Transcript for Aug. 13

MR. KEAN: Any time you’re spending a tremendous amount of money in one area, Lee is right, it distracts from another. But we think that the number one priority has got to be the defense of the American people, and that’s this war on terror in the United States. We’re not protecting our own people in this country. The government is not doing its job.

MR. GREGORY: Fighting the war in Iraq is not protecting the people of the United States, in your view?

MR. HAMILTON: I think it’s possible to do both.

MR. KEAN: Yeah.

MR. HAMILTON: It’s—we certainly have it if we focus our energy and resources enough. But our priority is homeland security. And we do not think that there has been sufficient urgency, priority, resources, people put into the protection of the people here at home.

MR. GREGORY: Let me ask you about your book, “Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission.” There is a powerful new documentary that’s coming out. It will air on Court TV on August 21. Talks about how the commission was set up and the experience of the families pushing for information. Here’s a clip from that documentary that expresses one of the main frustrations. Watch.

(Videotape, “On Native Soil,” Courtesy Court TV):

MS. MARY FETCHET: A lot of the hearings, we heard people that had, clearly, had done their own investigation within their, their agencies. And then when they’re asked a specific question, said they’d have to get back to the commission.

DR. CONDOLEEZZA RICE: I will have to get back to you on that.

MS. JANE GARVEY: I’d like to double-check it before I say it, I say it here.

MR. ROBERT MUELLER: That occurred before I, I began my tenure. What I know about it is, is after the fact.

MS. FETCHET: They were not willing to publicly disclose anything that, you know, might hold them accountable.

MS. KAREN WAIZER: I have to say I think the, the families and the survivors who testified were more upfront than a lot of the other people from government positions who came in and testified.

(End videotape)

MR. GREGORY: Governor Kean, was that your thought as well?

MR. KEAN: In part, certainly. I mean, this people—of course, we had five or six hours of private testimony, and a lot of people said things outside of the public hearings which they felt they could not, for security reasons or some other reason, say in public. So we got a lot of information that was not in the public hearings that is in our report. But, you know, they—people, people, when they testify publicly, try to protect themselves and their agencies, there’s no question about that.

MR. GREGORY: Congressman Hamilton, you, you, you write in the book that there is this fine line between investigating and criticizing, and it was particularly sensitive dealing with New York and questioning Mayor Giuliani. This is what you write in the book, speaking about Mayor Giuliani: “It proved difficult, if not impossible, to raise hard questions about 9/11 in New York without it being perceived as criticism of the individual police and firefighters or of Mayor Giuliani. ... The questioning of Mayor Giuliani was a low point,” you write, “in terms of the commission’s questioning of witnesses at our public hearings. We did not ask tough questions, nor did we get all of the information we needed to put on the public record.”

We should point out that, that Mayor Giuliani’s spokesman was quoted last week saying that this was news to them, that he thought he gave you all, all kinds of cooperation. Why was it a low point?

MR. HAMILTON: It was a very difficult hearing in New York, and the point you make in that excerpt is key. This event had such a traumatic effect on the nation, but particularly on New York. Any criticism, or any questioning of officials—police and fire—immediately brought a reaction, “You’re criticizing the heroes.” There is the tendency here, and in the comments Tom made a moment ago, impresses me, and that is government is not very good at looking back, at examining what went wrong. We were trying to find out what went wrong, even though we acknowledge the extraordinary heroism of the moment.

MR. GREGORY: Governor Kean...

MR. HAMILTON: With, with Mayor Giuliani, we simply let him off a little too easy. The bottom line, however, is that in the private testimony or conversations with the mayor, we really got the information we needed. In the public hearing, because of that environment that you’ve described, and I’ve commented on, I think we were a little easy on the mayor.

MR. GREGORY: What’s the consequence of that, do you think, toward the overall findings?

MR. KEAN: This was not a criticism of Mayor Giuliani. It was a criticism of ourselves.

MR. HAMILTON: Yeah.

MR. KEAN: He gave us everything we asked him. We just, we just went a little easier in the public hearings perhaps than we should have, because of the emotion of the moment, but we got all the information. Information’s in the report, we didn’t lose anything as far as the public went.

MR. GREGORY: Just a few seconds left. Governor Kean, I’ll give you the last word. What is the, the lasting legacy of the 9/11 Commission?

MR. KEAN: That you can, you can do things in a bipartisan manner in this town, and you can solve problems and bring policy forward without the kind of bickering that goes on again and again in so many issues. I think that was an example the commission set, that I hope Washington is still paying attention to.

MR. GREGORY: Are you confident that it can prevent another attack, your work?

MR. HAMILTON: No, no. Not confident. I think another attack will come. But I think the lesson is that the system works, but it takes an awful lot of work to make the system work.

MR. GREGORY: Governor Kean, Congressman Hamilton, thanks to both of you.

Coming next, how will the war in Iraq and our national security affect the political landscape in the midterm elections? The chairmen of both political parties, Democrat Howard Dean and Republican Ken Mehlman, are next.

(Announcements)

MR. GREGORY: And we are back. DNC chair Howard Dean joins us this morning from Vermont.

Chairman Dean, good morning.

MR. HOWARD DEAN: David, thanks for having me on.

MR. GREGORY: Chairman Dean, are you able to hear me OK?

MR. DEAN: I can hear you fine, can you...

MR. GREGORY: OK, fine. Welcome, welcome to MEET THE PRESS. Let me...

MR. DEAN: Thanks for having me on.

MR. GREGORY: Let me ask you about the big political news of the week, that of course related to Senator Joe Lieberman. Six years ago he was the vice presidential choice for your party. What happened?

MR. DEAN: I think he embraced George Bush’s policies, and the American people are tired of George Bush’s policies. They want a new direction in this country, and, and the voters have spoken.

MR. GREGORY: Should he get out of the race now?

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