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American Morning
White House Still Cannot Shake Critics of State of the Union Address
Aired July 21, 2003 - 07:32 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The White House still cannot shake critics of President Bush's State of the Union address. Back in January, the president said Iraq had tried to buy uranium from Africa. CIA Director George Tenet claimed responsibility for allowing that bad intelligence into the speech, but Senator Chuck Hagel, a Republican on the Intelligence Committee, says the buck should not stop there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK HAGEL (R-NB), FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: George Tenet was not a one man show here. Certainly Dr. Rice, Secretary Rumsfeld, Secretary Powell, Vice President Cheney all were involved in the process. And to try to very quickly dispatch Mr. Tenet as the bad guy here, as the purveyor of bad intelligence, I think is a bit irresponsible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Chuck Hagel from yesterday.
Dana Bash today, live at the White House to let us know what's happening on this front today -- Dana, good morning.
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.
Well, the White House, as you said, is trying to put this whole controversy behind them. On Friday, they took the very rare step of releasing some classified information that they say they used, from the intelligence communities, to back up their claims that Iraq was trying to reconstitute its nuclear program and other information about its WMD.
But as you just heard, Chuck Hagel is probably the most outspoken Republican against the White House for essentially placing the blame on CIA Director George Tenet, saying, as you've just heard, that the buck should stop here at the White House. And he also said that this is beginning to hurt the U.S. credibility.
Now, if you look at the latest CNN/"Time" poll, it does show that this controversy could be chipping away at one of the president's largest strengths. A poll found that 47 percent view Bush as a leader they can trust, while 51 percent said they have doubts and reservations. And that's down from 56 percent who saw him as a leader they could trust in late March, while 41 percent having doubts.
And, Bill, this subject is, of course, going to, likely to come up later on this morning when President Bush faces reporters with the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlesconi. They are down in Crawford, Texas. The president picked him up from the airport in his own white pickup truck yesterday for a meeting, a thank you meeting, one of many that the president has been having with leaders from his so-called coalition of the willing.
But this is quite a different scene. The president is going to face reporters with a top ally and be questioned not only about the prewar intelligence, but also about the postwar situation in Iraq and what to do about the growing crisis on the ground there -- Bill.
HEMMER: Dana, David Kelly, the scientist found dead in Britain at the end of last week, he is believed to be the source for this claim that Iraq had the capability of firing off WMD within a 45 minute window, in other words, 45 minutes prior to the launch they had the capability of doing that.
The White House quoted that statistic as a fact many times. Is there still a defense from the White House that Iraq had that capability leading up to the war back in March?
BASH: Well, much like the fact that the president quoted, talked about the fact that Iraq was trying to get uranium from Africa, in that particular sentence he quoted the British, just like that here. He, they were referring to British reports because this, of course, did come from a British dossier. And as a matter of fact, the day that the British dossier came out, this was sort of the key thing that the White House seized on, this 45 minute deal. And as you said, the president did put this in a radio address and talked about it.
So it is another thing, besides this uranium issue, that the White House is going to continue to answer questions on. But, again, they are saying that they relied on British intelligence for this particular bit of information.
HEMMER: More later today, I'm certain.
Dana, thanks.
Dana Bash at the White House.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Union Address>
Aired July 21, 2003 - 07:32 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The White House still cannot shake critics of President Bush's State of the Union address. Back in January, the president said Iraq had tried to buy uranium from Africa. CIA Director George Tenet claimed responsibility for allowing that bad intelligence into the speech, but Senator Chuck Hagel, a Republican on the Intelligence Committee, says the buck should not stop there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK HAGEL (R-NB), FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: George Tenet was not a one man show here. Certainly Dr. Rice, Secretary Rumsfeld, Secretary Powell, Vice President Cheney all were involved in the process. And to try to very quickly dispatch Mr. Tenet as the bad guy here, as the purveyor of bad intelligence, I think is a bit irresponsible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HEMMER: Chuck Hagel from yesterday.
Dana Bash today, live at the White House to let us know what's happening on this front today -- Dana, good morning.
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.
Well, the White House, as you said, is trying to put this whole controversy behind them. On Friday, they took the very rare step of releasing some classified information that they say they used, from the intelligence communities, to back up their claims that Iraq was trying to reconstitute its nuclear program and other information about its WMD.
But as you just heard, Chuck Hagel is probably the most outspoken Republican against the White House for essentially placing the blame on CIA Director George Tenet, saying, as you've just heard, that the buck should stop here at the White House. And he also said that this is beginning to hurt the U.S. credibility.
Now, if you look at the latest CNN/"Time" poll, it does show that this controversy could be chipping away at one of the president's largest strengths. A poll found that 47 percent view Bush as a leader they can trust, while 51 percent said they have doubts and reservations. And that's down from 56 percent who saw him as a leader they could trust in late March, while 41 percent having doubts.
And, Bill, this subject is, of course, going to, likely to come up later on this morning when President Bush faces reporters with the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlesconi. They are down in Crawford, Texas. The president picked him up from the airport in his own white pickup truck yesterday for a meeting, a thank you meeting, one of many that the president has been having with leaders from his so-called coalition of the willing.
But this is quite a different scene. The president is going to face reporters with a top ally and be questioned not only about the prewar intelligence, but also about the postwar situation in Iraq and what to do about the growing crisis on the ground there -- Bill.
HEMMER: Dana, David Kelly, the scientist found dead in Britain at the end of last week, he is believed to be the source for this claim that Iraq had the capability of firing off WMD within a 45 minute window, in other words, 45 minutes prior to the launch they had the capability of doing that.
The White House quoted that statistic as a fact many times. Is there still a defense from the White House that Iraq had that capability leading up to the war back in March?
BASH: Well, much like the fact that the president quoted, talked about the fact that Iraq was trying to get uranium from Africa, in that particular sentence he quoted the British, just like that here. He, they were referring to British reports because this, of course, did come from a British dossier. And as a matter of fact, the day that the British dossier came out, this was sort of the key thing that the White House seized on, this 45 minute deal. And as you said, the president did put this in a radio address and talked about it.
So it is another thing, besides this uranium issue, that the White House is going to continue to answer questions on. But, again, they are saying that they relied on British intelligence for this particular bit of information.
HEMMER: More later today, I'm certain.
Dana, thanks.
Dana Bash at the White House.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Union Address>
