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American Morning

Will President Bush Deliver?

Aired January 29, 2002 - 07:16   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: The question this hour, will President Bush deliver? Winning the war, protecting the homeland and fixing the economy. The president is expected to focus tonight on those themes -- his three great goals for America, according to presidential counselor Karen Hughes. And she joins us now from the White House with a preview of what's on the president's State of the Union agenda.

Nice to see you again. Welcome to A.M.

KAREN HUGHES, COUNSELOR TO PRESIDENT BUSH: Good morning, Paula. Nice to be here.

ZAHN: Karen, before we get to the preview of the speech, first of all, what is the administration's reaction to the Saudi Arabian government calling for their 100 detainees being held in Cuba to be sent home so they can interrogate them?

HUGHES: Well, Paula, I have not talked with our secretary of defense or our foreign policy people about that specific issue this morning. As you know, the president is in the midst of considering the status of the terrorists who are being detained in Guantanamo Bay. They're being well treated. They're being treated humanely. They're being given meals and medical attention and they're being properly cared for while they are there.

But we have to remember that these are very dangerous people. These are trained killers who have already caused a riot in a prison camp in Afghanistan that killed one of our Americans. So this is an unusual situation and the president is in the midst of talking with his senior officials, the secretary of state and the secretary of defense about the fate of these terrorists and how they should be properly treated and handled.

ZAHN: And as he deals with that issue with his national security team, how, is it true -- because according to the "New York Times" this morning the president is about to reconsider his stance on the protections of the Geneva Convention as they apply to these detainees. Is it true he is considering a change in his position?

HUGHES: Well, Paula, at the request of the secretary of state, there was a meeting yesterday and they are reconsidering and discussing all the various legal ramifications about the status of these terrorists. And again, these are trained terrorists. This is a very different kind of war. You don't have a government that -- these are not prisoners from a government, from another country that you were at war against. These are trained killers.

And so it's a very unusual situation and the president is in the midst of discussing that with the secretary of state and the secretary of defense and his entire national security council, yes.

ZAHN: Before we get to the speech, just one last question. At the same time you have the crown prince of Saudi Arabia also saying that the U.S. war on terrorism is being undermined by the U.S.' position in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. What does he want from the U.S., as you understand this?

HUGHES: Well, I think you'd have to direct that question to him and not to me. What we are working for is peace in the Middle East and it has to stop with an end to the violence there, as the president and the secretary of state have made very clear and very unequivocal.

I think that people around the world will be interested in listening to some of the president's speech tonight because he does talk about the fact that this, the war on terror gives us an opportunity to promote throughout the world the values that bring lasting peace, the values of human dignity, the values of respect for women, the values of religious tolerance. And the president makes the case that we have an opportunity to spread these values, to share these values throughout the entire world and create lasting opportunity, including in the Islamic world.

ZAHN: Will the president continue to try to convince the American public that this is going to be a long, hard war? Because if you look at some statistics -- I'm going to put them up on the screen now -- a recent Gallup poll shows that nine out of 10 Americans support the war in Afghanistan. But then you see a split when it comes to direct military action and economic and diplomatic efforts.

How will the president address that this evening?

HUGHES: Paula, what the president will talk about tonight is the fact that what we've learned in Afghanistan has made it clear that far from ending there, our war against terrorism is only beginning. And I think the thing that stands out the most to me is the fact that when we think about the evil and the horror of the attacks of September 11, those were carried out by 19 terrorists, most of whom had been trained in Afghanistan.

Yet what we've learned is that up to 100,000 people have been trained, trained killers in the camps of Afghanistan and they're now spread throughout the world in more than 60 different countries. And so the president will talk about the fact that what we've learned there has only shown us the broad scope of the war against terror. And we cannot stop short, because if we did, our feeling of greater security would only be false, as he says, and temporary, and that's the case he will make to the American people tonight.

The other great objective, in addition to finding and disrupting these terrorist cells around the world, is that we have to stop these terrorists and the regimes that support them from being able to gain the weapons of mass destruction with which they could threaten not only the United States, not only our allies, but the entire world.

ZAHN: Well, Karen, we know you're looking at at least an 18 hour day today. Thanks for dropping by for the preview of the this speech. And our coverage will get started at eight o'clock on CNN and then the coverage of the speech live at nine o'clock.

Again, thanks for your time this morning, Karen.

HUGHES: Thank you, Paula.

ZAHN: The president right now is living large in the polls. But for how long? What can he do tonight to make sure the public opinion pendulum keeps swinging in his direction?

For that we turn to CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider, who joins us from Washington -- welcome to A.M. Bill. Good to see you.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you, Paula.

ZAHN: Boy, I'll tell you one thing, you look at the statistics, there seems to be a lot riding on this speech tonight. A Pew Research poll showing, what, 54 percent of Americans polled think this is one of the most important State of the Union addresses ever?

SCHNEIDER: That's right. It's going to be widely watched because, after all, this is war time and he is the leader of a nation at war. And what Americans are going to be listening for is essentially a progress report on this war, how are we doing, and most of all, what's next.

We seem to have accomplished some of our goals in Afghanistan. We've brought down the Taliban. We have at least damaged the al Qaeda network. We haven't got Osama bin Laden, and that's a very important goal. Most Americans also say in our polling that this war will not be considered a victory until we eliminate, capture or even kill Osama bin Laden.

ZAHN: Let's talk about some of the other themes the president is expected to address tonight. Kelly Wallace reporting that Enron is not among them, that the president might paint a broad brush stroke, but never say the word Enron.

SCHNEIDER: Well, a lot of people will...

ZAHN: What can we expect?

SCHNEIDER: We'll be listening to see whether he mentions Enron directly, which a lot of people doubt, or whether he talks about irresponsible corporate behavior, whether he brings up the need for some kinds of reforms in accounting procedures, financial reporting, some kind of protection of pension holders so that they don't get hurt the way Enron stockholders and employees were hurt.

I think the president has to evidence some kind of a sympathy and some indication that something very big went wrong at Enron and even though these were his friends, that basic reforms are needed.

He may very well get to that kind of subject.

ZAHN: So besides the war message, what do you think is the other most important theme that the president has to address tonight to try to seal those high approval ratings?

SCHNEIDER: Well, I'm tempted to say the economy, stupid, but I'm not going to call you any names.

ZAHN: Thank you very much, Bill.

SCHNEIDER: There are really three issues on the agenda -- the war, the economy, Enron. He might not talk very much about Enron, but he certainly has to address the economy. The nation is in recession and around the country the polling also shows that the economy has begun to eclipse the war on terrorism as the voters' top concern.

Now what's interesting is we're in a recession but he's not like his father was. He's got very strong approval ratings for his handling of the economy. People have confidence in this president. And most of all, there's a spirit of what I would describe as defiant optimism with respect to the economy. Americans think this economy is going to get better. It's already getting better. They're very optimistic about the outlook for a next year.

In fact, when we asked people do you think that Congress should pass a stimulus bill to get the economy going, they're not so sure about that. They think the economy is going to get going on its own.

So there is, because of the war, I think, and the good progress we've mad there, there's a real confidence in this president's leadership and in the direction of the country.

ZAHN: All right, Bill Schneider, appreciate yet another preview.

SCHNEIDER: OK.

ZAHN: Many reasons to watch this evening.

SCHNEIDER: OK.

ZAHN: And I just want to remind our viewers once again that our live coverage of the president's State of the Union address tonight begins at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

Bill Schneider, thanks so much for that report.

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