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CNN Live At Daybreak
Wake-Up Call: President Bush's State of Union Address
Aired January 28, 2003 - 06:02 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get right to the president's State of the Union address. Mr. Bush's speech is set to begin tonight at 9:01 Eastern Time before a joint session of Congress. He'll lay out his case against Iraq, and he'll talk about his plan for reviving the economy. And that economic plan calls for $674 billion in tax cuts.
So, what else will the president say? Will he let Americans in on damaging intelligence on Iraq?
CNN White House correspondent Dana Bash has the answer. She joins us live by phone in our "Wake-Up Call."
Good morning -- Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Good morning.
COSTELLO: He'll be talking to a far different audience this time than he did last time.
BASH: Very different. It's really just a very different world. Last time around, we were still dealing with the immediate aftershocks of 9/11, and now it's a year later, and the president's approval ratings are not as high. They were really sky high back then. People are a lot more worried about the economy, people are worried about going to war with Iraq. So, he's really got a lot of convincing to do on both of those issues, Carol.
COSTELLO: You know, Dana, it will be very interesting to see if he does release any intelligence information on Iraq to convince the American people once and for all that Saddam Hussein is hiding weapons of mass destruction.
BASH: You know, that is exactly what we're hearing. People want to know. People in America, people around the world, the allies -- they all want to know, look, if the United States really thinks this is an important thing to do now, we want to know why.
The president may give some new information in the State of the Union address. It's unclear if he will, or if so, how much that will be. But even if it doesn't come up tomorrow (sic) night, the administration is likely to declassify even as soon as at the end of this week or early next week some kind of intelligence that shows that perhaps the Iraqis are concealing weapons, that they might have moved some weapons before the inspectors came back in. They might show satellite photographs, maybe even some intercepts. This is... (CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: Oh, yes, and talking about those -- I want to interrupt you for just a moment...
BASH: Yes.
COSTELLO: ... so the viewers understand. There are allegations that during this round of weapons inspections that the Iraqis actually moved the weapons before the inspectors arrived on scene. And might the United States have pictures of that?
BASH: They might, and that's exactly what we're told, perhaps the administration will show the world. That is the kind of hard evidence, Carol, that people are looking for. And you know, there has been all of this talk about a smoking gun. Is there a smoking gun? Do we have hard evidence that Saddam Hussein really has these weapons of mass destruction? And the administration is really hard-pressed to show this kind of stuff.
But they've really been reluctant, because there are problems with giving intelligence information to the world. It really does in many cases compromise methods and sources. And if we are going to use military action, it could compromise military targets. That's also a big problem.
COSTELLO: Yes. Well, this might be the time to take a chance. Dana Bash, thanks for filling us in this morning.
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 January 28, 2003 - 06:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get right to the president's State of the Union address. Mr. Bush's speech is set to begin tonight at 9:01 Eastern Time before a joint session of Congress. He'll lay out his case against Iraq, and he'll talk about his plan for reviving the economy. And that economic plan calls for $674 billion in tax cuts.
So, what else will the president say? Will he let Americans in on damaging intelligence on Iraq?
CNN White House correspondent Dana Bash has the answer. She joins us live by phone in our "Wake-Up Call."
Good morning -- Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Good morning.
COSTELLO: He'll be talking to a far different audience this time than he did last time.
BASH: Very different. It's really just a very different world. Last time around, we were still dealing with the immediate aftershocks of 9/11, and now it's a year later, and the president's approval ratings are not as high. They were really sky high back then. People are a lot more worried about the economy, people are worried about going to war with Iraq. So, he's really got a lot of convincing to do on both of those issues, Carol.
COSTELLO: You know, Dana, it will be very interesting to see if he does release any intelligence information on Iraq to convince the American people once and for all that Saddam Hussein is hiding weapons of mass destruction.
BASH: You know, that is exactly what we're hearing. People want to know. People in America, people around the world, the allies -- they all want to know, look, if the United States really thinks this is an important thing to do now, we want to know why.
The president may give some new information in the State of the Union address. It's unclear if he will, or if so, how much that will be. But even if it doesn't come up tomorrow (sic) night, the administration is likely to declassify even as soon as at the end of this week or early next week some kind of intelligence that shows that perhaps the Iraqis are concealing weapons, that they might have moved some weapons before the inspectors came back in. They might show satellite photographs, maybe even some intercepts. This is... (CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: Oh, yes, and talking about those -- I want to interrupt you for just a moment...
BASH: Yes.
COSTELLO: ... so the viewers understand. There are allegations that during this round of weapons inspections that the Iraqis actually moved the weapons before the inspectors arrived on scene. And might the United States have pictures of that?
BASH: They might, and that's exactly what we're told, perhaps the administration will show the world. That is the kind of hard evidence, Carol, that people are looking for. And you know, there has been all of this talk about a smoking gun. Is there a smoking gun? Do we have hard evidence that Saddam Hussein really has these weapons of mass destruction? And the administration is really hard-pressed to show this kind of stuff.
But they've really been reluctant, because there are problems with giving intelligence information to the world. It really does in many cases compromise methods and sources. And if we are going to use military action, it could compromise military targets. That's also a big problem.
COSTELLO: Yes. Well, this might be the time to take a chance. Dana Bash, thanks for filling us in this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
