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American Morning
Interview With Dan Bartlett, White House Communications Director
Aired January 28, 2003 - 07:05 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: Iraq and the economy, twin challenges facing the president as he gets ready for tonight's State of the Union address. Mr. Bush has been rehearsing since Friday. The speech will be delivered to a joint session of Congress. The latest poll numbers indicate that Americans are split over his Iraq policy, and the Bush economic plan has also received some mixed reviews.
And just a bit earlier this morning, I spoke with Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director, about the pivotal speech, and I asked him about the administration's plan to eventually provide some intelligence information about Iraq hiding its weapons stock with the American public.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN BARTLETT, WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: What we have found in the past couple of weeks and months is a regime that has not made that strategic decision to disarm. In fact, they put forward a declaration that was filled with holes, gaps that included years of known studies and known evaluations of the weapons that he possessed. And what we find now is again an unwillingness, as we heard just yesterday from Dr. Blix, of the regime to fully cooperate. And what we're seeing is that Saddam Hussein is making the case against himself.
ZAHN: Well, let's talk about your challenge, which is making the case to the American public that the United States should be considering military action. First off, let's review some of the latest polling that's been done by CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll, showing that when asked the question, 49 percent of Americans say that the president has made a convincing case, 48 percent say no.
And we understand sort of filtered into that equation is your desire to declassify some of the information -- intelligence information and make it public, perhaps as early as next week. What will the American public hear?
BARTLETT: Well, Paula, I think what the American public will hear tonight is that President Bush is concerned about the issue that they care most about, the issue of the prospect of war. The issue of holding Saddam Hussein accountable is a very important issue.
He'll also talk about the important issue of the economy and the need to create jobs in America. He'll talk about the affordability of prescription drugs for America's seniors. And he'll talk about the fact that we're at war as we speak today, that we are one by one chasing down the terrorists and dismantling the al Qaeda terrorist network, and the steps we're taking also at home to protect the American people.
But the biggest and most grave challenge to the American people, and to the world for that matter, after 9/11 it required us to think differently. What we don't have to worry about -- or what we do have to worry about and what we have to focus on are rogue nations, such as Iraq, acquiring and developing weapons of mass destruction in which they may let those weapons of mass destruction or actively provide those weapons to terrorist organizations such as al Qaeda.
The president is going to speak in a very detailed way and a very comprehensive way about the threat that he poses, and talk about why we chose to go to the U.N. Security Council, and why we will take these next steps in the coming days as we enter this last phase of the diplomatic process.
ZAHN: You're still not answering my question, though, about these reports about military intelligence being shared with the American public. Even Secretary of State Powell made reference to it yesterday.
BARTLETT: Well...
ZAHN: Just characterize for us the importance of it, and how that is supposed to bolster the president's case for military action against Iraq.
BARTLETT: Well, Paula, I think you'll see in the coming days, as we continue to consult with our allies and with members of the Security Council, we will lay out in a very clear fashion why Saddam Hussein is again demonstrating that he has not made the strategic choice to disarm. There is plenty of information. He has given plenty of evidence publicly to the entire world. Just for example, a couple of weeks ago, inspectors found 18 chemical munition warheads. That's 18 of 30,000 that we know he has. At this rate, we'll be doing this for another 270 years.
So, what we're going to talk about in the coming days, that will start as Secretary Powell mentioned yesterday and as we meet with the Security Council tomorrow and in the coming days, about some of those details that give us the reason to believe that Saddam Hussein has not made that choice to disarm.
ZAHN: Would you characterize, though, the significant intelligence information that the administration plans to share with the American public as the smoking gun?
BARTLETT: Again, I think what's important to understand is that the Security Council resolution requires Saddam Hussein to disarm. The United Nations has already concluded that he has all kinds of different materials of deadly poison, anthrax, nerve agents, other different types of things that can be used to kill millions of people. We knew he had it. He's failed to account for it, and he's failing to destroy it. And what we'll talk about is how the U.N. Security Council is going to implement 1441, which means he must disarm. ZAHN: Is the president's speech done, or is he still working on it?
BARTLETT: It's done. He's very comfortable with it. It is a good speech that talks directly to the American people about the challenges we face and why he believes that the American people are equal to the task.
ZAHN: So, it's not going to be like President Clinton, where he's adding 20 or 30 different variations to a sentence five minutes before he's delivering a speech?
BARTLETT: This one is baked.
ZAHN: OK, Dan Bartlett, thanks for joining us in advance of the president's State of the Union address.
BARTLETT: Thanks, Paula.
ZAHN: We'll all be watching. We'll be covering it live.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Director>
Aired January 28, 2003 - 07:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Iraq and the economy, twin challenges facing the president as he gets ready for tonight's State of the Union address. Mr. Bush has been rehearsing since Friday. The speech will be delivered to a joint session of Congress. The latest poll numbers indicate that Americans are split over his Iraq policy, and the Bush economic plan has also received some mixed reviews.
And just a bit earlier this morning, I spoke with Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director, about the pivotal speech, and I asked him about the administration's plan to eventually provide some intelligence information about Iraq hiding its weapons stock with the American public.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN BARTLETT, WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: What we have found in the past couple of weeks and months is a regime that has not made that strategic decision to disarm. In fact, they put forward a declaration that was filled with holes, gaps that included years of known studies and known evaluations of the weapons that he possessed. And what we find now is again an unwillingness, as we heard just yesterday from Dr. Blix, of the regime to fully cooperate. And what we're seeing is that Saddam Hussein is making the case against himself.
ZAHN: Well, let's talk about your challenge, which is making the case to the American public that the United States should be considering military action. First off, let's review some of the latest polling that's been done by CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll, showing that when asked the question, 49 percent of Americans say that the president has made a convincing case, 48 percent say no.
And we understand sort of filtered into that equation is your desire to declassify some of the information -- intelligence information and make it public, perhaps as early as next week. What will the American public hear?
BARTLETT: Well, Paula, I think what the American public will hear tonight is that President Bush is concerned about the issue that they care most about, the issue of the prospect of war. The issue of holding Saddam Hussein accountable is a very important issue.
He'll also talk about the important issue of the economy and the need to create jobs in America. He'll talk about the affordability of prescription drugs for America's seniors. And he'll talk about the fact that we're at war as we speak today, that we are one by one chasing down the terrorists and dismantling the al Qaeda terrorist network, and the steps we're taking also at home to protect the American people.
But the biggest and most grave challenge to the American people, and to the world for that matter, after 9/11 it required us to think differently. What we don't have to worry about -- or what we do have to worry about and what we have to focus on are rogue nations, such as Iraq, acquiring and developing weapons of mass destruction in which they may let those weapons of mass destruction or actively provide those weapons to terrorist organizations such as al Qaeda.
The president is going to speak in a very detailed way and a very comprehensive way about the threat that he poses, and talk about why we chose to go to the U.N. Security Council, and why we will take these next steps in the coming days as we enter this last phase of the diplomatic process.
ZAHN: You're still not answering my question, though, about these reports about military intelligence being shared with the American public. Even Secretary of State Powell made reference to it yesterday.
BARTLETT: Well...
ZAHN: Just characterize for us the importance of it, and how that is supposed to bolster the president's case for military action against Iraq.
BARTLETT: Well, Paula, I think you'll see in the coming days, as we continue to consult with our allies and with members of the Security Council, we will lay out in a very clear fashion why Saddam Hussein is again demonstrating that he has not made the strategic choice to disarm. There is plenty of information. He has given plenty of evidence publicly to the entire world. Just for example, a couple of weeks ago, inspectors found 18 chemical munition warheads. That's 18 of 30,000 that we know he has. At this rate, we'll be doing this for another 270 years.
So, what we're going to talk about in the coming days, that will start as Secretary Powell mentioned yesterday and as we meet with the Security Council tomorrow and in the coming days, about some of those details that give us the reason to believe that Saddam Hussein has not made that choice to disarm.
ZAHN: Would you characterize, though, the significant intelligence information that the administration plans to share with the American public as the smoking gun?
BARTLETT: Again, I think what's important to understand is that the Security Council resolution requires Saddam Hussein to disarm. The United Nations has already concluded that he has all kinds of different materials of deadly poison, anthrax, nerve agents, other different types of things that can be used to kill millions of people. We knew he had it. He's failed to account for it, and he's failing to destroy it. And what we'll talk about is how the U.N. Security Council is going to implement 1441, which means he must disarm. ZAHN: Is the president's speech done, or is he still working on it?
BARTLETT: It's done. He's very comfortable with it. It is a good speech that talks directly to the American people about the challenges we face and why he believes that the American people are equal to the task.
ZAHN: So, it's not going to be like President Clinton, where he's adding 20 or 30 different variations to a sentence five minutes before he's delivering a speech?
BARTLETT: This one is baked.
ZAHN: OK, Dan Bartlett, thanks for joining us in advance of the president's State of the Union address.
BARTLETT: Thanks, Paula.
ZAHN: We'll all be watching. We'll be covering it live.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Director>
