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American Morning
President Bush Will Get Briefing on Homeland Security
Aired March 31, 2003 - 08:33 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: President Bush will be in Philadelphia today to get a briefing on homeland security. Dana Bash standing by at the White House. She has more for us now.
Good morning, Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
As you said, the president, along with his homeland security director, Tom Ridge, are heading up to Philadelphia. They're going to speak between 700 to a thousand members of the Coast Guard to pay tribute to them. The Coast Guard is sort of acting a military branch going -- acting in double duty, because they are working to help stepping up their efforts to help secure America's ports, but they're also deployed in the Persian Gulf. They're helping defend America's ships there, and they're also, interesting enough, helping defend the port in southern Iraq of Umm Qasr.
Now, the president, his trip today to Pennsylvania will be his 19th trip to that state, a swing state, since he became president. He lost that state by just four percentage points back in 2000 to Vice President Al Gore. And he will use the trip in addition to talking about the Coast Guard, to talk about the progress of the war with Iraq and to talk about the fact that he believes that progress is being made.
Now, last night, he left that public relations message to his secretary of state, Colin Powell, who talked about the war efforts when he spoke to the American-Israel Affairs Committee.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, SECY. OF STATE: We are only 10 or 11 days into this war. Baghdad is slowly being encircled. Pockets of resistance are being isolated. The oil fields are secure. Humanitarian aid is beginning to flow. I have total confidence in the plan and total confidence in General Franks, and the other leaders who are carrying out that plan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Now, that message that you just heard from Colin Powell that things are going OK in the war seems, at this point, to be playing out with the American public. You look at the latest CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll questioning, only 22 percent say that they were major problems, 65 percent said minor setbacks and 11 percent said nothing to worry about. You see a vast majority of Americans think the setbacks so far that we've seen on the battlefield don't amount to very much. So it seems the administration's message is working, and the president will also in a speech today be talking about the brutality of the Iraqi regime, something that has been pushed to the front of the administration's message over the past week, as they try to explain why the Iraqis are resisting and not surrendering as they -- some had hoped in the early days of this war -- Paula.
ZAHN: Dana Bash, thanks so much. We'll be seeing you a little bit later on this morning.
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 March 31, 2003 - 08:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush will be in Philadelphia today to get a briefing on homeland security. Dana Bash standing by at the White House. She has more for us now.
Good morning, Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.
As you said, the president, along with his homeland security director, Tom Ridge, are heading up to Philadelphia. They're going to speak between 700 to a thousand members of the Coast Guard to pay tribute to them. The Coast Guard is sort of acting a military branch going -- acting in double duty, because they are working to help stepping up their efforts to help secure America's ports, but they're also deployed in the Persian Gulf. They're helping defend America's ships there, and they're also, interesting enough, helping defend the port in southern Iraq of Umm Qasr.
Now, the president, his trip today to Pennsylvania will be his 19th trip to that state, a swing state, since he became president. He lost that state by just four percentage points back in 2000 to Vice President Al Gore. And he will use the trip in addition to talking about the Coast Guard, to talk about the progress of the war with Iraq and to talk about the fact that he believes that progress is being made.
Now, last night, he left that public relations message to his secretary of state, Colin Powell, who talked about the war efforts when he spoke to the American-Israel Affairs Committee.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN POWELL, SECY. OF STATE: We are only 10 or 11 days into this war. Baghdad is slowly being encircled. Pockets of resistance are being isolated. The oil fields are secure. Humanitarian aid is beginning to flow. I have total confidence in the plan and total confidence in General Franks, and the other leaders who are carrying out that plan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Now, that message that you just heard from Colin Powell that things are going OK in the war seems, at this point, to be playing out with the American public. You look at the latest CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll questioning, only 22 percent say that they were major problems, 65 percent said minor setbacks and 11 percent said nothing to worry about. You see a vast majority of Americans think the setbacks so far that we've seen on the battlefield don't amount to very much. So it seems the administration's message is working, and the president will also in a speech today be talking about the brutality of the Iraqi regime, something that has been pushed to the front of the administration's message over the past week, as they try to explain why the Iraqis are resisting and not surrendering as they -- some had hoped in the early days of this war -- Paula.
ZAHN: Dana Bash, thanks so much. We'll be seeing you a little bit later on this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
