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For Immediate Release
October 29, 2004
Transcript of the Lockhart Call on the Republican Response to the Bin Laden Tape
Friday, October 29, 2004
LOCKHART: Thank you very much, sorry to get everyone on the phone so late at night,
but I'll try to be as brief as I can. I think this of relative importance in the
campaign, so I wanted to get with all of you.
Some of you may know the president tonight went to the tarmac and talked about what
he and Senator Kerry agreed on, united front against the war on terror and then went
off and gave one of the most partisan negative personal attacks on Senator Kerry and
his commitment to defending this country. Part of that attack was something along
the lines of how shameful it was that senator Kerry would try to use the Osama Bin
Laden tape released tonight for political purposes and that's prompted us to do a
little review of the facts and in this campaign facts don't seem to matter to the
bush people or the campaign.
Let me just take a few minutes and walk through the timelime and we'll let you judge
who's been shameful here.
For Kerry, John Kerry gave several speeches today about middle class living
standards and just before going into some satellite media interviews he was informed
by one of his staffers that there were news reporters that there might be an Osama
bin laden videotape being released later in tape later in day by al-Jazeera, he did
interviews ,didn't know what was on tape, did not listen to them, he had not gotten
a briefing from the government or from anything of the sort from anyone on his staff
on what was the on tape, in fact it was unknown what was on tape and frankly, even
if there was an authentic tape.
In those interviews he got asked about possibility of tapes and he gave an answer
which was very similar to answers he's given over the last six or seven months,
talking about his commitment to terror, how he thinks there's a more effective way
to fight the war on terror war on terror, mentioning that Osama Bin Laden slipped
through our grasp at Tora Bora.
After that, Kerry was on his way to airport, was briefed by his National Security
Advisor Rand Beers , who had gotten a briefing from government authorities, and
those that he's been dealing with on a regular basis, and then I think many of you
saw John Kerry come out and give what I thought was quite a strong and eloquent
statement about how no one, of the ilk of Osama bin Laden was going to divide
America and we were going to stand united as a country. This is in somewhat stark
contrast to the Bush day, let me walk through that for a minute
The President, it turns out, according to news reports, was briefed this morning at
length on what was on this tape, what Osama Bin Laden was going to deliver to
American public and the world later in the day and was given by his national
security team, a 4-5 hour heads up on what was to be expected later in the day.
Knowing what he knew and knowing that this tape was coming out, President then
proceeded to give a speech where once again he filled it with very personal and
negative attacks on John Kerry. Questioned his commitment to protecting this
country, and in fact and if you look at his speech, mocked him several times during
that speech.
The President left the event, the tape came out and as you all saw, he came out and
solemnly talked about how he would stand up to Osama Bin Laden and how he and
Senator Kerry agreed on it. Just an hour later he went back to the partisan negative
president he is, and attacked John Kerry once again. And they used this example of -
a shameful example of John Kerry talking about Tora Bora trying to take advantage of
the situation - of this tape being released. As you all know, every member of their
staff went into overdrive talking to people like you, talking about what a political
outrage this was.
Now, we agree with him, there is something shameful, shameful on the part of
president. The President knew what was on this tape, he had been briefed. He went
out and gave a partisan speech. Only after the tape was released did he go out and
talk about what he and Senator Kerry agreed on. Senator Kerry, as I've just told
you, did not know what was on this tape.
I think what you saw coming from him was genuine, as far as how he felt about this
country, being united against the sort of barbarians that Osama Bin Laden is and
what he represents. You have to make own judgments on how genuine the President was.
But it's very clear from both of these timelines that the President and his team saw
today as a day to execute political strategy and certainly a political strategy from
a campaign on the ropes, and desperate to grasp onto anything, no matter how solemn
and grave it is, no matter how offensive this is, particularly to the families he
spent the morning with - the 9/11 families that were most directly devastated by
this attack and he thought it was fine to go ahead to execute a political strategy
today.
So I think the reason we tried to get you all together tonight is this idea he saw
it fit, the idea of the rank hypocrisy for the white house and staff to talk about
anything John Kerry is doing tonight. It's much more than that - it's shameful for
this President and this white house to deal with a threat so grave to this country,
an issue that touches America at such a deep and personal and tragic way as part of
their overall political strategy. .
Karl Rove told you all, when you found that disk in Lafayette Park, in 2002 that
they saw the war on terror as key to their political strategy. I think it was
shameful then, and shameful tonight and the President ought to stand up and have a
real debate about what he wants to do on the war on terror.
The last point I'll make is that the big differences John Kerry and the President.
The President is running around the country and questioning John Kerry's commitment
to defend this country, which is an insane idea, given John Kerry's commitment to
this country and the fact that he served this country, volunteered and put his life
on the life. That says something about the President's character. That says
something about his desire to do anything or say anything to keep power, to keep
office.
John Kerry, on the other hand has never questioned the President's commitment to
defending this country, he's only questioned whether we've pursued the best strategy
to doing it and diverting resources from Afghanistan and al Qaida to Iraq is
something we profoundly disagree on and it's an issue John Kerry has talked about
every day and will continue to talk about.
I'll take questions now. Operator?
REPORTER: Hi Joe, the nature of this call, and the timeline you offered and the
vociferousness with which you're making this argument suggests at least to me, that
perhaps you think Senator Kerry's initial criticisms, at a time, as you put it, he
didn't know about the tape, was a mistake.
LOCKHART: No, I don't think so at all Mark, I think the facts matter here. For the
last two or three months, the President has run around this country, twisting the
truth, mischaracterizing, taking out of context, and today he did it on something
that should be as important an issue as we face as a country. It's protecting this
country, it's the guy who finally stood in front of America and admitted he was
behind 9/11 - someone for two years, we didn't know he was alive or dead and it's
offensive, it's shameful for this president to play politics the way he did today
with this issue.
And I think the timelines are important, the reason we put this call together, was
that there was a lot of information here and without all the information, it would
be natural, I think, for many of you to reach the wrong conclusion and frankly, be
deceived by this White House. But I think the facts matter here, and that's why
we're on this call here at 9:43. Not because John Kerry did anything, because, one
more time, this administration can't tell the truth, and everybody on this call I
think has a personal experience with being deceived by someone in this White House,
of being lied to by someone in there, and you just have to go back in your memory
bank and think whether you can trust what they say or whether you can trust what we
say.
REPORTER: Just to follow up on the idea of the first question Joe, is there
something in the content of the video that was suddenly made that was surprising or
suddenly made it something that now Tora Bora shouldn't be talked about, or maybe
we're just saying that Senator Kerry hadn't had time to think through an appropriate
response.
LOCKHART: No, I don't think there was anything at all on that. The Tora Bora
reference is something he's been talking about, and John Kerry was one of the first
public figures in Washington to speak out about missed opportunities at Tora Bora,
so it's not at all that the answer was inappropriate, it's the President of the
United States standing up and saying that this was a shameful moment for John Kerry.
And it's important to know the timeline, it's also what I'm trying to do here, is
provide you with some context.
When John Kerry stood up in front of the cameras at the airport and talked about
America being united, that was a genuine moment, he had just been briefed on the
contents of the tape.
What I'm suggesting here is: the President's comments were more part of a political
strategy - because he had known about this information for most of the day. He
launched a political attack before those comments, he launched a political attack
afterward. And he had the gall to sort of lash out at John Kerry for playing
politics, when today was a political day at the White House.
REPORTER: The Senator did not mention Tora Bora at his rally in Miami tonight, is
this something you are going to try and steer clear of in the days to come?
LOCKHART: I think the thing that John Kerry has been talking about for the last year
is a difference in philosophy - there are some speeches he goes into specifics of
Tora Bora, not all speeches, most speeches it's much more general, where he talks
about the President thought it was right decision to divert attention away from
Afghanistan to Iraq, as part of this war on terror, we think that was an enormous
mistake, a catastrophic blunder on the part of the president.
We have said that day after day after day there is nothing there is nothing wrong
with that, what we do object to and I think what the public will ultimately and the
voters will object to is this idea that when this mass murderer comes on and
threatens and tries to intimidate America that the president and his team decide
that this is a moment to play politics, that this is a moment to launch an attack on
John Kerry without knowing any of the facts, a moment that they think they can seize
political advantage when I think John Kerry did exactly the right thing - he spoke
to America, reassured them that we were united and committed as a
nation in going after and killing and crushing these terrorists, and I think there's
a stark contrast tonight between the president and his team and what John Kerry did
and I don't think that this is about whether he mentions Tora Bora tomorrow or the
next day its about what happened today and I think that the facts matter.
REPORTER: Hey Joe, I know you said that he was not briefed before the media
interview, the satellite interview, but wasn't he specifically asked in that
interview didn't the anchor give some type of characterization of what was on that
tape?
LOCKHART: Hey listen I don't know I just saw the answer, I didn't see the question,
but you listen there's no, the briefing that he got happened after the interview,
not during the interview, after and you cant seriously think that some
characterization from a you know a local TV reporter suffices as a briefing, I mean
he answered the question it was along the same broad lines as he's answered for you
know for 6 or 7 months, as long as at least as I've been following this, and I think
what's important here is not necessarily that answer or exactly when the briefing
was because listen you know we didn't, you know I'm not sitting here charging that
somehow the White House withheld information from us and put us in an awkward
situation, that's not it at all.
We were briefed in a timely way, randy beers was given the proper amount of
information at the proper time, what we object to is the president going out and
lashing out in a very political way trying to use this tape that is offensive to all
Americans for his own political gain and trying to denigrate John Kerry when what
John Kerry did tonight was right, what he did was right, he stood up once he knew
what was on that tape and told America that we all stand united and that's you know
it is a big difference and I think its one of the reasons that John Kerry is going
to get elected next Tuesday because he will unite the country because he's not going
to squander the unity that this president squandered and the reason he squandered it
from almost a few days after September 11th is the same reason that he's acted the
way tonight he saw September 11th he saw the war on terror as primary, as a
political tool to divide the country and help promote his reelection and you know he
used the right word tonight, its shameful.
REPORTER: Sure, uh do you expect the Senator to make any more statements to this Joe
in specifically will he kinda go back to the economy, healthcare, Iraq and stick
with those issues or will he try to incorporate what Osama bin Laden into his into
his into his stump so to speak?
LOCKHART: Well listen, you know I think that to paraphrase the president from his
convention speech, you know, John Kerry is capable of swaggering and chewing gum at
the same time. So his message wont change, which is, we can defend America, we will
defend America, but we are also can fight for the middle class, so we're going to
talk about the economy jobs healthcare, all those issues, and fundamental
differences on Iraq and the war on terror which we have articulated from day one.
I think the most important thing and the President doesn't see this because he would
rather play politics, is that the American public deserves a real honest debate on
this and the last thing that should happen is somehow a barbaric murderous terrorist
limits the debate or impacts the debate here at home. We are not going to let that
happen, we are going to continue to make our case for the next three days it is too
bad and disappointing to the American public that the President can't engage in an
honest debate and has to engage in this sort of dishonest mischaracterization that
has been going on for month after month.
Listen I know it's late so why don't we wrap up so you can all go do better and
interesting things instead of listening to me rant.
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