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The Situation Room
Anticipation Builds for Presidential Address
Aired December 18, 2005 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Wolf Blitzer, you're in THE SITUATION ROOM, where new pictures and information from around the world are arriving all the time. Happening now, President Bush just an hour away from addressing the nation and the world in the Oval Office on the future in Iraq.
It's 8:00 p.m. here in Washington, where we have new information on what Mr. Bush will say tonight about America's mission and whether the troops can come home soon.
Plus, the bombshell now serving as a backdrop for the president's speech. Why did he acknowledge a top secret program to spy on Americans and others within the United States? This hour, the outrage in Congress may be growing even stronger.
And the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in the hospital after suffering a stroke. It's 3:00 a.m. Monday in Jerusalem where Sharon's health is being closely watched at a crucial time for him, for his country and for peace in the Middle East. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.
At the White House, President Bush soon faces the camera and the American people to proclaim new progress in Iraq and to reject critics who suggest the war is not worth another dime or another day. The last time Mr. Bush gave a speech in the Oval Office, he announced his Iraq invasion, now more than two and a half years later, the landscape is very different. Iraqis have just completed their historic vote. But Mr. Bush faces tremendous pressure in this country to start bringing the troops home, pressure he is expected to address tonight.
Adding to his troubles, his day-old admission of a top secret domestic spying program. Our correspondents and analysts are standing by tonight for full coverage from the halls of power here in Washington to the streets of Baghdad, to set the stage for the president's pivotal speech.
Let's begin our coverage with our White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux. Suzanne?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, very interesting. The speech is only going to be about 16 minutes, we're told, from the Oval Office. The reason it's the Oval Office, of course, to give it that sense of significance and gravitas, if you will.
You had mentioned the last time the president addressed the American people in this venue was when he was announcing that essentially we had gone to war with Iraq back in March of 2003. What we're going to hear from the president, he's going to outline his plan, his strategy, he says this is of course wrapping up a four series of speeches about the Iraqi elections. He will acknowledge that yes, the violence will continue despite the successful elections in Iraq but he will also say, address his critics that it is well worth it to be there and that they should continue to support this mission.
An excerpt from that speech, the president will say, "It is also important for every American to understand the consequences of pulling out of Iraq before work is done. We would abandon our Iraqi friends and signal to the world that America cannot be trusted to keep its word."
He goes on to say, "We would hand Iraq over, essentially, to enemies who have pledged to attack us and the global terrorist movement would be emboldened and more dangerous than ever before."
Wolf, what this is about, essentially, is a two part strategy. The first, a recognition by this administration that they cannot control things on the ground, the situation, the violence, so they're addressing what they can control. That is getting the message out to the American people exploiting the differences within the Democratic Party, and of course, reassuring the Republicans to stick with the Iraq mission will not damage them when it comes to election 2006. Wolf?
BLITZER: Suzanne Malveaux at the White House. Thank you very much. We'll get back to you.
While President Bush will warn against a premature withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, the vice president, Dick Cheney today was meeting with U.S. troops during a surprise 10 hour visit to Iraq.
He said quitting is, quote, "not an option." But he also said that as Iraqi forces gain strength, the U.S. will be able to decrease its own deployment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DICK CHENEY, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: And on behalf of the president, I assure you any decisions about troop levels will be driven by the conditions on the ground and the judgment of our commanders, not by artificial timelines set by politicians in Washington, DC.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Let's go live to Baghdad. CNN's Aneesh Raman is standing by. What's the sense over there, Aneesh, a few days after the election as people in Iraq wake up this morning and presumably are going to be getting ready to try to understand what the president says tonight.
RAMAN: Well, we know from an advance copy, Wolf, that the president will say that Thursday's vote was not an end to violence, it was a start of a permanent government in Iraq and Iraqis do feel that. They think this is a chance that is laced with potential and it will be incumbent on whoever becomes prime minister next year to seize upon the momentum in Iraq and to seize upon the faith that millions of Iraqis have put into this government by going out to vote.
There are still huge issues outstanding, both in terms of the political arena, an incomplete constitution and also in terms of the very basic needs of Iraqis, security not the least of which but also basic services. Water, electricity and, of course, economic development.
So a lot of hope is riding on next year will be a pivotal year, Wolf, not just for Iraqis but really for the world and especially for the U.S. Wolf?
BLITZER: And what are you hearing about the training of Iraqi troops that so much of the U.S. withdrawal depends on the training of Iraqi security forces. What's going on on that front?
RAMAN: Well, two things to keep in mind as we head into 2006. First, right now Iraqi security forces are uneven. The president has said that. Military commanders on the ground have said that.
They are disparate in terms of their success. Parts of them are getting better every day. Other parts of the Iraqi security forces are just beginning. The other thing, militias, Wolf.
There is a strong feeling here they've infiltrated the police force and the security force. We'll have to watch for that next year. Wolf?
BLITZER: Aneesh Raman in Baghdad. We'll back to you as well. We've also just made phone contact with our White House correspondent Dana Bash. She is traveling with the vice president, Dick Cheney. She is joining us from the airport right now in Oman as the vice president prepares to depart for his next stop, which would be Afghanistan. You were with the vice president in Iraq earlier, Dana. Give us a little sense of how that went.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Wolf. Well, first of all I can tell you I'm actually being rushed onto a military airport here in Oman, about the head off with the vice president the Afghanistan. As you mentioned, he's going to be talking to parliament there. He's actually, excuse me, going to be visiting the opening session of parliament there.
And that is not unrelated to what the president is talking about tonight as far as the White House is concerned because the point that the administration makes is that, first, they think democracy is very much possible, that those who doubt that is the case should look to Afghanistan as an example because that is what we're going to be doing later today.
It's 5:00 a.m. Oman time here on Monday morning, but you're absolutely right. The trip to Iraq was absolutely part of the broader strategy that you're seeing from the White House. It was the vice president who interestingly, of course, he is the architect of the policy that got the Bush administration into Iraq, that led to war, but this is the first time he had actually been there since the invasion.
So the point that the vice president was trying to make in words and pictures and events was what you're going to hear from the president tonight, was that there is progress on the ground, that the elections were, as far as they were concerned, at least in terms of turnout, were successful and that this is something that they need to really be focused on in terms of the progress.
He also did talk to troops and have a similar kind of statement that perhaps we'll hear from the president tonight, but we've heard from the administration that certainly their hope is to be able to bring troops home soon, eventually.
That very much depends on what you were talking about with Aneesh, which is the Iraqi security forces and the vice president actually got a tour of some of the things that they are doing to the bulk (ph) of those security forces, Wolf.
BLITZER: All right. Dana. Dana Bash traveling with the vice president in Oman on the way to Afghanistan. Dana, have a safe flight. We'll check in with you once you're in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, here in Washington, members of Congress will be listening very closely to what the president says tonight about Iraq but some of them, many of them, in fact, still seem even more interested in what the president actually said yesterday. His admission that he has secretly authorized spying on people in the United States without court warrants.
A number of Republicans and Democrats raising serious questions about that. I spoke with the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Arlen Specter and Democratic Senator Russ Feingold on CNN's "LATE EDITION" earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEN. ARLEN SPECTER, (R) CHAIRMAN, JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: I'd like to know specifically what the administration has in mind. They talk about constitutional authority. There are limits as to what the president can do under the constitution, especially in a context where you have the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which makes it unlawful to have spying or surveillance or interceptions on citizens in the United States unless there is a court order.
So let's not jump to too many conclusions. Let's look at it analytically. Let's have oversight hearings, and let's find out exactly what went on.
SEN. RUSS FEINGOLD, (D) JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: I believe what we're seeing today with the announcement about the national security activities and the efforts that were made with regard to wiretapping gives me every reason to believe that this administration is exploiting all the laws that it can and now making up its own laws. I believe that this is an abusive situation.
And we don't even know the extent of it, Wolf, because so much of this is in secret.
So I think this is dangerous. The administration has shown us they're willing to take provisions and expand them beyond their meaning.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Let's bring in our congressional correspondent, Ed Henry. He is watching all of this. Ed, I think it's fair to say on the Hill a lot of members see these two stories very closely aligned. The war in Iraq, the war on terror, the domestic spying now that the president himself has confirmed. What's the latest up where you are?
ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, Democrats are planning to crank up their assault on this administration's credibility by linking those two stories directly together. I think the point was made most succinctly tonight by the antiwar Democrat Dennis Kucinich who put out a statement declaring that it's time for the president to, quote, "Stop the spying and lying."
Now, more senior Democrats like Senator Harry Reid are not using strident language like that but they are hitting the president very hard before this speech on those two very points.
Number one, they say that despite this ramped up P.R. effort, the president has still not laid out a clear plan for victory. They're expecting him to do it tonight and secondly they also say that when you step back from Iraq and look at the broader war on terror, they allege this president may have abused his power specifically on domestic spying. They have been on the offense for weeks. Democrats not about to let up, Wolf.
BLITZER: And is there a sense that there are going to be a whole round of hearings coming up on this domestic spying?
HENRY: We are expecting that and in fact, Republicans up here think Democrats may be over-reaching. There'll be hearings, but they say Democrats playing politics with this and they say it may be a repeat of 2002 when Democrats were filibustering the Department of Homeland Security's creation. Now Democrats filibustering, mostly Democrats filibustering the renewal of the PATRIOT Act but that argument could be more difficult for Republicans to make when you look at the fact the four Republicans joined that filibuster of the PATRIOT Act and as you just saw, Republicans like Arlen Specter raising very tough questions about this spying story, Wolf.
BLITZER: Ed Henry on Capitol Hill. Thank you very much and we'll have much more on the president's upcoming speech, the domestic spying, all that coming up, but there's another very significant story that broke today. Israel's 77-year-old Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was rushed to the hospital in Jerusalem. Doctors say he suffered a mild stroke and should be released within a few days but his illness comes at a very crucial time with Israel already in a period of political upheaval.
Let's go to Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital. That's where CNN's Guy Raz is standing by with an update. What's the latest, Guy?
GUY RAZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the best indication of the prime minister's condition is the fact that virtually all of his closest advisers, his family members, have left his hospital bedside now, seven hours after Ariel Sharon was admitted to this hospital after suffering a minor stroke.
Now, the early reports that he had fallen in and out of consciousness but his doctors said that wasn't the case, that he was conscious the entire time and that he was given anticoagulation medicine here at the hospital, blood-thinning medicine, which is not unusual for somebody who suffers from a stroke.
No invasive procedures were carried out on Prime Minister Sharon and we do understand that he could be released as early as tomorrow. Doctors saying his condition is stable. Wolf?
BLITZER: Guy Raz reporting for us. Let's hope the prime minister is OK. Thank you very much.
We're standing by for the president of the United States. His speech on Iraq from the Oval Office that's now less than an hour away. We will be bringing it to you live here on CNN.
Coming up, marching orders in Iraq. What do we know and what don't we know about the administration's plans for bringing the troops home. We'll go live to the Pentagon.
And the NSA spy drama. More on that. How serious could the fallout be for President Bush? This story still unfolding right here in THE SITUATION ROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back to our special edition of THE SITUATION ROOM. We're standing by the president about 45 minutes or so from now. He will address the nation and the world from the Oval Office about the situation in Iraq. Let's check in, in the meantime, with our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr.
What kind of details, if any, should we be expecting, Barbara, from the president tonight on this very sensitive issue of troop withdrawal?
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, by all accounts the president will not be specific about troop withdrawals. He is not ready to make an announcement but that is not to say that the military commanders, the generals, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are not working on a very detailed plan that they hope to present to the president for that very thing, troop withdrawals.
What we are hearing in the hallways of the Pentagon, in Baghdad is that the plan will shape up something like this. Let's look at the numbers. There are about 20,000 troops in Iraq right now that basically are there for election security. As they wrap up the post election period, they will return home.
That may be followed by a very rapid decision to drawn down by 7,000 to 10,000 troops. And what do we mean by that? Two brigades that are slated to go to Iraq will not go but there are details that we will watch very carefully for the administration to come out with. One brigade will stay home, except that some of them will go to Iraq to work as trainers of Iraqi security forces.
Another brigade will stay in Kuwait, except that the Kuwaitis will ask for reassurances that that brigade will do nothing else but be on standby for any problems in Iraq. If it all works out, the hope is about a year from now, next Christmas season, there will be just 100,000 troops in Iraq instead of the 150,000 that are there right now, Wolf.
BLITZER: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. Barbara, thank you very much. And those U.S. troops will be listening very, very closely tonight to what the president of the United States has to say. In many respects, their lives are on the line.
Still ahead, we're standing by for the president to address the nation from the Oval Office. That is coming up. That speech scheduled to begin right at the top of the hour.
Coming up, we'll also hear from one of the president's harshest critics on the war, Congressman John Murtha, Democrat, Pennsylvania, who sparked a controversy with his call for a rapid redeployment of U.S. troops in Iraq. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back. A live speech from the Oval Office scheduled to begin in about 40 minutes. President Bush addressing the nation and the world about the war in Iraq. The last time he talked about Iraq from the Oval Office at the White House was at the start of the war in March 2003. Tonight, he'll repeat why he believes the United States cannot withdraw its troops, in his words, "before our work is done," a direct quote from the president.
Tonight's speech comes also one day after the president acknowledged he authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on people in the United States, including American citizens, suspects of ties to terror without a court order.
How will that impact tonight's speech? Let's bring in our chief national correspondent John King. He is joining us from New York. John, talk a little bit about not only the speech tonight but hovering over the speech, this acknowledgment now by the president that there was in fact domestic spying without court orders.
JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the speech tonight is a chance for the president to say that the elections in Iraq give Iraq a chance for a new beginning. The president also hopes that the elections in Iraq are a turning point that very much give him a chance for a new beginning of his second term.
2005, the administration's policy agenda, by all accounts, even the White House would concede, going off the tracks. So the president is hoping to turn the corner here and begin to look forward to next year's state of the union, to next year's domestic and international agenda. How does the NSA story interfere with that? It depends in part how many Republicans will ask questions on Capitol Hill. Senator Specter did on LATE EDITION today. I was watching that.
Will other Republicans demand more answers from the president? Democrats and Republicans and the White House, for that matter, look at this in two ways. One, the story itself. It is quite significant, it is quite a controversial policy and the administration is going to have to explain it to Congress and to the American people.
But it also fits in with the political arguments we're going through right now. The Democrats will argue that the president was overzealous about going to war in Iraq. They will say now he is abusing his powers in the war on terror. The president will say, not in the speech tonight, but rebutting those critics, that he has an obligation to do whatever it takes in the war on terror.
BLITZER: John, stand by. We're going to have much more with you. That's coming up. John King, our chief national correspondent. The speech, oh, about 35 minutes or so away from now. Up next, he's a former U.S. marine, a Vietnam War hero, and he says the United States should get out of Iraq as quickly as possible. I'll talk about tonight's presidential speech with Congressman John Murtha.
And tomorrow, the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. She'll be our guest right here in THE SITUATION ROOM. We'll talk about the president's speech, the war in Iraq, much more, with Condoleezza Rice. That's coming up tomorrow in THE SITUATION ROOM.
We'll take a quick break. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: We're a little over half an hour away from the president's speech to the nation on Iraq. According to excerpts already released by the White House, the president will warn that an immediate pullout of U.S. forces would show, and I'm quoting now, would show America cannot be trusted.
We hope to learn more about his plans for U.S. troops and the Iraqi people at a speech that's supposed to begin right at the top of the hour. Stay with us for complete coverage.
The president will portray the Iraqi election that just occurred as the start of something big in the region. A new democratic ally right in the heart of the Middle East. Let's get a little closer look right now at Iraq. Still violent country. A huge country with enormous at stake for the United States.
Tom Foreman is here in THE SITUATION ROOM. Tom, what do you want to share with our viewers? TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Military analysts and historians always say you have to walk the ground to understand where any conflict is happening. Let's walk the ground here.
If we come in on the United States and take a look at the kind of area we're talking about, this is how big Iraq is. If you put it in the eastern states there, roughly the size of Texas, a little bit smaller.
But let's look at the population of Iraq and how it spread out in that country and what they're dealing with over there. This is the country. The population areas as you look at them are about like this. The darkest areas in the middle, that's where Baghdad is, the biggest population. All of this a little heavier population. All of this, the lightest populated area and interestingly enough, look at the major attack areas.
If you take out the population areas, the lightest populated area up to Baghdad, which is the heaviest, that is where all the attacks are happening. So the attacks in Baghdad are actually on the edge of where they're having most of the trouble, which is out in this area, which also, when you compare that with the layout of Iraq, look at the population. Largely Shiite down here, largely Sunni in the yellow area and up here is the Kurdish region.
So once again, the major attack areas fit right into that area. Now the other question here is how many troops are we talking about in these zones? How many people are we talking about? Give you a sense in the world how we fit in.
In Iraq, if you look at the troop numbers there, about 155,000 people right now. That's a bit of a spike right now because of the election that just happened. It's normally a few ten thousand lower than that in sort of normal operations.
But look at the other areas. If you go through Europe, places where we have been in the past, we've gone in Kosovo and in Bosnia, you can look at the collective numbers there, about 1,700 people, not a whole lot. You look over in Afghanistan, you've got 17,000 people. And then when you move further over into Asia, 17,000 there and if you move all the way over to Asia you'll find out you have 16, 17,000 people total in South Korea and Japan. People still there.
So that's a sense of where the troops are and where they'll be moving.
BLITZER: And still plenty of troops still based in Germany, elsewhere in Europe, so many years, so many decades after World War II.
FOREMAN: Absolutely.
BLITZER: Thanks a lot, Tom Foreman, for that.
Earlier today I spoke with one of the president's most vocal critics on the war. That would be Democratic Congressman John Murtha of Pennsylvania. He has called for a rapid redeployment of U.S. troops from Iraq. The congressman was among my guests earlier today on LATE EDITION.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: What do you want to hear from the president tonight, from the Oval Office, when he addresses the American people?
MURTHA: I want him to come up with a plan that we can understand. I want him to come up with a plan.
The American people say, we don't know what the plan is. That's the thing I hear the most. We can't have an open-ended plan. That's just a hope. That's an illusion.
We need a plan that says, OK, here's what we want to do. They say, we're going to train the Iraqis. I just heard the ambassador, and I have a great regard for the ambassador, say, OK the Iraqis have to be able almost to decide when we get out.
We are not into nation-building. And the United States military can't do nation building. And when you give that kind of a mission to them, they make enemies because of the way they operate.
So, my condition, the thing I would say is look, we made mistakes, but from now on, here's the policy. As soon as they're elected, we're going to turn this over to the Iraqi government as quickly as we can.
They're going to have to work this out themselves. This is not something we can work out for them. We can't force a government on them.
They'll throw -- There's only a very small percentage of the foreign fighters that are Al Qaeda. And a very small percentage of fighters are foreign fighters. So, we're talking about seven percent are foreign fighters; the rest are actually Iraqis.
And we are starting to find -- the president finally admitted we're fighting an insurgency. He doesn't call it that. But that's exactly what it is.
So, I want to hear him to say this is not open ended; the Iraqis are going to have solve this themselves.
BLITZER: I wonder if you could clarify for our viewers in the United States and around the world exactly what your position is because it's sort of been muddled by various reports. What exactly are you calling for?
MURTHA: Yes, as a matter of fact, they not only muddle it, they muddle it on purpose. What I'm saying is, let's redeploy as quickly as possible.
BLITZER: Now, hold on. "Redeploy?" What does that mean?
MURTHA: Redeploy means let's take our troops out of Iraq as quickly as we can.
BLITZER: All 100-plus thousand.
MURTHA: All 168,000, as quickly as we can. Now, we've become the enemy. Eighty percent of the people want us out of there.
As you mentioned earlier, more than half the Iraqis want us out and almost half of them think we're the enemy. And we're consolidating the enemy against us is what it amounts to.
BLITZER: So, where should they redeploy to?
MURTHA: They should redeploy to Kuwait and they should redeploy over the horizon to Okinawa.
BLITZER: Okinawa -- in Japan?
MURTHA: Yes. Well, we can even bring them back to the United States. We can go back in there very quickly if we need to. In today's world, we can bring troops back in 24, 48 hours if we need to do that.
What I'm talking about is a civil war. They're already in a civil war. We're caught in between a civil war. We redeploy; we're not the enemy any longer; our convoys aren't attacked. They start to solve this themselves. If there's a terrorist build-up, then we can go back in. If it affects the United States or allies, we can go back in.
But diplomatic is the answer. We have lost our credibility because of the torture. We've lost our credibility because they found no weapons of mass destruction. What they need to do, at least in my estimation, is pull our troops out, redeploy them to the periphery and put 50,000 or so in the periphery because the supplies and so forth need to be there, and then let the Iraqis work this out themselves.
BLITZER: Put 50,000 in Kuwait?
MURTHA: Fifty thousand in Kuwait. And my argument is this. Democracy is not easy. They want democracy. They don't want occupation. They have to fight for this democracy just like we did.
BLITZER: The time frame for this redeployment -- it's been suggested you want them out over the next six months.
MURTHA: Well, in answer to a question from a reporter, I said we could get them out in six months. And we could get them out in six months if we decided, if the policy was to get them out. We could do that very easily.
It took us a year and a half to get the ammunition out of the first Gulf War. But there's no question we could get them out in six months.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Congressman John Murtha speaking with me earlier in the day.
So, how important is this speech to tonight for the president of the United States. Can he bring the American people around to the administrations view that the election in Iraq last week was a turning point? Joining us now our strategy session, CNN analyst and Democratic strategist Paul Begala and CNN contributor, former Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clarke.
What does he have to do tonight, Paul? You've written a lot of these kinds of speeches when you worked for the former President Bill Clinton. This is a great opportunity for him to speak directly to the American people.
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It is and it is one this president uses judiciously, which is why. He doesn't jump every single day and say, give me primetime on the networks. Keep in mind, he is preempting "Desperate Housewives" which sounds silly and it is silly but it is a really big show a lot of people tune in for.
So I think he's got to have something new. I don't want to set the bar too high for him, but I think he's perhaps arrested the slide in support for the war which really was collapsing and it seems to have at least stabilized but I think that words alone aren't going to do it. The problem he has got is the facts on the ground.
The vice president went to Iraq today, gave a nice speech, the president is giving a nice speech tonight. Nineteen people were killed in Iraq today. Those 19 people are a lot more important than any words that the president or the vice president utters.
BLITZER: What do you think? If you were still giving advice to this administration, Torie, what would you tell the president he must do tonight?
TORIE CLARKE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Oh, I think he has got to continue doing what he has been doing which isn't one speech. This is about having an ongoing, high level, adult conversation with the American people about what's at stake and what it is going to take to see this through to a successful conclusion.
So I'm glad he uses this time and he uses it judiciously. It is important. It is far more important than, certainly, any television show this evening.
BLITZER: He has been much more candid, I think all of us will agree, with the American people in recent weeks and he was extremely candid yesterday morning in his radio address which was televised in which he acknowledged that yes, he did authorize the National Security Agency to spy on people in this country, including American citizens, without a formal court order.
I don't know if you were watching that live. I was on CNN, Tori, but that was one of those moments, one of those moments ...
CLARKE: Right.
BLITZER: ... where you sit back and say, whoa!
CLARKE: I think a couple of things are going on. One, although there are enormous responsibilities when you're commander-in-chief, he has to be communicator-in-chief. He has to spend more time on the public persuasion side of this than previous presidents have.
Two, he has to draw people up. People have to rise above their comfort levels, whether it's the average American out there or a member of Congress and by being this direct and being this straightforward and engaging them at a level they never have before, I think it's going to make an importance difference.
BLITZER: What do you think, Paul?
BEGALA: Part of being communicator-in-chief is the power to set the national agenda. That's part of the president's power. He is losing that power, both because he is less popular than he was, more importantly because 60 percent of the American people think he didn't tell the truth about the war and third, because of this scandal about him ordering the government to spy on American citizens without a search warrant, without a court order.
Very hard for him to turn the page and say, well, let's talk again about how terrific those elections were in Iraq because Americans all across the country are saying, say what? You want to spy on me without going to a judge first? That's illegal, that's unconstitutional and I saw your program today. There was Republican Senator Arlen Specter, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee saying this is outrageous.
BLITZER: Well, he didn't exactly say that. He said he wants more information on what the legal authority is before he reaches a final decision.
Senator Feingold said it was outrageous and illegal but Senator Specter said, you know what? I need more information before I reach a final conclusion.
CLARKE: And I'll make a prediction on this whole eavesdropping story. Whenever everybody starts lathering in this town, and they are, you sort of step back and say, wait, what's going on here? Extraordinary times. Everybody agrees to that. There is certainly constitutional limits on what the president can do. There are also things the president of the United States can do in extraordinary times and I think what you'll see is a lot of hyperventilating and some public hearings, the result of which will be next to nothing.
You'll see some intensive briefings of the likes of Senator Specter and people will calm down.
BLITZER: You think that people are going to calm down? I suspect that there's going to be a major investigation, a major leak investigation. Both Senator Specter and Senator Feingold said, you know what? If there can be a special counsel investigating the Valerie Plame leak, this potentially, the story that appeared in the "New York Times" caused a lot more damage to national security than the Valerie Plame leak.
BEGALA: It is a lot more but even in - a lot more important than the CIA leak. Certainly more important than all the hundreds of phony baloney Clinton investigations that went on. The president has to live under the Constitution or we become a dictatorship. He cannot spy on Americans without going to a different branch of government, the courts, to get permission.
Congress has passed a law on this, 30 years ago almost. The president has to obey that law and he clearly admitted yesterday that he hasn't been obeying it and it's outrageous.
BLITZER: We'll leave it there because we are out of time but we'll continue this discussion down the road. Paul and Tori, thank you very much.
CLARKE: You're welcome.
BLITZER: And we're what, about only 20 minutes or so away from the president's speech to the nation from the Oval Office. We're going to bring it to you live as soon as it happens. We'll be going to the Oval Office for that presidential address. Will the president be making news? We'll be watching it live together with all of you.
Plus, trying to make a comeback with the American public. We have the latest polls. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Less than 20 minutes or so from now the president will be giving his fifth speech on Iraq in less than three weeks, all aimed at bolstering support for the U.S. mission and the way he's been handling the overall situation in Iraq. Let's take a closer look at where the president stands in the polls heading into tonight's address.
Our senior political analyst Bill Schneider is joining us from Los Angeles. Bill, what does the president need to accomplish with this speech tonight and the American people will be watching.
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Wolf, his job is to turn this particular opinion around. Do Americans think that President Bush has a plan for victory in Iraq? Only 38 percent said they thought so as of a week ago. Fifty eight percent, 58 percent said the president does not have a plan for victory and those numbers show no sign of improvement over the previous month.
The president is operating on a theory that the American public will support the war in Iraq even if there are continuing casualties as long as they believe victory is in sight. So far they don't see it.
BLITZER: What about the election in recent days in Iraq? I assume the successful election, if in fact it turns out to be successful, it was relatively smooth and quite the other day. Millions of people showed up to vote including Iraqi Sunnis. I assume that's having an impact.
SCHNEIDER: Yes. It probably is. We don't know yet, but every time this year there's been an election in Iraq, and there have been two, we saw public support for the U.S. mission in Iraq increase but the public does not have unrealistic expectations.
Do they believe a democratic government in Iraq will be able to end the insurgent attacks? Two thirds said no. Do they believe that the democratic government will be able to speed U.S. withdrawal? Well, actually, they do. Sixty-one percent said yes. Because then they believe that the Iraqi government, its democratic government, will be able to assume responsibility for its own affairs.
What the American public is waiting to hear from the president tonight, Wolf, is an end game. A light at the end of the tunnel. Is there any results, is there any outcome in the foreseeable future that will enable the United States to begin to draw down its forces? That's what they're listening for.
BLITZER: All right, Bill. Thank you very much. Our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider.
The online community already buzzing about the president's upcoming speech. Let's check in with our Internet reporter Jacki Schechner for the situation online. Jacki?
JACKI SCHECHNER, CNN INTERNET REPORTER: Wolf, geared up and ready to go tonight from the politicians to the people.
We start with Senator Kennedy who always is very quick out of the gate with this sort of thing. He has posted a statement online saying he wants the president to address the NSA spying issue tonight.
But a lot of chatter we're seeing today about the fact that that might not actually happen because President Bush gave a radio address yesterday. You can catch that online at whitehouse.gov. Here's a little bit of what that sounds like.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, U.S. PRESIDENT: September 11th, 2001 ...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHECHNER: He was very forceful with his tone. A lot of the bloggers saying they are going to head into this speech tonight with rapid response. Thinkprogress.org, the Center for American Progress will be following the speech and posting online.
On the right, we've got blogsforbush asking you to weigh in and also Ace of Spades looking for that same strong tone.
We're going to have all this reaction for you tonight, Wolf, at 10:00, after the speech.
BLITZER: All right, Jacki, thank you very much.
The special edition of the SITUATION ROOM 10:00 Eastern after the president's speech. Special edition of LARRY KING LIVE. That's coming up right at the top of the hour.
Up next, we're a little more than 15 minutes away from the address by the president to the nation. It's his first from the Oval Office since he announced the invasion of Iraq two and a half years ago. Can he strike a chord with a skeptical public? We'll ask some of our own experts and we'll learn more about the administrations plans in Iraq when I speak tomorrow with the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. That interview, right here in THE SITUATION ROOM.
That's tomorrow. We'll be right back.
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BLITZER: The president speaks to the nation in only a little bit more than 10 minutes from now. He will be addressing a very concerned American public. This is only the second address from the Oval Office since the start of the war.
He announced the Iraq invasion more than 1,000 days ago from the Oval Office. Listen to what he said way back in March 2003.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: Our nation enters this conflict reluctantly, yet our purpose is sure. The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder. We will meet that threat now with our army, air force, navy, coast guard and marines, so that we do not have to meet it later with armies of firefighters and police and doctors on the streets of our cities.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: That was the president in the Oval Office two and a half years ago. Let's take a closer look at the president's rhetoric on Iraq, how it's evolved over the years. Our senior analyst Jeff Greenfield is joining us from New York. Jeff?
JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN ANALYST: Wolf, as you say, the president's speech tonight will be the last in a series of speeches that has signaled a sharp change of tone and substance in his rhetoric on Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GREENFIELD (voice-over): Three years ago it was Saddam's arsenal and his intentions that were Bush's key arguments for intervention.
BUSH: If we know Saddam Hussein has dangerous weapons today, and we do, does it make any sense for the world to wait to confront him as he grows even stronger and develops even more dangerous weapons?
GREENFIELD: By early 2004, with Saddam gone and with no evidence of weapons of mass destruction, Bush was painting a rosy picture of steady postwar progress.
BUSH: Month by month Iraqis are assuming more responsibility for their own security and their own future.
GREENFIELD: At the Republican Convention later that year, as the insurgency and as U.S. casualties were growing, the president spoke expansively of what success in Iraq could mean.
BUSH: Three governments in the Middle East will fight terrorists instead of harboring them and that helps us keep the peace.
GREENFIELD: But in recent weeks the president's message and his venues have shifted. Instead of an audience of troops or handpicked supporters, Mr. Bush spoke earlier this month at the internationalist minded Council on Foreign Relations and Bush acknowledged past errors in strategy and tactics.
BUSH: The city is still not receiving enough electricity. Corruption is a problem at both the national and local levels of the Iraqi government. Reconstruction has not always gone as well as we had hoped and ...
GREENFIELD: And in speaking to the World Affairs Council he even took questions, including critical ones.
QUESTION: I would like to know why you and others in your administration invoke 9/11 as justification for the invasion of Iraq ...
BUSH: Yeah.
QUESTION: ... when no respected journalist or other Middle East experts confirm that such a link existed.
BUSH: There is a serious international effort to say to Saddam Hussein, you're a threat and the 9/11 attacks accentuated that threat as far as I am concerned.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GREENFIELD (on camera): Now, when you couple this with Mr. Bush's public embrace and concession to John McCain's view on torture, views he threatened to oppose with a veto, I think what we're seeing is a pretty clear effort by the president, Wolf, to present himself as someone who can recognize mistakes and change course, an effort to rebut the idea that even some conservatives have argued, that this is an administration imprisoned by false assumptions and even arrogance so we'll see if that tone continues tonight, Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, Jeff. Thank you very much. Jeff will be with us 10:00 p.m. Eastern when THE SITUATION ROOM continues. Special coverage following the president's speech as well. Still to come here, this hour, we'll have more with Jeff along with Candy Crowley and John King as we stand by for the president's address to the nation on Iraq. Will he make his case for staying the course?
Only nine minutes or so away from the top of the hour and the president's address.
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BLITZER: Just about six minutes away from the president's address to the nation from the Oval Office as we await the start of his remarks, let's bring back our senior analyst Jeff Greenfield, our chief national correspondent John King and our senior political correspondent Candy Crowley.
Candy, what are you going to be listening for tonight?
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now, Wolf, I'm not sure this is the time for the president to give us any sort of blockbuster news along the lines of what Paul Begala was talking about earlier. I think what the president has been going through in this series of speeches has been something even more fundamental than, does he have a plan? Or is this war winnable?
I think if you look at the underlying poll numbers the president has a plan that could undermine him domestically as it is undermining him in foreign policy and this is the trust issue. Do you fundamentally think the president is honest? Those numbers have fallen and that was his great strength, certainly when he won the presidency in the first few years post 9/11 and those numbers have really eroded over time through a number of things.
And I think that all these five speeches, the 'fessing up to some mistakes, the warnings that things are still going to be tough are all aimed at that fundamental problem that he has with integrity and as the American people view him.
BLITZER: Millions of people, John King, will be listening, watching the president tonight. How important will this address be?
J. KING: Well, one speech in and of itself is not critical, Wolf, but the series of speeches and what the president does now and between the state of the union just a month or so - a little more than a month away are critical.
The psychology of the war on terror. The politics of the war on terror has changed. Think back after 9/11. For at least three years, certainly through last year's election, when the president was talking about terrorism, even about the war in Iraq, you knew the president or were pretty clear the president was going to win the political debate.
We don't know that anymore. As Candy noted, the trust issue is the rug out from under the president if you will.
Some of the American people think the president lied to them about going to war in Iraq. Others think he has been very candid, others think he doesn't have a plan. The president has to convince the American people that he has a plan and he has to convince them, actually, that the Americans are winning now. Because of all the successful Democratic arguments and just the view in the country, many in the country think America is losing right now and if they think it's losing, the president has a hard time saying we're going to spend more time, more money and more American lives.
BLITZER: It's interesting, Jeff Greenfield, that this speech comes right before Christmas, New Year's, the holidays, he's sort of wrapping up the year on Iraq, which has so much dominated his political agenda this year.
GREENFIELD: Yeah. By next Monday the entire media establishment and political establishment goes to ground or to the Caribbean or wherever they get to go and that is significant.
I also think it's significant that where he is and the last couple of places he's been. As I mentioned, two places not particularly friendly to the president and now the Oval Office.
I think they may have come to the conclusion, backed by poll numbers, that the spin, that the stagecraft has been too clever by half. All of those appearances in front of hand-picked crowds. The clever signs that blanket him in back with the slogan of the day. That hasn't been working lately.
And it may be they have decided both in where he has gone, now the Oval Office which is a very significant place in American life, almost an honored place, there aren't going to be any signs behind him, there's not going to be any applause. He has been acknowledging, yes, we've listened and changed.
Remember back in 2000, the president talked about a foreign policy that needed some humility? I think they're counting on the hope that the contemporary good news, coupled with a more modest rhetoric may begin to turn this around, Wolf.
BLITZER: It's interesting, Candy, that the Democrats are not going to be giving a formal rebuttal in that sense. They're just going to be speaking out individually as they see fit.
CROWLEY: Well, the Democrats have done all right for themselves over the past couple of months. It's that old adage about never get in the way of your opponent when he's busy sort of destroying himself.
I mean, the president has fallen through a lot of deep holes since Katrina and even before that when we had the protesting Cindy Sheehan out there, the mother of a fallen vet from the Gulf War (sic) so they have really been on a roll here and at times there has been some thought within the Democratic Party that perhaps it's been a little much that it doesn't surprise me that this, a primetime speech, they are just going to do it individually.
BLITZER: Candy, John and Jeff, thank you very much to all three of you.
We're only about a minute or so away from the president's address. Larry King standing by, getting ready to pick up our coverage. Larry?
LARRY KING, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Wolf. Immediately following the address, we'll have a special panel including Aneesh Raman, CNN's Baghdad correspondent. David Gergen, the White House adviser to various presidents. Michael Isikoff of "Newsweek," Congressman Chris Shays and Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher. We'll also talk with Senators Lindsay Graham and Joe Biden, two certain experts on the world of foreign affairs.
And that's what this is all about tonight, the continuing effort in Iraq. Looking at advance of the speech, Wolf, it looks like a summation of what he's been doing all week. It will certainly be a -- the speech will run, as we see it, about 16-to-20 minutes. We'll follow it, and then there will be a special edition of THE SITUATION ROOM with Wolf Blitzer at 10:00, 7:00 Pacific.
So we'll see you right after the speech. Wolf?
BLITZER: You're going to be taking viewer phone calls as well, Larry?
KING: We're going to try to squeeze some in, among all the panelists.
BLITZER: All right, Larry, we'll be getting back with you momentarily, right after the president's address, scheduled for about 16 minutes. In the rehearsals, when the president sits in the Oval Office, and he reads the speech from a teleprompter. We're told by White House officials it's scheduled to last for about 16 minutes.
Larry King will then pick up our coverage. He's got an outstanding team of analysts, as well as newsmakers to offer immediate reaction to what the president of the United States says.
We're getting the feed in from the White House. Take a look at this wall. This is the feed we're getting from the Oval Office. Here's the president.
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