Bush Gives Media Availability, Calls for More Restrictions on 527s
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Checking some stories now in the news, the Supreme Court refusing further action on the Pledge of Allegiance controversy in schools. It rejected an appeal of its earlier ruling against Michael Newdow. He wants the words "under God" taken out of the Pledge. Lawyers for Charles Graner have tried and failed to suppress the photographs that led to the Abu Ghraib Prison scandal. A military judge held a pretrial hearing for Graner in Mannheim, Germany, today. The hearing moved from Baghdad because of security concerns. And the staff of the 9/11 Commission issuing a new series of highly detailed technical reports, about a dozen to be made public. The vice chairman of the commission says he's surprised and pleased the panel's already published report is a best seller.</s>CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Defense policy is the order of the day at the Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas. And also on the front burner, the Kerry Vietnam controversy that just won't go away as the Republican Convention draws near. More now from CNN's Jill Dougherty who is with the president in Texas. Jill, we understand that the president actually has talked specifically about those attack ads against John Kerry today.</s>JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He did, Carol. You know, he has been in this meeting for several hours with his top military people, national security people, and certainly they got into those issues. But when he came out for a brief encounter with the press, they had a chance to talk with him, ask him a few questions. And the first one or one of the ones that came up was about that -- the charge that the White House is actually orchestrating quote "a smear campaign" against Senator John Kerry. The White House in numerous instances has already denied that, but the president said Senator Kerry quote "served admirably, he ought to be proud of his record." But, the president said, the question is, "who can best lead the country?" And then Mr. Bush went into what he has said before which is he believes that these groups that are funded by unregulated soft money ought to be done away with. He said, "I am disappointed. I thought we got rid of that with the McCain-Feingold bill, but apparently we haven't." And repeated his call for Senator Kerry to join him in coming down on these ads, criticizing them and getting rid of them -- I should say those groups, so-called 527 groups. He was also asked about the convention -- the Republican Convention coming up, how is his speech going? He said he didn't give too many details but then went into the reason that he should be reelected, and essentially the message that we're hearing from the president is, we've got a good record. There is more to be done. And he said it's going to be a forward-looking speech. Now in a very controversial subject, that's intelligence reform, he was asked about the proposal by Senator Pat Roberts, the Republican head of the Senate Intelligence Committee who has suggested in essence breaking apart the CIA, distributing its responsibilities to other agencies. Obviously controversial. The president said: "I haven't seen it. A lot of ideas are moving around. We will be looking at those ideas, but there are many out there." So noncommittal from the president. Obviously a sensitive subject. He said, the president wants the best intelligence possible. The question is how to do it. And then finally on the subject of oil, it's become a big domestic and an international issue. Mr. Bush spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin this morning, and the president talked about that a bit to reporters but also the president's press secretary spoke with reporters and said that President Putin apparently had promised to increase production. That would be good news for the world economy. It would be very good news for many, including in the United States. So that will be an interesting development if that turns out to be the case. We'll have to look at it. It's very controversial in terms of how the Russians are dealing with this issue. But we'll have more on that later -- Carol.</s>LIN: All right. Jill, you covered a lot of topics. But let me get back to the attack ad. Did the president specifically say that this group -- Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which has been producing these attack ads against Kerry, did he specifically say that that group should withdraw its ad, one that's debuting, a second one debuting tomorrow?</s>DOUGHERTY: He did not, not that we heard and that, I would have to say, would be not something that you would expect from the president. He has had numerous opportunities and so have the people in his administration and in the campaign to come out and specifically talk about that. What they are saying is overall they believe the groups that fund such ads should not exist anymore, that there should be an end put to this.</s>LIN: I know that that was the position. Interesting, because something is crossing on the AP and it may be wrong. So just wanted to check with that, Jill. Thank you very much.</s>O'BRIEN: News across America now, many Florida children return to school today for the first time since Hurricane Charley ripped through their communities. Some classes being held in churches because nearby schools are damaged. Dozens of psychologists and social workers on hand to counsel students in distress. A ruptured sewer line has created a huge sink hole in Michigan. Yesterday's break caused police to shut down a major road, knocked out power to about 200 customers. Crews hope to have a temporary above ground sewer bypass in place a little later today. That's in Sterling Heights, near Detroit. And a pretrial hearing in the Michael Jackson molestation case resuming in Santa Maria, California, at this hour, attorneys reportedly battling over still-secret evidence that might make or break the case against Jackson. Stay tuned. At the Scott Peterson murder trial, the focus once again on the prosecution star witness, Amber Frey. Frey is Peterson's former mistress and she's facing cross-examination today. CNN's Rusty Dornin is there, she has the latest for us -- Rusty.</s>RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, no Amber Frey quite yet. We know she's in the building. She's on standby. We're expecting her to take the stand. But as expected, they called an out of order witness this morning, a woman from West Palm Beach, Florida, who is an AT&T; Wireless fraud expert. She's talking about some calls that Scott Peterson made on his cell phone the morning of Christmas Eve, around 10:00 in the morning. That was the time he supposedly had left the house, told police, at 9:30 a.m. Pacific that morning. This is referring to a call that was made about between 9:30 and 10:00 that morning. Mark Geragos on cross-examination already of the witness was able to get her to admit that using these fraud systems, they can pinpoint cell towers but that's not really what it's used for. The system is used to find fraud and to pinpoint fraud, not to pinpoint the location of the users. Her testimony is expected to be fairly short and then Amber Frey is expected to take the stand. Already some Powerpoint equipment was put up in the courtroom while a closed door session was going on this morning. Also, the judge came out after an hour of a closed door session this morning, again apologizing to the jury for all of the delays that are going on and saying once they work through the next few days, he thinks that things can go fairly smoothly. But we are expecting the cross-examination and for Mark Geragos to not be overly aggressive and that the questioning may only last through today and possibly into tomorrow morning -- Miles.</s>O'BRIEN: You said Mark Geragos won't be overly aggressive.</s>O'BRIEN: Now that's a news flash right there. Let's talk about some of the obvious openings that he might try to exploit in that testimony without being too aggressive.</s>DORNIN: Right, well, it depends on if he's able to highlight some of these additional phone calls outside the 43 that were played by prosecutors, he may be able to bring out some things we haven't heard before -- perhaps maybe that Amber Frey, maybe she felt like she had some kind of -- was getting back at him for something or some calls that they didn't -- the police didn't know about that Amber Frey had made calls from somewhere besides her home. Also, in those 43 calls even, or in other additional calls, when Scott Peterson talks about, he claims that he loved his life, he loved Laci Peterson, that he was actively involved in the search and the volunteer center, you can bet he's going to hit on those points.</s>O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much, Rusty Dornin. We will check in with you a little bit later -- Carol?</s>LIN: All right. The United States softball team is adding to the gold collection.</s>MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'll have the latest from the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, all the latest results and controversies. Good news for the Dream Team, bad news for a Russian shot-putter. I'm Michael Holmes. I'll join you live from Athens.</s>LIN: And the Iraqi soccer team is kicking butt in its quest for a gold. But the players are not so eager to have President Bush's support. And later, what do you get when you mix tight t-shirts, Hooters, wings, and religion? We are serving up a side of scripture when LIVE FROM rolls on.</s>ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.</s>O'BRIEN: Day 10 of the Olympic Games in Athens, as the final week of competition gets underway. CNN's Michael Holmes is here with a look at where things are right now, and lots on your plate there, Michael Holmes. You've been having a fun time watching this one. Let's first talk about the U.S. soccer team -- female soccer team. They advanced today, didn't they?</s>HOLMES: Yes, that's -- a very short time ago, in fact, Miles. It was a matter of minutes ago. They had a game against Germany in order to advance into the gold medal game to play for either gold or silver. At the end of regulation, it was 1 all after Germany scored in extra time. And then, they went into extra time, and the U.S. scoring and taking that game 2-1. It was a thriller, ended just a few minutes ago. The U.S. going through to play for gold or silver. So, good news there. Now also, expected news, but some of the figures are amazing when it comes to U.S. women's softball. They won the gold medal today. They did so 5-1 against Australia, but this has been an extraordinary run by these women. They won 9-nil in this Olympic tournament. They beat Australia in the final, but they played them twice before. They beat Australia a total of 20 runs to 1. And when you bring in all opponents, they won 51 runs to 1 and set more than a dozen Olympic records on their way to the gold. Not very many teams in this Olympics have been as dominant as the U.S. women's softball team, Miles.</s>O'BRIEN: I can't imagine any Olympic dominance story that really matches that one. I think the Aussies are probably happy just to get one run, that gives them kind of, you know, bragging rights. All right, we're still talking about women's sports. Let's talk about Irina Korzhanenko, who was the Russian shot-putter who made history on her own right by going to the ancient site of the Olympics, becoming the first woman to go to such a place, win a gold medal. Storybook, right? Well, maybe not, right?</s>HOLMES: Yes. No, no, it didn't end up that way, Miles. You're right. Last week, we were talking about what an amazing event it was, that ancient Olympia was hosting athletics or a track and field event for the first time in 1,600 years. We're not talking about the modern games; we're talking about the ancient games. And so, the women were the first event. They had their shot-put competition, and Irina Korzhanenko wins the gold medal, everybody's happy. What a historic moment. Well, she's now being banned for taking a banned substance. It's widely believed to be steroids -- apparently a very basic and easy to detect one, as well. Everyone is stunned that this was not some designer steroid. It's one of the old ones, if you like. So, she's been stripped of her gold medal. It's been given to Cuba, who came in second in that competition. And this is her second doping offense, as well. So, one would assume that her international career is well and truly on the skids, Miles.</s>O'BRIEN: All right. Well, as long as we're talking about controversy, let's talk about -- and we'll shift over into men's sports here: Paul Hamm and the judging snafu there. What's the buzz around Athens about what the right course of action is? Should he return the gold medal? Should there be two gold medals? There's all kinds of options here.</s>HOLMES: I don't think there's been any talk really of Paul Hamm having to return his gold medal. That is probably not going to happen in any sort of circumstance. But it's interesting that the U.S. team is now saying that they're going to consider supporting South Korea, who say that their gymnast was hard done by. They're saying that they're going to maybe support South Korea in appealing for a second gold medal to be awarded so that there'd be dual gold medalists in this sport. By way of background, Paul Hamm, of course, won the event, but South Korea said that their athlete, Yang Tae-young, failed to receive enough difficulty points for his routine. And in fact, three judges have been suspended because of that, because they failed to do so. So, it appears that the South Koreans certainly got a justifiable grievance. Highly unlikely the U.S. would ever have the gold medal taken away from them, but it may well turn out that maybe they'll issue a second one. That's up to the IOC. And the Americans doing the right thing, sort of saying, well, we don't see why we shouldn't consider supporting the South Koreans in their attempt to get that medal awarded, Miles.</s>O'BRIEN: When in doubt, give gold to everyone, I say. All right, Michael Holmes, thank you very much. That might be the Solomon-like decision there in Athens. This is a subject we've been talking a lot about. Today, there was a column in the "USA Today" suggesting that Paul Hamm should do just that, return that gold medal and that he would earn a special place in history as a true champion just by doing that. What are your thoughts on this? We'd like to you e-mail us now. Kind of an ethical dilemma for Paul Hamm. He didn't do anything wrong. He performed wonderfully, as a matter of fact. And clearly the judges screwed up. There's no question about that. We'll read your comments, pro or con: whether he should return that medal; whether there should be two golds; whether he should be just -- stand pat. Send it to livefrom@cnn.com -- livefrom@cnn.com. "New York Times" ethicist Randy Cohen will join us in just a few moments. Stay with us.</s>LIN: President Bush taking this week to spend the time at his Crawford Ranch to prepare his remarks and his strategy at the Republican National Convention, coming up in New York. Interesting, because he spoke with reporters today and specifically addressed these attack ads against Senator John Kerry in the campaign for president. He actually went after, he described his own opinion as to what should be done about these kinds of ads, and the very groups behind them who are producing them in this election cycle. There he is at the ranch, walking with senator, excuse me, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Here are the president's remarks.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mr. Secretary, thank you for coming. General Myers, the vice president, and Condi and I just had a long-ranging discussion with our key members of the defense team about a variety of subjects. We talked about Iraq, the way forward in Iraq, the way to help the Iraqis get to elections. We're making progress on the ground. We were briefed not only by the secretary and General Myers, but as well by General Casey and General Abizaid via secure communications. We talked about transformation issues, spent some time talking about the reconfiguration of our forces around the world to better be able to keep the peace. Mr. Secretary, I thank you for your leadership on that issue. The secretary did a great job of not only coming up with a strategy to enable America to better protect ourselves and friends and allies against the true threats of the 21st century. But he consulted with our allies in such a way that the response was very positive and I thought very good. We talked about intelligence reform. We just talked about a variety of issues that are important for the security of the country. And I appreciate you coming, sir. Thank you for being here. Answer some questions.</s>QUESTION: Some of your supporters are refighting the Vietnam War with their comments about Kerry's war record. Do you think that these attacks of this nature are unpatriotic, un-American, since we're sending young people to war at this time?</s>BUSH: Yes, I think we ought to be debating who best to be leading this country in the war against terror, and that's what I continue to try to convince the American people of, is that I'm the right person to continue to lead the country in the war on terror. I think we ought to be looking forward, not backward, and that's the kind of campaign I will continue to run.</s>QUESTION: But why won't you denounce the charges that your supporters are making against Kerry?</s>BUSH: I'm denouncing all the stuff being on TV, all the 527s. That's what I've said. I said this kind of unregulated soft money is wrong for the process. And I asked Senator Kerry to join me in getting rid of all that kind of soft money, not only on TV, but to use for other purposes as well. I, frankly, thought we'd gotten rid of that when I signed the McCain-Feingold bill. I thought we were going to once and for all get rid of a system where people could just pour tons of money in and not be held to account for the advertising. And so, I'm disappointed with all those kinds of ads.</s>QUESTION: This doesn't have anything to do with other 527 ads. You've been accused of mounting a smear campaign. Do you think Senator Kerry lied about his war record?</s>BUSH: I think Senator Kerry served admirably and he ought to be proud of his record. But the question is who best to lead the country in the war on terror? Who can handle the responsibilities of the commander in chief? Who's got a clear vision of the risks that the country faces?</s>QUESTION: Some Republicans such as Bob Dole and some Republican donors such as Bob Perry have contributed and endorsed the message of those 527 Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads.</s>QUESTION: When you say that you want to stop all...</s>BUSH: All of them.</s>QUESTION: So, I mean...</s>BUSH: That means that ad, every other ad.</s>QUESTION:  (OFF-MIKE) BUSH: Absolutely. I don't think we ought to have 527s. I can't be more plain about it. And I wish -- I hope my opponent joins me in saying -- condemning these activities of the 527s. It's -- I think they're bad for the system. That's why I signed the bill, McCain-Feingold. I've been disappointed that for the first, you know, six months of this year, 527s were just pouring tons of money -- billionaires writing checks. And, you know, I spoke out against them early. I tried to get others to speak out against them as well. And I just don't -- I think they're bad for the system.</s>QUESTION: On the price of oil, it's at or near record levels. Other than pushing for your energy proposals which we know about, what else are you doing to try to mitigate the price of oil?</s>BUSH: That's the best thing, is to come up with a comprehensive energy strategy that encourages conservation, encourages environmentally sensitive exploration for natural resources in our own hemisphere. It talks about, of course, dealing with new forms of energy, and admittedly, those aren't going to come on market in time to deal with the current price of oil.</s>QUESTION: Did you talk to President Putin about it this morning?</s>BUSH: Yes, I talked to him about it.</s>QUESTION: What did he say?</s>BUSH: He said he recognizes that we don't need to be -- he doesn't need to be causing conditions such that it hurts consuming nations. He's wise about that. But we've got a lot of countries beginning to use more energy and we haven't done a good job of increasing supply.</s>QUESTION: Just one more thing along that line. Are you concerned that the price of energy could become a campaign issue here of larger proportions than it already is?</s>BUSH: I think the people know that we have -- this administration has been asking for Congress to pass a comprehensive energy plan for over two years. We recognized this problem two years ago and spoke out clearly and urged the members of Congress to pass the bill, and it's stuck. So I -- people know we've been proactive on the issue. Last question -- hold up.</s>QUESTION: How's work coming...</s>BUSH: You've got your earphones on so you're speaking very loudly.</s>QUESTION: Sorry. Didn't mean to do that.</s>BUSH: You know, people are allowed to express themselves in democracies and hopefully they do so in a peaceful way. In terms of the speech, I'm working on it.</s>BUSH: But I don't want to give you any tidbits.</s>QUESTION: Just a little bit?</s>BUSH: I don't want to give you any tidbits for fear that you may not pay attention when I actually stand up there and deliver it. But...</s>QUESTION:  (OFF-MIKE) BUSH: You think he will?</s>QUESTION: Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts has proposed a bill to radically restructure the intelligence community. He splits up the CIA; gives complete budgetary authority to the new NID, as well as personnel, hiring-and-firing authority and more; takes a number of intelligence collection agencies out of the Pentagon and transmits them over to the NID. I wonder what you think of that proposal and what is the status of the White House effort on this front?</s>BUSH: I haven't seen it. I haven't seen his proposal. He was on TV yesterday morning talking about his ideas, and I'm sure he's going to send it over to us to take a look at it. There's a lot of ideas moving around. And we've got a lot of smart people looking at the best way to fashion intelligence so that the president and his Cabinet secretaries have got the ability to make good judgment calls on behalf of the American people. That's what I'm interested in. I'm interested in how to get the best intelligence to my desk so I can be a good decision maker on behalf of the people of this country. And intelligence is a vital part of winning this war against these terrorists.</s>BUSH: We've got to know who they are, what they're thinking, where they are. And so, that's how we're approaching this issue. Now, listen, I've called for a national intelligence director, because I think it's an important part of coordinating activities to make sure the analysis of information is as good as it can possibly be. I am not, for anything, standing in between me and my line operators like the secretary of defense. In other words, once intelligence is in place and once we come up with a decision as to how to act, I want to make sure the person responsible for the actions has a direct report to me. And so, we're looking at all options, including the budget option -- all aimed at making sure that me and future presidents have got the best information possible. Senator Roberts is a good, thoughtful guy who came up with an idea and we'll look at it. We'll take a look at it and determine whether or not it works or not. But there is going to be a lot of other ideas too as this debate goes forward. Listen, thank you all.</s>QUESTION: You're not going to Athens this week, are you?</s>BUSH: Athens, Texas?</s>QUESTION: The Olympics in Greece.</s>BUSH: Oh, the Olympics. No, I'm not.</s>QUESTION: Have you been watching?</s>BUSH: Yes. It's been exciting.</s>QUESTION: Did a particular moment stand out?</s>BUSH: A particular moment? I liked the -- let's see -- Iraqi soccer. I liked seeing the Afghan woman carrying the flag coming in. I loved our gymnasts. I have been watching the swimming. I have seen a lot. Listen, thank you all. Enjoy yourself.</s>LIN: President Bush, addressing questions by reporters. Cracking a funny there at the end about whether he was going to go to Athens, Texas. Of course he was joking. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com