MSNBC Hardball - Transcript
MSNBC Hardball - Transcript
Friday, July 29, 2005
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GREGORY: Welcome back to HARDBALL. I'm David Gregory, in for Chris Matthews tonight and reporting from the White House.
We've been talking about Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who today broke with the White House and came out in support of an expansion of stem cell research, embryonic stem cell research.
Late today, I spoke to Republican Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi and Democratic Senator Bill Nelson of Florida.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GREGORY: Senator Lott, let me begin with you.
At the heart of Senator Frist's decision today and announcement today is a bigger question about whether or not science, the science of stem cell research, has effectively left the president's order of August 2001 in the dust.
SEN. TRENT LOTT (R), MISSISSIPPI: Well, perhaps it has.
I personally came to the conclusion over a year ago that, with very careful legal and ethical limits, that I thought to expand the research stem cell-based, by using these embryo stem cells that are not either going to be adopted or going to be destroyed, to use them to try to help fiend ways to save lives was the right thing to do.
And I think that-it sounds to me like that's where Senator Bill Frist has come to.
(CROSSTALK)
GREGORY: So, you support the bill that will come before the Senate, do you not?
LOTT: I have reservations about it, because I'm not sure they have enough of the legal or ethical protections that I would like to see. But, more than likely, I will vote for it, yes.
GREGORY: Like what? What do you want to see that is not there?
LOTT: I want to make sure-for instance, I would like to stop it at the existing frozen embryos. I want to make sure that this is not going to be wind up being a deal where they're created and harvested, in effect, by doctors or other groups.
So, I'd to-there's plenty of stem cells in the existing pool. I would like to draw the line right there. There is a bill by Senator Hutchison that would do that. So, I'm looking all the options. But this is a very important, very serious matter. I worry that the Senate really is a little bit-maybe the president-we're all struggling to try to understand the science.
But I think we're going to have to deal with this. And I think it is time that we try to do a little bit more based on the science that we have before us.
GREGORY: Senator Nelson, you know the president's view on this, which is nothing. Don't move from where he set down the marker, August 9, 2001. Is he wrong?
SEN. BILL NELSON (D), FLORIDA: Well, if you want to have science advance and give hope to people that have all of these terrible kinds of diseases, then what you ought to do is use every means available in the research on these stem cells.
And the president cuts it off at just-it think it's something like 22 stem cell lines now that are only available under the president's directive. So, in that regard, the president-events have overtaken the president's decision.
GREGORY: Right. Well, but he-he would argue, of course, the White House would argue he was the first one to actually approve government funding of stem cell research. And they would make the argument here that this is still such basic science. So, let's wait to see what happens with the existing line before we expand it.
LOTT: Let make this point, David. I'm not being critical of the president. I think the president stepped up and tried to address it in a responsible way. I think that some of what he thought would be made available by that did not materialize.
It is evolving science. And I think you need to be careful not to get too far down the line. I want to make sure that this doesn't lead to cloning or all these other very difficult issues. But, as a pro-life advocate over a 30-year career, I think the pro-life position is to be able to use these very limited stem cells to try to find more solutions to things like juvenile diabetes.
GREGORY: Right.
Senator Nelson, comment?
NELSON: Look, my mother died of ALS. This is one of the hopes that we have. Look, why is Nancy Reagan doing what she's doing? Because there's hope that Alzheimer's can be cured. Diabetes, the whole range of things, that, if we will do our research and development, there is no telling what we could do to cure this pestilence on Earth.
GREGORY: Let me turn now to the issue of John Bolton, the president's choice to be ambassador to the United Nations, blocked for a vote in the Senate.
Senator Lott, do you think and do you expect the president to recess appoint him?
LOTT: It sounds to me like he does plan to give him a recess appointment. The president has that right under the Constitution.
I have advised against it. I think that he was not confirmed. And, if he went in there, he would be limit to like 17 months. Perhaps he would not be weakened, but it appears to me that he would. But I would recommend against a recess appointment.
GREGORY: Senator Nelson, the White House makes the argument-
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice did in an interview yesterday-that the General Assembly meets in September. There's some major work to be done to reform the United Nations. The administration needs someone in place.
NELSON: Indeed, we do. And we need somebody like a John Negroponte or a John Danforth, someone who the nation can be proud of, not someone who, for example, has done a very poor job in his last job as the arms control negotiator.
We certainly didn't get anywhere under his leadership with regard to North Korea or Iran in the last four years. I don't think he ought to be promoted because he didn't do a good job.
GREGORY: Senator Nelson, I want to give you the final word on another issue that, of course, is of concern to so many Americans right now. And that is the space program and specifically the fate of our astronauts on this mission, with this foam incident that's happened.
What are your concerns about the danger for reentry for this crew and do you think it was a mistake for them to launch in the first place?
NELSON: Well, thank the good lord. I think this crew is fine. There are very few dings on this orbiter, compared to previous flights.
But NASA has a design problem. And it has got to be fixed. And then we can fly again. And so, yes, the work worked. They-they stopped a lot less of the shredding coming off of the external tank. But there is a design flaw that they did not fix, and that has got to be fixed soon.
GREGORY: And, Senator Nelson, your views, obviously, as a former astronaut, so important.
Thank you both, Senator Nelson and Senator Lott, for joining us tonight.
LOTT: Thank you, David.
NELSON: Thanks.
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