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CNN Live At Daybreak
View From White House
Aired April 21, 2003 - 06:37 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: President Bush is at his Texas ranch. He returned there yesterday after visiting those two Army helicopter pilots held captive by Iraqi troops.
Our White House correspondent, Chris Burns, joins us from Crawford, Texas to tell us what's on the president's plate today. No doubt he'll be very interested to read that "New York Times" report.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Very interesting on that report, Carol.
Let's jump over here to the White House, where we are right now. Quite a buzz early this morning, there's going to be an Easter egg roll hosted by the vice president's wife, Lynne Cheney. Some 12,000 members of military families are going to be here.
President Bush is not going to be here in time. He is coming back from Crawford, Texas this afternoon. He did spend the weekend, of course, at his ranch, but also spending time, of course, with some of the troops there at Fort Hood, seeing those two former POWs.
He managed to also see his parents there, the former president, at Crawford, and clear some brush; clear some diplomatic brush as well with the Syrians, where he appears to have taken a bit of the heat off the Syrians now that he says that the Syrians are at least giving indications that they will cooperate on handing over any former Iraqi leaders and cooperating on trying to seal up that border with Iraq.
Here is the president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They're getting the message that they should not harbor Baath Party officials, high- ranking Iraqi officials. A lot of other countries have also sent that message. As you know, Secretary Powell will be going to visit with the Syrians, and it seems like they're beginning to get the message. And when we think there is somebody there or know somebody is there, we, of course, will pass on the name, and fully expect the Syrian government to hand the person over.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNS: And very much on the president's mind, of course, this week also is that tomorrow will begin the formal talks at the United Nations about possibly lifting sanctions, which the U.S.-led coalition would like to do to try to bring in more money into Iraq to rebuild it.
The other issue, the main issue on his agenda is a domestic issue, the tax cut that he'd like to bring about, at least $550 billion over 10 years that he would like to battle through on Capitol Hill. It's going to look like a presidential-style campaign across the country. More then 26 states involved in the coming days as the president's people fan out across the country to push for that tax cut. The president also pushing for Medicare reform as well.
So it's going to look like a presidential campaign. Even though he hasn't declared for re-election, it's going to look a lot like it in the next few days -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Understand. Chris Burns live from Washington, from the White House 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 April 21, 2003 - 06:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush is at his Texas ranch. He returned there yesterday after visiting those two Army helicopter pilots held captive by Iraqi troops.
Our White House correspondent, Chris Burns, joins us from Crawford, Texas to tell us what's on the president's plate today. No doubt he'll be very interested to read that "New York Times" report.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Very interesting on that report, Carol.
Let's jump over here to the White House, where we are right now. Quite a buzz early this morning, there's going to be an Easter egg roll hosted by the vice president's wife, Lynne Cheney. Some 12,000 members of military families are going to be here.
President Bush is not going to be here in time. He is coming back from Crawford, Texas this afternoon. He did spend the weekend, of course, at his ranch, but also spending time, of course, with some of the troops there at Fort Hood, seeing those two former POWs.
He managed to also see his parents there, the former president, at Crawford, and clear some brush; clear some diplomatic brush as well with the Syrians, where he appears to have taken a bit of the heat off the Syrians now that he says that the Syrians are at least giving indications that they will cooperate on handing over any former Iraqi leaders and cooperating on trying to seal up that border with Iraq.
Here is the president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They're getting the message that they should not harbor Baath Party officials, high- ranking Iraqi officials. A lot of other countries have also sent that message. As you know, Secretary Powell will be going to visit with the Syrians, and it seems like they're beginning to get the message. And when we think there is somebody there or know somebody is there, we, of course, will pass on the name, and fully expect the Syrian government to hand the person over.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNS: And very much on the president's mind, of course, this week also is that tomorrow will begin the formal talks at the United Nations about possibly lifting sanctions, which the U.S.-led coalition would like to do to try to bring in more money into Iraq to rebuild it.
The other issue, the main issue on his agenda is a domestic issue, the tax cut that he'd like to bring about, at least $550 billion over 10 years that he would like to battle through on Capitol Hill. It's going to look like a presidential-style campaign across the country. More then 26 states involved in the coming days as the president's people fan out across the country to push for that tax cut. The president also pushing for Medicare reform as well.
So it's going to look like a presidential campaign. Even though he hasn't declared for re-election, it's going to look a lot like it in the next few days -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Understand. Chris Burns live from Washington, from the White House 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.
