CNN LARRY KING LIVE/Cadee Condit Comes to Her Father's Defense

CONDIT: Purely on principle.

KING: He said he would take you back, you wouldn't go back?

CONDIT: No.

KING: Not ever?

CONDIT: Not ever. We stand by our friends through the good times and the bad times.

KING: Are you still a Democrat?

CONDIT: I am a Democrat.

KING: Your brother said in a Tuesday interview that there was a possibility that your father was framed, maybe set-up to make it look as though he was involved. What did you think of that theory? I knew he just threw it out among many. Who do you think?

CONDIT: I think anything is possible. I wouldn't rule that out. I'm not sure what happened. KING: Well, you mean from enemies?

CONDIT: Right. I don't know what happened. It's possible.

KING: What do you think of the Levy's?

CONDIT: God, my heart and prayers go out to them. I'm so sorry for what they're going through. The toughest thing to lose, or you know, or have a missing child.

KING: And when they talk about your father in less than glowing terms, do you have mixed emotions? I mean you love your dad so much that you care about what they're going through?

KING: Do you understand it?

CONDIT: I can't, well, God, I could never understand their pain.

KING: I mean their feelings toward your dad?

CONDIT: Well, there's nothing to be suspicious of my dad, at all. And we understand that sometimes people say things to get another press story. And we're OK with that. And if the Condit name brings Chandra Levy home safely, every moment of this has been worth it.

KING: So then your feelings are so strong for them that no matter what they said as long as we find out what happened -- they said the most important thing on this show to them is to just know what happened.

CONDIT: Well, we want to know what happened.

KING: I mean even if she's dead, at least to know it. Like than to never know it.

KING: Do you hear anything about any possible leads, or anything?

CONDIT: I haven't heard anything.

KING: Nothing?

CONDIT: Nothing.

KING: The police said that your father at times hindered the investigations. One top official said "questioning Gary Condit was like pulling teeth." How do you react to that?

CONDIT: I don't believe that's true. You know, the detectives that have been on the case have been very professional, and they've done a great job. Their chief and the assistant, or deputy chief, or whatever, they've never even met my father. They didn't attend one of the interviews, yet they're the people that are holding press conference after press conference.

KING: They never met your father?

CONDIT: No. They've never met Gary Condit. Yet they can hold all of these press conferences and talk about him.

KING: Didn't know that. What did you make of the missing watch box?

CONDIT: Well.

KING: I mean how do you piece together that story? It is a strange story.

CONDIT: It is a strange story, and the only thing I can say with the watch box is there were French fries involved.

KING: There were?

CONDIT: Yes.

KING: Well, I don't know anybody who drives that far to drop off French fries in a box.

CONDIT: Knowing at the same time that Mike Dayton, they had been to his house, it wasn't like they drove out of town just to throw something away. They were in that town.

KING: He was with Mike, and Mike was out with Gary. In other words, he didn't take a box from a room, and say "let's drive seven miles."

CONDIT: No, and he didn't take anything from his apartment either. This is from his office. He never took anything from his apartment.

KING: How soon after all this broke did you talk to your father? Did you talk to him right away when the girl became missing?

What was that like? Was, you know was he strained? What was that like, that first...?

CONDIT: He was worried, he was really worried about where she was.

KING: Had you ever heard of her before this?

CONDIT: No.

KING: No. When he came home for the recess, what was that like as the family gathered? I know your grandfather led prayers there, right?

What was it like for you then?

CONDIT: It's a tough time for the Condit's. It's very tough. But the most important thing is we were all there. We're going to get through this together. And I thought that we were a tight family four months ago. But now, it's like this bond that just cannot be broken. We've all come together, and we're there for one another.

KING: Are you close to your uncles? Even the one that has the problems? Yes? Because he got drawn into this.

CONDIT: Bless his heart.

KING: What did you make of that? He didn't do anything wrong.

CONDIT: He didn't do anything wrong! You know. I couldn't believe that the tabloids were targeting him.

KING: I guess, did you ever think much about the tabloids before all this?

CONDIT: No, no, not at all.

KING: Did you read them?

CONDIT: No.

KING: You were not a tabloid person?

CONDIT: No. The most I do is is glance at them when I was in a grocery store line.

KING: And what do you make of, I mean this week they're out with the story behind this...

CONDIT: I would hope that people don't believe them. You know, the tabloids, how they get their stories is they pay people to say things. And they're not true. And it's unfair to do to an innocent person. And I think that people get that, and I think people know that.

KING: Well, what we don't know is the real Gary Condit that you've described.

CONDIT: He's a great guy.

KING: That the scabs described.

CONDIT: Unbelievable man.

KING: We don't know.

CONDIT: Unfortunately.

KING: And that point, don't you think we should?

CONDIT: I think that people shouldn't believe everything they read and they see on the news.

KING: We'll be right back, with Cadee Condit. By the way, the pictures you're seeing have been provided by Cadee, and her brother, and the Condit family. This is LARRY KING LIVE. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We're back with Cadee Condit. Are you concerned, Cadee, legally? There are investigations going on as to perjury or subordination of evidence, et cetera. You worried?

CONDIT: No, my dad has not -- he's done nothing wrong.

KING: So you have total faith in that?

CONDIT: Total faith in that.

KING: You know, when you -- you've described the twinkle, you've described other things. What other things? Give me some instances of things about your father that people who go around, are saying things like "I hate him." And there are people saying that. You know that.

CONDIT: I know that.

KING: Who would be shocked to learn.

CONDIT: He's a good dad, good husband, great grandpa. I mean he's just, he's been such an important part of my life I can't believe anyone could hate my dad.

KING: When you came to Washington to live with him.

CONDIT: I did everything when I was in college.

KING: Oh, every summer you came? What was that experience like?

CONDIT: It was great, it was fun. But I see my dad a lot, regardless of where we are. He would take me to, you know, different places. We would go see plays, we would go to the movie. He'd just shoot pool with me, he'd take me, you know, we had a good summer. Every summer was good with him.

KING: Did you learn a lot about Congress?

CONDIT: I did. He was, he's always taking me different places, and you know, I've always gone to work with him. When I was a little girl I got to go to work with him a lot, so.

KING: Did he ever have higher aspirations, other things, that he wanted to be senator, or governor. Or?

CONDIT: I think he could have been.

KING: Well, of course now, that's history now.

CONDIT: Right.

KING: But I mean did he ever discuss that?

CONDIT: He loves his job, he loves what he does, and if that could have grown, I think he would have grown with it.

KING: And he was very easy to reach, right?

CONDIT: Very easy to reach.

KING: How controlling was he of his daughter? A lot of fathers, you know, are like, who are you seeing tomorrow?

CONDIT: Right.

KING: Was he that way?

CONDIT: Well, I wouldn't say he was controlling at all. He was strict, but he was always fair. Always fair.

KING: As a teenager you had to be home at a certain hour?

CONDIT: He was very strict as a teenager.

KING: And did he want to know who you were seeing?

CONDIT: Always, always. Had to leave your telephone number where you were going, you had to call and check-in.

KING: If you were seeing someone even semi-seriously did he get nervous?

CONDIT: Probably a little nervous.

KING: Did he treat you differently than your brother?

CONDIT: No, I don't think differently. He raised me to be independent, and he made sure that that was one of the things that he stressed. To make sure that I became an independent woman. But Chad probably had a little more freedom than I did.

KING: Being a girl? During all of this, has he talked to you a lot?

CONDIT: Absolutely, we talk daily.

KING: Every day?

CONDIT: Every day.

KING: And the family planned, when he did that, the interview with Miss Chung, were you there?

CONDIT: I was there.

KING: What was it like to be there?

CONDIT: Well, it was horrible. It's just gut wrenching watching it. She was just brutal. It was hard.

KING: In retrospect your brother reviewed this, "thirty minutes was a mistake."

CONDIT: That was a mistake, well, picking Connie Chung was a mistake.

KING: But thirty minutes was a mistake? Are you down on Mr. Lowell?

CONDIT: No, I respect him and like him very much, and he's been a good attorney.

KING: This has been a tough spot because of the attention brought upon him, and the most amazing thing is that you don't feel your father had anything to do with it, or you're blocking up against the wall here of PR that says he should have done it, PR advisers.

CONDIT: That isn't PR, this wasn't a PR battle.

KING: Everything.

CONDIT: It's out of pocket, and everything is not, a missing girl is not a PR campaign. I think Chandra Levy is the most important thing, and that is what Gary Condit tried to do. He helped the law enforcement. He got the law enforcement involved. Got the FBI involved. No, PR isn't the most important thing.

KING: You know, this is a citizen now. The puzzle of this, you ever wonder like how did this happen?

CONDIT: All the time.

KING: Would you run out of your house, leave keys, leave a pocketbook?

CONDIT: I do that all the time.

KING: You do?

CONDIT: I go out with five bucks and run to Starbucks. Or I go, just grab my keys and go to the gym, so, yeah, I do that a lot.

KING: And you think that, do you put together a scenario here because some people say "well, could this just be an accident?" I mean some crazy person is driving by at that minute, that she runs down to run to...

CONDIT: I wish I could come up with a scenario. I just don't have one. I wish I did.

KING: We'll be back with more of Cadee Condit on this edition of LARRY KING LIVE, right after this!

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We're back with Cadee Condit, the daughter of Congressman Gary Condit. Has this been difficult for you?

CONDIT: Absolutely, yes, it's been very hard.

KING: This interview has been hard? CONDIT: It's tough. I mean not in my wildest dreams would I have ever imagined being on Larry King defending my dad. I would have never guessed that.

KING: I mean we had to be to be in Washington the same time. You were in the business end, I was willing to do my show at night. Little do you know, life's funny little things.

CONDIT: It's a small world.

KING: Concerned about the reports that he might be removed from a committee or two, like intelligence?

CONDIT: No, I'm not concerned. My dad's lost committees before, and he's survived. When he was in the gang of five, Speaker Brown took away his committees, because Gary stood by his principles. And he's going to continue to stand by his principles. And if they take his committees away, they take his committees away.

KING: What was the gang of give? You know, we keep hearing about that. And that's a California story.

CONDIT: And it's...

KING: These were five guys?

CONDIT: Five assemblymen that stood together and won against the speaker.

KING: Even they were all Democrats, including the speaker.

CONDIT: Yes.

KING: Over what issue?

CONDIT: Over a lot of issues. They...

KING: They were rebel Democrats.

CONDIT: They were rebel Democrats, and they weren't going to vote with just party lines. And so there were five guys that got together and stood against the speaker.

And they almost voted them out.

KING: Got the speaker out.

CONDIT: Almost.

KING: And they were -- who gave them the term gang of five?

CONDIT: I think it was the press.

KING: This could have been Willie, too.

CONDIT: You never know what... KING: Does that bitterness remain between Brown and your father?

CONDIT: No, not really. I think both respect each other.

KING: Are you concerned about the district's feelings toward your father? Polls that show they're down on him, and here's a guy that everyone said was a hardworking, good congressman...

CONDIT: Right.

KING: ... even his critics said that if you needed something done, you called him, and he got it done.

CONDIT: Absolutely.

KING: So this has to indicate something. PR may not be a part of it, but it's sure working against you.

CONDIT: Right. Our constituents, actually there's been a lot of them that have been great, a lot of them that have been very good, sending letters...

KING: You hear from people? Or something like that?

CONDIT: Oh, they call, they send letters, they send flowers. People bring by dinner. They keep us in their thoughts and prayers.

But the media has shaped people's opinions, and so I'm not shocked by the polls.

KING: Do you expect your father to make some kind of public appearance, a speech, another interview -- something, as this lingers with him back in Washington?

CONDIT: I don't know.

KING: Are you going to be involved in that decision?

CONDIT: I'll be involved in whatever Gary decides to do.

KING: OK, so that -- is everything family decided in the Condits?

CONDIT: That's the way we do things.

KING: Because some people took that like, Connie Chung offered it as a criticism. She said that the whole family makes every decision.

CONDIT: Well, we don't make every decision. We have a discussion about it.

KING: But it comes down to, the buck stops with him, right?

CONDIT: Right.

KING: But it's discussed with the family.

CONDIT: It's discussed with the family, yes.

KING: And there are reports, by the way, I want to clear up, that your mother, there was a suicide attempt -- never, I...

CONDIT: Never.

KING: ... that was in one of the...

CONDIT: My mother would never hurt herself or anyone else.

KING: That is in one of the tabloids now. Does she watch all the stuff that goes on?

CONDIT: She watches a little bit here and there. But she's not obsessed. She doesn't watch the TV 24 hours a day.

KING: And how is she treated in her normal daily life? She's not at -- she's out east with Gary, right?

CONDIT: She is.

KING: She is now, at least.

CONDIT: Yes.

KING: But a lot of times she's here, right?

CONDIT: Right.

KING: So, they go out to dinner, go -- when she's here.

CONDIT: Her friends have been great. She has...

KING: No one's jumped off that ship.

CONDIT: No.

KING: To your knowledge.

CONDIT: No. Not at all. Everyone has been great to my mom. And been great to my dad.

KING: Have you lost any friends?

CONDIT: No.

KING: None.

CONDIT: No. All of my friends -- I have a pretty small circle of really good friends, and they've remained that way.

KING: So nobody who was once calling you has stopped calling you.

CONDIT: No, not at all. My friends have been very loving and very supportive.

KING: We saw Chad, and he handled himself very well on the show. Now, from a sister's standpoint, how has your brother held up?

CONDIT: Great.

KING: I mean, he had to quit his job. He's supporting a family.

CONDIT: Right. It's been tough, but he's doing great. I look up to him. He is very brave, and I'm really proud of him.

KING: Your grandfather's here with you today.

CONDIT: Yes.

KING: And what about him and your grandma?

CONDIT: They've been amazing. We're lucky to have them.

KING: He's very -- they're very -- they're part of this whole structure, too, right...

CONDIT: Yes.

KING: ... of the Condits...

CONDIT: Yes.

KING: ... as a family, right?

CONDIT: We're a very close and tight family.

KING: We'll be back with our remaining moments with Cadee Condit, the daughter of Congress, of Congressman Gary Condit.

The number again, for information, if you have any information about the disappearance of Chandra Levy, is 800-860-6552. That's 800- 860-6552.

Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We're back with our remaining moments on LARRY KING LIVE. Our edition features tonight Cadee Condit, and we hope you have found this informative. She's a very interesting young lady who certainly stands up for her father.

What did your father do every day during the recess -- during the summer recess, over the Labor Day, you know, like, what do you do all day long when you're a Congressman with a month off?

CONDIT: Well, he's met with some constituents. He spent a lot of time with his family and his grandkids.

KING: Did he go to office every day? CONDIT: Not every day.

KING: They man that office, right?

CONDIT: So, I mean, it's covered outside. He can't go anywhere without being covered with press.

KING: He flew back commercially to Washington?

CONDIT: No.

KING: No, he had to fly private?

CONDIT: No, he didn't fly private. No, I'm not going to tell you how he got there.

KING: He drove?

CONDIT: I'm not going to confirm or deny anything.

KING: He took a train?

CONDIT: I'm not going to confirm or deny anything.

KING: OK, but he didn't commercially and he didn't fly private?

CONDIT: Right.

KING: (WHISTLE). OK. Somebody in the audience can figure this out, we're going to give a prize away. No. A bus -- a bus?!

CONDIT: I'm not confirming or denying anything.

KING: OK. How's the staff doing? They were here last week. This has been very hard on them. In fact, the one who's been with him the longest thinks he shouldn't run again.

CONDIT: Right. Staff has been great. They're a strong group of people, and they've been through a lot. They've been through a lot. It's been stressful, it's been hard, but they're staying together. And I'm really proud of them. They were great the other night.

KING: Might you still want to enter the media yourself?

CONDIT: Probably not.

KING: Because of your feelings about it? Or because you just think you want to go -- what area would you think you want to go, Cadee?

CONDIT: I can tell you why I don't want to go into media. They have hounded our family. They are staked out in our front yard, our back yard.

KING: That's not all of them, though. That's some... CONDIT: No, I mean, it's not all of them, but I just couldn't do that. And I couldn't ruin someone's career and someone's life because he didn't talk. I couldn't do that. I don't want to be a part of that.

KING: All right. So what do you think you want to do?

CONDIT: I don't know.

KING: You got a college degree?

CONDIT: I do.

KING: From...

CONDIT: I went to Sacramento State.

KING: All right. And the degree is in what?

CONDIT: Communications.

KING: Oh! I hate to mention this, but, did you want to do PR?

CONDIT: Maybe.

KING: Because you don't seem flipped about PR, either. I mean, but you like people. You like...

CONDIT: I like...

KING: ... getting out and meeting people. And you're available, now, right? You want to work.

CONDIT: I am unemployed, yes.

KING: Do you regard the name, in any way, going to hurt you?

CONDIT: No. I'm proud of my last name. My dad's worked very hard, so, I'll keep it.

KING: So there's no into hiding.

CONDIT: No. I'm not into hiding.

KING: And what about the brother? What is Chad going to do?

CONDIT: We haven't made any decisions. We just left our jobs a couple of days ago, so...

KING: He ran the whole region...

CONDIT: ... we're going to take some time.

KING: ... for your father, right? I mean, he had a key job for the governor, right?

CONDIT: He was very...

KING: There were rumors, even though he said he hated it, that he would run for your father's seat.

CONDIT: No, I don't think so. I think that...

KING: What if your father said, go ahead, Chad. I'm going to quit. Make the run.

CONDIT: I don't know. You'll have to ask Chad. But I would doubt that he would run.

KING: Because of his soured feelings toward politics. Do you plan to visit your father in Washington?

CONDIT: I do.

KING: You miss Washington?

CONDIT: I do. I really enjoyed Washington.

KING: Did you enjoy CNN?

CONDIT: I did. It was a great experience.

KING: The media will be following him everywhere he goes in Washington.

CONDIT: Yes, I'm sure they will.

KING: And you're going to be with him when you go there? What is it like, by the way? I guess none of us has ever experienced this, to walk out of a building and...

CONDIT: It's scary. They just put the camera in your face, and it's just the most uncomfortable feeling.

KING: You've got to live with it, though.

CONDIT: You have to live it.

KING: Go -- as they say, it goes -- it's not a territory you planned, ...

CONDIT: No.

KING: ... but it goes with the territory. Summing up, though, despite all of this, and everything that's happened, you don't one inch blame your father.

CONDIT: Not at all.

KING: The number, again, is 800-860-6552, if you have any information about the missing Chandra Levy -- 800-860-6552.

Would you like to meet the Levys? CONDIT: I would.

KING: I think they would like you.

CONDIT: Well thank you. I think I ...

KING: It's just ...

CONDIT: ... would like them.

KING: Thank you very much.

CONDIT: Thank you, Mr. King.

KING: Mr. King? Couldn't say Larry once. OK.

Cadee Condit, our special guest. We thank you very much for joining us on this edition of Larry King Live, and we thank her for making this exclusive appearance.

We'll see you tomorrow night. Stay tuned for CNN Tonight. That's next. Good night.

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Heard off camera. Cadee, how did you feel about all the farm animals your father kept around the house?

Oh, not baaaaaaad.

What a lame interview. Does Larry King know he died already?

...4-More, check-out Thread IV of my Bookmarked Freerepublic.com Article titled =

'~LORETTA SANCHEZ~ Condo Connecton to ~GARY CONDIT~'

It's pathetic Condit has his kids out trying to rehabilitate his reputation, or that he would permit them to sacrifice themselves on his behalf.Parental loyalty is one thing, but Daddy Gary ought to insist that his kids not be subject to this circus side show.This family is about as useless and freakish as the Clinton clan.

I had it on for a few minutes and turned if off because it was sickening. I can't imagine calling my father by his first name. It was pathetic!

This family is about as useless and freakish as the Clinton clan.

This Family makes the Clintons look like the Cleavers!

Note for Cadee & Chad: The sun does not shine out of your Dad's a$$!!!!

You don't go on a national cable audience to try to repair the rift in the family, that should be strictly private.This is like watching a car wreck, and the Condit's are willing participants in their own demise.Hard to have any sympathy for such a bunch when they do this kind of garbage.

Someone needs to give Cadee the book "And Never Let Her Go" by Ann Rule, about the Anne Marie Fahey murder by Thomas Capano.

Capano insisted that his 4 teenage daughters be in court every day during his trial. He loved his children and was a 'good father' too. He was also screwing multiple women while married to their mother.

Capano lied to his kids, and they have an excuse for going along with it-they were young.

What's your excuse, Cadee? Don't want to mess up the pretty pictures of the 4 of you?

Jesus, the entire family are pyschopaths.

She is scarier than her father.

Doesn't blame him for anything, including cheating on her mother.

Some people will say or do anything to stay in power.

CONDIT: Thank you, Mr. King.

Her way of letting him know that he could disappear too if he gets in the way.

Cadee could be deluded, dysfunctional, and blind. But I also saw a confident, calculating, deliberate individual void of the passion one would expect if this were solely about blind loyalty to one's father.

It wasn't love I saw. It was more like.... Omerta.

Throughout the entire Cadee Condit/Larry King love fest tonight, Cadee was steadfast and skilled in her avoidance of any details of "personal" matters, including family conversations about the subject.

Yet she departed from that strategy momentarily to spontaneously share a single "heart-warming" anecdote:

CONDIT: But one morning Gary and I were having a cup of coffee and he was going to give me a heads-up to one of the tabloids. He said, Cad, I just want to give you a heads-up that they're going to come out with some awful stuff tomorrow. And I said, what are they going to say? And he said, well, they're going to say that I'm into that M and M, or M and S stuff. I didn't know to laugh or cry, I just said, dad, I think they mean S&M.

Everything personal is off-limits, yet suddenly Cadee tells this tale out of school. Why this one?

Whenever something is seemingly gratuitous, it's usually not. IMHO, this anecdote was a fiction crafted solely to sell a naivete defense. This would not have been offered unless Condit is deeply vulnerable on the S&M issue.

If Cadee's story about Condit's goober act about M&Ms weren't bogus enough on its face, try this: it's a line straight out of the movie, "Nine to Five."

I could only stand watching a little. Cadee was like a Barbie doll! LK was pathetic....he kept asking the most lame questions and her pat response was: The media is horrible. Carolyn is amazing. I'm okay with Gary. I have no problem with what Gary did.

Condits are SICK SICK SICK

She had to come and talk to the "King"! Slurp slurp!
"Cad" is following the script. The only new thing is the scathing remark about Governor Davis! MEOW! Bet he will just love that remark, she burned that bridge for sure.
Once again, blaming the media, Chandra, the Levys' in a subtle way, and the other women, and sucking up to Larry King, who in turn, sucks up to her.

One comment from here: here's a college graduate, in communications no less, who repeatedly says: "Like I said." And if that dad had been really as great as she says, he would have corrected this valley girl talk every once in a while. A culture in decline...

At first I thought Larry King was going to ask her out. He really looked infatuated with her. He said at one point, "so you were in Washington at the same time I was, who would've thought" as he smiled at her.

Then he turned to trying to get a job offer for her on air. He was pushing and intimating she might get a call after this interview.

Larry King's performance was pathetic!!

Forgot to mention, they all keep saying that Anne Marie Smith had nothing to do with Chandra as if that is some real damning proclamation! The fact it, Anne Marie had everything to do with Gary Condit, and when she was asked to sign a false statement she came forward because she was afraid for her life, and obviously thinks Gary might have something to do with Chandras' death!
The better answer would be, "no comment."