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CNN Live Event/Special

President Speaks in Wisconsin

Aired May 08, 2002 - 10:23   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush is out right now. He is actually in Wisconsin, which is also the state where this young man was in school. He is going to have some comments we want to listen to for just a second here.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ...thanks to a mighty United States military and our coalition. We threw out a...

(APPLAUSE)

We threw out a barbaric regime. See this is a regime called the Taliban, that said, "If you're a young girl, you don't get to go to school."

Think about that. Think about growing up in a country that says, "If you happen to be a female, education isn't available to you." And if you expressed yourself -- if you say, "Well, I don't like the way they think, I don't appreciate that piece of public policy," then you go to jail. See, we were dealing with a barbaric regime.

You need to know your government and our allies and our friends went into Afghanistan to free a country. We didn't go to conquer a country; we went in to free a country because we believe in freedom for every individual no matter where they live in the world.

(APPLAUSE)

America's still not safe from attack because they still want to get us. They still want to harm America. Well, we're doing everything in our power to prevent that. You need to know that. You need to know our law enforcement officials are talking at the federal, state and local level. We're sharing information. We're running down every lead.

We've got a homeland security initiative that works with our brave police and fire and EMS teams all across the country. We're doing everything in our power.

But the best way to make sure that we protect innocent lives -- the best way to make sure that Americans can go about their life is for you to know that this government is going to chase down the enemy one by one, no matter how long it takes, and bring them to justice. (APPLAUSE)

Our job is not only to make America safer, but it's to make America better, a better place.

(APPLAUSE)

Our job is not only to make the world safer, but to make the world a better place. That's why, if we're tough and strong and diligent when it comes to fighting terror, we have a chance to bring peace to the world.

I think out of the evil done to America can come some incredible good around the world. I truly believe that. Out of evil can come good. And at home, out of evil can come good as well, and it starts with making sure that every child gets a good education.

(APPLAUSE)

And what does that mean? What are the principles of a good education? Well, it starts with having high standards, high expectations. It starts with having people who believe that every single child can learn...

HARRIS: And we'll be stepping away from President Bush's remark right now. As we said, he is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin this morning. He is spending some time talking about education, as well as drumming up some more patriotism and support behind his plan for conducting the war against terrorism. Now, we thought we might hear other interesting remarks as well perhaps, because is he in Wisconsin. We might get some other words that might be tied to this mailbox pipe bomb scheme that we have been following for the last couple of days.

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