saberius
10-11-2004, 12:10 PM
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, anchor:
Our headliner this morning, Vice Presidential Candidate John Edwards.
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(Unrelated Segments)
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STEPHANOPOULOS: In an Afghanistan, votes are being counted today in the first presidential election. But controversy threatened to mar the historic vote as the 15 challengers to interim president Hamid Karzai withdrew from the race. They were claiming fraud because a special ink used to mark voters appeared to be erasable, opening up the possibility of voters casting more than one ballot. Final results are not expected to be certified for a few weeks, but on "Good Morning America," today, the president’s national security advisor Condoleezza Rice called the vote a success.
Ms. CONDOLEZZA RICE (National Security Advisor): There are technical problems in elections all over the world. There are technical problems in mature democracies with elections. I think you will see that this will be resolved within the context of the electoral law, which allows for challenges on technicalities. I think you will see that the Afghan people are enormously proud of what they achieved yesterday.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Which brings us to our headliner, Vice Presidential Candidate Senator John Edwards. Good morning, Senator Edwards you heard Dr. Rice there. More than 8 million voted in Afghanistan. No significant violence during the voting. Isn’t this a vindication of the Bush strategy?
Senator JOHN EDWARDS (Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate): No, far from it. Actually the fact that the election took place is a good thing. As you know, it’s been delayed twice because of security concerns, but if you look at what’s actually happened in Afghanistan since the Taliban was toppled, their opium production is back up. They are producing 75 percent of the world’s opium. On top of that there are big chunks of the country still in the control of warlords and drug lords and there’s still serious security issues in the country, so, no, I think far from it.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Are you questioning the legitimacy of this election?
Sen. EDWARDS: Oh, no, no, no, absolutely not. In fact, as you know, you know, I’ve talked about it before. I met with Karzai shortly after the Taliban was toppled, and actually right outside of Kabul. I think he’s a very impressive man, very impressive leader and, no, we’re not questioning the legitimacy of the election itself.
As you know, we have a lot of concerns about what happened during that period of time, particularly the fact that we had Osama Bin Laden cornered at Tora Bora. We had our troops on the ground. We had the 10th Mountain just across the line in Uzbekistan and we turned the job of capturing or killing Osama Bin Laden over to Afghan warlords which we think was an enormous mistake, but that’s what George Bush and Dick Cheney decided to do.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Both you and Senator Kerry have made that point in the debates. Wednesday’s debate is going to turn more to domestic issues. That’s where I want to turn right now.
Sen. EDWARDS: Sure.
STEPHANOPOULOS: On Friday night, President Bush made tort reform an issue and put you right in the middle of it. Let me play a clip and get you to respond.
(Clip of presidential debate)
Well you’re the trial lawyer on the ticket and the specific bill that President Bush was talking about would have limited damages only for OB/GYNs. In the debate Senator Kerry said he wanted to limit the damages for OB/GYNs, but neither you nor Senator Kerry showed up for that vote. If you had been there would you have voted for it?
Sen. EDWARDS: First of all, what the president just said is not right. He is talking about punitive damages in the context that is basically just inaccurate. This is a fundamental difference between us and them. You know, John and I have a plan to keep cases out of the legal system that don’t belong there which will help not only OB/GYNs, but will help all doctors and we do believe we need to do something to help doctors with their malpractice premiums. This is a question of whose side you’re on, George. John and I have been on the side of kids and family against big insurance company, against big drug companies. This administration has consistently shown they’re on the side whether allowing prescription drugs into this country from Canada, whether standing up to the drug company and using the market power of the government to negotiate discounts. I mean over and over and over they’ve made their choices and their choices have not been in the best interest of the American people.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Excuse me, would you have voted for the bill or not?
Sen. EDWARDS: Would I have voted for a limit on non-economic damages and OB/GYN cases? Is that the question?
STEPHANOPOULOS: The bill that was on the senate floor the one you and Senator Kerry missed?
Sen. EDWARDS: No, I am not for taking away the rights of the most seriously injured. For one thing I don’t think in places where that’s been done it’s had an impact on malpractice premiums. What I am for is doing something the president isn’t doing anything about which is keeping cases--frivolous cases out of the legal system that don’t belong there. What the president is doing is taking away the rights of the most seriously hurt and I think that’s wrong. I think that favors the insurance companies. It’s not what we need to do.
STEPHANOPOULOS: In the debate on Friday night Senator Kerry said he wanted to look at punitive damages and limitations on attorney’s fees and last night he said that you and he were going to be Nixon going to China on the issue of tort reform. So let’s go to China.
At what level would you cap punitive damages and what kind of limitations on attorney’s fees you and Senator Kerry willing to support?
Sen. EDWARDS: We are for two things. One is we don’t believe punitive damages should be allowed except in cases of malicious, intentional, willful misconduct, in other words, if a doctor just makes a mistake, we don’t think punitive damages should ever be allowed under those circumstances.
STEPHANOPOULOS: At all?
Sen. EDWARDS: At all, that’s correct. But we think the more important thing to do--I don’t want to lose sight of this important point, the more important thing to do is keep cases out of the system that don’t belong in the system and that’s the reason we put more responsibility on the lawyers, now, I talked about that in my debate with Vice President Cheney. The lawyers should have more accountability, more financial accountability, making sure that these cases are reviewed by independent experts, who determine that they’re serious and meritorious and then the lawyers should be held financially responsible if they fail to do that. We also ought to have a three strikes and you’re out rule that applies to the lawyers.
STEPHANOPOULOS: President Bush took aim at your overall health plan. Here’s what he said on Friday night.
(Clip of presidential debate)
The phrase we’re hearing on the stump is Hillary care. How do you respond?
Sen. EDWARDS: It is just dead wrong. First of all, it is factually inaccurate. There’s not a single new government program in our health care plan. We’re not taking choices away from people. We’re giving them more choices. And I might add this is a president who’s had four years to do something about health care. It’s great for him to go on the attack about our health care plan while he’s been president 5 million people have lost their health care coverage. Health care insurance premiums are up $3,500 over the last four years, largest increase in American history and he’s done nothing about it. It’s great for him to talk about his plan for the next four years. Where has he been for the last four years? We have a plan. It’s a serious comprehensive health care plan that will cover millions more Americans and bring down the cost.
STEPHANOPOULOS: It would have the federal government take over for catastrophic health care coverage.
Sen. EDWARDS: It does have--you’re correct about that. The federal government would play a bigger role in pooling the catastrophic costs to reduce premiums for everybody and that’s something that needs to be done. It’s one of the moving forces in driving up premiums for everybody, but that’s a piece of this and to suggest this is some government takeover is, as usual, a lot of political rhetoric and it’s not the truth.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, on--at the end of the debate on Friday night, President Bush was asked for three specific mistakes or wrong decisions that he’s made since he’s been president and both you and Senator Kerry have been having a field day with that out on the stump. Let me show you what you’ve been saying.
(Clip of John Kerry speech)
Turn about is fair play. Senator Kerry has been in the Senate for 20 years. Which three of his votes were his biggest mistakes?
Sen. EDWARDS: Oh, you are asking me about his. I thought you were asking me about mine. I can answer for myself. I don’t--I don’t--I’d have to let Senator Kerry answer that question. I mean, he’s had a lot of votes. He’s cast thousands of votes during the time he’s been in the United States Senate and he would know better than me about what he thinks he’s done that he still stands--I think the bottom line is that John Kerry has a long and strong history of cutting taxes for the middle class, of fighting to put more cops on the street, the kind of things that are mainstream issues in this country, but, George, I’ll have to let you ask him directly.
STEPHANOPOULOS: I can’t wait to get him on the show. I’ll do that. Why don’t you answer for yourself. You’ve been in the Senate longer than President Bush has been in the White House. What are your three biggest mistakes?
Sen. EDWARDS: Well, I think it was a mistake for me to vote for Rod Paige to be Secretary of Education. You know, at the time he had a record that looked like it justified him being chosen, and since that time, he’s done things like call members of teacher groups terrorists, and it turns out that his record in Houston was not what it appeared to be at the time. I think a lot of us believed that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It now turns out that at least for all of us including the president and the vice president that that’s not true.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So do you think you were misled there or was that a mistake?
Sen. EDWARDS: I think that--I think that all of us--what, weapons of mass destruction?
STEPHANOPOULOS: Yes, given that we now know about it was your vote a mistake or were you misled?
Sen. EDWARDS: Oh no, my vote wasn’t a mistake, it was the right thing to do. You mean on the resolution? It was the right thing to do to give the president the authority to confront Saddam Hussein. That was the right thing to do. It was the wrong thing to do for the president to make the mistake that he’s made, and I think all of us and members of Congress who voted on this issue were given a lot of information indicating that there were weapons of mass destruction, but we did not authorize this president--
STEPHANOPOULOS: That’s what I’m trying to figure out. What was your mistake here interpreting the evidence?
Sen. EDWARDS: Believing that there were weapons of mass destruction.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Great. Finally, number three?
Sen. EDWARDS: Oh, those are the two I can come up with off the top of my head. Give me a little time and I promise you I can come up with a third.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, sir, the new ABC News poll out this morning shows that President Bush is still ahead narrowly within the margin of error, 50 to 46. What do you and Senator Kerry have to do in the final 23 days to overcome that lead?
Sen. EDWARDS: We have to, number one, focus on making sure the American people know what’s happened over the last four years; millions of people losing their health care, millions of people going into poverty, family incomes going down, that this is the first president in over 70 years to fail to create jobs, the mess that we now have on the ground in Iraq, make sure people know that and know that it is the responsibility of the administration. And then secondly people have to know what our plan is to make it better; our plan for job, our plan for health care, our plan for what’s happening in Iraq right now. I think those two things side by side and we will win the election.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Edwards, thank you very much for joining us.
Sen. EDWARDS: Thanks for having me.
STEPHANOPOULOS: We also invited Vice President Cheney to be on the program this morning, he declined.
This is a transcript of that interview disect it as you will
Our headliner this morning, Vice Presidential Candidate John Edwards.
* * *
(Unrelated Segments)
* * *
STEPHANOPOULOS: In an Afghanistan, votes are being counted today in the first presidential election. But controversy threatened to mar the historic vote as the 15 challengers to interim president Hamid Karzai withdrew from the race. They were claiming fraud because a special ink used to mark voters appeared to be erasable, opening up the possibility of voters casting more than one ballot. Final results are not expected to be certified for a few weeks, but on "Good Morning America," today, the president’s national security advisor Condoleezza Rice called the vote a success.
Ms. CONDOLEZZA RICE (National Security Advisor): There are technical problems in elections all over the world. There are technical problems in mature democracies with elections. I think you will see that this will be resolved within the context of the electoral law, which allows for challenges on technicalities. I think you will see that the Afghan people are enormously proud of what they achieved yesterday.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Which brings us to our headliner, Vice Presidential Candidate Senator John Edwards. Good morning, Senator Edwards you heard Dr. Rice there. More than 8 million voted in Afghanistan. No significant violence during the voting. Isn’t this a vindication of the Bush strategy?
Senator JOHN EDWARDS (Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate): No, far from it. Actually the fact that the election took place is a good thing. As you know, it’s been delayed twice because of security concerns, but if you look at what’s actually happened in Afghanistan since the Taliban was toppled, their opium production is back up. They are producing 75 percent of the world’s opium. On top of that there are big chunks of the country still in the control of warlords and drug lords and there’s still serious security issues in the country, so, no, I think far from it.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Are you questioning the legitimacy of this election?
Sen. EDWARDS: Oh, no, no, no, absolutely not. In fact, as you know, you know, I’ve talked about it before. I met with Karzai shortly after the Taliban was toppled, and actually right outside of Kabul. I think he’s a very impressive man, very impressive leader and, no, we’re not questioning the legitimacy of the election itself.
As you know, we have a lot of concerns about what happened during that period of time, particularly the fact that we had Osama Bin Laden cornered at Tora Bora. We had our troops on the ground. We had the 10th Mountain just across the line in Uzbekistan and we turned the job of capturing or killing Osama Bin Laden over to Afghan warlords which we think was an enormous mistake, but that’s what George Bush and Dick Cheney decided to do.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Both you and Senator Kerry have made that point in the debates. Wednesday’s debate is going to turn more to domestic issues. That’s where I want to turn right now.
Sen. EDWARDS: Sure.
STEPHANOPOULOS: On Friday night, President Bush made tort reform an issue and put you right in the middle of it. Let me play a clip and get you to respond.
(Clip of presidential debate)
Well you’re the trial lawyer on the ticket and the specific bill that President Bush was talking about would have limited damages only for OB/GYNs. In the debate Senator Kerry said he wanted to limit the damages for OB/GYNs, but neither you nor Senator Kerry showed up for that vote. If you had been there would you have voted for it?
Sen. EDWARDS: First of all, what the president just said is not right. He is talking about punitive damages in the context that is basically just inaccurate. This is a fundamental difference between us and them. You know, John and I have a plan to keep cases out of the legal system that don’t belong there which will help not only OB/GYNs, but will help all doctors and we do believe we need to do something to help doctors with their malpractice premiums. This is a question of whose side you’re on, George. John and I have been on the side of kids and family against big insurance company, against big drug companies. This administration has consistently shown they’re on the side whether allowing prescription drugs into this country from Canada, whether standing up to the drug company and using the market power of the government to negotiate discounts. I mean over and over and over they’ve made their choices and their choices have not been in the best interest of the American people.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Excuse me, would you have voted for the bill or not?
Sen. EDWARDS: Would I have voted for a limit on non-economic damages and OB/GYN cases? Is that the question?
STEPHANOPOULOS: The bill that was on the senate floor the one you and Senator Kerry missed?
Sen. EDWARDS: No, I am not for taking away the rights of the most seriously injured. For one thing I don’t think in places where that’s been done it’s had an impact on malpractice premiums. What I am for is doing something the president isn’t doing anything about which is keeping cases--frivolous cases out of the legal system that don’t belong there. What the president is doing is taking away the rights of the most seriously hurt and I think that’s wrong. I think that favors the insurance companies. It’s not what we need to do.
STEPHANOPOULOS: In the debate on Friday night Senator Kerry said he wanted to look at punitive damages and limitations on attorney’s fees and last night he said that you and he were going to be Nixon going to China on the issue of tort reform. So let’s go to China.
At what level would you cap punitive damages and what kind of limitations on attorney’s fees you and Senator Kerry willing to support?
Sen. EDWARDS: We are for two things. One is we don’t believe punitive damages should be allowed except in cases of malicious, intentional, willful misconduct, in other words, if a doctor just makes a mistake, we don’t think punitive damages should ever be allowed under those circumstances.
STEPHANOPOULOS: At all?
Sen. EDWARDS: At all, that’s correct. But we think the more important thing to do--I don’t want to lose sight of this important point, the more important thing to do is keep cases out of the system that don’t belong in the system and that’s the reason we put more responsibility on the lawyers, now, I talked about that in my debate with Vice President Cheney. The lawyers should have more accountability, more financial accountability, making sure that these cases are reviewed by independent experts, who determine that they’re serious and meritorious and then the lawyers should be held financially responsible if they fail to do that. We also ought to have a three strikes and you’re out rule that applies to the lawyers.
STEPHANOPOULOS: President Bush took aim at your overall health plan. Here’s what he said on Friday night.
(Clip of presidential debate)
The phrase we’re hearing on the stump is Hillary care. How do you respond?
Sen. EDWARDS: It is just dead wrong. First of all, it is factually inaccurate. There’s not a single new government program in our health care plan. We’re not taking choices away from people. We’re giving them more choices. And I might add this is a president who’s had four years to do something about health care. It’s great for him to go on the attack about our health care plan while he’s been president 5 million people have lost their health care coverage. Health care insurance premiums are up $3,500 over the last four years, largest increase in American history and he’s done nothing about it. It’s great for him to talk about his plan for the next four years. Where has he been for the last four years? We have a plan. It’s a serious comprehensive health care plan that will cover millions more Americans and bring down the cost.
STEPHANOPOULOS: It would have the federal government take over for catastrophic health care coverage.
Sen. EDWARDS: It does have--you’re correct about that. The federal government would play a bigger role in pooling the catastrophic costs to reduce premiums for everybody and that’s something that needs to be done. It’s one of the moving forces in driving up premiums for everybody, but that’s a piece of this and to suggest this is some government takeover is, as usual, a lot of political rhetoric and it’s not the truth.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, on--at the end of the debate on Friday night, President Bush was asked for three specific mistakes or wrong decisions that he’s made since he’s been president and both you and Senator Kerry have been having a field day with that out on the stump. Let me show you what you’ve been saying.
(Clip of John Kerry speech)
Turn about is fair play. Senator Kerry has been in the Senate for 20 years. Which three of his votes were his biggest mistakes?
Sen. EDWARDS: Oh, you are asking me about his. I thought you were asking me about mine. I can answer for myself. I don’t--I don’t--I’d have to let Senator Kerry answer that question. I mean, he’s had a lot of votes. He’s cast thousands of votes during the time he’s been in the United States Senate and he would know better than me about what he thinks he’s done that he still stands--I think the bottom line is that John Kerry has a long and strong history of cutting taxes for the middle class, of fighting to put more cops on the street, the kind of things that are mainstream issues in this country, but, George, I’ll have to let you ask him directly.
STEPHANOPOULOS: I can’t wait to get him on the show. I’ll do that. Why don’t you answer for yourself. You’ve been in the Senate longer than President Bush has been in the White House. What are your three biggest mistakes?
Sen. EDWARDS: Well, I think it was a mistake for me to vote for Rod Paige to be Secretary of Education. You know, at the time he had a record that looked like it justified him being chosen, and since that time, he’s done things like call members of teacher groups terrorists, and it turns out that his record in Houston was not what it appeared to be at the time. I think a lot of us believed that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It now turns out that at least for all of us including the president and the vice president that that’s not true.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So do you think you were misled there or was that a mistake?
Sen. EDWARDS: I think that--I think that all of us--what, weapons of mass destruction?
STEPHANOPOULOS: Yes, given that we now know about it was your vote a mistake or were you misled?
Sen. EDWARDS: Oh no, my vote wasn’t a mistake, it was the right thing to do. You mean on the resolution? It was the right thing to do to give the president the authority to confront Saddam Hussein. That was the right thing to do. It was the wrong thing to do for the president to make the mistake that he’s made, and I think all of us and members of Congress who voted on this issue were given a lot of information indicating that there were weapons of mass destruction, but we did not authorize this president--
STEPHANOPOULOS: That’s what I’m trying to figure out. What was your mistake here interpreting the evidence?
Sen. EDWARDS: Believing that there were weapons of mass destruction.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Great. Finally, number three?
Sen. EDWARDS: Oh, those are the two I can come up with off the top of my head. Give me a little time and I promise you I can come up with a third.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, sir, the new ABC News poll out this morning shows that President Bush is still ahead narrowly within the margin of error, 50 to 46. What do you and Senator Kerry have to do in the final 23 days to overcome that lead?
Sen. EDWARDS: We have to, number one, focus on making sure the American people know what’s happened over the last four years; millions of people losing their health care, millions of people going into poverty, family incomes going down, that this is the first president in over 70 years to fail to create jobs, the mess that we now have on the ground in Iraq, make sure people know that and know that it is the responsibility of the administration. And then secondly people have to know what our plan is to make it better; our plan for job, our plan for health care, our plan for what’s happening in Iraq right now. I think those two things side by side and we will win the election.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Edwards, thank you very much for joining us.
Sen. EDWARDS: Thanks for having me.
STEPHANOPOULOS: We also invited Vice President Cheney to be on the program this morning, he declined.
This is a transcript of that interview disect it as you will