MSNBC Hardball - Transcript

MSNBC
SHOW: HARDBALL 21:00
August 2, 2004 Monday

HEADLINE: HARDBALL SPECIAL EDITION For August 2, 2004

BYLINE: Chris Matthews; Pete Williams; David Shuster; Roger Cressey; Andrea Mitchell; Pat Buchanan

GUESTS: Rep. David Dreier; Rep. Loretta Sanchez; Tad Devine; Terry Holt; Tom Oliphant

HIGHLIGHT:
The information that caused the Bush administration to raise the terror alert status on Sunday apparently began coming in the previous Friday. President Bush has decided to accept part of the 9/11 commission's recommendations, but not give a new national intelligence director a cabinet position. What effect is terrorism having on the presidential election campaign?

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CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST:

Congressman David Dreier-U.S. Congressman David Dreier and Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez are both U.S. Representatives from California, and both are members of the Select Committee on Homeland Security.

Congressman Dreier, what do you make of this new warning? Is this-what do we do? I should say, if this were in your congressional district, what would you expect people to do about this warning?

REP. DAVID DREIER (R-CA), HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE: Well, obviously, what we have to do every place, Chris, and that is be vigilant, be very careful. And this action that's been taken, obviously, kicks into effect a number of precautionary steps, as it relates to public gatherings and buildings that potentially are targeted. And so one of the things that you want to do is, is while you want people to be conscious of the threat that does exist, you also don't want to see anyone cower to these terrorists and those who threaten us because that's exactly what they want. They want to scare the living daylights out of us. And so what I do is just say, Be careful, but continue living your lives as you have.

MATTHEWS: Well, let me ask Loretta Sanchez. Congresswoman, what would you tell your constituents if they were living or going to work in these five financial centers that have apparently been targeted at some point by the terrorists?

REP. LORETTA SANCHEZ (D-CA), HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE: Well, it's sort of the same advice that you give to somebody when they go to an unknown or a big city, is, you know, watch who's around you, take care of yourself. If you see anything strange, report it immediately. I mean, that's what you do in a situation like this. If you're in that particular area where you think something's going to happen or we have some information, then watch what you're doing. Watch what you're doing. That's what we need to do.

But I would also say that this was more specific. I mean, it's very different than the usual thing that we hear out of this administration, which is, Oh, my God, the sky is falling! Watch out! Terrorists are coming. So you know, I'm glad that this time...

DREIER: Who said that?

SANCHEZ: There was specific information...

DREIER: Who's ever said that?

SANCHEZ: ... that there's specific information towards that, that we're not just raising the level at this point, just, you know, broadly, that it is specifically tied. And that's a good thing to see this time.

DREIER: You know, Chris, with all due respect...

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: Go ahead, Congressman.

DREIER: With all due respect, I mean, there has never been anyone in this administration who's made an attempt to frighten people and say the sky is falling and there's some unknown terror threat. They have been very careful. We worked in a bipartisan way, putting into place this Department of Homeland Security following September 11. We worked very carefully, Chris and Loretta, as you know, with this committee, on which we both serve, to try and deal with this issue, and we want to be responsible. And this notion that somehow someone would politicize this, as Howard Dean said yesterday, is to me absolutely outrageous. If any president, Chris, were to politicize a-for political benefit, a potential terrorist threat on anyone in the United States of America, I would vote to impeach that person if evidence came forward that that were happening. And so I-think this...

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: Congresswoman Sanchez, let me ask you a question. Do you believe that terror alerts by themselves, even if they were established with total political neutrality, do have the effect of rallying people around the president and do have a partisan effect of helping the president in his reelection campaign, regardless of the intentions?

SANCHEZ: I think what's more important to note is that the more that you call Wolf, the more that you bring people to a high alert, the more difficult it will be when you really need a person to be at that alert. And that's why I say I think it's good that when you have specific information, you let people know about it. But you know, what we've seen where they've brought it up and they haven't brought it down, or they've brought it up, they brought it down, they brought it up...

MATTHEWS: Do you think it's...

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: ... with press conferences, I think, is wrong. Excuse me?

MATTHEWS: You think there's-do you think there's politics, presidential reelection politics involved with these alerts?

SANCHEZ: Well, I would...

MATTHEWS: You.

SANCHEZ: ... by telling you that, you know, I believe the president has done very little to secure us here in America, and as Americans, right here in ours own country...

MATTHEWS: Well, I know that's the general critique. But do you believe that Tom Ridge or the president or anyone has at any time used these terror alerts to gain politically?

SANCHEZ: I would hope not. I would hope that they...

MATTHEWS: Well, do you think they have?

SANCHEZ: ... were doing that because they've got (UNINTELLIGIBLE) chatter going on and because it's very specific. And that's why I'm applauding the fact that they're bringing specific information this time because I believe...

MATTHEWS: OK.

DREIER: The answer is no!

SANCHEZ: ... in just having seen my own constituents, that they get...

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: You know, they ask me, Why is this going on?

MATTHEWS: Let me ask you...

(CROSSTALK) Let me ask...

SANCHEZ: Why is it being...

(CROSSTALK)

MATTHEWS: We have a lot of students here. We have a lot of young adults here working in both campaigns. Does anybody here think that they've been playing game with these terror alerts? Anybody here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No![tilde]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No![tilde]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No!

MATTHEWS: OK. OK. Thank you. That includes both the Kerry and the Bush campaign, folks. Anyway, U.S. Congressman David Dreier, thank you for joining us once again. And Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, same deal. Please keep coming back.

When you come back: Who do voters trusts to protect them in the war on terror? Big question. And what are the Bush and Kerry campaigns doing to convince America that their candidate has the best plan? Both sides are going to join me. As you can see, they're already here.

You're watching a special edition of HARDBALL on MSNBC.

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