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Rumsfeld: The Fall Guy?
Aired October 10, 2003 - 13:10 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Savvy strategists or snubbed scapegoat? Does Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have job security? "The New York Daily News" reports that the president is not happy and wants change. Did Rummy let down his foreign policy team, or did the president let down his leader of defense? David Gergen knows Donald Rumsfeld, politics and the White House after serving in the Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton administrations. He joins us live today.
David good to see you.
DAVID GERGEN, FMR. PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: Thank you. Good to be here.
PHILLIPS: Well, let's talk about the restructuring here of specific leaders. I'm talking abour Rice, Rumsfeld, and Powell, and the news that has come out about how the president feels about all three. Are jobs at stake here?
GERGEN: Well, jobs are at stake, and the White House cannot be happy, nor can Don Rumsfeld be happy about the piece in today's "New York Daily News." It was written by Tommy DeFrank, who is one of the best reporters in Washington, and also has deep and long ties with the Bush family and with the Bush associates that go back to earlier administration and knows a great deal about the Defense Department, as well.
So the story will be taken seriously. And you should know that I have something of a bias here. I've known Don Rumsfeld and worked with him over the years and have a great respect for him. I believe the president will stand by him through the remainder of this term. It will be a blow to the president, and I think an admission that he does not want to make, that things have gone more badly off the track in Iraq than anybody in the administration is now willing to acknowledge.
Will there be a new team in the second term? I think that is likely in the second term. But I think Don Rumsfeld will choose to leave on his own timetable.
PHILLIPS: Bush is expressing his unhappiness with these players. But aren't these players, specifically Donald Rumsfeld, that continue to be his foundation throughout Afghanistan, throughout Iraq?
GERGEN: Well, yes they are. And of course Vice President Cheney and Don Rumsfeld have formed a strong alliance around the president, and he has looked at both of them for support and encouragement. So I found the story very surprising. And please, remember, that it was not from the president directly, but from people around him in the administration, and I would think the president and his official spokesman would disown those comments very quickly. They should if they want to keep peace in the family.
There is, you should know, there no question that there is scuffling in the wheelhouse, as we call it in politics. Bill Kristol of "The Weekly Standard" described it this week as a civil war within the administration. There's lots of unhappiness among the players at each other, among their staffs, in particular. But I think what the president needs to do now is disown the story, bring in his top team, knock heads together and get peace in the family. What's going on in Iraq on the ground is far more important than the scuffling.
PHILLIPS: Well something interesting here, and I don't know if this tidbit has been sort of buried. I mean, you go back to the Ford administration, knowing Rumsfeld and Cheney. "The Atlantic Monthly," this huge spread on Rumsfeld, Talking about the relationship with Cheney. Is something happening here with the vice president, and Rumsfeld and President Bush that we maybe are not tuned into yet?
GERGEN: Well, I think there's been a question all along that we do not know the answer to, and that is whether President Bush feels his team, his advisers may have led him down a path that he now wishes he hadn't taken. The president in public certainly gives every indication that he is absolutely proud of where the country has gone and what's going on, and he reports, as he did yesterday in New Hampshire, that we have made solid progress in Iraq and, if anything, he blames the press for not reporting on the progress, that the press has been too negative, too harsh. And in fact, the press has become harsher toward this president since May 1.
So I don't think there's any public sign that he's unhappy with his vice president or his secretary of defense, or as Tommy DeFrank reported in his story today, that he is also unhappy with his secretary of state.
But, privately, he may have that. One never knows, and we probably won't know for a long time.
But I think from the president's point of view, he has to end, quote, this civil war, his own staff and get this settled in, because there are too many important things that have to be done here in terms of policymaking in the next few weeks. People have to be able to work together.
So this story, I am sure, is going to rattle the cages at the White House, as well as the Pentagon. There's going to be great unhappiness with this story at the White House, because it opens up a veil over what has never seen before, and suddenly says there's a snake pit down there, and these guy are after each other.
PHILLIPS: David Gergen, I know you've got to catch a plane. We appreciate your time today.
GERGEN: Thank you so much.
PHILLIPS: You bet. We'll follow up. 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 October 10, 2003 - 13:10 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Savvy strategists or snubbed scapegoat? Does Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have job security? "The New York Daily News" reports that the president is not happy and wants change. Did Rummy let down his foreign policy team, or did the president let down his leader of defense? David Gergen knows Donald Rumsfeld, politics and the White House after serving in the Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton administrations. He joins us live today.
David good to see you.
DAVID GERGEN, FMR. PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: Thank you. Good to be here.
PHILLIPS: Well, let's talk about the restructuring here of specific leaders. I'm talking abour Rice, Rumsfeld, and Powell, and the news that has come out about how the president feels about all three. Are jobs at stake here?
GERGEN: Well, jobs are at stake, and the White House cannot be happy, nor can Don Rumsfeld be happy about the piece in today's "New York Daily News." It was written by Tommy DeFrank, who is one of the best reporters in Washington, and also has deep and long ties with the Bush family and with the Bush associates that go back to earlier administration and knows a great deal about the Defense Department, as well.
So the story will be taken seriously. And you should know that I have something of a bias here. I've known Don Rumsfeld and worked with him over the years and have a great respect for him. I believe the president will stand by him through the remainder of this term. It will be a blow to the president, and I think an admission that he does not want to make, that things have gone more badly off the track in Iraq than anybody in the administration is now willing to acknowledge.
Will there be a new team in the second term? I think that is likely in the second term. But I think Don Rumsfeld will choose to leave on his own timetable.
PHILLIPS: Bush is expressing his unhappiness with these players. But aren't these players, specifically Donald Rumsfeld, that continue to be his foundation throughout Afghanistan, throughout Iraq?
GERGEN: Well, yes they are. And of course Vice President Cheney and Don Rumsfeld have formed a strong alliance around the president, and he has looked at both of them for support and encouragement. So I found the story very surprising. And please, remember, that it was not from the president directly, but from people around him in the administration, and I would think the president and his official spokesman would disown those comments very quickly. They should if they want to keep peace in the family.
There is, you should know, there no question that there is scuffling in the wheelhouse, as we call it in politics. Bill Kristol of "The Weekly Standard" described it this week as a civil war within the administration. There's lots of unhappiness among the players at each other, among their staffs, in particular. But I think what the president needs to do now is disown the story, bring in his top team, knock heads together and get peace in the family. What's going on in Iraq on the ground is far more important than the scuffling.
PHILLIPS: Well something interesting here, and I don't know if this tidbit has been sort of buried. I mean, you go back to the Ford administration, knowing Rumsfeld and Cheney. "The Atlantic Monthly," this huge spread on Rumsfeld, Talking about the relationship with Cheney. Is something happening here with the vice president, and Rumsfeld and President Bush that we maybe are not tuned into yet?
GERGEN: Well, I think there's been a question all along that we do not know the answer to, and that is whether President Bush feels his team, his advisers may have led him down a path that he now wishes he hadn't taken. The president in public certainly gives every indication that he is absolutely proud of where the country has gone and what's going on, and he reports, as he did yesterday in New Hampshire, that we have made solid progress in Iraq and, if anything, he blames the press for not reporting on the progress, that the press has been too negative, too harsh. And in fact, the press has become harsher toward this president since May 1.
So I don't think there's any public sign that he's unhappy with his vice president or his secretary of defense, or as Tommy DeFrank reported in his story today, that he is also unhappy with his secretary of state.
But, privately, he may have that. One never knows, and we probably won't know for a long time.
But I think from the president's point of view, he has to end, quote, this civil war, his own staff and get this settled in, because there are too many important things that have to be done here in terms of policymaking in the next few weeks. People have to be able to work together.
So this story, I am sure, is going to rattle the cages at the White House, as well as the Pentagon. There's going to be great unhappiness with this story at the White House, because it opens up a veil over what has never seen before, and suddenly says there's a snake pit down there, and these guy are after each other.
PHILLIPS: David Gergen, I know you've got to catch a plane. We appreciate your time today.
GERGEN: Thank you so much.
PHILLIPS: You bet. We'll follow up. 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
