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American Morning
Karen Hughes: A Profile of Bush's Most Trusted Adviser
Aired May 03, 2001 - 10:09 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: Now we're going to go ahead and turn from the issue of energy to the politics of power. Karen Hughes served as the public point person during Mr. Bush's presidential campaign and since his election she has slipped somewhat into the background, yet make no mistake here, it is in the backroom where she remains one of his most influential advisers.
CNN White House correspondent Kelly Wallace takes a closer look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When President Bush makes a major announcement, Karen Hughes is there, and when he hits the road to tout his domestic agenda, she packs her bags, too. Hughes is one of Mr. Bush's most trusted advisers and is also the highest ranking woman ever to work in the White House. But that's not a description she really likes.
KAREN HUGHES, COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT: I really cringe, and I don't know why.
WALLACE: Hughes wants to make clear the president has a very big inner circle.
(on camera): You don't want to single yourself out?
HUGHES: No, I really don't because the, his leadership style and the model of the way the White House works is a team.
WALLACE (voice-over): But her colleagues say no one knows the president better. She knows him so well that she can, and often does, change his speeches to put them into his words.
HUGHES: I've worked for him for long enough that I hear, I'm not sure I have my own voice anymore. I hear his voice in my head.
WALLACE: Hughes manages a staff of 43. The main focus, getting the president's message out. But she also weighs in on all major decisions with Mr. Bush often asking aides what does Karen think.
DAN BARTLETT, DEPUTY TO THE COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT: When I replace her in a meeting as her deputy, particularly with the president, I might be asked about my opinion and then I'm quickly asked if that opinion has been vetted by Karen. WALLACE: During the presidential campaign, Hughes established herself as a fierce defender of her boss' record. She's worked with him since his first run for governor back in 1994 and refuses publicly or privately to acknowledge any of the president's potential shortcomings.
HUGHES: My job is to communicate his message, not to go out and try to undermine it any way by critiquing it. There's plenty of people available 24 hours a day, I'm sure, to criticize what we're doing.
WALLACE: Hughes is often in her West Wing office before 7:00 A.M. and on her way home to her family by 7:00 P.M. But on Wednesdays, she leaves even earlier to be with her 14-year-old son.
HUGHES: Someone in his school told me that he had said well, I'm not going to see my mom much anymore, she has to work all the time now, which broke my heart. It did. It broke my heart and so I was looking for a way to make sure, to let him know that he is my priority.
WALLACE: Her priority at the White House, helping the president, but also not being afraid to tell him what she thinks.
HUGHES: He welcomes, he wants people, his staff to give him their honest opinions.
WALLACE: That honesty combined with loyalty over the years has made her one of the most valued aides to George W. Bush and -- she may cringe at this -- one of the most powerful women in Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WALLACE: And some people wonder why Karen Hughes chose not to be the press secretary here at the White House. Well, she tells us that while in Texas, she could do both jobs. She could serve as a spokeswoman for then Governor Bush and that she could also work on strategic planning and policy. But she says here in the White House, she definitely couldn't do both strategic planning as well as dealing with the press corps.
Also, she tells us, after about six years going head to head with reporters on a daily basis, she doesn't much mind being more behind- the-scenes, and as she told us, talking to reporters when she wants to talk to them -- Daryn?
KAGAN: But no offense or anything.
WALLACE: Right.
KAGAN: She's had enough of you people, Kelly.
WALLACE: I didn't take that personally.
KAGAN: Yeah, absolutely. I get -- you should not. She said, she points out that, you know, a lot of other people are close to the president, as well, but what is it about their relationship, Karen Hughes and President Bush, that sets that relationship apart?
WALLACE: Well, that's exactly right. She wanted to make very clear the president certainly has a lot of close advisers, certainly people like Karl Rove, his senior adviser here, the president and Mr. Rove going way back, even dating, predating Karen Hughes' relationship with the president. But most people say that the two really got to know each other flying around on a small airplane during the 1994 gubernatorial campaign and then again in 1998 and working for years in the governor's office.
So they feel like those two, one aide said, have been joined at the hip so much that they think alike, they almost talk alike and so that there's this personal kinship combined with a loyalty that really does set her apart -- Daryn?
KAGAN: It makes me wonder how did they first meet? How did their paths first cross?
WALLACE: You know, that is a good question. I believe Karen Hughes, she was a long time local news reporter, a reporter for about eight years.
KAGAN: Oh.
WALLACE: But then she went into Republican Party politics, working statewide on the Republican Party in Texas. I believe in that role she may have encountered George W. Bush, but it was basically her service during his first gubernatorial campaign. She worked as his communications director and his spokeswoman back in 1994 and then has been with him ever since.
KAGAN: So she might be sick of reporters, but actually she is one of us.
WALLACE: She is one of us.
KAGAN: There you go.
WALLACE: The truth is here.
KAGAN: Now it's come on out CNN. Kelly Wallace, thank you.
And Karen Hughes is not alone. Women hold positions of power and great influence in the Bush White House. But how is the administration viewed by women in general? CNN's Jeanne Meserve will join us in a few minutes to take a closer look at that.
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