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CNN People in the News
President Bush: A Leader Thrust Into Global Crisis
Aired October 20, 2001 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: A nation forced to confront terrorism, a leader thrust into a global crisis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our grief has turned to anger, and anger to resolution.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: A man not known for foreign expertise now looked upon to lead a nation in war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAREN HUGHES, COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT: The morning after September 11 he told us all, "From this day forward, this is the focus of our administration."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: A president who lost the popular vote but now has the overwhelming support of his country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALAN BRINKLEY, HISTORIAN, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: He seems to exude purpose in a way that in the past he didn't.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Senior White House correspondent John King looks at the transformation of President George W. Bush, now on PEOPLE IN THE NEWS.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States.
JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Others who have walked these steps call it a lonely, isolating job, a singular burden, so many challenges. Never before one quite like this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good evening, thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDREW CARD, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Well, with -- it is a lonely job. He lives in a bubble, and he frequently talks about "the bubble." The bubble is a little tighter today because of the security concerns, but this president is going to do his job for the American people, and that's paramount in his concern.
DAVID HALBERSTAM, AUTHOR: I think the pressure of it, that every waking minute is going to be given over to incredibly difficult decisions of war and peace.
KING: Eight months and 22 days on the job, a country and a presidency transformed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Speaker, the president of the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Leading a nervous nation in crisis with urgent, often delicate, diplomacy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: Our grief has turned to anger and anger to resolution.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
REP. RICHARD GEPHARDT (D), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: Well, I think he's different. I think we're all different. I think this is the worst thing that's ever happened in my lifetime to the United States, to the people of the United States.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: Whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: And note the moment, a hug from the Senate's top Democrat and a handshake and a pat on the cheek for the leader of the opposition in the House.
GEPHARDT: I think he was physically demonstrating to us that he appreciated the fact that we were working together, that we were really trying to collaborate, and that we were trying to trust one another and do the right things for the country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: I can hear you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Days before, at ground zero in New York, the president made a similar promise to never forget.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people -- and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUGH SIDEY, CONTRIBUTOR, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Something galvanized him, something that perhaps he had not felt before, which is not unusual in those moments.
REP. DICK ARMEY (R), HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER: It must have been extremely encouraging to those people on the ground. They'd been so heroic. They must have been so exhausted. But to have the president of the United States say, America sees you, the world sees you, and the bad guys see you, I thought that was a chance for them to express a little of their defiance and their resolve.
KING: But the initial reviews were not so flattering.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAREN HUGHES, COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT: Air Force One has now landed at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska, and the president is in a secure location.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING (on camera): He had to know there would be some sensitivity that it took a matter of several hours to get the president back to Washington, because the general public, even people in my business and occasionally people in Congress who might open their mouths at the wrong moment in your view, you know, would question, why didn't the president come back right away? You have to know as you're going through that that people are going to ask that.
CARD: Well, and we thought about that. But the primary responsibility that we have is to make sure that the president can exercise his responsibilities under the Constitution for the American people, and so I couldn't think about the public relations aspects.
KING: Mr. Bush was with school children in Florida when the second plane hit the World Trade Center, and what was happening became clear. Enter chief of staff Andy Card. Four stunning words, "America is under attack."
KING: You look at the pictures, you walk over, you whisper in his ear, his head sort of goes back just a little bit. It doesn't snap, but he sort of goes back. And you see the recognition in his eyes. And then he sort -- you know, just sort of nods and goes about his business.
CARD: You know, I wrestled, do I tell the president now, or do I wait for the event to finish? And because the event had really just started, I said, No, the president should know this, he would want to know this. And I'm going to make sure he does.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDEY: He's got to nag and prod and inspire and order and decide, all of those things a leader does, and constantly. You can't get disinterested in this.
KING (voice-over): The next morning, these scribbles, the president searching for his voice.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: This is an enemy that tries to hide, but it won't be able to hide forever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUGHES: We didn't ask for it, we don't want it, but we now must fight it, and he's determined that we will win it.
KING: A new challenge, so many unknowns. Comfort, though, in the familiar faces on team Bush.
ARMEY: One of the first things you have to learn in this business is that I have my limitations. There are things I do well, but I have people with whom I work that are real experts in the technical aspects of this. And the president has to cut (ph) good sense to leave the professionals in charge of their area.
KING: Yet it is the president himself who must carry the loneliest burden of all.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: On my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against the al Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: It is a war like no other against an elusive enemy. There are so many questions. How could this happen? Who could do such a thing, and why? What next? How long will it take? And this question, Is George W. Bush up to the challenge?
ALAN BRINKLEY, HISTORIAN, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: He seems to exude purpose in a way that in the past he didn't. People's sense of their connection to the government has changed. People's views of the president have changed.
HUGHES: He's been very -- asking questions, then giving orders. I mean, very much, you know, You do this, Go find out this, Who knows about that? Who's on top of this? Very obviously handling things in a very quick but very decisive way.
KING: History will record Tuesday, October 2, as the day Mr. Bush settled on the military option. Three days later he gave the orders and called leaders of Congress to tell them.
GEPHARDT: Because I kind of knew what was coming in the call. Just from the news reports, I thought probably we were going to be sending people into harm's way.
KING: It was the night of Cal Ripken's last game at home in Baltimore because of schedule changes forced by the terrorist strikes.
GEPHARDT: I had to leave and go back outside and get in a car where there was a secure phone so we could carry on the conversation, and that took about a half an hour to get hooked up. But as I was sitting there in the dark car waiting, I thought, Boy, what a change in the world here that all of a sudden.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: We must defeat the evildoers where they hide. We must round them up and we must bring them to justice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: And a change in the president all of a sudden. The signature moments of most presidencies are born of crisis.
HALBERSTAM: We're going to have to grow as a country, he's going to have to grow as president. And we're probably going to make this journey together, and we're going to stumble together, and we're going to learn together, and I hope we all grow well together.
KING: When we return, he's no stranger to controversy. A look at the events that helped shape George W. Bush, including the contentious election that made him president in the first place, when PEOPLE IN THE NEWS returns.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: Welcome back to PEOPLE IN THE NEWS, with correspondent John King.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I, George Walker Bush do solemnly swear...
BUSH: I, George Walker Bush, do solemnly swear...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING (voice-over): It all seems like so long ago, the Bush inauguration and the controversy surrounding it. Then, to some, an illegitimate president, the winner, but the election was contested, and he lost the popular vote.
Then, the president, some said, rode a famous name wherever it would take him.
BRINKLEY: Without his family background, he could not have been elected governor of Texas, and certainly could not have been elected president. That doesn't mean he didn't have qualities of his own, but nothing in his background suggested that he was a significant political figure except his family.
KING: Now a wartime president with a unified country behind him, now the second President Bush in little more than a decade to lead the United States into battle.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: It's time for leadership.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING (on camera): This president, as he's assessed, is perhaps even studied more closely because his dad was president not that long ago. You served in that administration. How do you see, first, just this president, a governor who becomes a president and then gets thrust into something like this where you can have instincts, and, you know, you can read all the manuals, but you're on your own?
CARD: He knew that there were tough decisions that had to be made by a president through his experience as being a governor. I also think he did learn from his father, you know, President Bush number 41 guided America through very challenging times. And I think that President Bush number 43 learned by watching how his father led and gained some wisdom because of how his father led.
But it's a very different situation today.
SIDEY: I think the Bush family, you know, history may record that they really steadied this country in a time of need. As you know, their sense of duty, honor, country, family, has been unwavering through three generations.
KING (voice-over): The nation's 43rd president is the son of its 41st, the grandson of Prescott Bush, a two-term senator from Connecticut. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESCOTT BUSH: I'm Prescott Bush, Republican candidate for the United States Senate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HALBERSTAM: And I always thought there was a certain cockiness, you know, to him that was not yet deserved, and I suspect that that was of a young man who felt he probably had not yet measured up to the accomplishments of his grandfather, who had been a senator and had a very good war record in World War I, his father, who had a very distinguished long career, was president, had been a war hero in World War II.
KING: He can't change his name, so from his earliest days in politics, George W. Bush has tried to turn unfavorable comparisons to his advantage.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: I'm a candidate for governor of Texas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, July 20, 2000)
BUSH: I'm proud to be called George Bush. For many people that, you know, that -- kind of the positive shadow, there are those saying, You know, this boy's never done anything, he's just running on his daddy's name. And...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, that's not true.
BUSH: Course not. But that's what people will say, and that's fine, that just means I'm going to be underestimated in the political arena.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You like that.
BUSH: I'd rather be underestimated than overestimated, I'll tell you that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: George W. Bush was born in Connecticut, and his resume notes two Ivy League degrees, undergraduate at Yale, a master's of business administration from Harvard.
But he considers himself a son of Texas, considers himself shaped by the values of the oil patch that is Midland, considers himself at home on a 1,600-acre ranch in tiny Crawford.
And he considers himself lucky to have hung onto a girl named Laura Welch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: "Good morning, Officer Buckle. It's time for our safety speech."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: She is Laura Bush now, a one-time school librarian, mother of twin daughters, the former first lady of Texas and now the first lady of the United States, partner to a president in crisis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAURA BUSH: My husband is very resolved. He's got a lot of discipline. And he also has a lot of confidence about our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING (on camera): Up before the sun is part of this president's routine, coffee and papers in bed, this walk across the Rose Garden to the Oval Office most days a little before 7:00 now. And to say it is routine to meet every morning with the National Security Council is to say how much the events of September 11 have changed the country and changed this presidency.
You're with him in the National Security Council meetings. What is he like? Is he somebody who takes the target list and goes down and checks, yes, yes, no, no, maybe? Or is he somebody who says, I like the mission, you guys do what you got to do?
CARD: No, he's very engaged. Appropriately, he is the one making the important strategic decisions, and he looks to the military to offer the tactical means to achieve those strategic objectives.
KING (voice-over): Yet an uncertain moment, unfamiliar territory, and, unlike his father, this President Bush came to the job with little experience in international affairs. But familiar faces. Team Bush, especially on military matters, is an experienced bunch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: An honorable man, Mr. Don Rumsfeld.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: But it is the president, in the end, who calls the shots and who carries the weight of responsibility. And this president seems well aware this is his test, his time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: We will not tire. We will not falter. And we will not fail.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: He is also aware it is a test that, in his words, has transformed his presidency.
GEPHARDT: I think he's well aware of the gravity of where we are and what needs to be done and the decisions that he's trying to make. So I think he's focused. I think he is on the beam of what he needs to be worrying about.
KING: Coming up, how September 11 changed a presidency, and the many challenges posed by the war on terrorism.
(on camera): He didn't pick this fight, but I assume he understands he will be defined by it.
HUGHES: Yes. I'm, I'm -- he understands that he -- the morning after September 11, he told us all, "From this day forward, this is the focus of our administration."
KING (voice-over): When PEOPLE IN THE NEWS returns.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KING (voice-over): So many more questions than answers, but this is certain, this is a presidency forever changed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: An enemy has emerged that rejects every limit of law, morality, and religion. The terrorists have no true home in any country or culture or faith. They dwell in dark corners of earth, and there we will find them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: A new war overseas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The radio station in Kabul is destroyed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sign it up (ph).
KING: And new jitters in the United States.
GEPHARDT: Terrorism came to America in a very real, mortal way on September the 11th. That's the world we live in today.
KING: The memory of planes turned into bombs still fresh.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: And it just slices that tower in half. (END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: And now the worry of anthrax, bioterrorism in the mail.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An employee of CBS News has been diagnosed with cutaneous anthrax.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: I don't have knowledge of a direct link, the anthrax incidents to the enemy, but I wouldn't put it past them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING (on camera): What do you do when words like "anthrax" enter the equation, as if you didn't have enough to worry about?
HUGHES: Once in awhile, you have to stop and think, you know, Anthrax? What am I doing talking about anthrax? It's -- but it's too serious to be absurd. I think all of America feels like I do, that we wish we didn't have to know anything about anthrax. But unfortunately we now do.
KING: Candidate Bush talked of cutting taxes, of reforming schools. He called himself a "compassionate conservative," promised to restore honesty and integrity to the White House. And those were the overriding themes of his first eight months.
But everything changed on the morning of September 11. The president now talks of winning a war, of, in his words, "overriding evil." This is a fight George W. Bush didn't pick, but a fight he knows will define his presidency.
CARD: He never anticipated that he would have to deal with an attack on the United States by terrorists. But I think that he knew that he would have to make tough decisions, and he was ready to make those tough decisions when he ran for the presidency.
KING (voice-over): Consider the sudden change in the nation's focus.
HALBERSTAM: Why was the most important thing in the world a 24- hour watch of almost all the networks on Gary Condit and on the Levy family? We were binging on a kind of diet of sex, scandal, and celebrity. And that America's gone.
KING: And the sudden change in the president's agenda. This was to be a fall dominated by partisan fights over the sluggish economy, the big Bush tax cut, and the disappearing federal budget surplus.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, March 27) SEN. TOM DASCHLE (D-MO), SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: We don't have a budget first from the administration, and now we may not have a budget from the Budget Committee either.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: So many before-and-after snapshots, the tone in Washington just one of them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
DASCHLE: We just concluded our breakfast meeting with the president, and as has been the case with all of these meetings, they've been very productive, very informative.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GEPHARDT: I think everybody is trying to remain respectful, agreeable, if you will, as we disagree to try to bring about a quick resolution of these issues.
KING: But it is on the world stage that the before-and-after is most striking, the challenges ahead so stark. The president's early steps here were not so sure-footed. Too candid about Taiwan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, April 25)
BUSH: I have said that I will do what it takes to help Taiwan defend herself, and the Chinese must understand that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Too willing, in the eyes of many allies, to go it alone on global warming and on missile defense.
But the leader some colleagues considered a cowboy early on is now a case study in coalition building.
CARD: And he's earned the respect of leaders around the world by how America responded to the acts of terrorism, and by how the United States brought itself together to find unity on Capitol Hill that most people predicted would never happen.
KING: So far, so good, is the White House view. Listen closely, the son borrowing from his father.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: This act will not stand.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE H.W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This will not stand, this aggression against Kuwait. (END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: But this war is different than the one fought in the Gulf against Saddam Hussein. Phase one of this campaign is Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden, the Taliban.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: We gave that regime a choice, turn over the terrorists or face your ruin. They chose unwisely.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING (on camera): Does the president try to convey a message every day to you all, and -- whether it's in staff meetings or one on one, when you pass by?
HUGHES: Every time I talk with him, he reminds me, we've got -- we're in a -- we have to educate people that this is a different kind of war, that it's fought on a lot of different fronts, that it's not the kind of war they're accustomed to. And so he -- that's the -- he's been conveying that to me almost every time we meet, and we do meet every day.
KING (voice-over): But the president promises a worldwide campaign over time, and there is little doubt the strength of the international coalition and the strength of his leadership will soon be tested.
Look around in towns big and small. The country is clearly behind its president, for now.
Every day has a little history, but again, so many questions cannot be answered yet. His every step, every tear, every word is being watched and judged.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: Wanted, dead or alive...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: But the true legacy of George W. Bush may not be known for some time.
CARD: His resolve is deeper today than I remember it being in the past. This is a man who understands the responsibilities that he has. He will meet those responsibilities well. And he will not waver.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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