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CNN Sunday Morning
Bush Goes on Working Vacation
Aired August 03, 2003 - 09:31 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.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: August will be working the crowds vacation for President Bush. He'll hit the road pushing his economic agenda and raising campaign funds. But first, the president has some unfinished business with Saudi Arabia of a part of the September 11 reports.
White House correspondent Dana Bash is live in Crawford, Texas, with more on that. Good morning, Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John, from a very windy Crawford, Texas.
Now, as far as the Saudi involvement in, any involvement at all in the 9/11 hijackings and the information that is in that classified portion of the Congressional report, the White House is still saying that there is no intention, as far as they are concerned, of releasing it, even though the Saudis and member of congress are asking them to do so. But officials familiar with those 28 pages of classified information say it does suggest that two Saudi citizens, Omar al Bayoumi and Osama Basnan may have been connected to two of the 9/11 hijackers in a variety of ways. The report concludes that they also may have been Saudi intelligence agents, but the report also makes clear that there is no firm conclusion on that.
Now, the Saudi government denies any of these allegations or charges. It says that they are baseless. And the White House says that there have been discussions with the U.S. and Saudi Arabia about getting access to those individuals, and the U.S. says that the Saudis have been helpful with those discussions.
And now the president is here in Crawford. He is here for a month. His month-long vacation. This is a town of about 700 people. The average temperature here is 100 degrees in the month of August. The White House is careful to call this a working vacation. However, the president will have lots of travels this coming month. He will be doing some environmental trips. He will also be doing some fund- raisers for his re-election campaign. He'll be hitting Colorado, California, Oregon, Washington, and Minnesota. And this coming week, John, he'll be hosting his defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld here. John?
VAUSE: Dana, just want to talk about the president's economic plans at the moment. We've had the job figures out for the last month, and it's looking to be a jobless recovery. What's the president saying about that? And will the economy figure in the next four weeks ahead? BASH: Well, absolutely. The White House, first of all, pointed to the fact that they saw the last jobless numbers as getting a little bit better. But they also say they understand that economists tell them that the job numbers are probably the last signs of an economic recovery.
The White House -- the president talked about the economy in his radio address yesterday. And he will be talking about it, no doubt, as he hits his visits when he leaves here. He will be talking about -- he talks about it at every stop when he has his fund-raisers because the White House does understand, John, that the economy is, perhaps, the number one issue, and the democrats certainly understand that which is why they talk about it time and time again.
VAUSE: Dana Bash in Crawford, Texas, at the western White House, needing a hat on a very windy day.
BASH: Very windy.
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 August 3, 2003 - 09:31 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: August will be working the crowds vacation for President Bush. He'll hit the road pushing his economic agenda and raising campaign funds. But first, the president has some unfinished business with Saudi Arabia of a part of the September 11 reports.
White House correspondent Dana Bash is live in Crawford, Texas, with more on that. Good morning, Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John, from a very windy Crawford, Texas.
Now, as far as the Saudi involvement in, any involvement at all in the 9/11 hijackings and the information that is in that classified portion of the Congressional report, the White House is still saying that there is no intention, as far as they are concerned, of releasing it, even though the Saudis and member of congress are asking them to do so. But officials familiar with those 28 pages of classified information say it does suggest that two Saudi citizens, Omar al Bayoumi and Osama Basnan may have been connected to two of the 9/11 hijackers in a variety of ways. The report concludes that they also may have been Saudi intelligence agents, but the report also makes clear that there is no firm conclusion on that.
Now, the Saudi government denies any of these allegations or charges. It says that they are baseless. And the White House says that there have been discussions with the U.S. and Saudi Arabia about getting access to those individuals, and the U.S. says that the Saudis have been helpful with those discussions.
And now the president is here in Crawford. He is here for a month. His month-long vacation. This is a town of about 700 people. The average temperature here is 100 degrees in the month of August. The White House is careful to call this a working vacation. However, the president will have lots of travels this coming month. He will be doing some environmental trips. He will also be doing some fund- raisers for his re-election campaign. He'll be hitting Colorado, California, Oregon, Washington, and Minnesota. And this coming week, John, he'll be hosting his defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld here. John?
VAUSE: Dana, just want to talk about the president's economic plans at the moment. We've had the job figures out for the last month, and it's looking to be a jobless recovery. What's the president saying about that? And will the economy figure in the next four weeks ahead? BASH: Well, absolutely. The White House, first of all, pointed to the fact that they saw the last jobless numbers as getting a little bit better. But they also say they understand that economists tell them that the job numbers are probably the last signs of an economic recovery.
The White House -- the president talked about the economy in his radio address yesterday. And he will be talking about it, no doubt, as he hits his visits when he leaves here. He will be talking about -- he talks about it at every stop when he has his fund-raisers because the White House does understand, John, that the economy is, perhaps, the number one issue, and the democrats certainly understand that which is why they talk about it time and time again.
VAUSE: Dana Bash in Crawford, Texas, at the western White House, needing a hat on a very windy day.
BASH: Very windy.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
