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CNN Saturday Morning News
Bush Raises Funds in Texas
Aired July 19, 2003 - 09:10 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.
THOMAS ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: We turn our attention now to money and politics and the debate over war. President Bush is doing some weekend fund-raising in his home state, but, back in Washington, the White House is trying to counter criticism that the administration used bogus data to make its case for war against Iraq.
CNN's Chris Burns -- he's deep in the heart of Texas. He joins us this morning with more.
Hi again, Chris.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Thomas.
Well, President Bush was at a fund-raiser last night in Dallas, he's in -- at one again this evening in Houston. The two fund-raisers at $2,000 a plate are going to raise up to $7 million. That pulls President Bush way far out ahead of the nine Democratic candidates combined, topping $40 million after tonight's fund-raiser.
However, at the same time, the Democrats see as an Achilles' heel this question of pre-war weapons of mass destruction intelligence that President Bush used as a basis to go to war against Iraq, and this is where a senior administration official revealed to the press portions of the national intelligence estimate that was used as the basis for that speech, for the 16 words in the president's State of the Union message back in January that said that -- that Saddam Hussein was trying to buy uranium from Africa.
Now that was later distanced by the White House, and the -- the senior administration official said that it was, however, approved by the CIA, that there was a member of the National Security Council that went to them that did approve it. However, he also pointed out in that national intelligence there was a caveat by the State Department that had said -- and I quote -- it said that "the claims of the Iraqi pursuit of natural uranium in Africa are," in the State Department's agency's intelligence report, "highly dubious."
So that does raise questions where there could be perhaps requests from Capitol Hill for testimony from members of the National Security Council. So far, however, the White House is saying no.
Thomas, do I have time to ask -- to talk about the elephants?
ROBERTS: Elephants? Elephants? Sure. Go right ahead. What have you got for us? BURNS: Well, you might remember the passionate pachyderms in Africa as President Bush was traveling through there. He went on that safari, and there were two elephants that were mating in front of his entourage.
Now President Bush made some kind of mention about that last night during his speech at the fund-raiser, and here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is our first trip back to Texas since I got back from Africa. You may remember we were over there, and we went to a park in Botswana.
(LAUGHTER)
BUSH: That's where we learned a lot about our party's mascot.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNS: Not something to put on T-shirts, but definitely something to laugh about at the fund-raiser -- Thomas.
ROBERTS: And an interesting visual for a lot of people eating breakfast out there.
All right, Chris Burns. Thanks very much.
BURNS: 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 July 19, 2003 - 09:10 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THOMAS ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: We turn our attention now to money and politics and the debate over war. President Bush is doing some weekend fund-raising in his home state, but, back in Washington, the White House is trying to counter criticism that the administration used bogus data to make its case for war against Iraq.
CNN's Chris Burns -- he's deep in the heart of Texas. He joins us this morning with more.
Hi again, Chris.
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Thomas.
Well, President Bush was at a fund-raiser last night in Dallas, he's in -- at one again this evening in Houston. The two fund-raisers at $2,000 a plate are going to raise up to $7 million. That pulls President Bush way far out ahead of the nine Democratic candidates combined, topping $40 million after tonight's fund-raiser.
However, at the same time, the Democrats see as an Achilles' heel this question of pre-war weapons of mass destruction intelligence that President Bush used as a basis to go to war against Iraq, and this is where a senior administration official revealed to the press portions of the national intelligence estimate that was used as the basis for that speech, for the 16 words in the president's State of the Union message back in January that said that -- that Saddam Hussein was trying to buy uranium from Africa.
Now that was later distanced by the White House, and the -- the senior administration official said that it was, however, approved by the CIA, that there was a member of the National Security Council that went to them that did approve it. However, he also pointed out in that national intelligence there was a caveat by the State Department that had said -- and I quote -- it said that "the claims of the Iraqi pursuit of natural uranium in Africa are," in the State Department's agency's intelligence report, "highly dubious."
So that does raise questions where there could be perhaps requests from Capitol Hill for testimony from members of the National Security Council. So far, however, the White House is saying no.
Thomas, do I have time to ask -- to talk about the elephants?
ROBERTS: Elephants? Elephants? Sure. Go right ahead. What have you got for us? BURNS: Well, you might remember the passionate pachyderms in Africa as President Bush was traveling through there. He went on that safari, and there were two elephants that were mating in front of his entourage.
Now President Bush made some kind of mention about that last night during his speech at the fund-raiser, and here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is our first trip back to Texas since I got back from Africa. You may remember we were over there, and we went to a park in Botswana.
(LAUGHTER)
BUSH: That's where we learned a lot about our party's mascot.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNS: Not something to put on T-shirts, but definitely something to laugh about at the fund-raiser -- Thomas.
ROBERTS: And an interesting visual for a lot of people eating breakfast out there.
All right, Chris Burns. Thanks very much.
BURNS: 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
