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CNN Live Today
Bush's Challenges
Aired January 13, 2004 - 09:59 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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to go ahead and start this hour in Mexico. That is where the special Summit of the Americas is winding down. After working there to build bridges, President Bush returns to Washington to find one scorched by a former administration insider, releasing a kiss-and-tell book today.
CNN White House correspondent Dana Bash is traveling with the president. She is still in Monterrey.
Good morning, Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.
And the president is down here at this summit talking about important regional issues like immigration, and poverty and trade. But as you mentioned, it is his former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's tell-all that is making the splashiest headlines.
Now as you know, it's because essentially yesterday the Treasury Department launched an inquiry into whether or not O'Neill broke the law. They want to know whether a document he showed on the CBS program "60 MINUTES," and he showed that to prove that Iraq was discussed at meetings early on in the administration, that was marked secret, and Treasury wants to know whether or not it was actually classified.
Well, Daryn, this morning, the former Treasury secretary is speaking out, essentially saying there's no there there. What he told NBC's "Today" show that he talked about this, he got all of these really 19,000 documents and papers approved by this chief counsel of the Treasury Department before he left, and he said if there was anything classified, it isn't his fault, it was the fault of the people who actually approved it.
And, Daryn, while the president's aides privately are making clear they do feel betrayed by what their former cabinet member has said about his boss and about the administration, and they say that he had wacky ideas while he was serving in the administration, publicly, the president is trying to limit his rebuttal to O'Neill's charge that the Iraq war was planned from day one.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Like the previous administration, we were for regime change, and in the initial stages of the administration, as you might remember, we were dealing with desert badger, or fly-overs, and fly-betweens and looks, and so we were fashioning policy along those lines.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Now, while the White House strategy is to give as little oxygen, if you will, to the story as possible, hoping that it will die a low death. On the campaign trail, as we know, Democrats have already seized on this, it is becoming fodder, particularly because they have already been in the months leading up to the primaries and certainly going into elections, they've already been skeptical and questioning the president's case for going to war with Iraq -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Dana, let's talk a little bit about the business that took place in Monterrey before it was overshadowed by these O'Neill revelations, and that is the topic of immigration and the new immigration policies and proposals that President Bush put forward here in the U.S. last week. How did those fly in Mexico?
BASH: Well, they seem to be flying pretty well. Yesterday, the president came out with the Mexican President Vincete Fox, and Fox essentially embraced the president's proposal. Earlier last week when it was first announced in Washington, Fox was little bit skeptical, or at least he said he wanted to have more than just temporary legal status for the undocumented workers in the U.S., but clearly, he is somebody who understands politics and he understands what -- how hard it's going to be, even to get this through the United States Congress. So he came out and warmly embraced the idea yesterday -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Dana Bash in Monterrey, Mexico. Safe travels back to the states, my friend.
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 13, 2004 - 09:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to go ahead and start this hour in Mexico. That is where the special Summit of the Americas is winding down. After working there to build bridges, President Bush returns to Washington to find one scorched by a former administration insider, releasing a kiss-and-tell book today.
CNN White House correspondent Dana Bash is traveling with the president. She is still in Monterrey.
Good morning, Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.
And the president is down here at this summit talking about important regional issues like immigration, and poverty and trade. But as you mentioned, it is his former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's tell-all that is making the splashiest headlines.
Now as you know, it's because essentially yesterday the Treasury Department launched an inquiry into whether or not O'Neill broke the law. They want to know whether a document he showed on the CBS program "60 MINUTES," and he showed that to prove that Iraq was discussed at meetings early on in the administration, that was marked secret, and Treasury wants to know whether or not it was actually classified.
Well, Daryn, this morning, the former Treasury secretary is speaking out, essentially saying there's no there there. What he told NBC's "Today" show that he talked about this, he got all of these really 19,000 documents and papers approved by this chief counsel of the Treasury Department before he left, and he said if there was anything classified, it isn't his fault, it was the fault of the people who actually approved it.
And, Daryn, while the president's aides privately are making clear they do feel betrayed by what their former cabinet member has said about his boss and about the administration, and they say that he had wacky ideas while he was serving in the administration, publicly, the president is trying to limit his rebuttal to O'Neill's charge that the Iraq war was planned from day one.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Like the previous administration, we were for regime change, and in the initial stages of the administration, as you might remember, we were dealing with desert badger, or fly-overs, and fly-betweens and looks, and so we were fashioning policy along those lines.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Now, while the White House strategy is to give as little oxygen, if you will, to the story as possible, hoping that it will die a low death. On the campaign trail, as we know, Democrats have already seized on this, it is becoming fodder, particularly because they have already been in the months leading up to the primaries and certainly going into elections, they've already been skeptical and questioning the president's case for going to war with Iraq -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Dana, let's talk a little bit about the business that took place in Monterrey before it was overshadowed by these O'Neill revelations, and that is the topic of immigration and the new immigration policies and proposals that President Bush put forward here in the U.S. last week. How did those fly in Mexico?
BASH: Well, they seem to be flying pretty well. Yesterday, the president came out with the Mexican President Vincete Fox, and Fox essentially embraced the president's proposal. Earlier last week when it was first announced in Washington, Fox was little bit skeptical, or at least he said he wanted to have more than just temporary legal status for the undocumented workers in the U.S., but clearly, he is somebody who understands politics and he understands what -- how hard it's going to be, even to get this through the United States Congress. So he came out and warmly embraced the idea yesterday -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Dana Bash in Monterrey, Mexico. Safe travels back to the states, my friend.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
