Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live At Daybreak
Hitler Remark Angers White House
Aired September 20, 2002 - 06:04 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The White House is expressing outrage that Germany's justice minister has compared President Bush's stance on Iraq to tactics used by Adolph Hitler.
A German newspaper reports the justice minister told a group of labor union members -- quote: "Bush wants to divert attention from his domestic problems. It's a classic tactic. It's one that Hitler also used."
The White House has this reaction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The German justice minister likened President Bush's actions to those of Adolph Hitler. And the United States and Germany have had a very long and valuable relationship, and the relations between the people of the United States and the people of Germany are very important to the American people. But this statement by the justice minister is outrageous and is in inexplicable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: This uproar comes just days before German voters go to the polls, so we want to bring in our Robin Oakley. He is live in Berlin in front of Germany's Parliament building.
So, Robin, how and when did the U.S. showdown with Iraq become such a major issue in Germany's elections?
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's been an issue now for three or four weeks, Carol, because Gerhard Schroeder, the German chancellor, went into this election six or seven weeks ago 7 or 8 points behind in the opinion polls. Then came the floods in Germany, which gave him the chance of some recovery showing strong leadership.
And he then found an issue, the issue which he needed to divert attention from his record on the economy, which is a poor one. He has failed to meet his promises to cut unemployment. He was looking for a diversionary issue.
And the German public has no interest in German involvement in any U.S. attack on Iraq, and 80 percent of voters here say they don't back any such attack. Schroeder has pitched in with that common feeling in the German public and used that to boost his ratings in the opinion polls, so that he now goes into this final stage of the campaign just ahead of his challenger, the conservative Edmund Stoiber -- Carol.
COSTELLO: So, if Mr. Schroeder is successful, doesn't he think his remarks will hurt him in the long run in relations with the United States and President Bush?
OAKLEY: Well, the very reactions that we have seen from Ari Fleischer at the White House today show the tensions that have now developed between the U.S. administration and the German leadership.
If Gerhard Schroeder is re-elected, there's a lot of fence- mending to do. There are some suggestions here in Berlin that one way he might start mending those fences is by Germany taking the lead in the troop commitments in Afghanistan, for example. Because Gerhard Schroeder, although he has taken this hard line against any involvement in Iraq, is the first German chancellor since the second World War to commit German troops abroad, as he did in Kosovo and already in Afghanistan.
But there's no doubt about it. Relations are at a poor state, both with the United States and with his colleagues in the European Union -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Robin Oakley joining us live from Germany this morning, thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired September 20, 2002 - 06:04 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The White House is expressing outrage that Germany's justice minister has compared President Bush's stance on Iraq to tactics used by Adolph Hitler.
A German newspaper reports the justice minister told a group of labor union members -- quote: "Bush wants to divert attention from his domestic problems. It's a classic tactic. It's one that Hitler also used."
The White House has this reaction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The German justice minister likened President Bush's actions to those of Adolph Hitler. And the United States and Germany have had a very long and valuable relationship, and the relations between the people of the United States and the people of Germany are very important to the American people. But this statement by the justice minister is outrageous and is in inexplicable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: This uproar comes just days before German voters go to the polls, so we want to bring in our Robin Oakley. He is live in Berlin in front of Germany's Parliament building.
So, Robin, how and when did the U.S. showdown with Iraq become such a major issue in Germany's elections?
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's been an issue now for three or four weeks, Carol, because Gerhard Schroeder, the German chancellor, went into this election six or seven weeks ago 7 or 8 points behind in the opinion polls. Then came the floods in Germany, which gave him the chance of some recovery showing strong leadership.
And he then found an issue, the issue which he needed to divert attention from his record on the economy, which is a poor one. He has failed to meet his promises to cut unemployment. He was looking for a diversionary issue.
And the German public has no interest in German involvement in any U.S. attack on Iraq, and 80 percent of voters here say they don't back any such attack. Schroeder has pitched in with that common feeling in the German public and used that to boost his ratings in the opinion polls, so that he now goes into this final stage of the campaign just ahead of his challenger, the conservative Edmund Stoiber -- Carol.
COSTELLO: So, if Mr. Schroeder is successful, doesn't he think his remarks will hurt him in the long run in relations with the United States and President Bush?
OAKLEY: Well, the very reactions that we have seen from Ari Fleischer at the White House today show the tensions that have now developed between the U.S. administration and the German leadership.
If Gerhard Schroeder is re-elected, there's a lot of fence- mending to do. There are some suggestions here in Berlin that one way he might start mending those fences is by Germany taking the lead in the troop commitments in Afghanistan, for example. Because Gerhard Schroeder, although he has taken this hard line against any involvement in Iraq, is the first German chancellor since the second World War to commit German troops abroad, as he did in Kosovo and already in Afghanistan.
But there's no doubt about it. Relations are at a poor state, both with the United States and with his colleagues in the European Union -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Robin Oakley joining us live from Germany this morning, thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
