Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Today
President Bush Speaks Out on 9-11 Warnings
Aired May 17, 2002 - 14:02 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Back to the White House and Kelly Wallace in the front lawn and from her post there. Kelly, good afternoon, again.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon again, Bill. Even with those comments the questions keep coming. This administration really preparing itself for many more questions in the weeks and months ahead as congressional hearings and investigations get under way.
We did not hear President Bush speak out about this yesterday, but he decided to speak out today. We saw him in the rose garden a little bit earlier this morning. He was there honoring the Air Force Academy, the military academy with the best record.
The president saying it is unfortunate in Washington that second- guessing is second nature, and then he launched a vigorous defense of himself and his administration.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The American people know this about me and my national security team and my administration. Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to kill on that fateful morning, I would have done everything in my power to protect the American people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: One question that is continuing to be raised is why this administration -- why the president's advisers never even considered the possibility that al Qaeda operatives could engage in a hijacking that could lead to a suicide mission.
The latest development is this report. It was a September 1999 report by an agency under the Clinton Administration talking about the sociology and psychology of terrorism. In that report it talked about a range of possibilities that al Qaeda could consider including that suicide bombers could hijack planes, pack them with explosives, and ram them into government building such as the Pentagon, the CIA and the White House.
This report is available on the Internet, on the Library of Congress' Web site. Ari Fleischer, the president's spokesman, said he just found out about it a few hours ago. One other thing, Bill, we are seeing from this White House. We saw it yesterday, we are seeing it, again, today.
U.S. officials accusing Democrats of playing politics with all of this. And Ari Fleischer, the president's spokesman, singling out one Democrat during his daily briefing, Democratic senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. First let's go to what Senator Clinton said on the Senate floor last night that has this White House very upset, and then Ari Fleischer's comments from a short time ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: I am simply here today on the floor of this hallowed chamber to seek answers to the questions being asked by my constituents, questions raised by one of our newspapers in New York with the headline "Bush Knew." The president knew what? My constituents would like to know the answer to that and many other questions, not to blame the president or any other American, but just to know.
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: ...I have to say a disappointment that Mrs. Clinton, having seen that same headline, did not call the White House, did not ask if it was accurate or not.
Instead she merely went to the floor of the Senate and I'm sorry to say that she followed that headline and divided.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: And to that I spoke to an adviser to Senator Clinton who said that Mrs. Clinton's comments were the same as other Democratic leaders in the Senate and in the House. This adviser saying that all these leaders were simply asking questions and that these are legitimate questions that need to be explored.
Asked specifically about Fleischer's singling out Senator Clinton, this adviser saying look, we are not going to go down that road. We are not playing politics, simply asking questions, and we do know, Bill, that Senator Clinton has a previously scheduled news conference up in New York talking about federal funding to protect and look into the health effects of any workers around ground zero.
We expect her to take questions about all of this.
HEMMER: Kelly Wallace at the White House.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
