, but I—I must say that I—that I predicted it and the reason that—that both the Democratic and Republican parties have—have raised even more soft money, the Republicans are apparently planning to raise another hundred million dollars in soft money from now until election day. The reason this is happening is that the Congress—because of Republican opposition has not passed the McCain/Feingold campaign finance reform bill and the Gore/Lieberman ticket, administration hopefully, will, according to Al, put McCain/Feingold before the Congress as the first measure we send up there. Bush and Cheney are against it and—and if they have their way, the amount of money, soft money raised, will continue to go on and, of course, Bush has broken totally out of the system. Even the hard money limits that are in the law that Al Gore is living with.

DONALDSON: The Gore/Lieberman ticket, there's no doubt of where you stand and the vice president has made those statements. But let me remind you of something you wrote as part of the committee report back in—it was 1997 when you said this, and I quote, here are your words: "The White House was used more systematically and broadly than ever before to raise millions of dollars in large soft money contributions, with seemingly little consideration given to the troubling signal this would send to the broader public or the consequences it could have for our government. This was particularly true of the White House coffees." Perhaps you didn't know it at the time, but now we know that Al Gore hosted 21 of the White House coffees. He—he was someone that you were, in fact, denouncing then. Have you changed your view of his conduct then?

Sen. LIEBERMAN: Well, I stand by the statement that I made and I do think, in fairness, I should point out that I—that I was equally critical of the Republicans.

DONALDSON: You were?

Sen. LIEBERMAN: Because the whole system in both parties went out of control. You know, I think Al Gore has learned from that and to put it mildly, there are no more coffees at official places, vice presidential or otherwise that are going on in the Gore campaign and—to come back to it, Al Gore will fight for campaign finance reform. He's frankly, America's only hope of ending a system in which big money is saturating our—our politics and discouraging the average person from being involved. I—I don't think there's a discontinuity between the fact that as campaign contributions have gone up in America, voter participation has gone down. That's why we've got—got to put a limit on and McCain/Feingold is the way to do it.

DONALDSON: All right, you along with Tipper Gore, with a lot of Republicans, Sam Brownbeck and others have been critical of Hollywood. I mean, denouncing the smut that you see coming out of there, the lyrics that are totally inappropriate and last September you made this statement, and I quote and here it is: "Despite the outpouring of outrage over the recent string of horrific school shootings, Hollywood is still going great guns to mass market mass murder." What do you say today? Have they cleaned up their act, are they still that way?

Sen. LIEBERMAN: Still that way. Look, I love the movies, I love music and—those are some of the ways in which I relax, but there is still too much violence, too much sex, too much incivility in entertainment which makes it very difficult for parents who are working so hard to give their kids values and discipline to do so, because, as one mother said to me a couple years ago, and it always stays in my mind. 'I feel,' she said, 'as if I'm in a competition with the entertainment industry to raise my kids, and they're winning.' And—this is not a question of censorship. I've always said to them and appealed to them, 'Be good citizens, draw a line.' If you remember, Tipper Gore was the first, with a group of other women, to raise this very same question in the mid 80s and I can assure you, because I've talked to Al and Tipper about it and Hadassah, my wife, and I are going to join with them, Gore/Lieberman administration will be concerned about what government can do within appropriate constitutional limits, to improve the moral future of America.