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Morning News

Election 2000: Bush Campaign Spokesman Ari Fleischer Discusses Vice Presidential Debate Preparations; Gore Continues Tax Cut Assault

Aired October 5, 2000 - 10:11 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ANDRIA HALL, CNN ANCHOR: Our coverage of election 2000 continues now.

CNN's Jonathan Karl is travelling with the Gore campaign in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Jeanne Meserve is keeping tabs on the Bush campaign. We begin with Jeanne at the site of tonight's vice presidential debate -- Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Andria, we're in the hall where the debate will take place. It usually seats about 1,500 but they've had to take out some seats to accommodate the media. There'll be about 900 people watching first-hand tonight.

As you can see and possible hear behind me, some last-minute debate preparations are under way. The candidates aren't here yet. They come into town this afternoon. They'll take a technical walkthrough of the site.

With me now is Eric Fleischer, spokesman for the Bush campaign.

Joe Lieberman went for jog this morning and was asked if he was ready for a Muhammad Ali-type fight. He indicated he was. Is your guy ready, too?

ARI FLEISCHER, BUSH CAMPAIGN SPOKESMAN: Well, somehow I have a hard time seeing Dick Cheney and Joe Lieberman as being Muhammad Ali and Joe Fraser, but we're looking forward to a good clash on the issues.

MESERVE: How tough a stand does Mr. Cheney take tonight? There was some criticism of Gov. Bush for going after Al Gore personally in the presidential debate. So what about Cheney? How tough does he get?

FLEISCHER: Well, the governor didn't go after Al Gore personally. Al Gore said some personal things about who he traveled with to inspect some fires in Texas, which the press actually exposed as not being true. I hope that we don't get to the point in politics where candidates can invent things and not be held accountable.

But this is going to be a very issue-oriented debate tonight, I expect. Both candidates have a reputation for that. We have a lot of issues we want to talk about: the size of government, the role of government, who has the best plan to improve education, who has testing to make sure there's accountability. Those are the issues that people want to hear about. That's what the secretary's going to do.

MESERVE: Are you going to be talking about how Mr. Lieberman's positions have changed somewhat to accommodate his place on the Democratic ticket?

FLEISCHER: Ah, well, you noticed that. He did change. And I think there is an element where of course the vice presidential candidate is supposed to take up the presidential candidate's issues. In the case of Sen. Lieberman, he had to changed more than usual. But I think that's fair. That's appropriate for a vice presidential candidate to pick up that mantle. It will be interesting to see how credible, though, Sen. Lieberman is about espousing views that he didn't used to hold.

MESERVE: If Mr. Lieberman talks about Mr. Cheney's voting record in Congress and some of the controversial votes he took there, how will Mr. Cheney respond to that?

FLEISCHER: Well, Jeanne, we hope the debate will be focused on the future, on what the candidates are going to do. But Secretary Cheney is very proud of his record in Congress. He's a conservative. He voted to balance budgets, and that's what he has been known for. He's a plainspoken man and he'll express his views.

MESERVE: And one quick question about impact. Some people say what difference does a vice presidential debate make? You tell us.

FLEISCHER: Well, I think it's a healthy part of the presidential campaign, for both parties and for the public. They're entitled to see their vice presidential contenders compete, and that's what we're going to get tonight. But, ultimately, the vote always does come down to presidential.

MESERVE: Ari Fleischer, thanks for joining us.

And now back to you in Atlanta.

HALL: Thank you, Jeanne.

Now let's return to Jonathan Karl. He's with the Gore campaign in Grand Rapids, Michigan -- Jonathan.

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Andria, the vice president today will be continuing his assault, and doing this also tomorrow, on George W. Bush's $1.3 trillion tax cut proposal. That's because Gore and his top aides believe that that's the issue they drew blood on during the course of Tuesday night's presidential debate, with Gore charge repeated over and over again during that debate that Gov. Bush would spend more on tax cuts for the wealthiest 1 percent than he would on new spending in the areas of health, education and defense combined.

Now, the Bush campaign says that that assertion is just plain wrong. During the debate, Gov. Bush said it was "fuzzy math." Now what the Bush campaign is saying is that Bush would spend $200 billion on tax cuts for the wealthiest 1 percent, a fraction of what he would spend over the next 10 years on spending in those categories Gore mentioned. The governor's camp saying that he would spend $9.9 trillion on spending in health, education and defense.

So that's what we're going to hear more from today. Also, Vice President Gore talking about his own tax cut proposals. The vice president has proposed $500 billion of tax cuts on his own. That's twice the amount that President Clinton ever proposed, so he's got some pretty significant tax cuts as well. What the vice president will be talking about is how those tax cuts are targeted to help middle class families.

Today on the agenda here in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the vice president talking about his proposal for a tax credit for child care, again, something he says would help middle class families.

Now, as soon as this is over, we go from battleground Michigan to battleground Florida. The vice president going to Orlando. And it's in Orlando that he will have a little debate watching party, watching his running mate, Joe Lieberman, debate tonight -- Andria.

HALL: Jonathan Karl reporting live. Thank you, Jonathan.

You can stay with us for more campaign events. Next hour, we'll have live coverage of George W. Bush's proposal for Internet safety for children. That's next hour, 11:00 Eastern, 8:00 Pacific. And we will go live to a Gore campaign rally in the following hour at 12:45 Eastern, 9:45 on the West Coast.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

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