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CNN Sunday Morning
O'Neill Criticizes Administration
Aired January 11, 2004 - 08:01 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.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush is off to Mexico tomorrow to attend the Summit of the Americas. He leaves behind some scathing criticism by a fired White House insider who unceremoniously slams his former boss. Right now, though, the President is at his Texas ranch, and that is where we find our White House correspondent, Dana Bash, live with the very latest.
Good morning, Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi. And as you mentioned, it is the president's former Treasury secretary, Paul O'Neill, who does appear to be coming out swinging his former boss, questioning not only essentially his abilities, questioning whether or not he was engaged in discussions of policy and other issues with his top advisers. But also questioning his reasons and the whole idea of going to war with Iraq.
Former Treasury Secretary O'Neill did cooperate for a new book that's coming out. And he did a couple of interviews with some news outlets, including our sister publication, "TIME" Magazine, where on the issue of Iraq he questions whether or not weapons of mass destruction were actually there, saying, "In the 23 months I was there, I never saw anything that I would characterize as weapons of mass destruction," referring to potential intelligence he might have seen.
Of course we remember that a major reason going to war was the threat of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Now, also in an interview for "60 Minutes" he said, "From the beginning there was a conviction that Saddam Hussein was a bad guy and he needed to go." There seeming to make the allegation that although we hear from the White House now that after September 11 the world changed and they felt like even if Saddam Hussein didn't necessarily have weapons of mass destruction, they couldn't wait to see. Well, here O'Neill appears to be making the allegation that from the beginning of the administration they were preparing for war with Saddam Hussein before September 11.
Now, as you can imagine, Heidi, the White House is reacting to this quite coolly. Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, said, "It appears that the world according to Mr. O'Neill is more about trying to justify his own opinion than looking at the reality of the results we are achieving on behalf of the American people."
Now, O'Neill is somebody who was essentially fired from the administration just over a year ago, December of 2002. And administration officials are -- appear to be characterizing him essentially as a disgruntled fired employee. We are certainly expecting to hear more from some of his former colleagues and some other administration officials later on in the morning -- Heidi.
COLLINS: All right. Certainly a lot going on there. Thanks so much, Dana Bash, live from Crawford, Texas, 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 January 11, 2004 - 08:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush is off to Mexico tomorrow to attend the Summit of the Americas. He leaves behind some scathing criticism by a fired White House insider who unceremoniously slams his former boss. Right now, though, the President is at his Texas ranch, and that is where we find our White House correspondent, Dana Bash, live with the very latest.
Good morning, Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi. And as you mentioned, it is the president's former Treasury secretary, Paul O'Neill, who does appear to be coming out swinging his former boss, questioning not only essentially his abilities, questioning whether or not he was engaged in discussions of policy and other issues with his top advisers. But also questioning his reasons and the whole idea of going to war with Iraq.
Former Treasury Secretary O'Neill did cooperate for a new book that's coming out. And he did a couple of interviews with some news outlets, including our sister publication, "TIME" Magazine, where on the issue of Iraq he questions whether or not weapons of mass destruction were actually there, saying, "In the 23 months I was there, I never saw anything that I would characterize as weapons of mass destruction," referring to potential intelligence he might have seen.
Of course we remember that a major reason going to war was the threat of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Now, also in an interview for "60 Minutes" he said, "From the beginning there was a conviction that Saddam Hussein was a bad guy and he needed to go." There seeming to make the allegation that although we hear from the White House now that after September 11 the world changed and they felt like even if Saddam Hussein didn't necessarily have weapons of mass destruction, they couldn't wait to see. Well, here O'Neill appears to be making the allegation that from the beginning of the administration they were preparing for war with Saddam Hussein before September 11.
Now, as you can imagine, Heidi, the White House is reacting to this quite coolly. Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, said, "It appears that the world according to Mr. O'Neill is more about trying to justify his own opinion than looking at the reality of the results we are achieving on behalf of the American people."
Now, O'Neill is somebody who was essentially fired from the administration just over a year ago, December of 2002. And administration officials are -- appear to be characterizing him essentially as a disgruntled fired employee. We are certainly expecting to hear more from some of his former colleagues and some other administration officials later on in the morning -- Heidi.
COLLINS: All right. Certainly a lot going on there. Thanks so much, Dana Bash, live from Crawford, Texas, 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
