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Tony Blair Set to Address Congress
Aired July 17, 2003 - 15:01 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.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: British Prime Minister Tony Blair addresses Congress one hour from now. He was welcomed to Capitol Hill just a short time ago. Blair's visit and his meeting with President Bush later today are meant to reinforce the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom, strained by the turmoil in Iraq and the furor over prewar intelligence. Blair's presence on the Hill has not eased the controversy.
Let's get the latest from our congressional correspondent Jonathan Karl -- Jon.
JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Judy, as Tony Blair is here on Capitol Hill right now, he's meeting with the congressional leadership from both parties in both houses.
You have some significant Republican pushback on the issues of weapons of mass destruction and faulty intelligence. For days, the president has been taking unrelenting criticism from Democrats about the faulty intelligence that made it into his State of the Union address. And now Republicans are in force, coming to the Senate floor, pushing back on this, accusing the Democrats of playing politics with national security.
The latest came from Mitch McConnell, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), KENTUCKY: All of the valid reasons that we had for supporting the resolution authorizing the president to take its action back in the fall and supporting him when it was going well still remain the case. And I think this is Monday-morning quarterbacking, nitpicking, trying to find some way to bring down a popular president's poll ratings.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KARL: But Democrats continue to push on this. They point to yesterday's testimony by George Tenet, the director of the CIA, saying that, although Tenet has taken responsibility for that faulty line in the president's speech, that the real person at fault here or persons at fault are at the White House, the people on the president's staff, on the National Security Council, who pushed the CIA to allow the inclusion of that one line in the president's State of the Union address.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. DICK DURBIN (D), ILLINOIS: They had been told by the CIA that that information was not credible, could not be believed, shouldn't be stated by the president of the United States. And that section was removed from the president's speech in October. Those same people in the White House, bound and determined to put that language in the president's State of the Union address, put in misleading language which attributed this information not to our intelligence, because our intelligence had disavowed it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KARL: Now, Blair will be addressing the joint meeting of Congress in about an hour, or slightly less than an hour. He will, despite all of this, get a very warm reception. Even those that are most critical of the president point to Great Britain as America's closest, staunchest ally. And despite the controversy and despite the fact that this, much of this, originated with British intelligence, he's already gotten quite a warm reception here, Judy.
WOODRUFF: OK, Jon Karl, who is watching the prime minister's visit there at the Capitol.
Meantime, over at the White House, officials are dismissing what you heard Senator Durbin say, even as they prepare for the Bush-Blair meeting.
Let's check in with our White House correspondent Dana Bash.
Dana, how are they handling all this? And is this going to play into the president's talks with Tony Blair?
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, they don't want it to, but it's hard, probably hard for them to avoid.
And the specific White House line on all this continues to be that the CIA cleared that one line in question in the president's State of the Union, and, if they hadn't cleared it, it wouldn't be in there. Now, the question of who in the White House was involved, apparently, according to sources in the meeting yesterday with George Tenet, he was naming names of White House officials who were negotiating with some CIA officials about what exactly would get into this speech.
But, at the White House, as you can imagine, they're just not going there. But on the specific point that Senator Durbin was making, that he believes that the White House was pressing the CIA to get this into the speech, the White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, called this nonsense and outrageous.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Senator Durbin is putting words in someone else's mouth and trying to characterize it in a way that I think is just nonsense. It's absolute nonsense. And I think you have to look at the reason why he was making those comments. I mean, maybe he's going back, trying to justify his own vote against taking action, against addressing the threats that we face.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Now, what you just heard is part of a more concerted effort from the White House to try to hit back at Democrats in a more pointed way. A senior administration official confidently told me earlier that, if this is the turf they want to play on, then let's do it.
And, as a matter of fact, Vice President Dick Cheney was on Capitol Hill yesterday meeting with House Republican leaders, talking about a strategy of how to exactly get more aggressively involved in stating their case and fighting back. And he even promised some talking points would be coming their way soon on just exactly how to do that.
Now, Judy, as you mentioned, this, of course, all comes on the backdrop of Tony Blair coming to the White House in just a short time, after he finishes up on Capitol Hill. And this, maybe in other circumstances, would be considered a meeting of two victors, after the war with Iraq was declared over by President Bush on May 1. But with all of this controversy swirling about the prewar intelligence that is just starting for President Bush, it has been going on for some time for Prime Minister Blair.
And the two men are going to face reporters and are going to face questions about this later today -- Judy.
WOODRUFF: It certainly does change the context for this meeting.
All right...
BASH: Absolutely.
WOODRUFF: Dana, thank you very much.
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 17, 2003 - 15:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: British Prime Minister Tony Blair addresses Congress one hour from now. He was welcomed to Capitol Hill just a short time ago. Blair's visit and his meeting with President Bush later today are meant to reinforce the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom, strained by the turmoil in Iraq and the furor over prewar intelligence. Blair's presence on the Hill has not eased the controversy.
Let's get the latest from our congressional correspondent Jonathan Karl -- Jon.
JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Judy, as Tony Blair is here on Capitol Hill right now, he's meeting with the congressional leadership from both parties in both houses.
You have some significant Republican pushback on the issues of weapons of mass destruction and faulty intelligence. For days, the president has been taking unrelenting criticism from Democrats about the faulty intelligence that made it into his State of the Union address. And now Republicans are in force, coming to the Senate floor, pushing back on this, accusing the Democrats of playing politics with national security.
The latest came from Mitch McConnell, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), KENTUCKY: All of the valid reasons that we had for supporting the resolution authorizing the president to take its action back in the fall and supporting him when it was going well still remain the case. And I think this is Monday-morning quarterbacking, nitpicking, trying to find some way to bring down a popular president's poll ratings.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KARL: But Democrats continue to push on this. They point to yesterday's testimony by George Tenet, the director of the CIA, saying that, although Tenet has taken responsibility for that faulty line in the president's speech, that the real person at fault here or persons at fault are at the White House, the people on the president's staff, on the National Security Council, who pushed the CIA to allow the inclusion of that one line in the president's State of the Union address.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. DICK DURBIN (D), ILLINOIS: They had been told by the CIA that that information was not credible, could not be believed, shouldn't be stated by the president of the United States. And that section was removed from the president's speech in October. Those same people in the White House, bound and determined to put that language in the president's State of the Union address, put in misleading language which attributed this information not to our intelligence, because our intelligence had disavowed it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KARL: Now, Blair will be addressing the joint meeting of Congress in about an hour, or slightly less than an hour. He will, despite all of this, get a very warm reception. Even those that are most critical of the president point to Great Britain as America's closest, staunchest ally. And despite the controversy and despite the fact that this, much of this, originated with British intelligence, he's already gotten quite a warm reception here, Judy.
WOODRUFF: OK, Jon Karl, who is watching the prime minister's visit there at the Capitol.
Meantime, over at the White House, officials are dismissing what you heard Senator Durbin say, even as they prepare for the Bush-Blair meeting.
Let's check in with our White House correspondent Dana Bash.
Dana, how are they handling all this? And is this going to play into the president's talks with Tony Blair?
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, they don't want it to, but it's hard, probably hard for them to avoid.
And the specific White House line on all this continues to be that the CIA cleared that one line in question in the president's State of the Union, and, if they hadn't cleared it, it wouldn't be in there. Now, the question of who in the White House was involved, apparently, according to sources in the meeting yesterday with George Tenet, he was naming names of White House officials who were negotiating with some CIA officials about what exactly would get into this speech.
But, at the White House, as you can imagine, they're just not going there. But on the specific point that Senator Durbin was making, that he believes that the White House was pressing the CIA to get this into the speech, the White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, called this nonsense and outrageous.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Senator Durbin is putting words in someone else's mouth and trying to characterize it in a way that I think is just nonsense. It's absolute nonsense. And I think you have to look at the reason why he was making those comments. I mean, maybe he's going back, trying to justify his own vote against taking action, against addressing the threats that we face.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Now, what you just heard is part of a more concerted effort from the White House to try to hit back at Democrats in a more pointed way. A senior administration official confidently told me earlier that, if this is the turf they want to play on, then let's do it.
And, as a matter of fact, Vice President Dick Cheney was on Capitol Hill yesterday meeting with House Republican leaders, talking about a strategy of how to exactly get more aggressively involved in stating their case and fighting back. And he even promised some talking points would be coming their way soon on just exactly how to do that.
Now, Judy, as you mentioned, this, of course, all comes on the backdrop of Tony Blair coming to the White House in just a short time, after he finishes up on Capitol Hill. And this, maybe in other circumstances, would be considered a meeting of two victors, after the war with Iraq was declared over by President Bush on May 1. But with all of this controversy swirling about the prewar intelligence that is just starting for President Bush, it has been going on for some time for Prime Minister Blair.
And the two men are going to face reporters and are going to face questions about this later today -- Judy.
WOODRUFF: It certainly does change the context for this meeting.
All right...
BASH: Absolutely.
WOODRUFF: Dana, thank you very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
