Paula Zahn Now - Transcript

CNN

SHOW: PAULA ZAHN NOW 8:00 PM EST

October 25, 2004 Monday

TRANSCRIPT: 102501CN.V99

SECTION: NEWS; International

LENGTH: 7639 words

HEADLINE: Bill Clinton Enters the Fray; Iraqi Weapons Vanish

BYLINE: Judy Woodruff, Joe Klein, Maria Hinojosa, Joseph Biden, Paula Zahn, David Mattingly

GUESTS: Kay Bailey Hutchison, Roy Otterson, Becky Davis, Mike Murphy, Bill Carrick

HIGHLIGHT:

With eight days to go, not even major surgery could hold Bill Clinton back, who joins the final sprint to Election Day. How could hundreds of tons of highly dangerous explosives vanish into thin air in Iraq?
ZAHN: And now for the Democratic point of view, I'm joined by Senator Joe Biden of Delaware. Senator Biden is the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee. And he joins me from Dubuque, Iowa.

Welcome back, Senator. Thank you.

SEN. JOSEPH BIDEN (D), DELAWARE: Hey, Paula. How you doing? ZAHN: I'm fine, thanks.

I don't know how much of Senator Hutchison you could hear tonight, but we were talking about Senator Kerry's harsh criticism of the Bush administration today when it comes to that story of some 380 tons of highly dangerous explosives going missing. In spite of him lashing out at the Bush administration, it doesn't seem like his attacks on the president have had much traction when it comes to his numbers out there in relationship to Iraq.

Why does the president still enjoy a huge lead when it comes to leadership issues regarding Iraq?

BIDEN: Paula, I really don't know. And that's, as the old joke goes, above my pay grade.

But I remember you asking me on your program, almost a year ago, when I made-quote-the outrageous assertion there were over 800,000 tons of ammunition in Iraq that were not being guarded that we knew about. Generally Sanchez, and before him, General Abizaid, a year ago, indicated that these weapons were there.

The IAEA told us specifically of this particular site with over 340 tons, metric tons. We knew full well we didn't have enough troops there. Abizaid has indicated we didn't have enough troops. Bremer now said we didn't have enough troops. This administration is divorced from reality. This has nothing to do with John Kerry or President Bush. This is so much more important than both of them.

We have made an absolute disaster of what could have been a success. And our military, whether you look at what General Franks has recently said about diverting attention from Iraq, to this guy Zarqawi, there is evidence now-and we knew it at the time but I couldn't prove it at the time, but now it has been pointed out there's three memos that went to the president before the war pointing out that Zarqawi was in northeastern Iran, where Chuck Hagel and I went up there to see Barzani and Talabani.

And we asked why, and offering and suggesting we could take out Zarqawi up there. They didn't do it. It's just been one folly after another.

ZAHN: Let me try to put this...

BIDEN: It's divorced from reality.

ZAHN: Senator, into perspective for our audience, because Senator Hutchison made the point that once we got into Iraq, we uncovered almost a million tons of this stuff. Why the heck did Saddam have it in the first place? And she conceded that this is a serious problem.

Realistically, how would you ever get your hands on all of this stuff, given the insurgency movement?

BIDEN: Absolutely easy. It was all identified. They actually identified where it was, Paula. They had all these locations laid out. This location had been tagged by the IAEA and ElBaradei. This had been told to our intelligence community.

We actually went in and inspected it. We listed it as a minimum security area. And the reason why we didn't do it, Paula, is Mr.-the vice president of the United States and the secretary of defense and Mr. Wolfowitz were sticking to this ridiculous notion we didn't need more forces. Remember when John McCain and Dick Lugar and Chuck Hagel and I a year and a half ago started talking about this?

ZAHN: Sure.

BIDEN: This is nothing new. And all it took, Paula-it was all there. It took another 30,000 to 40,000 American troops that we should have put in then, so we could be taking the troops out now. But, instead, the irony is, we turned it into a bazaar, a weapons bazaar.

ZAHN: Senator, I'm still not going to let you get away with dodging my first question when you said it was above your pay grade. Does it concern you that poll after poll show that for some reason John Kerry is not gaining traction on this issue?

(CROSSTALK)

ZAHN: For whatever the reason, the American public seems to have more trust in George Bush when it comes to Iraq than they do in John Kerry.

BIDEN: Well, this isn't over yet, Paula. There's five more days-eight more days. The public is focusing. Now it's only in the last two weeks that the man, Bremer, who was in charge over there said he told the administration we needed more forces.

Look, when you had General Sanchez this January coming out, sending a memo to the White House saying that we needed over 34,000 more pieces of body armor, we needed more equipment, we needed more spare parts, and the president walks out in the Rose Garden and says they have everything they need, the truth is starting to come out here.

And it is-I'm less concerned about the election than I'm concerned about, what are you going to do with the people we have there now? When are we going to start to tell the truth?

ZAHN: All right. But do you really see-and I am going to need a real brief answer-John Kerry closing in on this number? The president has a huge lead...

(CROSSTALK)

BIDEN: The answer is, I don't know, Paula.

Look, honest to God, you got it to do this presidential politics every day. I'm not doing it every day. I've been focusing on the details of what's going on in Iraq for the last two years. I don't know enough to answer your question. I'm not being a wise guy. I truly don't know why. It baffles me.

But I do know one thing, that if President Bush gets reelected, he better have a second coming here. He better get leveling with the American people. He better start taking care of our troops. He better start saying what we need. He better start acknowledging this or we're going to be in worse trouble than we are now. And if John Kerry gets elected, he's going to have a very difficult problem to deal with here because of the absolute ideological approach taken by this administration, denying the requests of their military, denying the reality of what's going on, not listening to the secretary of state.

If I sound angry, I am.

ZAHN: OK. I can hear that in your voice, Senator. I didn't miss that.

(CROSSTALK)

BIDEN: See, this is a tragedy. This is a tragedy.

ZAHN: I know you feel very passionately about this. We appreciate your time tonight. And, unfortunately, we've got to move on.

BIDEN: Thanks, Paula. I'm sorry.

ZAHN: Look forward to having you back.

BIDEN: Sorry.

ZAHN: Please stay with us.

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