America Strikes Back: Sen. Gephardt Comments on Truce With Bush, Economy, and Military Action
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT.  THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: A short time ago listening to the congressional leaders at the White House. They are there, in part, to talk about keeping classified material just that -- classified. Back to the White House and John King this morning -- John.</s>JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, those members of Congress -- the top four leaders -- also received an update from the president on his assessment of the war in Afghanistan so far. We are joined this morning by the House Democratic Leader -- the House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt. Sir, first on this issue of the classified information -- the president was quite angry. He thought reckless leaks of information that put troops in harms way, intelligence operatives in harms way. An agreement reached this morning, at least tentatively: The president will expand the circle now of people who get those briefings?</s>REP. RICHARD GEPHARDT (D), MINORITY LEADER: He will. We'll go back to briefing intelligence committee people and people on appropriations and foreign affairs that get briefed by Secretary Rumsfeld and Secretary Powell. And then the whole membership needs to be briefed by the Pentagon on the military operations and what's going on. That will hopefully happen sometime later today.</s>KING: Is this agreement restrictive in the sense that the president is now willing to talk in a past tense about what has happened and less willing, because of his anger, to talk about what might happen tomorrow or the next day?</s>GEPHARDT: I think that's right. But obviously, people need to be briefed constantly about what's going on in the field over there. We have all got constituents who are over there, and so all members will be briefed on the status of the military operation. I think we'll get back to a normal situation. The president was rightfully angry. There should not be breaches in security of the kind that apparently went on.</s>KING: Let's talk about his assessment related to the top four leaders of Congress today about how successful or not successful the raids have been so far. Three days of airstrikes, some of them in daylight -- the administration claiming air superiority. Did he give you any sense specifically of the damage done to the Taliban or to bin Laden and his organization?</s>GEPHARDT: We really don't have that information yet. Obviously, they hope to have taken out some of his top leadership people, and eventually they've got to get him, and they are trying hard to do that. This is going to be a long operation. It's clear to me that you use air and you use covert and you use paramilitary operations eventually to get this done. This is not the Persian Gulf War. This is not Bosnia or Kosovo. This is going to take a long time, and then down the road, we've got to worry about getting Afghanistan in a position where it's no longer a seed bed for terrorism and have to work with the U.N. and other countries to make that happen.</s>KING: He is also releasing a list today: 22 most-wanted terrorists. Many of them are not in Afghanistan. Any indication from the president that there will be military action soon in places other than Afghanistan?</s>GEPHARDT: I don't think so. I don't see that on the horizon right now. But eventually that could happen. Obviously, the first thing is to try to get other countries to help us find these people -- arrest them. There have been a number of arrests around the world, I think, over 200 of suspected members of al Qaeda. So this thing is going forward. We're making progress, but it's a long road.</s>KING: And quickly, sir. You were just talking about trying to get this stimulus package passed quickly, so a consumer out there might get a check before the holiday season. Are you optimistic that will happen? And what size of a tax cut are we talking about for the average guy out there?</s>GEPHARDT: Well, I think the president is still talking about trying to get this done, so that we can get the checks in their hands. Most businesses, in the retail anyway, make most of their business in the holiday season. So it's really important to try to get this done. We're going to try to do that. I think we're mainly talking about checks going to the people who didn't get it last time -- people who paid payroll tax, but not income tax. It could be a $300, $400 check to them, and that would help them in the holiday season.</s>KING: All right. Congressman Richard Gephardt, Democratic of Missouri, the House Minority Leader -- thank you for your time today. We'll get more reaction in the minutes ahead from this key breakfast meeting this morning between the president and the congressional leadership.