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Saturday Morning News

White House Takes Missile Defense Failure in Stride

Aired July 8, 2000 - 9:34 a.m. ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Returning to the failed missile test, let's go live now to the White House, CNN's Kelly Wallace has the latest from there.

Good morning, Kelly.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Miles.

White House officials are cautioning against doing any instantaneous analysis of what happened, and what impact it will have on a decision to go forward with a national missile defense program.

First, these officials say, it will take some time for the Pentagon to figure out what went wrong overnight. These officials also say this test was just one of the many things the Pentagon has been and will continue to do to determine if the U.S. should go forward with missile defense systems.

Now, also, these officials say that they will await the defense secretary's recommendation to the president. That is due here over the next several weeks. Of course, though, this test, the test overnight, was the last major test of this kind before the secretary of defense was going to work on his recommendation to the president. So the White House perspective here is, they will await the secretary's recommendation and then the president will make his decision about whether or not to go forward with a national missile defense plan -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Is it possible, Kelly, the best decision coming out of the White House at this juncture would be to do nothing at all, in other words, wait for another administration to tackle this issue?

WALLACE: Well, no doubt what happened overnight is likely to give more momentum to the critics who say, Look, this is not going to work. Right now it is not technically feasible. So the White House should just hold off.

The president is mandated by Congress to basically go forward with a national missile defense system when it is technically feasible. Of course, though, if this test gives him more ammunition to say, It can't work now, let's just hold off till the next administration, he has other factors, though, to consider in his decision, such as, what impact going forward with such a system would do to relations with other countries.

There have been many critics coming forward over the past several weeks, China, Russia, even European allies, who say the U.S. should not go forward. So that's another big factor that would weigh on the president's decision -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Kelly, can you factor this into the campaign? Is this apt to become an issue that's batted around between Mssrs. Gore and Bush?

WALLACE: This has certainly been an issue in the presidential campaign. You have the Texas governor, George W. Bush, who is pushing a more expansive missile defense program than the administration is currently considering. You have Vice President Gore obviously aligned with the Clinton administration and supporting its plans to look into a more limited missile defense program. You have the election coming in November. That is exactly the same time when the president is expected to make his decision.

So in light of this test overnight, likely to hear more from both candidates about this, and with a timetable around the president's decision time likely to be -- continue to be an issue in the election -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, we'll count on that. Kelly Wallace at the White House for us this morning. Thanks much.

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